Rescue Animals

[Soultwinkle]

I am all for saving an animals life. I actually perfer to rescue rather than buy. Has anyone ever had a problem w/ a rescue shelter?

[Sudilar]

Good for you!! I love to hear that!! I have never had a problem with a shelter personally. My two GSDs are from one.

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[aly]

Rescue animals are the best. They are always so grateful at being given a second chance and SO full of love.

I forgot to tell you guys, Reece's obedience class is held at the shelter. On the first day, I walked him in the field to potty and he kept turning around staring at the dog runs like he remembered them. Then when we were in the auditorium he started whimpering. When he realized I was sitting by him the whole time and not leaving him there, he was fine. It made me feel really guilty though because he had already been dumped there twice and for a second he thought he might be dumped again.

[Soultwinkle]

I had the misfortune of adopting a distempered puppie. She was from a rescue shelter. The owner knew she was very sick. I was not aware of what distemper was. She is in a better place and im glad she was with me before she passed.
I would adopt again but only when i have checked the shelter and the animal.

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www.petfinder.com

[Rottie]

Nope. Never had a problem!

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-Rottie

[nsweezie]

Over the years we have probably had 15 cats total.
About half were from the pound directly. The others were strays, or cats that other people no longer wanted.
Only one cat was from a pet shop.
The sweetest tempered cat of the whole bunch was a cat that was abandoned in the woods in January with her kittens. Unfortunatly the kittens died, but my Dad found her in time to rescue her. Avallon was a joy to my whole family, it is so true that rescued cats and dogs are grateful to finally be in a good home.

[AdoreMyDogs]

Before we adopted Cassie we tried adopting this Rott/shepherd mix female who was an absolute angel. She truly had the most delightful, angelic personality. Gentle as a lamb, despite the breed reputation. She could have been in a trance chewing on her yucky, slimey rawhide and you could reach up to her mouth and she would open her mouth and let you grab it right out wagging her beautiful happily all the way...I tried it several times. She was perfect....except that she was extremely dog dominant and she lifted her leg on all of Graham's things, his whole toy basket, his doggie bed, she followed him around the backyard and shoved him aside when he was trying to pee or poop and she would lift her leg frantically to cover his smell with hers...and the last draw was when she lifted her leg on Graham. This lasted for just over a week. She took ownership to all of Grahams toys, every single one, and she also prevented him from getting any attention. Graham went from my best friend to a miserable, lonely soul who was shoved out of the way every time we gave him attention. All he did was cower in a corner and sleep. His quality of life tumbled down faster then a speeding bullet. I could not stand it. Graham was always the dominant dog in the past, and in comes this very large, 4 year old female rott/shepherd mix who took away everything that made him happy. We tried to work it out with animal behavorists and trainers, but they told me that we just had to step aside and let "nature take it's course" and just let "Ellie" take ownership of everything that Graham used to love. I just could not let it happen. I could not stand to see that happen to my Graham. He was there first, he was my best friend, and he was so comfortable and happy until Ellie showed up, so we decided to take Ellie back to the shelter.

We adopted her on the day she was scheduled to be put to sleep. The breeds that she was mixed with were intimidating so many people overlooked her, and the fact that she was about 4 years old and she was unspayed when we decided to adopt her made her almost impossible to adopt out. But the staff at the Michigan Humane Society loved her personality and her extremely gentle nature and her love of children so much that they fought to keep her there a little longer then she was supposed to.

When we decided to adopt her we also paid for her spay, a tooth cleaning, and all of her vaccinations, plus I gave her a bath and cleaned her up nice. Taking her back to the shelter was horrendous. She was completely attached to me and she trusted me...and I completely broke her heart, but it had to be done. On the happy note, possibly because of all of the money and time we put into Ellie's medical care, her surgery, and her cleaning up, Ellie got adopted to a family with 2 young boys and no other dogs less then a week after we dropped her off. Could not have been a better match for her.

Sorry to go on and on but this is my only bad experience with adopting. It was bad because I fell in love with Ellie and it was a nightmare to send her back, but it was partly my fault for not being able to "let nature take it's course" and let her take head roll as alpha dog. It was not the shelters' fault at all. In fact, they cried with me on the phone when I described the problem and my decision to turn her back into the shelter. They had their animal behaviorist coach me and we all knew it was not a good situation for Graham and they were my shoulder to cry on and they provided tons of support. They even sent me a sympothy card after the horrendous experience of taking her back to the shelter. Graham and Cassie are both rescues, and both are SO happy and grateful. The gratitude that they have towards me and my mom and my hubby just oozes out of them. I know they are aware that they were rescued.

[mugsy]

Shelter dogs are the best! I always tell people to go to the shelter or SPCA to get their animals. I would never go to a breeder now that I am educated on the terrible situations that so many dogs and cats are in. Like I posted in the Rescue section all of our 9 dogs are rescues, not all from the shelter or SPCA, but rescues none the less.