Another irresponsible pet owner....rant
A few weeks ago, one of my co-workers comes to me and says his daughter wants a dog. He's got twin girls age 8 and 2 boys, age 5 and 3. One of his daughters is terminally ill and on a feeding tube.
I strongly discouraged him from getting a dog because his boys are very young and rambonxious. But if he insisted getting one, I suggested not getting a puppy, but a bigger, larger dog from a shelter that wasn't quite as rowdy, but could handle the boys.
He told me that his daughter found a breeder in Iowa and they were going to go look at the puppy over the weekend. I asked what kind, he said, Maltoodle (Maltese/Poodle) :rolleyes: . I reminded him about shelter dogs or even reputable breeders. I also sent him the website quiz of designer breeds vs. shelter dogs.
Come Monday morning, he told me they put a deposit on the puppy. He said they'd be bringing her home within the next few weeks, that she was too young at the moment. I think she was 9 weeks old at the time. The breeder won't release the puppies until they're 12 weeks old.
Unbeknown st to me, they go get the puppy the following week. He comes into my office and says, "tragedy strikes." He starts telling me that his daughter didn't want to wait a few more weeks so he begged and pleaded with the breeder to let her go, and she does. They go get the puppy, (who according to him, is half the size of her litter mates) and bring her home. They play with her, crate her, then go to bed.
They wake up the next morning to a dead puppy. Hypoglycemic shock. :( Naturally, everyone is devastated. His wife demands that they go get another dog immediately. I again, tried to discourage this, but it doesn't matter. His wife and daughter are on their way. They get a Cocker Spaniel/Beagle mix dog.
Once again, all is fine for 2 or so weeks and he comes into my office Tuesday coughing and hacking all over the place telling me the new puppy has kennel cough and he thinks he has it too (joking). Come to find out, this dog is triggering his asthma. On top of that, the puppy somehow managed to pull out the other girl's feeding tube. They're now looking to re-home this poor dog.
It just kills me how someone so intelligent (he has his Ph.D. in psychology) can be so stupid!
Poor doggies.
Edited to correct spelling.
