Biggest pet (owner) peeve

This just drives me nuts: the number of craigslist ads for rehoming puppies under a year of age because the owners moved and can't take them. Now dogs are sold at 8 weeks, so an owner has a 7 month old dog for 5 months. You mean to tell me that 5 months ago you didn't realize your situation was too unstable to get a dog? Really?

Sure, a few people can convince me that they had no idea they would lose their job and had no savings and no cushion to prevent them from losing their house completely within a few months. But that has got to be a small percentage of people who use this excuse.

And why does it always have to be a large breed? If you aren't 100% stable, get something under 20 pounds that its easy to find an apartment to take.

It just boggles my mind how many people claim they had no clue a few months ago that their situation wasn't stable. I've known for over a year now that I'm not going to be able to afford my cost of living for too much longer. I'm stringing along fine right now but I'm going to have to move somewhere cheaper eventually. This didn't surprise me overnight.

I think that a high percentage of people that use the "moving cant take it with me excuse", are using this excuse rather than saying, "I didn't do my homework before I got this dog and now it is just to much trouble. I see this all of the time. I had a neighbor that just moved and left the cat behind. That is how we got our Rascal. We live in an area that people drive out and just put their dog or cat out to fin for it's self. Koko and the 4 cats we have owned in the last 16 years, have just walked up, and announced, "I'm home."

At least that is months. At the shelter I volunteer with we had a St Bernard in there. Pure bred. Beautiful big guy. A woman adopted and him and claimed she had St Bernards before. A week later.....yes A WEEK LATER!!!.....she brought him back because she had to move and couldn't take him with her. She was moving to New York or something. I said the same thing you are saying..."Really? You didn't know a week ago that you were moving??"
Then he got adopted a couple weeks later and the family just loved him. Sent in a story about how the dog and their daughter are best friends. Well, guess what! He was returned a couple weeks later. He kept knocking the little girl down. DUH!! He's a two year old St Bernard!!!
So he is back in the shelter just waiting for that perfect home. It just breaks my heart when they get returned. But at least we know they will find a home and the people don't get the adoption fee returned either.