wolfsoul, excellent post. I agree with everything you said.

I have seen probably every possible scenario of re-homing in my decades of shelter, rescue and foster work. Sometimes it is for a valid reason, and sometimes it is for such a stupid, selfish reason that I have very much wanted to choke the person.

But, the fact of the matter is, if someone doesn't love, care about and want a dog, the dog is better off in a new home. If someone doesn't want their dog anymore because it got too big, doesn't match the new couch, whatever stupid, selfish reason it is ... the fact remains that those people no longer (if they ever did!) love and want the dog. That dog would be better off in a better home. I'm talking about a "perfect" home ... no home is perfect. Mine certainaly isn't. Dogs don't want perfection. Dogs want love, time and attention. If they aren't getting it where they are, they would be better off somewhere else, where they WILL get it. Better a dog is re-homed to someone who loves it and will give it the attention it needs, than spending the rest of its life tied up outside, alone, because it sheds on the couch, for example.

I have personally re-homed one dog. This doesn't include the dozens upon dozens of rescue and foster dogs, some of them long term, that I found homes for. Those dogs came into my home with the sole intent that I would find them a forever home. But, I re-homed a Siberian husky that I got with the intention of keeping. My sister talked/guilted me into taking the dog from friends of hers that were moving and couldn't/wouldn't take the dogs. My sister took one of the dogs, and wanted me to take the other. My sister and I had been on bad terms for years, and had only recently begun to cautiously mend fences between us. I didn't want to jeopardize that, I had room for another dog, he was a beautiful dog ... in short, I took him for all the WRONG reasons. He was never a good match for my household, for umpteen reasons. One of my customers had Sibes, loved the breed and had decades of experience with them. He had a dog sled, acres of land, etc. He mentioned one day he would love to get another Sibe. I mentioned I had one that wasn't thriving with me. It progressed from there. I gave him the dog. The dog lived out its natural life ... sixteen years ... blissfully happy with this man. Josey became his favorite dog, he told me. It was an almost perfect match.

No one is perfect. Things happens, mistakes are made, lives unravel. I certainly am not a proponent of willy-nilly rehoming on a whim. I have seen far, far too many homeless animals for that. But do I think re-homing is ALWAYS a bad thing? No.