 Barked: Wed Dec 5, '12 5:33pm PST |
 | |  | | A little late to the discssion, but what the heck.
This article ruffled my every feather. I have put so very much time, effort, love, and money into rescue over the years. I mostly foster unweaned kittens...I tried fostering through an organization for awhile, but they were VERY reluctant to let my kittens go to the vet, even when thy NEEDED it...I am certain that several of the kittens I fostered died due to the rescue's unwillingness to let me get them vetted...so now I do it all on my own. My last foster needed his eye removed, which came out of my own pocket. I also foster the occasional dog. It sometimes takes an incredible amount of work to get a foster dog adoptable. My last foster dog was a rat terrier who bit someone so badly they needed stitches the day she came to me. I was VERY lucky to find an adopter who had a TON of experience with the breed and was up for the challenge of a project. Even after several months of work, she was not an ideal dog.
I have three rescue dogs who were ALL problem dogs. Jasper didn't necessarily have any specific issues, but I specifically said I was looking for a senior dog. I don't know who evaluated Jasper when he arrived, but he was marked as being 8-10 years old. He's the first dog I've ever chosen for myself, and I really didn't have a good idea of how to judge his age at the time. Within a few weeks I learned that he was acutally not even full grown, so I got the entire puppy experience when I didn't want it.
Wilbur was chosen by family members when I wasn't there. The rescue had only had him for a few days. He has some very old injuries which our vet thinks may have caused some brain damage. I can't adequately describe the ways in which he's not quite "right"...he almost seems autistic. He's sometimes dog aggressive and very unpredictable. He's also never had full control of when he urinates. We eventually had the entire house stripped of carpet to accomodate him.
Star is...A bundle of issues wrapped in a blanket of issues. We got her as a fairly young puppy from a rescue, and as she hit maturity her aggression started to emerge. Her SA is so severe that she once chewed her way out of a solid wood door, breakong off three of her canine teeth in the process. She's human aggressive and at times VERY hard to handle. We worked with a behaviorist who has a lot of experience with coyote hybrids, which is what he believes her to be. Eventually we had to accept that we would never be able to eliminate her aggression, we just have to manage it. We've been managing Star's issues for over a decade, and it's been exhausting.
For my next dog, I don't want a project dog. I don't want to start with a puppy fron unknown lineage and find out that they are aggressive when they hit maturity. I don't want to get a "Surprise! Your dog will never EVER be fully housebroken!". I don't want to go looking for a mellow senior and wind up with a drivey puppy. I'm tired of it. I love my dogs, and I don't regret adopting any of them, but I'm ready for dog who is mentally sound from the start, and who will have the characteristics I want in a companion.
I'll probably never stop fostering (though I've long since run out of money) but I want to find my next dog through a breeder. If this makes me a bad person in the eyes of some finger-wagging twit, so be it. I wonder how much time, effort, love and money the author of that article has put into rescue, besides adopting her cats. She sure doesn't mention any fostering, volunteer work, etc... |  |  | |  |
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