Pet Adoption

While you can always just buy a pet from a breeder or pet store or even over the Internet these days, there are better ways to find a pet.

One of the unfortunate side products of the breeder industry is a large population of animals looking for their forever homes, who are abandoned by their breeders if purchasers are not found in a timely manner.

Another unfortunate side effect is that anyone can buy a pet from a breeder, and many of these people are not ready to have a pet. Since they don't understand the responsibilies, the pets are soon abandoned, or dropped off at the shelter.

Instead of contributing to the problem, why not be part of the solution? Adopt an unwanted pet!

There are shelters and animal rescue groups all over, and they would all be happy to help you try to find a pet that would fit your lifestyle. Talk to your local rescue group. You could use Petfinder to find one in your neighborhood!

Rescue groups are often good sources for adoption because they often have spent more time with an animal than shelter personnel. If the group uses foster homes, you could talk to the foster about any behavior issues they might have noticed while the pet was in their care.

Rescue groups often will have the time and resources to take more interest in the animal's medical condition - they will usually have vets available who check the animals that enter their adoption program, and will know if there are any conditions that must be addressed.

Breed-specific rescue groups will often have information on a specific breed's tendencies, since they are familiar with it. If you are looking for a specific type of animal, they would be able to tell you whether their breed is a good fit for your household.

If you do adopt from a rescue group, make sure you read all the paperwork carefully. Since their animals have already been abandoned once, the groups are usually very cautious about their pets' adoptive homes.

Don't be surprised if a rescue group asks for a veterinarian reference or about your history with past pets, and don't be surprised if they want to do a "home visit." You may learn something about how prepared you are to have a pet join your household.

Also, remember they are often run by volunteers, so responses may not be instant. Many will prefer email or web-based communications to phone calls.

With a rescue, you are not buying a pet. You are giving an abandoned animal a second (or third) chance. Don't be surprised that just having money is not enough - this is not a purchase, it is a commitment.

There are many sources for pets these days: breeders of all types, the Internet, pet stores, your local shelter and local rescue groups.

There are many types of breeders, from very sophisticated operations producing hundreds of animals ("puppy mills"), to someone in his backyard with a male and a female waiting for nature to take its course ("backyard breeders"). All of these sources are profit-based, so I would not assume they have the animals' best interests at heart.

The puppy mills are usually known for keeping the animals in prison-like conditions, just churning out as many puppies as possible for sale. Their goal is to produce as many animals in as short a time as possible, with very little regard for the actual care of the animals themselves. These animals are sold directly to the public, or are sold through many pet stores or online.

Backyard breeders tend to have no real idea what they're doing, other than producing a litter now and then. Once a litter is produced, they sell as many of the animals as possible and then (often) take the rest to the shelter. I know of cases where a puppy has "accidentally" been bred with his mother. In both cases, you have a high likelihood of receiving an unsocialized pet who will take a lot of time to adjust to a new home.

The Internet has many people who are actually just back-yard breeders trying to find a larger market for their animals. Since this will often require shipping animals, I would avoid them. There are always local sources, even if you are intent on using a breeder. You don't know who you're really dealing with on the Internet, you have no way of checking the animal before purchase, and you have no way of knowing if the animal will survive transport. Bad idea.

Shelters and local rescue groups are the best sources, since they generally have pets available who would otherwise not have homes at all. They are in business to place animals in homes, not to make money on the animals. A shelter is generally run and funded as a governmental organization, and many are usually restricted by budget and staff on how much they can do for an animal, but will have less restrictions on adopting. Rescue organizations generally vet their animals - they will try to do a health check, a home check to see how it interacts with other animals, and try to get some idea of how socialized the animal is.

Why? If you talk to any pure-bred rescue group, they will be able to tell you that with all of the good aspects of a breed (hunting, fetching, guarding, fighting) come the bad (allergies, bad eyes, bad skin, etc.) In-breeding tends to accelerate the good and the bad, especially if the breeding is not done with the utmost care.

Unless you want a dog for exactly the purpose the breed was designed to do, and are willing to accept the possible consequences, is a piece of paper really that important?

This is one time I personally would perfer mutts (mixed breed to be politically correct.)

Mutts generally have the advantage of not having a specific breed's in-bred problems. This is not to say that mutts are problem-free, but why would someone pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to a breeder for a dog with a piece of paper when there is a beautiful unique dog that needs you at the shelter or rescue group?

A pure-bred means that you can track his parentage back a certain length of time. This is not a guarantee of anything other than you can track his parentage back a certain length of time. I am reminded of a old saying: "Please don't judge me by my relatives."

Are you going to show your dog? Probably not, but if you are, you probably know everything written here already. If all you want is a companion, go adopt one. Really.

We adopted Ripley from the Richardson Humane Society (RHS). He was originally dumped by his owner at the Humane Society of Young County with another dog. The next day, the owner returned and picked up the other dog.

Their loss is our gain, as Ripley has been a member of the family since 2001, and a constant companion to our other dogs.

Ripley chewed on things when he first came home, which may have been one of the issues for his being dumped. However, after a couple of months in his new home, he calmed down considerably. In fact, he is so calm that occasionally someone will check his breath just to make sure he's still with us!

We will never know why Ripley was abandoned at the shelter, but thanks to the people in Graham who contacted RHS, he came into our lives. We'd like to thank those involved in saving him.

You can't buy a dog like Ripley, because he's a mutt. "Breeders" don't sell mutts, they sell pure-breds (or so they claim.) Personally, I prefer mutts, as they have much more character. (Actually, this is not true anymore, as breeders have now taken to producing specific cross-breeds and calling them designer dogs. Oy vey!)

We adopted Sparky from the Humane Society of Young County. They had contacted the Richardson Humane Society about him, and they were unable to help, so we just adopted him directly.

Sparky had apparently suffered ill effects from his life before he met us, and finally succumbed to lung disease. We had almost three good years with him before he left us.

He was a very scared dog when we met him. He had been in the shelter, adopted and returned, so we were at least the third home he had seen. It took him a long time to gain confidence in us, and to become comfortable in the house, but he eventually did fit in.

He decided he was my dog and would greet me at the back door every night when I got home from work. In the evenings, he would come get a hug before moving off to an open spot on the bed to sleep.

He would bark at the back door when he needed to go outside. It almost sounded like he was saying "Out, Out!"

He was a mutt like Ripley.

We miss him. Visit Sparky's Pals for more information.

We adopted Murphy from the East Lake Pet Orphanage (ELPO). The SPCA Of Texas had asked ELPO if they could take him since he was very young, but did not meet their criteria for saving. He has chronic dry eye, so he would have been put to sleep if ELPO had not taken him.

Murphy was micro-chipped which meant somebody took the time to have him marked, and was then found tied to a tree outside the SPCA offices, which means they must have changed their mind.

Murphy has integrated well into the household, and it a very loving puppy. He is a puppy, so he is a bit of a spazz. He does require daily medication for his dry eye. Anyone with an appreciation for pet ownership would understand both of those conditions. We chose to accept the conditions, and Murphy seems very happy here.

It's very unfortunate that some people will invest money in a pet and then decide to just walk away from that investment. A pet is one hobby that is a living being, and pets deserve better than being left at the curb when they are no longer wanted. There are programs that allow you to "turn in" your pet if you can no longer care for him, no matter what the reason. Tying a dog to a tree and running is not a good way to "turn in" a pet.

Maximilian (our "Max") was pulled from the Denton Animal Shelter on Monday, August 28, 2006, a day before he was eligible for euthanasia, since the shelter was reaching capacity.

My wife saw Max's photo on a rescue email list, and mentioned how much he looked like Ripley (see above). Then, the shelter mentioned that Monday he was available, both for adoption and for euthanasia. At that point, East Lake Pet Orphanage pulled him from the shelter on our recommendation, and added him to their program for possible adoption.

His preliminary tests looked good, but ELPO policy is to keep any shelter animal in isolation for a least a week to see if any other conditions develop.

Max passed away in his sleep some time Tuesday morning, September 4, 2006 at ELPO. As he was in quarantine, he began exhibiting symptoms of kennel cough, parvo, and possible distemper. All of this could have been avoided with proper vaccinations! He just had too much to battle in too short a time.

Max is a good example of why adoption is necessary, but can't solve all problems. He was very young. He was a friendly, active dog. Yet, with all this, he was marked for death because the shelter was out of space and because somebody dumped him. When he was saved from euthanasia, his lack of vaccinations caused his death anyway.

Somebody bred a pair of dogs to produce Max, or somebody didn't have their dogs spayed or neutered, and Max was the result. However Max entered the world, his human parents failed to give him basic care, and then dumped him.

I want to thank everyone at ELPO and East Lake Veterinary Hospital for the enormous amount of care they gave Max in the time he was with them. I know they did the best they could and more. I also want to thank the Denton Animal Shelter for taking him in, and letting the rescue community know he was available, which got him out of the shelter. It was just too little, too late.

Max was born in January, abandoned in the Denton shelter by August, and he didn't make it through three-quarters of a year. He was still a puppy when he passed away. While his is a tragic story, I'm hoping we can have some good come from it. Sparky's Pals has named their proposed vaccination program "Max-inations" in his memory.

Goodbye, Max. We'll see you on the other side of the Bridge.

We pulled Katie from the same shelter that had Max, on September 23, 2006. She was in isolation at the vet's for almost three weeks, and went through a case of ringworm while she was there. She then spent almost two weeks in isolation at our house, occasionally meeting one of the other guys until they were all acclimated.

Katie exhibits all the behaviors of a really "bad" dog - she doesn't follow commands, she wrestles with the other guys, she climbs on furniture, she jumpts the doggie gates, she chews things constantly. In other words, she's a puppy.

If you are going to adopt a young dog from the shelter, you have to assume she has had no training whatsoever, so any behavior should not be surprising. Also, since many puppies are sold or dumped before they have spent enough time with their mother and siblings, many will not know how to play, since they were never taught the rules. Some behavior would probably have been corrected if they had spent enough time with Mom.

This is one of the added benefits of a rescue group over the shelter - if Katie had spent time with any number of rescue organizations, she would probably be much further along with her training and socialization when adopted. Many won't put a dog up for adoption until there is at least an inventory of known issues for a potential owner.

This time, we decided to do it ourselves. This (as we are learning again) is not for the timid or the inexperienced, or it will be very frustrating very quickly. Know what you're getting before you bring her home!

Katie was spayed in late November, and she recovered nicely from the surgery. Just before the surgery, she managed to climb up on the kitchen table and eat two white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, which cost ninety-nine cents. $150 later, they were back out of here with no ill effects. Chocolate and macadamia nuts are both potentially poisonous for dogs. Katie did not know this.

Katie has since completed her first round of training and is beginning to calm down a wee bit. She will start her second training class soon. After that, she will need finishing school, where hopefully, she will learn it's not proper for a lady to belch loudly after dinner every night.

She sleeps next to me every night.

Sparky's Pals, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit Texas corporation located in Dallas and dedicated to animal welfare and providing humane education to the public.

Mission Statement
We educate the public about animal welfare issues and provide financial support for pets in need.

Our areas of focus include:

• Educating the population on spay/neuter to help prevent unwanted pets


• Educating potential pet owners on proper pet care and treatment of animals


• Educating adopting families to assist in integrating the dogs into their homes


• Providing low-cost spay/neuter and vaccinations for families in need


• Supporting other local rescue groups in their efforts to place homeless pets

Saving Animals By Educating People - Since what you don't know can hurt them!

Remember, no matter what the source you choose, a pet is a living being that requires care and love.

Pets should not be a snap-decision addition to a family, although, unfortunately, they often are.

Make sure you understand the consequences (costs, responsibilities, potential issues) before welcoming a pet into your home. Once your pet is home, he'd like to be home forever.