This compassionate, wonderful account of adopting a rescue dog comes to us from Kaitlin Bernard. It was originally posted on her blog, Blank Cage, on Friday, November 22.
I won’t lie, when my boyfriend and I first entertained the thought of getting a dog I had my heart set on a Shiba Inu. I researched the breed, I contacted breeders, I picked out names, I watched training videos on how to deal with the notoriously headstrong breed. I had my perfect little boy all dreamed up, a red Shiba puppy named Oden. Then something happened, my sister (who has the biggest heart of anyone I know) adopted two dogs from a local rescue group called The Animal Guardian Society(TAGS). They were a pair of brother and sister Border Collie/Basset Hound mixes from a high-kill shelter in the States. They flourished in my sister’s loving household. They were remarkably well-balanced, healthy, happy dogs.
I won’t lie, when my boyfriend and I first entertained the thought of getting a dog I had my heart set on a Shiba Inu. I researched the breed, I contacted breeders, I picked out names, I watched training videos on how to deal with the notoriously headstrong breed. I had my perfect little boy all dreamed up, a red Shiba puppy named Oden. Then something happened, my sister (who has the biggest heart of anyone I know) adopted two dogs from a local rescue group called The Animal Guardian Society(TAGS). They were a pair of brother and sister Border Collie/Basset Hound mixes from a high-kill shelter in the States. They flourished in my sister’s loving household. They were remarkably well-balanced, healthy, happy dogs.
My sister’s experience with adopting
totally changed how I viewed rescue animals. I thought adopting meant going
down to the local pound and looking through the cages and being heartsick that
you couldn’t take them all home. After spending just a few minutes with an
animal, you would have to decide whether or not to take it home, knowing little
of its behaviour. Then would come the nightmare of re-training a broken animal
that has been through goodness knows what. Let me take the opportunity to
acknowledge my complete and utter ignorance. This is NOT the case at all. There
is absolutely nothing wrong with adopting an animal from a shelter. Some of the
best behaved dogs I know came straight from shelters. But I also learned that
this is not the only option. There are tons of rescue organizations that take
animals into their care and place them in foster homes. Volunteers with huge
hearts take these dogs into their homes and they live with them as a member of
their family.
When it came time to add a dog to our
family, we turned to Pet Finder (think Kijiji for rescue animals). It didn’t
take long before we fell in love with Leia, a cute, shy-looking, 1-year-old
Boxer/Catahoula Hound mix from TEAM Dog Rescue. Everything about her bio
resounded with us. It wasn’t quite a happy ending just yet though. We contacted
TEAM only to find out she had already been adopted. Saddened, but realizing it
was par for the course, we started to look at other dogs. But then something
fateful happened; the person who adopted Leia realized it wasn’t the right fit
and made the difficult decision to take her back to the rescue organization.
 |
| Leia! |
We met Leia shortly after Christmas.
She waddled into our house wearing this little red sweater and she stole our
hearts instantly. She didn’t want to walk on the tile and she wasn’t a fan of
the hardwood, so she curled up on the area rug and took a snooze while we
talked to the people from TEAM. We heard about how scared she was on the
transport up here from North Carolina. She was picked up as a stray who had
recently had puppies. We heard how she was scheduled to be put down the day
after TEAM sprung her. But we also heard how she was flourishing in her foster
home with two other dogs. They told us how she was the middle of her pack,
dominating the fosters’ big Boxer and submitting to their little American
Eskimo. We saw right away what they meant about her being a cuddle bug once she
trusted someone.
People say they “just know” when they
meet the right dog for them. It’s cheesy and cliché, but it’s true. We filled
out the paperwork, gave TEAM our references, and after we’d been thoroughly
checked out, they brought her to us on New Year’s Eve. We decided to forego the
typical New Year’s party and spent a quiet night at home with just the three of
us, my sister, her boyfriend, and her two dogs.
Now, I by no means intend to paint
the picture that owning a dog is all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it’s
hard. Just like any dog, Leia has issues that we work on every single day. But
we also remember each and every day that her life is a gift in our lives. We
don’t know exactly where she came from, we don’t know her story, and we’ll
never know what she looked like as a puppy. You very quickly realize none of
this matters.
Leia has truly changed our lives. She
has turned us into rescue advocates and passionate dissenters against
breed-specific legislation (a serious problem for Ontario rescues that are
forced to deny help to the breeds that need them most of all). She has made me
more compassionate when it comes to animal welfare. I’m more conscious than
ever about the products that I use and the food that I eat. She makes the end
of every work day even better because I know she’s at home waiting for me and
will be happy to see me no matter what. She makes our house a home and our
couple a family.
Getting a dog isn’t about owning a
dog. I wish I realized this sooner. When you stop thinking about it like
shopping for a designer handbag and start viewing it as finding a new family
member, adopting is the only thing that makes sense. I don’t think I’ll ever
understand buying from a breeder again. At one point it’s what I wanted, but I
know I will never “buy” a dog in my lifetime. There are so many dogs out there
that need homes and will die without one. Plus, there is no reason not to
adopt. It’s a huge benefit to get a dog that’s behaviour has already been
assessed. A lot of people buy based on breed for behaviour, but breed does not
necessarily guarantee predictable, uniform behaviour. What better predictor of
behaviour than someone who lives with the dog and can tell you if he barks a
lot, or sleeps a lot, or how he is with kids, cats, and other dogs? And if you
do happen to want a specific breed, there are pure bred rescue dogs out there.
There are also wonderful mixes. My sister is currently fostering a gorgeous,
well-mannered Dalmatian/Lab mix. What I’ve also learned is that many rescues
will work with you if you have a particular breed in mind. If you can find it
online somewhere, they can usually help you arrange transport to where you
live. And it’s not very hard to find puppies if you really want to raise the
dog yourself. Also, don’t think you need any sort of special training
experience to adopt a rescue dog. They all come with their own unique quirks,
but I swear up and down that if we raised Leia from a puppy, she would have way
more behavioural issues. Plus, when we adopted Leia, we essentially got adopted
into the TEAM community. They have wonderfully fun fundraisers and a Facebook
group where you can ask behaviour/medical/and any kind of dog question. When
Leia had some stomach issues shortly after we adopted her, two of the directors
from TEAM were on the phone with us and the vet’s the entire weekend and they
even offered to pay for the medical bills related to the issue.
I guarantee you, your next family
member is already out there in need of a loving home. When you go in with an
open mind and an open heart, you’re sure to find a furry piece of your life you
didn’t even realize was missing. So when the time comes to welcome an animal
into your family, please consider adopting.
P.S. This all goes for cats too.
