Give Shelter Dogs a Chance

The latest Pedigree dog food commercial literally brings tears to my eyes. If you haven't seen it, it is narrated from the point of view of a shelter dog and basically says "I know I'm a good dog...I just want to go home." Even thinking about it now makes me well up. The commercial strikes such a chord with me because I am a dog person and my last three dogs have come from the pound. Here are their stories.

First, there was Bandit. We adopted her in 1993, as soon as we moved out of an apartment. She was at the pound with her sister, brought in because together, they were "too much to handle." We wanted Bandit, but felt bad about leaving the sister. Fortunately there was a couple there that wanted the sister, but felt bad about leaving Bandit, so both sisters found a new home that afternoon. Bandit was the "only child" for a few years. During that time I started college, but I would always get the rock star treatment whenever I would come home for break. She would sleep on my bed, jump up on my car in the driveway and come running when she heard a fork scrape a plate in hopes of a scrap or two leftover from dinner.

Somewhere near 1995, my sister was walking through the Coldwell Banker parking lot next door to our house and she noticed a stray dog under a car. She brought the little mutt home and that is how Friskey's membership into the family began. I know what you are thinking: "She wasn't adopted from a shelter." Actually, she was--three times. See, Friskey was a stray, so we did not chain her at first in case she did have a family somewhere. However, when she didn't come around for a week or so, I went to the pound to see if she was there. She was, and in talking to the SPCA director, I learned that she had been adopted once, brought back, adopted again, and was there now care of animal control. Well, the third time was the charm for the little stray. I adopted her in May of 1996, and I had her until the day she died of cancer in April, 2006. She went with me to college, she was there for graduation, she was there for my wedding and she was there when we brought home our first child. I still miss her, almost a year later.

This brings us to Tucker. Less than two weeks after putting Friskey to sleep, I took a road trip to Georgia to celebrate my best friend's thirtieth birthday. I stopped halfway at my parents' house in Virginia. My parents still have Bandit and another dog, Coco...and at that particular time, they were also in custody of Tucker. Tucker was an "impulse buy" of my now college-student sister, Ray. Never mind that Ray wasn't allowed to have a dog in her rental townhouse, she had a friend go to the Harrisonburg SPCA and adopt him anyway. Well, her landlord found out, and rather than be homeless Tucker got relocated to my parents' house. Turns out that the hole in my heart was in need of filling, and Tucker was in the right place at the right time. He was also wonderful with the baby, which I feel you cannot teach a dog. They are either tolerant or dead. I brought Tucker home with me on a "temporary" basis, but as soon as I got him home, I knew he was ours to stay. He really sealed the deal when a dog got out of its house and came charging at me, the baby and Tucker when we were walking in our neighborhood. We had only had him a week or so and still his first reaction was to put himself in between the stroller and the charging dog-and he didn't move. Fortunately, the dog turned out to be friendly, but none of us knew that at the time and Tucker's reaction really surprised me since he hadn't had a lot of time to bond with us. Hopefully he and my daughter will have a long and happy childhood together.

These are just the three wonderful friends that I have found through a shelter. There are so many dogs (and cats) in need of good homes and you would be hard-pressed to not find the perfect fit for your family at the local pound. I am partial to mutts as they tend not to have the congenital conditions that some pure breeds have, but if you want one, you might be surprised to know that 20-25% of the dogs that pass through the shelter system are purebreds...and you can sometimes even find puppies. You can also check with a breed-specific rescue if you have a particular breed that you must have. I do not have anything against buying a dog from a reputable breeder, or pet shops that are supported by reputable breeders and I do not even want to get started on puppy mills. All I am suggesting is that you give that local shelter a look first. Check the local SPCA, Humane Society or rescue. You can save a lot of money, you can save an animal's life and you can make a forever friend-or three. And if you see that commercial, even if it doesn't make you cry, I hope it makes you think.