Christmas adoption bans, new pet adjustments and more
By Gina Spadafori
December 7, 2007
Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly has been on a roll with some especially nifty postings, and the comments on those posts are just as good.
I’ve never met Dr. K, but I adore her compassion and honesty, both of which come through with every word she writes. Her post on how veterinarians dread the flood of sick pet-store puppies around the holidays is something else. Love how the parents blame the veterinarian for “ruining my kid’s Christmas” when the parents were the morons who didn’t do any research before they pulled out a credit card at the mall (or clicked on an Internet “puppy-mill direct” Web site).
Anyway, here’s the post. The comments took off in a different direction when a pet-rescue volunteer piously informed all that her group won’t allow adoptions around Christmas. That sort of idiocy makes me crazy, so I happily jumped into the fray. See, every potential adopter isn’t incompetent, and for many — especially older singles — the holidays are a slow time that’s absolutely perfect for getting a new pet off to a good start. Heck, I know some businesses that even close the week between Christmas and New Year’s, whether the employees want it off or not.
Adoption guidelines are one thing; unbreakable rules are another.
As I’ve written before, some of my best adoptions when I was running a breed rescue were people who didn’t “pencil out” — a single woman who lived in an apartment, an older couple who wanted a very young dog and a middle-aged man living with his teenaged son in a very dicey neighborhood. All three homes had the dogs for life, and stayed in touch with me for years. They turned out to be a lot better home than the “perfect” family with the perfect fence, stay-at-home mom and expensive home in a nice neighborhood who dumped the dog I placed with them years later because the kids wanted a puppy instead.
Yes, I took my adoption placements seriously, but I also looked at the bigger picture and took chances on people who my gut told me would try their best. And they did!
For me, that’s the essential story of Nathan Winograd’s “Redemption”: We rescuers too often see people as guilty until proven innocent and often look for reasons not to place a pet. We gotta drop our egos and turn that around, so people and pets have a chance to be together. Who can blame people for getting puppy mill dogs, the way some shelters and rescue groups treat them?
Dr. K’s posts on small pets for kids and the feral cat-bird debate (along with the comments) are also good, thoughtful reads.
And speaking of good, thoughtful reading, Miss Christie should bring her elegant self back in here today, since she should have met her deadline crunch by now. I’m looking forward to her posts again.
Update: The animal-rights group PETA is out with a new ad for Christmas. If they understand what really going on in shelters it’s not evident. And geez, they somehow fail to note that they themselves are for the end to all domestic animals (no more exploitation of pets!), and have a 90 percent kill rate for all the pets they take in, in addition to advocating for the extermination of all pit bulls.
But I guess that’s your fault, not PETA’s. You made them do it, you evil people.
***
On the adoption front, personal: About a month has passed since Pip joined my family from German Shepherd rescue, and what a difference! He’s still a gangly adolescent goofus, but he’s filling out beautifully and his coat has taken on a lustrous sheen. His manners have improved and his mild separation anxiety has diminished remarkably. I adore this silly boy, and he’s going to be a great dog with more training and maturity.
The command he hears most often? “Eaaaassyyyyyyy!” That’s because he plays rough, too rough for both my 11-year-old retriever (Heather) and the 9-week-old retriever (Otter). “Leave it!” is popular, too, with regard to the cat (Miss Clara) and the rabbit (Velocity). Pip learns quickly and wants to please, so we’re doing pretty well overall.
I’m surprised, though, that for all his sheer adolescent enthusiasm he is of all the dogs in my home the absolute best with Otter the puppy. They play gentle “bitey face” games and he plays tug-of-war — and lets her win!
The prize for “most adaptable” would have to go to Clara. My lovely young cat is thoroughly unphased by the addition of a large dog and a little puppy, and seems to have come to like them both.
Aw, good kitty, Clara!
My kitties have learned the command “be gentle!” Especially Apollo and Pan, who can play too rough.
Comment by Katherine — December 7, 2007 @ 10:18 am
When I’ve pet sit for friends, I’ve often been surprised that my seemingly scatterbrained adolescent dogs turn into the perfect puppy sitter. The young dogs have lots of energy to play—and a surprising amount of patience. (But I also see signs of maturity that I don’t usually see—the energy saving pretence of doing a little pivoting during chase games and the setting of limits when the puppy finally gets too annoying).
Comment by Arlene — December 7, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Re: No Holiday Adoptions… Aren’t people who are looking to rescue vs. buy at this time of the year already ahead of the curve on the very issue of “Christmas puppies”?
Isn’t the bad thing about x-mas puppies not the time of the year, nor even the motivation to give a puppy as a gift (gift puppies, not necessarily x-mas gifts, are more likely to stay in homes, surprisingly), but the impulse buy mentality. The mentality that feeds puppy mills and mall shops vs. rewarding conscientious breeders.
Isn’t the evil of x-mas puppies only coming from the poorly bred and suspect puppy mill pups? The quality of every other present you might buy at Christmas is not suspect due to the motivation to buy it as a gift. The only downside is if companies have to ramp up production and thus cut standards to meet the demand.
And isn’t that exactly what makes x-mas puppies bad? The cut standards mass produced pups from mills?
The mere fact that people looking for a rescue dog at this time of year seems to negate the supposed evils of x-mas puppies, mostly because those potential adopters are talking with caring and informed individuals instead of a teenage salesperson in a mall. Can’t almost all the goals of the rescue be accomplished through this dialogue?
As Gina said, guidelines not rules.
The internet is a ruthless place for newbs. Anyone who has been around for more than a week and is up to speed on the etiquettes just loves to jump on and attack people who are new and who ask the same questions the vets asked when they were new, mostly because the vets were hazed and ignored and they are passing along the initiation ritual.
Adoption need not be like the internet, although from earlier articles here and personal experience, it seems that some groups do make it too hard, are too preachy and condescending and barrage new potential rescuers with too much sour tasting politics and dogma.
You can’t influence people who won’t listen to you. And potential rescuers at x-mas time are COMING TO LISTEN. They are just waiting to be informed and they already have an idea to seek out another avenue than the pet shop.
If anything, rescue groups should AMP UP efforts at this time of year and COMPETE for homes. They should get their message out NOW when people are ripe for conversion. It’s too late on December 26th. A lot of animals could be saved before then.
Having just watched over the birth of my first litter, I have thought a lot about finding the right homes for the puppies I am not going to keep and who don’t already have interested buyers. Thank god the puppies won’t be going to new homes until February, so I know that I won’t be attracting buyers who want a pee stained box under the tree with a puppy inside for little Jimmy. But I still have to compete with the x-mas puppy rush. I still have to compete for the sake of my puppies, the more people I can reach and vet, the better the odds that I’ll find a quality home.
Rescue should do the same. Compete more. Reject out of hand less. If you’re going to give dogs a chance, give homes a chance too.
Comment by Christopher — December 7, 2007 @ 2:18 pm
“If you’re going to give dogs a chance, give homes a chance too.”
Amen, Christopher!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 7, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
Clearly, for the ultimate good of the animals, rigid “dogma” has no place in adoption policies. Sorry. Just couldn’t help it. It’s late Friday afternoon.
Comment by Susan Fox — December 7, 2007 @ 4:11 pm
I’m not surprised that Pip is letting Otter win — male dogs seem to spoil girl puppies rotten. When Pepper was the new girl puppy on the block, all the male dogs in the neighborhood couldn’t do enough for her — taking their food, treats, toys, beds — whatever — they didn’t care at all. Heck, I didn’t think she was THAT cute, but they all seemed to think so! ;-)
Pepper ended up coming to us days before Christmas. We had actually told the rescue we wanted to adopt her several weeks before that, but they were an all-volunteer organization and weren’t able to do all that they wanted done any quicker.
While it was a bit of a zoo having a new puppy with all the Christmas stuff going on (I ended up not going to Christmas Eve service because Pepper and Lindsey took the 1/2 hour before service to decide to work out their relationship and agree that they liked each other and cemented it by sleeping together — the cat on my lap and the puppy on my feet), I think the last straw would have been not being allowed to bring Pepper home “because it was Christmas.” Well, we’d kind of noticed the calendar and it was a zoo, but it’s 5 years later so it appears that we all survived and became a family regardless!
Comment by Dorene — December 7, 2007 @ 4:54 pm
There must be single people out there like me who don’t travel around the holidays who could be willing to give a pet a home. Are they afraid that the shelters will turn them down during the holiday season. I think Christopher has a wonderful idea that shelters should offer greater competition now. If I were needing a pet, the holiday would not stop me at all.
Comment by VJ — December 7, 2007 @ 4:55 pm