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!

Amen, Christopher!

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.

My kitties have learned the command “be gentle!” Especially Apollo and Pan, who can play too rough.