Which Dog Do I Adopt?

Go with your heart-you know the answer!

Alasippi said:

O.K. my friends, here's the deal. My beloved Chocolate Lab, "Snickers", died recently. She was 18 and loved me more than any dog I've ever owned.
I've recovered from her loss enough that I'm now ready to give another dog a home.
I've decided that it should be a rescue, and that's what it will be.
The animal shelter has two pure bred black lab puppies, about 8 weeks old, who are beautiful little dogs. One male and one female.
Then, there's a one year old named "Beauty". She's a Lab mix that looks just like a pure bred.
While all the others were barking and jumping around, she just walked up, looked at me, and said, "Please", with those doggie eyes of hers.
My thinking is, "Somebody's" going to adopt the pups. That's a no brainer. Pay a 50.00 adoption fee to adopt a 500.00 dog.
"Beauty", being a year old, has a far less chance of finding a home.
Be honest.If you were me, what would you do?
Of all the dogs in the shelter, she's the one I keep thinking about, and although she's no Westminster champion, she needs me.
Am I letting my emotions interfere with my common sense?
All reply's welcomed and thanks.
Sip

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When it comes to adoption, emotions should be a very large part of the equation. By your comments, I think you already know the answer. No question about it - if I were in your shoes, Beauty would be coming home with me.

Alasippi said:

My son did the same thing with both his dog and cat, and you're right, they know it.

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Yes, they do. My two most recent (I have 4) are both adopted, one from a shelter and one from a rescue. In both cases, there was some slight initial tentativeness on their part. But since when they realized that they weren't going anywhere, they both became so incredibly clingy (in a good way) and devoted.

Alasippi said:

My thinking is, "Somebody's" going to adopt the pups. That's a no brainer. Pay a 50.00 adoption fee to adopt a 500.00 dog.
"Beauty", being a year old, has a far less chance of finding a home.
Be honest.If you were me, what would you do?
Of all the dogs in the shelter, she's the one I keep thinking about, and although she's no Westminster champion, she needs me.
Am I letting my emotions interfere with my common sense?
All reply's welcomed and thanks.
Sip

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Regardless of the adoptability of the pups, you can't bypass the animal that picked you. My wife and I adopted our first two cats that way -- they picked us -- and they were the best pet friends we've ever had. Really no decision to make here...go get Beauty as soon as possible tomorrow.

I think its a no-brainer, go with your heart.

Late to the thread but wanted to say sorry for your loss, Sip. 18 years is a good run though and I know Snickers is real proud of his dad for giving another pup a forever home.

I concur with the group here - the right one is the one who picks you and the one your heart chooses......that's the way it has always been for us.

Please keep us posted with pics. You're a good guy, Sip.

Alasippi said:

I think every response in this thread told me what I wanted to hear. Thanks.
Tomorrow, I'm getting me a "Beauty".!
Thanks for the input. I truly appreciate it.
sip

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Lelton would approve this message!

Bazza said:

Late to the thread but wanted to say sorry for your loss, Sip. 18 years is a good run though and I know Snickers is real proud of his dad for giving another pup a forever home.

I concur with the group here - the right one is the one who picks you and the one your heart chooses......that's the way it has always been for us.

Please keep us posted with pics. You're a good guy, Sip.

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Yes, be sure to post a pic.

Sorry for your loss. I'm glad you will have a dog to love and love you back. Lab mixes are great dogs.

Well, you could just get all three of them so they have another dog to play with! I agree with everyone else, you already know the answer, you have already made that connection with her and her to you.

Now that you have that settled, get her a playmate. :biggrin2:

To me, Beauty makes sense from both emotional and common sense standpoints. She needs you and seems to want you. Plus, Labs are usually stark raving mad lunatics until they're AT LEAST a year old. I love the breed (we have two from rescue), but they're destructive and straight up coocoo for CoaCo Puffs when they're young.

The puppies will get good homes in a heartbeat and Beauty needs you. You get to avoid a lot of the young-Lab craziness. I'd take Beauty. JMO.

Go with Beauty, you know you want to. You've been thinking about her, it's an easy choice. (Or heck, go ahead and get 2 dogs!)

/Thread Hijack

I wanted to share some of my experience.

I've given up on dealing with Rescues when it comes to finding a dog. I always wanted a Great Dane. For as long as I can recall I always thought they were the most amazing dogs. So finally, last year, my wife caved. We had bought a new house and finally had a big enough backyard. Time to look. Depending on which breed you're looking for, there's a plethora of organizations out there that can help. A lot of their dogs are in worse shape than any you've ever seen at a shelter. The problem is, most of these still charge high fees even for a rescue. They want to come do home inspections to see if your home is right for a dog from their rescue.

I get it, it's their prerogative to put the dogs they rescue into places they deem appropriate. But I'm not cool with letting strangers into my house and allowing them to judge my living conditions. No thanks.


When we got our Great Dane, last July (She was 2) I went online and found a site (I don't remember which one :frown I came across an ad a lady in Northern TN had posted. You could see the Kentucky state line from her home, so they were way up there. Their Dane had been killing the neighbors chickens on an almost weekly basis. They were at their wits end and had placed the ad online hoping someone would adopt her before they had to give her up to be put down. I talked to her over the phone, and made arrangements to come pick up Sadie. No hassle, no fuss, no adoption fee. She came with all her papers, all her medical records, etc... It was the best scenario I could imagine dealing with. Sadie has been far and away the greatest dog I've ever owned. Dane's really are gentle giants. Her bark is absolutely terrifying so if anyone is snooping around our backyard, they wont be for long. Her tail is a whip and it will absolutely bring you to your knees if she hits you in the wrong spot. But we wouldn't trade her for anything.

All that to say, if some of you are thinking about adopting, there are a lot of sites out there like petfinder.com or adoptapet.com that, at least to me, were much easier than dealing with a Rescue.

Since we've off-tracked into the area of Rescues, let me share this brief story.
A former next-door neighbor of mine started "rescuing" stray dogs. I mean, she would roam the surrounding roads, highways, etc., looking for "abandoned" dogs. At first it was thought it was because she just had a kind heart. Then it became apparent that it was all because of the money she charged others for the dogs when they bought them from her.
One day her husband was taking her to work when an approaching vehicle crossed the center line and hit them head-on. Her airbag did not deploy and my neighbor was killed in the impact, but her husband survived. Soon afterward, he got rid of all the dogs, and eventually sold his home and moved out of state.
Just prior to this happening she had 28 dogs in her back yard, and her fence is only about 20' from my back bedroom. I could hear those dogs barking, howling, etc. all hours of the day and night. On more than one occasion, I'd open my back door and yell "SHUT UP!", but the only thing that did was make the rest of them start barking even louder.
Now I feel sorry for her husband's loss. I feel sorry that she died in the accident. But I've never been so grateful to finally start getting a good night's sleep as I have been since her departure.