Welcoming Rocky to our family!

Our daughter has been wanting a dog for a long time. After initial resistance and hesitation we decided to get a dog for her.

So I set out to find a perfect dog for us. I hear outcry about pet-overpopulation and dogs being euthanize in shelter. I wanted to do the RIGHT things. I will not get a puppy from puppy-mill. We are flexible about dog breeds. I will open doors to a needy older mutt.

Fast-forward couple of month and now we have a pure-breed re-homed puppy. How hypocritical is that? Why couldn't I provide a home to a needy dog? Why wan't my initial objective achieved?

You need to be in my shoes for a bit. Imagine all the following circumstances with your 8-yr old nagging every waking moment in background. As first steps, I started searching on craigslist. I came across advertisements from "rescue" groups with pictures of cute dogs wanting foster homes. All these advertisements had call to action .. Act now or else the puppy will be euthanize next day. So, I replied... to many such advertisements. Very few rescue group actually replied back. Out of which who replied .. kept me waiting and promising with one excuse or other. The dog will be here any day - oh no may be next day. It gave me a feeling that the rescue group really didn't had the advertised dog. Other rescue groups tried bait-and-switch technique. The conversation wen something like this 'The advertised dog (often purebreed dog) found a family.. but now this dog with very questionable history?'

So, what was the deal? You need to understand the dog-adoption eco-system. As with every object, brand name sells. Just as car's worth more if it is Mercedise vs Honda, dogs is worth more for right breed. Pure breed young dogs can be sold upwards of 600$s. When there is $$ involve there is incentive for crooks. There are legitimate rescue organizations, which truly rescue dogs from shelter and give them second chance. But these are left-over dogs that shelters labeled as not suitable for adoption. If you are looking for first-time dog ownership, rescue organizations aren't the best door to knock.

I looked at dog shelters for adoption. I realized that dogs that are recognized as family pet gets adopted quickly. Remaining inventory of dogs are pit-bull-mix. Obviously, the breed is not suitable for families with small kids.

After being burned by so called rescue organizations, I was extra careful. Now the option available to us was go with reputed breeder or a private adoption. We ended up with private adoption. We are happy to include Rocky in our family.

I wanted to mention the Nor-Cal-Beagle http://www.norcalbeagles.com organizations that is exception to the story. My interaction with them was what I would expect from volunteer run organization. This rescue organization hasn't advertise on craigslist - I found them through word-of-mouth. 

So, what is the rescue organization scam?  Keep reading the previous post..