My husband and I have been searching for a new dog for about a week now. I have had dogs my whole life, mostly terriers. He, on the other hand, has never even had a goldfish, let alone a dog. We both agreed, however, that we would only consider adopting a dog from a shelter.
I spent the good part a week looking up different shelters and pet foster programs in the area- looking at every picture of every available dog and reading every description to see if we could find a dog that would fit in perfectly at our home (needs to be good with kids, which we hope to have in a couple of years, and dogs). Together we sat down and made up a weekly schedule of when we would try to visit all of these places. Needless to say, there is no shortage of animals, especially dogs, that need good homes.
We began our search last Saturday, and I could've adopted every dog that I saw- my heart just bleeds for them. After seeing all of these desperate animals, I decided that I needed to start volunteering at the local shelter more frequently. I went three days this week. I also took a book out of the library called Saved by Karin Winegar- a book that literally made me smile and cry at the same time. The animals that she writes about have come from horrific backgrounds, but they learned to love again when given a second chance. It is just heart wrenching to hear the stories in her book about the cruelty done to animals, and the number of shelters all over the country that euthanize these animals (in sometimes very unethical ways) without a moment's thought. On the other hand, it is absolutely wonderful to read about some of the people that save these animals, either through adoption or fostering, and give them a second chance at life.
