Thank you for posting this thread! I have been a HUGE believer of rescuing animals my entire life, and all of my animals have been either adopted from the Humane Society or saved from being a stray. My mother works for the local Humane Society and she is the biggest advocate of pet adoption I have ever met. My BF and I adopted our dog, a yellow lab named Chenoa, from some neighbor's of his parents who bought another puppy and decided they didn't have enough time for Chenoa. People like them piss me off SO MUCH because they think they can just get rid of one animal for another, new animal. If you adopt/buy an animal, that is your animal for their life span. You can't just give up one of your children when you have a new one. But, on the other hand I am glad they gave her up, because she is one of the biggest joys of my life and I couldn't imagine every day without her.

I must say, I loathe people who buy animals for hundreds of dollars, especially dogs, just because they want to be able to say that they "own" a certain breed of dog for the "coolness" factor. There are so many animals out there who need a good home in the Humane Society and other organizations, and you usually only have to pay a small adoption fee. Even if you want a "purebreed" there are so many rescue organizations for specific breeds. Please think about adoption before you shell out hundreds of dollars just to say you own a certain breed of dog.

I am so supportive of rescuing animals, through a shelter, organization or directly (big surprise, eh? ). It's the only way I would ever consider bringing an animal into my family.

I have adopted from the Humane Society and Pet Connection and I believe adoption is the only way to go.

Hi Jennifer3FC,

Great post! I am all for rescuing animals. I have a feral cat colony (nearing 20 cats) that lives outside that I feed two - three times a day (we go through 20 lbs of cat food about every 5 days), spay, neuter and get them all their shots, any vet care needed if they get sick, etc. I didn't used to have so many but a couple are some that used to go somewhere else and after the lady died (she was very old) they started coming to my house. So, I took them in too. They are just part of my colony. All but two of them are tame now. Some I raised from kittens, when rescuing a mama cat that had kittens, so they were tame because I raised them. Some were very feral and are now tame cause I care for them. They are so funny. I go sit on my porch steps and within seconds I will have 5-10 cats all trying to climb in my lap at one time. They love being brushed and petted. I have tried to find homes for some of them, the tame ones, but adult cats are difficult to place. I am so attached to them all now, I no longer try to place them.

I also have three dogs (two of which were rescues) and 6 indoor cats. Of the 6, three of them were rescues (and extremely sick when I got them). We adopted them as our own. The other three are a male and two females that I got as less than 1 week old orphans. They are 3 1/2 years old now. But when I got them, they were very, very sick and almost died so many times I lost count. I had to bottle raise them. One couldn't even suckle she was so small. The biggest one was less than 3 ounces and the smallest one was less than 1 ounce! I had to feed them every two hours, day and night. I also had to teach them how to go potty (warm cotton balls), clean them, etc. just like a mama cat would. Poor little babies. They were very sick when they were babies. Two ended up having to have eye surgeries. One has a chronic discharge that won't clear up. I lost count on how much money was spend on these babies. But I love them so much. They will always stay with me. Even though they are grown, they are still special needs kitties and always will be. Funny thing though. The little one grew to be the second biggest, at about 7 lbs. The male is the biggest at about 7 1/5 pounds. And the middle one, a little girl, is a minature kitty. She weighs less than 4 lbs! Looks like a 3-4 month old kitten. They are all pretty small, but the vet says it is just because of all the problems they had at the beginning. It's a miracle that they even lived. Two are bob tailed. The littlest girl and the boy. Cute little gray babies!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I fully support your post and adopting rescue pets. Mine were all rescues in that I rescued them from the life that they had and gave them the life they have now, which is great.

Two of my dogs were rescues too, but this post is already way too long. They will be a story for another day.

Speaking of that, you actually have TWO rescue dogs, you know. You may have gotten your first dog from a breeder, but you certainly rescued her! Sounds like the life she had before was awful. A rescue dog doesn't always have to be one you adopted from a rescue group and paid for. You definitely rescued that poor little girl. Thanks for giving them both a great home.

Kathy Bahr

This is such wonderful information!

I adopted my kitty Heidi from toronto animal services almost a year ago and I am so happy I did! I picked her bc as soon as I opened the cage to look at her she jumped right into my arms.

I almost didn't get her bc the lady working there was an absolute biatch! My ID had my old address on it and she refused to let me adopt her bc of that. I then offered to wait there while my fiancée went home and got my bank statement with my current address. THEN she refused bc she didn't think I'd be a good "cat mom". I went home and cried that night.

Luckily my friend had adopted from the shelter before (just at a different location) and was "approved" in the system. We went right when they opened that day and she adopted her for me!

I swear if I ever see that lady again I'm going to tell her off. She was rude to everyone coming in there and refused to help a senior looking for a kitty!

All four of our dogs are rescues. Two large black lab mixes that would have died in the shelter (Utah is not very fond of large black dogs... most get dropped off and do their time before being euthanized), a Brittany that was found running the streets and never claimed, and a Pit puppy. (Again, not a dog that has much of a chance out here). I was a confirmed cat person before we got Victor, our 80# lab/pit mix, four years ago. I can't imagine my life without any of them now.

Thanks for pointing out that not only is there a need for more people to become aware of adoption, but that amazing, wonderful animals of all sizes and breeds can be found easily without supporting breeders and puppy mills.

I found my german shepherd dog through petfinder, she was at the shelter in our town. They told us she was a stray. her teets were out and I asked them if she recently had pups or if she was pregnant the guy told me "Umm...She came in as a stray...umm...I don't know...she might have had pups." Well when I took her to her vet appt we found out she was pregnant and was due very soon, she had her pups in two weeks. Since then, she's had her pups and we had her fixed. She's been with us for almost a year now and we love her so much. I would go to petfinder again if we ever decided to get another dog.

My cat, Cho, is less than a year old. He and his brother and sister were brought into the shelter by a lady who saw their mother get hit by a car. They were too small and weak to live by themselves, and they didn't have any nursing mothers to adopt the babies and raise them, so they were going to put the three tiny things to sleep.

My grandmother volunteers at the shelter, and smuggled them out in her pocket and brought them home to me. I was out of work at the time, with a lot of time on my hands, so I bottle fed them with a dropper every few hours, and called the vet for a recipe for flea soap that wouldn't harm them (dish soap, glycerine, and white iodine, btw) and flea bathed them with a toothbrush, and wiped their bottoms with warm water to make them "go."

When they got big enough, I started mixing Gerber chicken baby food and rice baby food with their formula.

The plan was to bring them back to the shelter when they were strong enough, but I ended up finding homes for two of them, and the little runty one wormed his way into my heart. I almost lost him several times, but brought him back from the brink, and when a lady said she wanted to adopt him, I blurted, "NO I'M SORRY YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM BYE HAVE A NICE DAY!" And that's when I knew he had to be mine.

His name is Cho and he's the sweetest, most codependent cat you've ever seen. Everyone made fun of me for loving him because he was so funny looking as a baby. He looked just exactly like a little mouse or a rat, but he's gorgeous, and I love him. He's my first pet (I mean MY first pet that's just mine, and not a family pet I grew up with.)

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