# I am in love



## poohlp (Jul 10, 2007)

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=7284332

I am in love with this dog and wish I could give it a home. He's such a pretty boy. So sad, two years in a shelter. 

I haven't met him yet, but am lobbying my BF for a day trip to go meet him. Unfortunately, we are trying to sell our current house and if we do may have to temporarily relocate to an apartment until the house we are building is finished. Then I have to melt the cruel. cruel heart that thinks one dog is more than enough.  

If I do get to the point, what sort of issues should I expect from a dog that's been in a shelter for 2 years?


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## SammyDog (May 21, 2007)

You should expect a dog that will be veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy happy to have a home and a family.


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## Dakota Spirit (Jul 31, 2007)

I have to be careful on Petfinder otherwise I end up falling in love with animals I can't have.

I think his temperament upon coming out of the shelter will depend heavily on what the environment is like there. How much room he had, was he kenneled with a lot of other dogs, that sort of thing.

Do keep in mind though, that if you do end up relocating to an apartment and this is a high energy dog it could make for a stressful situation - both on you and the dog.


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## tirluc (Aug 29, 2006)

my biggest ? would be, why has he been in the shelter 2 1/2 yrs? ....is it just his size or are there issues that they don't mention in the post?....


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## poohlp (Jul 10, 2007)

According to the person I have been corresponding with, staff ineptitude and neglect is in large part responsible for the long stay. 

Apparently the old shelter staff neglected the bigger dogs in favor of smaller, more easy to handle dogs. From what I have been told, when a new regime took over, they set about undoing the damage done and a lot of dogs unfortunately had to be euthanized because they were beyond redemption as a result of pretty much having been placed in 8x8 cages and never let out except to have the cages cleaned. 

This dog was one of the ones the workers thought could be rehabilitated, but he apparently does have fear issues in new situations. It sounds like the shelter staff is working double time to get make up for past mistakes and to give these dogs the best chance at a great life -- socializing and training the dogs and bending over backward to make these dogs attractive to adopt to the right families. They even offered to start house training him before he goes to the home. 

I really wish I could give this dog the home he deserves, but am not sure it is going to be possible right now with my moving situation. And, although I am already in love, O really hope he isn't still there in 5 months time. I'm going to go over and meet him in a couple weeks and we'll see the lay of the land from there.


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## Dakota Spirit (Jul 31, 2007)

Man, sounds like the past shelter set up was a really bad one. I'm glad there are new people running the place and improving the animal's stays as much as possible.

Good luck to both him and you.


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

That is why I am not so excited about No Kill shelters. What kind of life is it to live indefinitely in a shelter? Many dogs start going kennel crazy after a very short time. I can't even imagine laying on hard cement and never or rarely getting out of your cage. I think some places can pull it off, but many should not. It would be more humane to put them to sleep then expect them to live in confinement forever. Before jumping down my throat for saying that. Go visit some of those types of shelters. Most of you would agree then.


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## Dakota Spirit (Jul 31, 2007)

Inga said:


> That is why I am not so excited about No Kill shelters. What kind of life is it to live indefinitely in a shelter? Many dogs start going kennel crazy after a very short time. I can't even imagine laying on hard cement and never or rarely getting out of your cage. I think some places can pull it off, but many should not. It would be more humane to put them to sleep then expect them to live in confinement forever. Before jumping down my throat for saying that. Go visit some of those types of shelters. Most of you would agree then.


I agree. Your everyday local shelters with the typical 8 X 8 cages are not the proper set ups for a no kill shelter.


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## poohlp (Jul 10, 2007)

Obviously I don't yet know the whole story, but I think this place is really trying to turn itself around. This dog and one other are the last of the dogs left from the previous regime. The other is smaller and should be easier to place- they are looking at several homes. Because this one is 65 lbs, they are having more trouble. But it sounds like they are really going out of their way to ensure dogs find homes, not stay there indefinitely.


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## 3212 (Feb 4, 2007)

What a sweetie! Yeah its SO hard seeing all the humane society animals come into the vet. We do all the spays/neuters (just exams if they're too young) that were adopted on the weekends and we had 21 adoptions on Monday!! It was crazy for us, but awesome that that many were adopted! 

I was so close to adopting a dog last week actually. I feel in complete love with this tan and white pit mix that was the perfect dog. She came in for her rabies shot and is great with dogs, cats, kids...she was SUCH a sweetie pie. She'd been at the shelter for 2 1/2 months and I said "right if she is still there next week we are adopting her!" She was one of the adoptions that Monday (I wasn't there) and the vet (a fellow bully breed lover) said the adoptees were a great couple and she was a lucky dog! I was psyched....but I really do need to steer clear of petfinder and my new love the Arizona Boxer Rescue.


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