Mutts and Moms SUCKS!

Anyone who would take a dog away from children needs a serious dose of empathy and common sense. All this BS about not giving small dogs to small children and having to return a dog to a rescue rather than finding it a good home where you can still visit just rubs me the wrong way.

First off small dogs and small children get along great same as big dogs and small children. Kids and dogs go together. My mother's Bichon puppy and my 22 mo. old niece are inseparable all day. Yeah, there's a learning curve. Tilly needed to learn not to nip Tala and Tala needed to learn not to pull on Tilly's ears, took a week of extra monitoring, not a huge investment. Now, they watch out for each other and share everything from binkys to lunch.

When Tala takes a tumble, as toddlers do, Tilly rushes to bring her toys, bottles, anything she knows Tala likes to soothe her. When Tilly's bowl is empty Tala has been known to try and get the dog food bag to fill it up again (I am glad she can't quite reach the water dispenser on the fridge). I once found Tala starting to swing from the drapes Tarzan style from the back of the sofa but Tilly was stopping her buy grabbing on to the back of her pants by the waistband and holding fast. Even at this young age they watch out for each other.

As for returning the dog to the rescue rather than finding it a good home I call BS on that. Their argument is that sometimes these animals end up back on the streets. If they gave the dog to someone who would do this, didn't they fail to find a good home in the first place? Anyone who takes the time and expense to get a dog from a shelter, go through the interview and application process should have proven enough trust to find a home for an animal should things not work out. Sometimes things just don't work out, particularly when there are already pets in a household. There's really no predicting it.

All the TV stuff aside these women are shrill and mean. I wouldn't trust anyone who would so strictly adhere to rules that they tear a beloved dog from children. It's damaging to the kids and to the dog. Aren't they supposed to be worried about the dog, at the least?

I've always had reservations about some of these private rescues as opposed the the local ASPCA or Humane Society. There is always a story about some woman who "just wanted to save animals" getting arrested because the neighbors couldn't take the smell and called the Health Department. Some of these people are just weird. They have so little in their lives, or worse a mental illness, that they exert control over these animals as a last ditch effort to salvage some sense of self worth.

Every dog my family has ever owned has come from the MSPCA or from someone who got a dog and couldn't keep it for whatever reason. They've all had very long, very happy lives, and I cannot imagine what I would have done had someone shown up at my door to take one of them because they were second hand. Someone probably would have gotten seriously hurt.

We just had to put down a dog after a wonderful 16 years and when we're ready my husband and I will be adopting another one. After seeing what these private rescues are really like, we won't even be considering a dog from one of them. We'll stick to the MSPCA and wait until there's a dog there that fits with our family. Maybe we'll just luck into one, like Mom's Bichon, she came from the dentist's office.