i just stopped by the store in a "bad" neighborhood. you know, prostitutes,
drug dealers, "by the hour" motels, that kind of thing. i saw a guy outside
the store holding a young, white pit bull with a belt around her neck as a
collar/leash. the poor girl was terrified, shivering there with her tail
tucked. i stopped to say hi and comment on how she looked exactly like
Lola. the guy offered to sell her to me for $60.
incredibly enough, i didn't buy her. didn't even consider it, in fact. i'm
sure she's not spayed, and will wind up breeding for cash or fighting on the
street corner. this tugged at my heard like you wouldn't believe.
but i never even entertained the thought. i did think briefly of buying her
and turning her over to rescue, but i know they're overflowing, and i know i
can't foster her, so i let that thought go as well.

wow, i guess i am capable of using my brane!

-kelly

"culprit" wrote in message
...

i just stopped by the store in a "bad" neighborhood. you know,
prostitutes, drug dealers, "by the hour" motels, that kind of thing. i
saw a guy outside the store holding a young, white pit bull with a belt
around her neck as a collar/leash. the poor girl was terrified, shivering
there with her tail tucked. i stopped to say hi and comment on how she
looked exactly like Lola. the guy offered to sell her to me for $60.
incredibly enough, i didn't buy her. didn't even consider it, in fact.
i'm sure she's not spayed, and will wind up breeding for cash or fighting
on the street corner. this tugged at my heard like you wouldn't believe.
but i never even entertained the thought. i did think briefly of buying
her and turning her over to rescue, but i know they're overflowing, and i
know i can't foster her, so i let that thought go as well.

i just realized that i saw the dog within the SeaTac city limits. pit bulls
are illegal in SeaTac. hopefully, she'll get picked up by animal control
and sent to a shelter where she at least has a chance of a good life.

-kelly

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 10:13:12 -0500, sighthounds & siberians
wrote:

I can tell you from experience that being plugged into such
resource often makes no difference. Certain breed rescues are always
overloaded and never have room. It's why I have more Greyhounds and
Siberians than I would prefer to. And because I couldn't say no to a
particular Siberian, I have to separate him from one of my dogs and he
doesn't get the run of the house because he'll eat my cats. Would he
prefer this life in my house to being dead? Probably, because it's
what he knows. Would I get into this situation again? Nope. There's
a very good chance that had you taken that sweet puppy, you would have
been stuck with her.

Yep. I've worked closely with one of the local rescue groups, and
they ignore all my e-mails and phone calls about taking Blackie. They
don't have the resources to foster him and a full roster of dogs
already to take to PetsMart on the weekends.

I have to admit that I am starting to consider offering to foster him
and escort him to Adoption Days. I know they'd take him into the
system if I did that, and he'd get a good chance at finding a better
home. My dogs' reaction to him when he was outside the window made
the difference between "wouldn't even think about it" and "hmm, maybe
it could work." They like and accept him, even Miss Snarky-Pants
MacKenzie. All he wants to do is play with them, and he's very
submissive. Of course, he'd be crated when I wasn't supervising.

I'm going to puppy-sit for another young male in a couple of weeks, so
I can't do anything until after that. Gives me a while to think about
it. I have no intention of keeping a 4th dog, especially an untrained
adolescent bully boy. So part of what's stopping me is the fear that
his being a pit bull will put off adoptive families, and I may get
stuck with him. IMHO he's a perfect family dog, but breed prejudice
may work against him. Even though he's a mix, he looks like a black
rednose. Very pitty.

(Hey, Kelly, forget Wiley - I've got one for ya. :}

--
Leah Roberts, Family Dog Trainer
It's A Dog's World
http://hometown.aol.com/dfrntdrums/m...age/index.html
Get Healthy, Build Your Immune System, Lose Weight
http://re-vita.net/dfrntdrums

On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 19:51:37 -0800, "culprit"
wrote:

wow, i guess i am capable of using my brane!

Obviously. That still doesn't make your assessment of the Wiley
situation complete. Reading your responses to Sarah made me realize
that there are still an awful lot of unknowns, and puppy license runs
out and things can really change.

The best of luck with your choices. I personally don't want to have
dogs I have to separate, but what the heck.


--
Janet B
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 07:46:50 -0500, Janet B
wrote:

I personally don't want to have
dogs I have to separate, but what the heck.

that's definitely an individual sort of thing. people who love bully
breeds and who want to live with multiple dogs have to be willing to
face the reality that they may have to keep their dogs separately.
it's not the end of the world, though i can see why most people would
find it unacceptable.

--
shelly
http://home.bluemarble.net/~scouvrette || http://cat-sidh.blogspot.com

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with
potatoes.
-- Douglas Adams

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 08:18:46 -0500, shelly
wrote:



that's definitely an individual sort of thing. people who love bully
breeds and who want to live with multiple dogs have to be willing to
face the reality that they may have to keep their dogs separately.
it's not the end of the world, though i can see why most people would
find it unacceptable.

Yeah - I like pitbulls a lot. But between bad skin reactions to them
(some Boxers, GSP's and AmBulls and such as well!) and the separation
thing, they just don't suit my life. I have mutiple dogs for my own
enjoyment of course, but a lot of it is so they can be companions for
each other, especially when I am not home. And companions with the
cats as well I might add, which is why my head won over my heart when
it came to helping place a favorite little JRT.

She went to a home with cats, but 2 other dogs as well, and the dogs
all get crated when left home w/out owner (she and another dog are
JUST 1 now). I don't want to do that for a dog's whole life, but
would feel it necessary with a JRT and cats. So...... I passed on
getting sucked in by her and thinking of adopting her, and made a
better decision for all of us.

--
Janet B
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

"culprit" wrote in news:36tfm9F3erqu9U1
@individual.net:

i stopped to say hi and comment on how she looked exactly like
Lola. the guy offered to sell her to me for $60.


I just don't understand people. The guy I adopted Queenie from had raised
her from a pup, but was on the verge of taking her to the pound because she
kept escaping from her tie-out in the yard. He offered her to me without
batting an eye.

--Catherine
& Zoe & Queenie

"culprit" wrote in news:36tfm9F3erqu9U1
@individual.net:

wow, i guess i am capable of using my brane!

I guess there's something I haven't read. However, I'll respond as if your
post should be taken at face value.

I myself recently went through something similar. A baby pit bull puppy
tied up at Penn Station in Baltimore, in a place where all the commuters
had to walk within inches of her.

Obviously abandoned. Dirty, but not starved. Clearly not used to living
outside. Wearing a cute boutique-type collar. This was not someone's yard
dawg.

I had no time to whisk her home (and no quick means of separating her from
Orson if I did have time). I considered putting her in my car in the
station's parking deck for the several hours I'd have to be gone. I
realized I'd probably come back to an empty car or an empty parking space.
I could've taken her in the hopes of rehoming her, but I'm not plugged into
people who could help me. And what if no one wanted her? Then I'd have to
either adopt her permanently or eventually dump her in a shelter.

Taking her home to live with Orson was not an option. Not a smart one,
anyway. Adopting a dog into our family based on pity or compassion or
optimism or a snap decision--rather than whether it's good for my dog, my
cat, DH, and me--just turned out to be a terrible idea.

Adopting an animal on a whim and committing to it for the next 10-15 years
is never an option for me personally, even if I know the animal's going to
get a needle in the leg if it doesn't come home with me.

Back to the baby pit bull at the train station. AC picked her up. Her owner
had 7 days to claim her, and then she'd be put down. Since she was
obviously abandoned, I knew as soon as the AC guy told me the law that
darling girl puppy was going to die.

I cried all the way to my meeting. And I cried on the day I knew she was
dead. But the stasis in my house is just as it should be.

I'm glad you didn't take home that sweet girl out of pity. I wonder if it
would've been doing her a real favor.

Cate

On 9 Feb 2005 14:45:58 GMT, Cate
wrote:

"culprit" wrote in news:36tfm9F3erqu9U1
:

wow, i guess i am capable of using my brane!

I guess there's something I haven't read. However, I'll respond as if your
post should be taken at face value.

I myself recently went through something similar. A baby pit bull puppy
tied up at Penn Station in Baltimore, in a place where all the commuters
had to walk within inches of her.

snip heartbreaking story

That sucks. You did the right thing for you and your dog/human
family, as you know. As for the puppy, it wasn't your
irresponsibility that landed it there, and it wasn't your
responsibility to save it.

You mentioned not being plugged into people that could help you place
her. I can tell you from experience that being plugged into such
resource often makes no difference. Certain breed rescues are always
overloaded and never have room. It's why I have more Greyhounds and
Siberians than I would prefer to. And because I couldn't say no to a
particular Siberian, I have to separate him from one of my dogs and he
doesn't get the run of the house because he'll eat my cats. Would he
prefer this life in my house to being dead? Probably, because it's
what he knows. Would I get into this situation again? Nope. There's
a very good chance that had you taken that sweet puppy, you would have
been stuck with her.

Kelly, you don't generally like anything I say no matter how I say it,
but I don't think you're incapable of using your brane, and I don't
believe anyone was saying that you are. Having a huge heart where it
comes to animals is not a bad thing. Listening to one's brane over
one's heart sometimes takes a lot of practice. Lots of rescuers never
learn to do it, and those who don't are never really successful,
because there really isn't always room for one more.

Mustang Sally

sighthounds & siberians wrote in
:

As for the puppy, it wasn't your
irresponsibility that landed it there, and it wasn't your
responsibility to save it.

I know, but I usually operate on the principle of 'if not me, then who?'
It's just that when it comes to animals needing homes, if I took home every
one that had a sad story, I'd wind up on the news as one of those crazy
animal hoarders. If I can't say no now, when will I learn how? After I have
5 dogs? 10? 140?

You mentioned not being plugged into people that could help you place
her. I can tell you from experience that being plugged into such
resource often makes no difference. Certain breed rescues are always
overloaded and never have room.

I know. And even though I'm newish in town, I know that pit bulls have a
tough time here. Getting adopted, having good lives once they are adopted,
etc. Had I taken her home to foster, I would've been reduced to begging
Janet and Sarah for help.

There's
a very good chance that had you taken that sweet puppy, you would have
been stuck with her.

Which is exactly why I couldn't in good conscience take her. I might wind
up like my vet friend with the dog who attacks the other dog: Making snap
decisions based on pity, getting attached, and then being unwilling to
rehome even if it would make everyone's life easier.

Cate