Just a heads-up for those who haven't rescued lately.
It's become a huge pain in the ass.
It used to be that you could get a dog for free or the cost of shots, maybe a little more for the owners inconvenience. Farm gate dogs, want ad mutts, dog catcher specials, and the like. We did that several times without issues. But according to those in the know, due to the success of spay and neutering programs and policies, and more folks with multiple dogs, there are fewer free dogs per demand and more with a hefty price. Never mind the cost of pure bred animals from reputable breeders (we're not interested in those anyway), we were finding mutts and crossbred dogs with huge price tags, even 10 times what they were 5 years ago. When we inquired about a couple of dogs that looked like they needed a good home we were faced with no dickering. Okay, whatever.
Agencies wanted way too much detail on their applications, one was 13 pages long, another 10, another 7, plus references (we have great ones), plus a cooling off period (for fuck's sake, I qualify for a senior's discount at the pet food store, and have owned 6 dogs in the last 30 years, and I don't know how many cats), plus a home/yard inspection (what, the pictures aren't enough?), plus mandatory puppy or obedience classes.
We were interested in a young dog with vision and hearing impairment and more than willing to take on the costs but for fuck's sake that dog didn't need classes, it needed glasses. Priced those classes lately? I'm in the wrong business.
Oh, I understand perfectly that they're all just trying to protect animals and trying to cut costs because there's very little funding, but they'd scare off fewer adoptees and save money by cutting the crap.
Where did we find Billie? London Animal Care Centre. Zero bullshit, reasonable costs, perfectly lovely staff, clean facilities, short application (one and a half pages) and the dogs looked like they were getting great care. They did want us to bring our other dog when we went to pick up Billie, to see if they accepted each other, and we did because we knew Otis would handle it well. Their dog handler (I forget her actual title) was really professional.
Anyway, please forgive the rant. It's just that if our very reputable vet/hospital says we're the perfect adoption home (because they know EVERYTHING about us) an agency should consider that enough.
