I wholeheartedly support giving homes to shelter dogs. I would rescue them all if I could. Reilly, my 8 year old border collie mix, was only 6 weeks old when we got her. We'd gone down the local shelter and I had convinced Kim (finally) to get an older dog because i was sure she didn't have the patience for a puppy. We had decided on a wonderful guy, a lab/shepherd mix who was 2 years old, house broken, friendly and took direction on a lead. We were literally walking out of the kennel area to go sign the paperwork when this family brought in this little, pitiful looking thing that looked like Mighty Mouse. Kim fell in love. Apparently these people were bringing her back because she was behaving like a typical puppy and they didn't like it. I was sad that we couldn't get the lab/shepherd mix but we got Reilly.
Monty, my lab/golden retriever mix, was not a shelter dog but was the accidental product of a breeder of labs and golden retrievers who wasn't paying attention one day. They were going to give the puppies to a shelter when my friend found out about them. She knew I'd grown up with labs and that my mom used to breed them so she asked me if I wanted one of the pups so they didn't have to go to a kennel. Of course I said yes. So now, Monty is 7 and HUGE (at least by lab standards) but he's the sweetest guy.
We did have another dog, she originally belonged to a friend of mine who would leave her with me so she could get socialized with my dogs during the day while she worked. She was 3 months old when I had to go rescue her from the pound after I blew up at my friend for leaving her chained up outside for 2 days with nothing but a bucket full of rainwater to drink and no food. My friend took the dog to the pound rather than let us foster her and find her a good home. Harley was a rot/chow mix. Friendly dog but I didn't have the experience or quite frankly the space for all three dogs and Harley developed a serious dominance problem. She and Reilly would constantly fight, Kim and I both got bit, and she nearly killed Reilly one night, we had to give her up. We were never supposed to keep her that long. I contacted a local group that had volunteers who fostered dogs until good homes could be found and they never answered my calls for 3 years. I couldn't just give her to the pound so we kept her. We saved her from parvo and loved her just as we did the other two but she became too dominant. My mom trains and breeds dogs so she knew a woman who took in dogs with behavioral issues and we ended up giving Harley to her. One of the saddest days of my life. I cried for days over that. I have no idea what happened to Harley, but I know that my mom's friend would not give up on her without a fight.
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