Yesterday at the shelter I met the cutest little Beagle mix named Scooter. It became very clear how Scooter got his name when I took him outside and started taking his video. Check out his funny little habit!
There's a great dog photographer in the Seattle area named Erin Vey who is currently running a contest. She is accepting submissions of intriguing dog stories that demonstrate the wonderful bond between canines and their humans, the best of which will win a free photo session anywhere in the United States.
Erin has posted a few of the amazing entries she has received, and the story about Buddy, an incredible dog living in Africa, is one that is definitely worth sharing. It is heartbreaking and wonderful at the same time.
The love and devotion of a dog is an amazing thing.
Normally I only volunteer at our shelter on the weekends, but lately my free time on the weekends has been a little lacking. So on Tuesday I took some "wellness" hours off from work (four extra hours per month we can use for volunteering in the community) and went over to get caught up on some pictures. I just had to share my favorite picture of the day.
How cute and photogenic is Peaches? This sweet girl was so shy and a little scared inside her kennel, but she got outside and was a totally different dog!
While Peaches definitely took the best picture of the day, I have to say my favorite dog of the day was little Samson, since I'm extremely partial to Beagles. He is only about 8 months old and just couldn't have been much cuter, happier or friendlier--everything a Beagle should be!
I also had a soft spot yesterday for little Leo the Shih Tzu (or maybe he's a Lhasa Apso--I can never tell the difference) who was transferred from a shelter in nearby Desoto. This poor little guy looks like he's had such a rough life. He had to be shaved because of matted hair, and his underlying skin is scabbed and dry and itchy. This poor guy was clearly uncomfortable, but he just couldn't be sweeter! His video made me laugh so hard I just had to share it as well.
At the shelter where I volunteer and at most shelters around the country, the vast majority of adoptable dogs are medium to large in size. I don't really know what the ratio of large dogs to small dogs coming in to the shelter is--I just know that in general, the small dogs get adopted much more quickly. Here are just a few of the reasons that small dogs seem more desirable to many people:
1. They take up less space, which is especially important to people living in apartments or who have pet size restrictions in their rented home.
2. They eat less, which makes them cheaper and easier to clean up after.
3. They are easier to bring along when traveling, or to dump off on a friend or relative when traveling.
4. They can be carried easily and can sit in laps easily.
5. They are generally easier to walk on a leash, and therefore a yard or a fence is not always necessary.
6. They may have still have behavioral problems, but because their size is smaller those problems seem smaller too.
With that said, this summer there was a bizarre phenomenon at our local humane society. There were tons of small dogs, many of them purebred, who were available for adoption for at least a month at a time. Most of them were from the state seizure that happened back in early August. This is so unusual, and a fellow volunteer and I were talking about the situation and pondering the reasons why it was taking unusually long for these tiny dogs to get adopted. The only theory we came up with was that maybe the people who initially came in and applied for these dogs on an impulse (after seeing the article about them in the paper) changed their minds after thinking about it more carefully. Usually when a dog has one approved application, other people are reluctant to put in their application because they think the dog has already been adopted, even though the adoption obviously hasn't been finalized. The staff usually gives the first potential adopter on the list several days to return any phone calls, which can delay the process even further if that first person changes their mind about the adoptable dog.
Thankfully, a few more of those cute tiny dogs went home this week, but there are a handful still looking for homes. One of my favorites is Kassie, a cute little Schnauzer/Westie mix who is very shy and very sweet!
A friend shared a video with me the other day about an amazing animal sanctuary in California called The Cat House on the Kings. While I normally stick to posts about saving dogs, this one still falls into that category since The Cat House has rescued 4,000 dogs in the last 16 years along with 16,000 cats! Most amazingly, this facility has NO cages and is the labor of love of just one amazing woman. You have to check this short video about this amazing place, despite the fact that the video doesn't actually fit on the site very well!
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