Friday, June 26, 2009

Only 2 Dogs Remain....For Now


Honey the cross-eyed coonhound. Cody the neglected German Shepherd. These are the only two in the shelter right now. We just spent a boatload of money transporting the rest to a local no-kill shelter that will accept dogs from us at a price of $100 per dog, $50 per puppy. Well, as great of an option as this is, it really kills any funding that we have. Fifi, the parvo survivor was one to go. Not only did we foot the bill for her expensive parvo treatment, but we also had to fork out $100 to get her to safety. Add in the cost of transportation and daily care, and now you see the plight of many rescues. No money, not enough help, no interest in the dogs.

Fifi is a great example: happy, loveable 6 month old dog who just happened to be a yellow lab mix. Labs are insanely popular and so are puppies. What is the problem? Why did no one even show an ounce of interest? What about the other less appealing dogs? What happens to them? Fortunately, we don't euthanize unless the dog is already almost dead from an injury or illness or the dog is such a physical threat (usually due to illness) that we can't bring him/her to the point of being a pet. We do not euthanize because a dog gets a minor illness. We do not euthanize because a dog gets hit by a car and needs a wound closed or a leg amputated. We do not euthanize because a dog is a pit or a pit mix or someone down the line may think that the dog resembles anything remotely pitty. We do not euthanize due to a lack of space. We are pretty generous to the dogs, at least as generous as we can be. Where are all the happy homes that should come floating around?

What about the other shelters that euthanize more frequently?

What about the shelters that have been known to take in 70 (yes, 70!) dogs per day?

Geesh, this is depressing work.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Too Many Dogs.



I get sad quite a bit when I realize that there are just too many dogs to save. I need to stop looking at the South Carolina and Georgia shelters because they seem to be the worst. I know there is plenty of help needed in my own backyard but I feel especially bad for out of state dogs. Don't know why.

I am traveling to Owenton again today and will be getting some updated photos. Here are the guys who have been there for a while, some over a month. I will see if I can get photos of the facility today so you can see what the shelter looks like.