If you’re considering finding a pet for your family in the near future, you may be thinking that stopping by the local pet shop will be the best place to find what you are looking for. I mean, how can you pass up those cute puppies in the window?
Now I’m not saying that the motivating factor when finding a pet should be saving money, but as my blog is primarily money-oriented, I wanted to start by highlighting this point.
You can save over a thousand dollars by looking to your local shelter, humane society, or pound when looking for a dog or cat.
But aren’t those dogs or cats the ones that are mangy, mean, rabid, and dirty?
Think again. In my opinion, this is the first place you should look when searching for a pet. Forget what the pet shops, kennel clubs, or breed clubs say – mutts can be the best dogs you can find! And if you have to have a purebred dog, then you should be able to find one as well. There are certain rescue organizations that cater to just one breed, so you can look there if that’s what suits you!
For example, there is a large organization called Desert Labrador Retriever Rescue in my area where I was able to find a great Lab (his name is Buddy). Not to say that I only like purebreds; rather, I saw they needed to find good homes for their rescue dogs, and I was looking for a companion for my German Shepherd mutt (her name is Reeses) that I got from the county pound. So being that Reeses is a large dog, and Labs are too, I thought it would be a good place to look!
So let me start by telling you a little bit about my dogs.
In 2005, my fiancé and I bought a house, and now had room for dogs, so we went to the County Pound, which is a “kill” shelter (one that euthanizes dogs after a period of time if they can’t find a home for them) to look for one. Now it can be depressing to start, because they are usually quite overwhelmed by the number of dogs that are picked up as strays or are turned into them. There’s lots of sad faces staring at you through the fences of the individual kennels. But that’s just another reason why going to a pound or shelter is a good place to start – these dogs need loving homes!
So as we were walking along, there was this gorgeous dog staring at us lovingly, and there just seemed to be something about her. We asked to see her outside of her kennel. Of course she was quite overwhelmed with energy and excitement upon being out of her spot, but once she calmed down a bit, we really got to get an idea just what kind of dog she was. She seemed so smart, strong, and seemed to have such great potential of being a loving pet.
Over three years later, she lived up to our expectations! She is the best dog we could imagine having! She was about 1-year-old at the time we got her, and she was picked up as a stray by the county. As most dogs here are “micro chipped,” they contacted the owners on record, and they refused to pick her up, so she was taken in by the Maricopa County Animal Control Center.
So she must have been initially housebroken by her original owners and initially trained on some basic things, but I can say she has learned many things from us, and has always been such a well-behaved and respectful dog.
She has so much personality and compassion, and it’s amazing the things she learns on her own! Literally, Reeses is the smartest dog I think I have ever encountered!
So after a while of having her, we thought it would be best to find a counterpart for her, so we knew someone who temporarily hosted Labs from the Desert Labrador Retriever Rescue. We checked out some of the dogs they had in their care, and we found one named Buddy, who seemed to be a good fit for Reeses.
Now, of course, bringing a new dog into the house raises territorial issues for the dog who claims the residence first, but once they got past that, we could see that they would be good together, so we decided to adopt Buddy.
He unfortunately came from a more bleak background.
Buddy was turned in to the shelter by next-door neighbors of a house that had incessant barking and whining coming from it. When the people who turned him in had heard this coming from there for too long, they went by the house to check on the dog’s well-being. They then discovered him emaciated, injured, and malnourished. It appeared that the owners beat him and abandoned him when they moved out of the house, without leaving him any food or water.
The rescue organization provided a home for him until they could find someone to permanently adopt him.
And so we did, and three years later, he has turned into the sweetest dog and perfect companion for Reeses.
He’s also very well-behaved and respectful, and is just a peaceful, loving, easygoing dog. But the greatest thing of all is how well he and Reeses get along. They play so well together all the time!
They really make harmonious house pets too. They are fully housebroken, they never tear anything up while we’re gone (or for any matter), they don’t beg from the table, they are very protective of the house, they don’t bark excessively, and they are very obedient!
So two dogs that ended up in unfortunate circumstances turned into being the greatest pets! I hate to think of what their fate could have been if they didn’t find someone to pick them up and take them in.
To me, a dog is a dog, and unless you’re going to raise or breed them for show, then a having a requirement for a purebred just doesn’t make much sense, so why spend over $1,000 for one?
Check back soon for my next post about just how much money you can save by adopting a dog instead of buying one from a pet shop, and the other good reasons it just makes sense!
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