Thoughts on Rescue:

This weekend I volunteered at the Shelter longer than usual (most of Sunday), answering phones and helping potential adopters and new volunteers- which is a lot of fun, but also sometimes disappointing.

Here are the three types of people that made me sad about Animal Rescue:

1) People who want to get rid of their Pit Bulls:

When people call the shelter to relinquish a dog- if it is a pit bull they are advised to fill out a form on the website, if it is not a pit bull, the request goes right to the intake manager. We already have a lot of pit bulls and pit bull mixes, but to keep people coming to the shelter and adopting dogs, it can't be full of pit bulls, which I understand- it is just so sad that people mostly want to relinquish pit bulls.

2) People who don't care about the pets they have:

While answering the phone, I encountered a man who wanted to give up his cat- I advised him to fill out the form on our website for relinquishment and he responded with "no, I want to get RID of a cat, like I don't want this cat no more." How do people like this get animals in the first place!?  Just talking to him, I wished we could have taken the cat right away so that it didn't end up being abused or dropped off somewhere. :(

3) People who don't care which dog they adopt:

A family with three little boys came in looking for a dog- I asked for some details about what age/breed/type of dog they were interested in. They really were open to anything, but wanted to see the 8 week old puppy in the window right away. I showed Floret to them and the boys were very exited, but they were easily distracted by all types of dogs that came in and out. Almost as soon as I explained that puppies get adopted very quickly, the father filled out the adoption application and sent the picture of Floret to his wife, who promptly called and told him a pit mix was not an option because they are "ferocious" and "outlawed in a number of states." (Does this puppy look like she will ever be ferocious to you?) 

Floret:

I told them that I love pit bulls, but that we always have puppies at the shelter and they could either wait to see Iris who was coming back from the adoption van, or wait a a few days until the right puppy came through.

Iris:

Guess what- he told me to scratch out Floret's name on the adoption app and put in Iris'. They weren't even going to wait an hour or come back to meet Iris before adopting her. Wow. Luckily, both Floret and Iris have 4 or 5 applications so they can go to the very best homes. :)

A few positive thoughts:
While volunteering, I did see a pit bull and a geriatric Spaniel admitted- it is amazing how much traffic Animal Haven gets on weekends and how many animals they can help-what a great model for a Shelter!