Weekend Adventures: Volunteer & Sick Pup

I signed up to be a volunteer for Maddie's Fund to help animals in need of a forever home. This weekend there was an adoption event at the Stoneridge Mall (as well as a bunch of other places, like Petco). The nice thing about volunteering for Maddie's Fund is that the coordinator sends out activities for that week that needs volunteers, and you can decide which ones you would like to attend (if any). They are very flexible and understanding of your other commitments, which works perfectly for me.

I decided to help out on Saturday, and I was a one on one volunteer with a Chi-Terrior mix named Brandi. She was the classic lap dog. Literally, all I did was sit in a chair and had her on my lap as people came by to pet her and ask questions. Brandi is such a chill dog. She reminded me of an old dog who is so mellow all she wants to do is sleep. But Brandi was only 2 years old! She, along with another dog (Reggie, a Wire Hair Terrior) and 6 other kittens are in a foster home together, and they were all at the adoption event with a couple other cats from a different foster.

A lot of people were just there to pet the cute animals and look. Some people asked me for medical advice for their dog, and another asked me how to get involved with volunteering. It was a fun day even though only 1 cat got adopted. Hopefully soon these animals will find a forever home.

When I got home on Saturday, Luna and I went to the dog park and had our usual amount of fun. We came back to our apartment and chilled until Drew came home and we made dinner. That night, Luna had the runs so we decided to put her on the "No Food Diet" for 24 hours to try to give her digestive system a break.

Basically, all of Sunday Luna and I were couch potatoes. Not moving around very much, and just relaxing. She slept all day, with the exception of a couple spurts of energy when her dad came home from work. Hopefully her "cleanse" has worked, I guess we will see how she does today. If she doesn't get better I might have to take her to the vet.

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Photo Friday! Adopt, Don't Shop!

I seriously want this T-shirt. But since I hardly ever buy clothes for myself (especially T-shirts) I will just feature it in my "Photo Friday" post. It's a great way to show the different ways to help out with the animal community. There's not really an excuse. 

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Going off of my Spay/Neuter post, "Adopt, Don't Shop" I find very socially responsible. It can help with Pet Overpopulation and the amount of strays out there. Maybe you don't think that 1 animal you adopt will not make a HUGE difference in the world (or nation) or millions of strays out there. But do you have to make a huge worldly impact? Or can you live with just making an impact on that ONE animal? Save ONE life. Why would you shop for a dog, and pay thousands of dollars for "the perfect breed" when there are tons of dogs out there who need homes already? 

I did adopt Luna, not from a shelter, but from my cousin. My cousin's dog had puppies (by accident), and he was going to bring them to the shelter if he did not find homes for the puppies. So, we kinda just took out the middle man (the shelter). I did not expect to have this puppy, I did not shop around for this dog. My cousin posted in Facebook that he had puppies (not for sale, but just to find homes for). Drew and I had already been thinking about getting a dog, so it just seemed like it was meant to be! So we "adopted" Luna. 

When I think about situations like my own, I do think that there are "exceptions to the rules" when it comes to adopting/rescuing. If you think about it, a breeder who already has the puppies (whether they had them by accident or on purpose), the animals still need homes. If these puppies don't find homes, a lot of times they are brought to shelters, or just left to be strays. So if you do get a puppy from a breeder who's dog ALREADY had the puppies, I think that is acceptable. What I don't think is right, is when you go to a breeder and tell them that you want a puppy so the breeder breeds the dog for your specific request. That's what I consider shopping.

Another way to "shop" for a dog (this one irritates me the most) is when you only want a specific breed. You know what I think when you say that you want a specific breed? What you are telling me is that you only wear Gucci, or you only drive Lamborghinis. You are a brand specific (or breed specific) SNOB! Yes, I said it. You are a snob, deal with it.

I volunteered at an event (Maddie's Adoption Days), and a couple came up to me and asked if we had any Boxers or Beagles, because that's the ONLY type of dog that they want. REALLY PEOPLE?? Want to know their reasoning behind having a Boxer? (Well I'm gonna tell you anyways)... They wanted a Pitbull, because they love Pitbulls, but their apartment doesn't allow Pitbulls, so they thought Boxer was close enough. I'm not kidding you. That was their reasoning. Oh and the reason they also thought a Beagle would be nice to have, was because it's a good size dog. I about lost my mind. I asked them if they are open to any other breeds, because it's not very often that we get purebreds or very specific breeds like those (mostly Chihuahua and Pitbull mixes). They said no, so I told them (probably a little too harshly) "Good luck then, have a nice day!"

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A couple other people that I know that want dogs, I have tried to encourage that they at least look at a local shelter and see what kind of dogs they have there. The response I get is usually: "Rescue dogs are usually harder to train and they are more aggressive and have bad habits." Am I the only sane one around here? Has any one else heard the quote: "There's no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner"-John Grogan. Yes, I will admit, that there are some dogs that have a bad experience so they tend to behave differently when they come into new scenarios. But, there are ways to help your dog deal with these problems and TRAIN them through them! And besides, no dog is perfect, like no human is perfect.

And there you have it, the Crazy Dog Lady is at it again, ranting away!

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