I guess death row is better...

...than living at the Wilhoit Ranch.  That is basically what I got out of our experience of trying to do the right thing and adopt a dog from a pound or rescue center instead of going out and buying an over-bred pup for a ridiculous amount of money only to have him die before his time.  After, I don't know, maybe Archie or Duke's demise, that was our thought process.  We'd had two Labs die on bike rides in the past three years.  Maybe they're over bred and we should save a pup or dog that needs rescued.  Sounds like the noble thing to do, doesn't?

So I began the search.  I spent quite a few days online finding shelters and pounds and scrolling through picture after picture of dog in need of a home.  I don't remember exact details or conversations, but here is a synopsis of how this went down.  I would find one that I thought may be a good match for us and place the call.  We would do sort of an on-phone interview.  They would question me about our history with animals, etc.  It never ended in our favor.

I called a local humane society and found they had a dog that sounded perfect.  She started asking me the usual questions, I gave the usual answers.  "Do you have a fenced-in yard?"  "No, ma'am, we have seven acres down a long lane, we don't need one."  "Will the dog be in the house?"  "No, not necessarily." "Well, where will he sleep?  Don't you have coyotes?"  (WHAT?) "The dog can sleep in our garage."  "So you'll contain him in the garage?"  "No, we have a dog-door so that he can come and go as he pleases."  Silence.   Not good enough.  What I wanted to say is that we normally string them up from a tree at night and dangle them as bait for those blood-thirsty coyotes.  HONESTLY.

One particular lady at a shelter I spoke with was quite concerned with the fact that we had a nine-year-old cat that wasn't current on its vaccinations.  She asked me if we vaccinated our cat.  I said, no, not since he was a kitten and got fixed.  "Well, how do you know he's not sick with something that can spread to a puppy?"  (Here we go again)  "I guess I don't, but these dogs are in jeopardy, right?  They're going to die if you don't find them a home?"  "Yes, but we must insure they are going to a safe and proper home."  All righty then.   Again, what I wanted to say was this cat has outlived any animal we have ever had and I'm beginning to think it's because we don't get all the required vaccines and medicines for him!  He is a living legend at our house.  I'm not about to screw that up now (btw, he's going on 13.5 yrs).  Again, a big fat NO on saving that dog from the needle.

I remember there was one older dog down in southern Indiana at a Humane Society.  I was really taken with her picture and that she was listed as "urgent" so I figured this was a sure thing.  I was thoroughly prepared to drive the two hours south to get her the very next day.  I talked to the lady and she quizzed me on our past animals.  I figured all was well.  She asked who are vet was and took down some more information and said she would call me back.  Cool.

She calls me back all right...and says to me in an accusatory tone, "You failed to mention your beagle, Archie.  What happened to THAT one?"  Seriously, she had called our vet.  I told her we only had Archie a short time and loved the little guy a bunch, but Jay ran over him one day.  It was purely an accident, of course.  And you guessed it, what I really wanted to say to her is that, yeah, we hated the little stinker so we smashed him in front of our kids...we had spent a few hundred dollars on him just prior to that because for some reason his feet curled in when he was a puppy and we had to get that straightened out.  We decided we didn't like him anymore.  GOOD GRIEF.  And in all honesty, I forgot about Archie.  I told her about all the others.  Apparently that was a fatal error.  

So what I gathered from this experience was that although these animals were marked urgent and in immediate need of a home, euthanasia was a better option than living at the Wilhoit Ranch.  Did I mention that in a lot of these instances, there was a pretty substantial fee to adopt a pet, some over $400.  Could it be that maybe one (of many, I'm sure) reason pounds and shelters are crammed full is that 1) people can't afford the $400+ adoption fee and 2) someone's set the standard on a safe environment for a pet a tad high.  I guess they feel like death row is better...