Meet Harley

I volunteer with my local breed rescue group. As such, I often foster dogs while they wait for the right home to come along. Harley is my latest foster dog. I sprung him from my county's shelter last Friday morning. He was a little overwhelmed at first, but has warmed up and settled in nicely.

I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone out there who might be thinking about getting a dog to consider adopting a dog from a rescue organization or your local shelter. There are rescue org's for every breed, so even if you have a specific breed in mind, you can still go through rescue. In fact, nearly 30% of the 8,000,000 (yes, that's 8 million) dogs that are euthanized at shelters across the US every year are purebreds. Do the math; it's pretty staggering.

Whether it's a purebred or a mix, one of the great things about adopting an already-grown dog is the old "What you see is what you get". Limited to dogs under xx lbs by your homeowners or condo association? Not a problem! Need one that's good with kids? You can know that instead of having to hope it'll work out that way....The other great thing about an adult? They are often already housetrained, past the "chew up everything in sight" stage, and have calmed down a little bit. If they aren't, it's a LOT easier to housetrain an adult: not only do they have the physical ability to control their muscles, they've got the attention span and the intelligence to "get it" when you try to teach them. It's a win-win all around.

Harley's a great example. He's housetrained, knows basic obedience commands, is good with kids, walks nicely on a leash and rides great in a car. He's non-destructive when left unattended in the house, gets along with my dogs, and is safe around cats. He's up to date on his shots, neutered, heartworm negative. In other words, an all around great dog just looking for a new home. Plug & play.

And one last thing -- a plea from me. If you have a pet, please get him/her spayed or neutered. Or at a minimum, don't breed him/her. If you did the math above, you can see that there are already more dogs than available homes. It's likely to become even worse as more pets are getting dumped in shelters as the economy gets worse & people lose their homes or just struggle to make ends meet. We don't need another litter of pups out there making the numbers even more unbalanced.

Thanks. From me, Harley, and all the others out there still looking for a forever home.