What a sad title!!! Is it possible Baxter is a permanent additon? He seems to be your favorite (gosh, I hope the other dogs aren't reading this!!)
Well...
I had a soft spot in my heart for Benny from the first moment I saw him, with that two-tone nose and the mange on his forehead. He looked so silly and helpless at the same time.
But der B and I know we can't keep them. For one thing, his son-in-law makes disparaging remarks every time another dog gets added to the household, and it's easier finding new homes for the dogs than it is finding a new son-in-law. (Particularly since we like the SIL better than the daughter!
)
More importantly, we can get stretched too thin if we aren't careful. When we were fostering Zeus, it was difficult to spread our attention among six dogs. We're spread thin again now, with Peggy and Baxter added to the mix (although Fletcher "adopting" Bax and playing with Peggy helps a lot).
So we've decided the best thing to do is to love the dogs we take in, give them the best home possible while they're here and bolster their self-confidence, and then find good homes for them, feeling good about having been that intermediary step.
And, in the case of Peggy and her pups, these were dogs that the SPCA was going to
slaughter put down destroy slaughter if they weren't picked up that day. We had a very short time-window pick them up; Diane, our Animal Rescue contact, was in panic mode until she got ahold of us.
If we have a problem with the Animal Rescue groups, it is that they're very good at getting the animals (cats, too), but not adept at finding new homes. Part of this is due to a paranoia about what kinds of homes the animals get place in; the tales of people getting animals simply to torture them, use them as bait for dog fights and other abuses are, unfortunately, true. But this can be countered by getting out there and meeting with the adopting families, like der B and I were able to do for Benny and his new family. Generally we can tell from a short visit whether a home is appropriate or not, by how the people treat each other and react to strangers (not that we're all that strange...well...
But this brings up the second level of the problem, in that der B and I are willing to invest the time to help. Even the people who have been doing this for some time have other things to take care of in their lives. (I'm certain DR Laura will agree on this point.) We're lucky, that we have the time to invest as well as the willingness.
So, Peggy and Baxter will be with us for a while yet, but no, we won't keep them if we can find them homes. And there are so many other dogs who need help.
Now, if we could only hook up with someone who has this great formula for winning at the casino, like in
Lucky Stiff!
