National Puppy Adoption Awareness Day
National Puppy Day was yesterday. I was busy being sick and not posting, but I did not want to let the event go by completely unmentioned here.
I think the idea is to encourage people to adopt puppies from shelters instead of getting them from a breeder. And I get that. Shelters are overcrowded. But you know what they are not overcrowded with? Puppies. (I also happen to believe that the best way to cut down on dogs in shelters is for families to get the right dog for them, and sometimes that means going to a breeder.)
When we first met Junebug in the shelter, she had been placed in her kennel less than an hour earlier. When we wanted to meet her, they did not have a room they were willing to put a puppy (who did not have all of her shots yet) in, so they placed us in a clean kennel. During the 30 minutes or so we sat with her in there, at least 3 other groups stopped and asked if we were going to adopt her. Literally, roughly every 10 minutes, there was someone else interested in this one puppy. I repeat, shelters are not full of puppies.
But, it was Puppy Day, and I thought I would share with you some of the things I think you might want to be aware of when adopting a puppy.
1) They do not come potty trained
2) They chew everything but their food
3) They have 2 settings – full speed and sleeping
4) Their teeth are SHARP
5) Destruction is the name of the game
Here’s the thing, we got Moree at 9 months old. He destroyed stuffed animals, socks, underwear, and even decorative soaps.
The shelter had Smokey listed as being 5 years old when we first met him and filled out the adoption paperwork. By the time they let us come get him, they had revised his age down to 9 months. Luckily, he was a pretty easy dog and only destroyed a couple of wooden spoons and a hard back book.
Then, 6+ years passed. Junebug was only 6 months old when we got her. She quickly earned the title of The Destroyer of All Bedding (and pens – to this day, she still loves to destroy pens and pencils).
Funny enough, 18 months later when we got Larry, we got a 3 year old dog. This was definitely on purpose.
