I posted this earlier on another forum, but I wanted to share it here, too. It's long and complicated, and if you read it, you're an amazing individual!
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I forget that not everybody has ready my intro thread. This will be long, so please bear with me... I'm going to give the long version.
About a year ago, we moved to Indiana from out of state. At the time we were having a *lot* of financial difficulty, and some "friends" offered to "help us out." Of course, when we got here, we found out that they were completely indigent, and were unable to afford their own monthly rent. Both of us had jobs within three days of our arrival, with paychecks arriving within two weeks. Money was borrowed to prevent eviction, and things got "on track" with two families paying the total rent for the month.
These are not personally or fiscally responsible people -- keep that in mind when reading. The woman in the relationship has the mentality of a six year old, and often acts out on that mentality. While unable to afford their *half* of the rent, both of these individuals would go to "Toys R Us" and purchase "Yu Gi Oh" cards for themselves and other such things. They could "afford" cable TV, but not their rent, etc, etc.
The woman wanted to get a puppy. DH and I were often going to the pet store to get feeders for our reptiles, and a couple of times these people went with us. At one point, the woman saw a Yorkie puppy at the pet store, and decided she wanted one. Keep in mind that this store was selling the puppy for $1,200 (probably from a BYB, never the less!). They applied for financing for the puppy, in spite of the fact that the husband is not a "dog person" and thankfully their financing fell through.
A few months later, we were at a different pet store (one I preferred just to enjoy the large reptiles they had for sale there) and the wife went with us. Of course they had puppies -- mostly mixed breed, but occasionally they also sold "Pit Bulls" (mixed breed that looked like pits, I believe). On this occasion, she saw the "cute puppies" and decided to hold one of them. Then she decided to buy one of them. They would cut her a deal and give her the puppy and "all" of the supplies he needed for the total of $80 *if* she took the dog home that day.
DH and I tried to talk her out of it, but that didn't work. In retrospect, we probably should have told her that there was no way the puppy was going home in our car, that she'd need to call somebody else and wasn't allowed to use our cell phone in order to do so. But we didn't want to deal with the probable ensuing temper tantrum if we had done so, so home came "Scrappy" (as he was called at the time).
The husband was none too pleased, but because there wouldn't be a refund if they took the puppy back to the store, he agreed to allow her to keep the dog. An old crate that had once been used for the cats was found, and "Scrappy" got about an hour of play time before being shoved in the cage. At the time, DH and I had agreed to have nothing to do with the entire thing, as irresponsible as they had been.
Not long after, they went to bed. Without taking the dog out before going to bed, or setting the alarm for an hour later to take the puppy out (he was only FOUR weeks old at the time!). I'm a night owl, and throughout that night, I took "Scrappy" out when he needed to go out, cleaned up any accidents that occurred in the mean time, and kept him out of the tiny "crate" he'd been put in, so that he could be active, social, and do what puppies do (play, for the most part).
In the morning, the wife no longer wanted the dog. He had diarrhea and constantly trembled, a clear sign of a problem, and of *course* they couldn't afford to take him to the vet. A free vet visit was supposed to be included in the purchase price, but that never happened -- the vet wouldn't honor it and despised the pet store from which the puppy was purchased! The pet store was called -- they wouldn't take the puppy back, with or without a refund! Oh for heaven's sake! We called the SPCA and Humane Society. Among four people, we had *one* car, and my husband had it for the day at work. We couldn't get to the shelter because it's over two hours from the apartment in which we were living at the time!
So I figured that we had no choice but to keep the dog (DH and myself taking responsibility for him). I called the vet, described symptoms, and told her that we couldn't afford a vet bill at the moment unless we were able to finance it. They wouldn't finance, but did tell us that the problem seemed to be food-related. We switched his food and within two days, all symptoms disappeared. We also wormed him (of course).
The wife had decided that the dog made an ideal "Christmas Gift" for my DH, who did *not* want a dog at the time. He's a dog person, but he didn't want a dog right then.
I'm sure you can already see a problem emerging, but DH *also* didn't want the puppy to be put down or taken back to a pet store and shoved in a small cage with his eight brothers and sisters. Yuck!
The dog stayed with us and our room mates in that small apartment for about two months, until the apartment complex came to us to point out that the lease holders (our room mates) hadn't paid a dog deposit for the dog. They didn't know that there was a separate deposit for dogs and cats. We had to have the dog out within 24 hours or be evicted.
Dozer (as he is now called) went to stay with a friend for a couple of weeks while we searched for more suitable living environments for us and the dog. We found a place that had a quarter-acre, fenced in back yard. Nobody told *me* that the dog wasn't allowed in the house, but that's beside the point. Dozer wound up in the back yard, unfortunately chained because he could jump over the fence once he got a little bit larger.
We were there for six months, and moved not long ago into a much larger house where Dozer could come inside and nobody complains about either him or the cats. Great! Except that he's a *very* high energy dog who needs to be able to run and go for long walks. He doesn't have any recall right now, so the dog park isn't an option. I can't walk him because I'm so late in the pregnancy, and DH thinks that twenty minutes of walking is sufficient for a high energy dog.
Truth be told, he needs room to run, and we don't have that here (though if he learns recall, then we won't have a problem taking him to the dog park, and neither would our next-door neighbor mind taking him for us. However, he is extremely unsuited to our "calm" lifestyle, especially with a baby on the way. He's great with kids (thank God!) but other than that, we simply do not "agree" with this dog's personality at *all*.
If it had been up to us, we would have done months, if not a year's, worth of research, found a good, responsible breeder, and purchased a dog from a breeder, with temperament of the dam and sire in mind when we did so. It's not that we don't like mutts... But we *do* like some degree of predictability, and having a dog like Dozer just dropped into our laps proves to us *why* we like that predictability.
---
I forget that not everybody has ready my intro thread. This will be long, so please bear with me... I'm going to give the long version.
About a year ago, we moved to Indiana from out of state. At the time we were having a *lot* of financial difficulty, and some "friends" offered to "help us out." Of course, when we got here, we found out that they were completely indigent, and were unable to afford their own monthly rent. Both of us had jobs within three days of our arrival, with paychecks arriving within two weeks. Money was borrowed to prevent eviction, and things got "on track" with two families paying the total rent for the month.
These are not personally or fiscally responsible people -- keep that in mind when reading. The woman in the relationship has the mentality of a six year old, and often acts out on that mentality. While unable to afford their *half* of the rent, both of these individuals would go to "Toys R Us" and purchase "Yu Gi Oh" cards for themselves and other such things. They could "afford" cable TV, but not their rent, etc, etc.
The woman wanted to get a puppy. DH and I were often going to the pet store to get feeders for our reptiles, and a couple of times these people went with us. At one point, the woman saw a Yorkie puppy at the pet store, and decided she wanted one. Keep in mind that this store was selling the puppy for $1,200 (probably from a BYB, never the less!). They applied for financing for the puppy, in spite of the fact that the husband is not a "dog person" and thankfully their financing fell through.
A few months later, we were at a different pet store (one I preferred just to enjoy the large reptiles they had for sale there) and the wife went with us. Of course they had puppies -- mostly mixed breed, but occasionally they also sold "Pit Bulls" (mixed breed that looked like pits, I believe). On this occasion, she saw the "cute puppies" and decided to hold one of them. Then she decided to buy one of them. They would cut her a deal and give her the puppy and "all" of the supplies he needed for the total of $80 *if* she took the dog home that day.
DH and I tried to talk her out of it, but that didn't work. In retrospect, we probably should have told her that there was no way the puppy was going home in our car, that she'd need to call somebody else and wasn't allowed to use our cell phone in order to do so. But we didn't want to deal with the probable ensuing temper tantrum if we had done so, so home came "Scrappy" (as he was called at the time).
The husband was none too pleased, but because there wouldn't be a refund if they took the puppy back to the store, he agreed to allow her to keep the dog. An old crate that had once been used for the cats was found, and "Scrappy" got about an hour of play time before being shoved in the cage. At the time, DH and I had agreed to have nothing to do with the entire thing, as irresponsible as they had been.
Not long after, they went to bed. Without taking the dog out before going to bed, or setting the alarm for an hour later to take the puppy out (he was only FOUR weeks old at the time!). I'm a night owl, and throughout that night, I took "Scrappy" out when he needed to go out, cleaned up any accidents that occurred in the mean time, and kept him out of the tiny "crate" he'd been put in, so that he could be active, social, and do what puppies do (play, for the most part).
In the morning, the wife no longer wanted the dog. He had diarrhea and constantly trembled, a clear sign of a problem, and of *course* they couldn't afford to take him to the vet. A free vet visit was supposed to be included in the purchase price, but that never happened -- the vet wouldn't honor it and despised the pet store from which the puppy was purchased! The pet store was called -- they wouldn't take the puppy back, with or without a refund! Oh for heaven's sake! We called the SPCA and Humane Society. Among four people, we had *one* car, and my husband had it for the day at work. We couldn't get to the shelter because it's over two hours from the apartment in which we were living at the time!
So I figured that we had no choice but to keep the dog (DH and myself taking responsibility for him). I called the vet, described symptoms, and told her that we couldn't afford a vet bill at the moment unless we were able to finance it. They wouldn't finance, but did tell us that the problem seemed to be food-related. We switched his food and within two days, all symptoms disappeared. We also wormed him (of course).
The wife had decided that the dog made an ideal "Christmas Gift" for my DH, who did *not* want a dog at the time. He's a dog person, but he didn't want a dog right then.
I'm sure you can already see a problem emerging, but DH *also* didn't want the puppy to be put down or taken back to a pet store and shoved in a small cage with his eight brothers and sisters. Yuck!
The dog stayed with us and our room mates in that small apartment for about two months, until the apartment complex came to us to point out that the lease holders (our room mates) hadn't paid a dog deposit for the dog. They didn't know that there was a separate deposit for dogs and cats. We had to have the dog out within 24 hours or be evicted.
Dozer (as he is now called) went to stay with a friend for a couple of weeks while we searched for more suitable living environments for us and the dog. We found a place that had a quarter-acre, fenced in back yard. Nobody told *me* that the dog wasn't allowed in the house, but that's beside the point. Dozer wound up in the back yard, unfortunately chained because he could jump over the fence once he got a little bit larger.
We were there for six months, and moved not long ago into a much larger house where Dozer could come inside and nobody complains about either him or the cats. Great! Except that he's a *very* high energy dog who needs to be able to run and go for long walks. He doesn't have any recall right now, so the dog park isn't an option. I can't walk him because I'm so late in the pregnancy, and DH thinks that twenty minutes of walking is sufficient for a high energy dog.
Truth be told, he needs room to run, and we don't have that here (though if he learns recall, then we won't have a problem taking him to the dog park, and neither would our next-door neighbor mind taking him for us. However, he is extremely unsuited to our "calm" lifestyle, especially with a baby on the way. He's great with kids (thank God!) but other than that, we simply do not "agree" with this dog's personality at *all*.
If it had been up to us, we would have done months, if not a year's, worth of research, found a good, responsible breeder, and purchased a dog from a breeder, with temperament of the dam and sire in mind when we did so. It's not that we don't like mutts... But we *do* like some degree of predictability, and having a dog like Dozer just dropped into our laps proves to us *why* we like that predictability.
