almor

Hello,

I'm looking for a good home for our beautiful, well trained, and very gentle dog Poppy. Poppy is a bit of a mix, but very handsome. She is about the size of a small labrador (but not as stupid!) and has about the same length coat but is black and tan. She is about six, neutered and fully vaccinated, and she has been around our three children (aged a year through seven) since she was a puppy. She hardly ever barks but does enjoy chasing the odd squirrell (she is a dog after all!).

We brought her to Charlotte, North Carolina from New Zealand in 2001. Unfortunately, we have had to leave the US and move to Oz at short notice. We really love her but if we take her to Oz we are going to have to put her through quarantine for 180 days - which is just too much. She's already moved country three times.

Ideally, she needs a home with a bit of a yard with a fence or electric perimeter (which is what she is used too) as she needs somewhere to play around. She enjoys a good walk, she loves kids and is happy to mooch around outside for most of the day. I'm not sure how she'd take to other dogs though. She likes to sleep in the house in her bed but is trained not to enter bedrooms or bathrooms, nor to jump up on, or sleep on, furniture.

At present, she is staying with a friend but if we don't find her a permanent home, I'm not sure what we will have to do. I really don't want to turn her over to some animal charity without knowing who she will be going to live with. So, if you might be interested plse send me a private email. She really is a fab dog.

Almor

dunroving

I feel sorry for your dog. I know you said you prefer to know who you are leaving her with, but I urge you to consider a breed-specific rescue organization. If she's a Lab mix (I wasn't sure from your description), try one of the local (i.e., NC or neighboring states) Lab rescue organizations.

I think NC is currently not taking dogs, but you could contact the East Tennessee branch: http://www.labrescuetn.com/, or South Carolina (sorry, only an email address: [email protected] )

I got my dog from a rescue operation and from my experience with similar organizations, they are staffed by wonderful, caring people. You may feel better if you "know who she will be going to live with", but I don't think that necessarily equates to being better for your dog. Once you're gone, the people you leave her with may decide they don't like the way she whines (because she's mssing you), or poops on the carpet (because she is nervous or is used to a different potty schedule) and take her down to the local shelter - and you know what many of them will do if she's not adopted within three days. Many, many nice people think they want a dog and put on a good show when applying to adopt a dog - but things don't work out becase they really didn't know what having a dog means.

Rescue organizations will put dogs in foster homes to assess health and temperament, screen potential adopters, do home visits, and generally have a guarantee (in fact an expectation) that if things don't work out they'll take her back. I think a good rescue organization is a far better option for your dog than trying to find someone yourself through informal means like this site. In fact (although you may find this difficult), if you "give her up" now, you may even be able to know that she's been placed before you leave.

BritishInOhio

So your posting on the internet to find an owner, how do you know anyone on here?

Why not tell your employer you can't go and let the dog live out it's life with you instead of abandoning it. If your job means you are forever moving you really should not have got a dog.

AmerLisa

That's not really fair is it? I mean she's trying to find a home, she shouldn't be condemned. Perhaps they have to go and telling a job "no" isn't something most people can do.

I'd take the dog in a heartbeat. Although we don't need another dog because we already have one and my husband would kill me. The best of luck on finding a good home.

BritishInOhio

I would never give up my dog, ever. If work told me I had to move, I'd quit and find another job. My wife is a vet and sees this kind of stuff all the time, it's heartbreaking. We rescued our dog from Chicago Animal Care and Control, he was dropped off by a "loving family" who had to relocate, he was 36 hours away from being put down. I don't know how these people can live with themselves.

AmerLisa

Hey you're dog looks like ours. Anyway, when we moved to the States this past January, we took our dog with us. She had the better deal I think....anyway, she's part of our family and I know what you mean. But some people cannot turn down work. I hope that this person can find a decent home for their pet. Certainly if it was me, my pet would be going with me....its like taking another kid. But, that's how I feel about it.

Franklin

OK, I can bark (sort of) and pant (sometimes), and hover around at meal time. I am suddenly alert at the sound of a (door) chain. I rush around and get excited when I hear the chocolate silver paper sound. If you don't watch me I am bounding out the door and across a busy road (to my car). For the most part I am properly house trained (even when drunk I can usually make it to the bathroom). Postmen fear me (I look pretty rough first thing in the morning). I only snarl if someone takes my food (at meal times one of my kid brothers used to eat one of my sausages causing me to snarl at him). Will somebody please take me in?

superpat

Dude - mix more tobacco with it!



Pat

Franklin

God no! Horrible disgusting stuff ... spitting the remnants of black gooey tobacco ... I'm no Josey Wales! Yuk-ee-dar. I just sip hot Tetley tea! True, black tea can discolor one's teeth, but there's always "Total Colgate" or whatever it is called.

I can't sit next to anyone who smokes; the smell sticks to my clothes. I find it sort of fascinating to see smokers standing outside my apartment building in the depths of winter, they can smoke in their own apartments, but rather not stink up the place or maybe their udder 'alf yell at them to smoke outside ... when I lived in a high-rise in downtown Chicago people would shiver outside to get their nicotine receptors back in tune by dragging on a ciggi. Pathetic. The only thing that I have seem that was more pathetic was on National Coaches on long journeys, how the smoker "adults" would drag and puff to the last moment before getting back on the bus; the ones that exhaled as they walked down the ailse took the biscuit. I can't stand smoke near me and will never sleep in a smoker's room in a hotel, disgusting horrible.

I can't date a smoker, no matter how drop dead pretty. Don't talk to me about the weed, disgusting stuff; I once moved into a room at college that had weed ash all over the shop. I could not get rid of it; it was so fine much of it seemed to leak from the vacuum bag. Pungent horrible smell would permeate the room. I asked to be moved.

I just drink British blend tea, that is my poison, it is also my punishment … morphed from a Red Dwarf line

almor

It must be very nice to be in a position where you can be so judgemental whilst knowing only a modicum of the facts. I am a UK citizen. I do not have a green card. I was on a company visa. When I lost my job, mainly as a result of the economic aftermath of the WTC attack, we had to leave the US. We simply had no choice. The company went down the pan. Over 50% of the employees were laid off. If the company hadn't bombed, we'd have stayed in the US permanently.

I therefore think it is very harsh to cast us as people who shouldn't be able to live with ourselves. We are trying to make the best of a bad situation and to help ensure Poppy finds a good home.

We ended up, after a long period of unemployment, in Australia and we don't think it is fair to put her through up to six months quarantine. Its as easy as that.

And, we would never place her with a family unless they were vetted and agreed to contact us to find another home for her if they could not cope. We are not irresponsible people.

Almor

almor

Thanks for that. Poppy is a Heinz 57 but we've already looked into places like the Humane Society and Rainbow Rescue. We're just trying to explore all avenues.

dunroving

You probably already figured this out, but be sure to ask any shelter about their "no-kill" policy. Some places are so overcrowded that if a dog isn't claimed within THREE DAYS (!) they'll euthanize it - and if it's an owner turn-in they don't even wait that long!

Some organizations are really just short-term holding pens in hope the owner will turn up and claim the dog as lost. They also adopt out dogs after the brief waiting period, but if more dogs come in, they'll put down exisitng "tenants" to make room for the new ones! Sounds cruel, I know, but you can't blame them.

I've lived in several college towns and have seen the same phenomenon in all of them. At the end of the semester, there are dogs everywhere - turned out the car door as the student "owner" drives out of town on the way home. Found two dogs just like that in the woods behind our neighborhood. Luckily one was adopted but the other, being a "black chow/lab mix" (common as muck and so therefore not "fashionable") was not adopted and was put down

BritishInOhio

Yes it is.
[/QUOTE]

And, we would never place her with a family unless they were vetted and agreed to contact us to find another home for her if they could not cope.

Almor[/QUOTE]

How would you do that if your in AUS?????


I just noted you were originally from Prestatyn. I grew up in St. Asaph and dated a few girls from Prestatyn in my youth. My favourite shagging spot was the top of Gwynesgor hill in my '82 Ford Fiesta. Good times.

Jan in Arizona

This is what makes me mad about this site - its a brilliant site - a brilliant idea - but it seems to me the majority of people just want to criticise and condemn a vast amount of people with genuine enquiries and concerns. Why? Have people really so little to do with their lives that they sit on this site all day and night being rude to people?

I really hope you find a good home for Poppy - I would love to help out but my husband would divorce me! I would also be careful about rehoming with a rescue over here - we tried to give a cat a good home from a rescue, filled out the lengthy form completely honestly which went against us. An email came back the next day to say we could not be considered as we had rehomed animals in the past. The animals we rehomed were 2 cats aged 10 and 12 and a 6 year old Dalmation who we actually left with a friend until we had found a place where we could keep him. We knew we would be living in an hotel until we found somewhere to rent and the place we ended up renting did not allow pets. In the meantime the friend who looked after him got attached to him and we felt it was in his best interests to let him stay with his new family. We moved from the UK to Arizona in August (temp around 105) and we thought (stupidly I know) that elderly cats and even the dog would not appreciate an 11 hour flight to be landed in that sort of heat. But needless to say, we are now branded with the tag that we are unsuitable pet owners! It doesn't matter that we have owned 5 Afghan Hounds (one of which was also called Poppy!), 3 cats and 5 horses that have all died of old age.

You have to go with what you feel is right and I don't think anyone has the right to pre-judge people without knowing all the facts which is what it seems a huge amount of people on this site do. It would be very nice to be able to say no I don't want to take that job - but this is the real world - we actually need money to survive and feed not only ourselves but also those pets that we take on. I wonder how many people out there are actually in a position to turn down a job just because of a pet?

Good Luck with Poppy. Incidentally - we went to Petco and rehomed a gorgeous little tabby kitten who is very happy indeed - so much for the shelter that wouldn't consider us - that kitten probably stands a fair chance of having been put down now.

rincewind

Under the new Patriot Act, doesn't using the words WTC attack and bombed in the same paragraph flag this thread up for further investigation by the CIA?