We've had two cat posts, so it's time for a post about dogs...
Last year this web site hoped to be able to recommend a dog for the position that had been vacated by my four-legged friend Cocoa. The position involved minimal hunting, light security guard work, and a lot of looking after an old man and attracting people to stop and chat with him. It was a good job for a good dog, and it would have been pleasant if Petfinder had helped.
But that did not happen. Urban animal shelters do attract perky, friendly, clever small dogs, because many people find that, living in the city, they can't keep a dog at all. Rural animal shelters attract dogs that are harder to place.
Today the Petfinder page for Kingsport does list two basset hounds and two beagles, but it's dominated by the kind of dogs that get into shelters just because they are more active and healthy than the humans who thought they wanted to live with these dogs: seven retrievers, seven of the dreaded "pit" bull terrier, three Staffordshire bull terriers (thought to be slightly calmer), four Australian Shepherds, three Australian Cattle Dogs, three German Shepherds, a Weimaraner, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a Doberman, a Rottweiler, and two coon hounds. And a Chihuahua.
People look at these dogs and think "Ooohhh, Marley," or Barkley or Lassie or some other TV-star dog. Then they get the dog home and notice some things they should have considered sooner. Big dogs need a lot of food, a lot of brisk exercise, a lot of scooping after, and sometimes a lot of payments to vets, and if the situation goes bad it can go very bad very fast. German Shepherds, Dobermans, Weimaraners, even Australians are beautiful dogs that make wonderful pets but if they're treated badly enough they can kill humans. To their credit they almost never do kill humans, but if it came to a real fight they could.
Terriers are terrific if you have a rat problem. The name comes from French and refers to these dogs' tendency to dig into the ground to destroy rats' dens. Terriers can be cute and clever and friendly and loyal and quite the perfect pets for people who treat them right. Even pit bulls. But they're stubborn little beasts, very strong for their size, and they can do a lot of damage if pushed into a real fight with a human, too.
Retrievers are generally good-natured, more likely to turn fat, lazy, and sickly than to turn vicious, but although retrievers aren't the very biggest dogs, the messes sick ones make can seem immense.
Many times I've had people of good will tell me, "You really ought to have a good, loyal dog to travel with." At least four times the dog they were offering was a German Shepherd, the breed most often recruited as a police dog in the United States, and one of the breeds most often recruited as a service dog for people with various disabilities. At least once the half-grown dog in question had obviously decided she liked me, and I liked her, too. At least once the person was offering to rescue a pup for me from people who weren't bringing it up right, in whose custody it wasn't going to live to grow up--and it didn't. Because I couldn't afford to bring it up right, either.
The love of a good dog is too precious to waste. I wish more of the humans in my part of the world were fit to own a good German Shepherd, or even a good retriever. If you're not, you're not.
Even a coon hound--which has to be about the easiest of all dog breeds to keep--goes through a good deal of Alpo relative to a poor Internet writer's income, but if I were going to adopt one of the dogs on the local Petfinder page today, I'd look at the coon hounds first. I've known and loved some coon hounds. They're hardy, healthy, mostly self-maintaining pets. Despite the cheerful friendly dispositions of the individual coon hounds I knew well, they're not a breed evildoers want to underestimate, either. Raccoons are fierce little predators, no matter how cute they look, and the dogs that were bred to get rid of them had to be brave and tough too.
People whose living quarters, or budgets, or level of commitment to their dog, or all three, are very small should not underestimate very small dogs, either. Cat-sized dogs can, like cats, get enough exercise to stay healthy indoors; they're not big enough to stop a determined evildoer, but they can certainly raise an alarm.
Today's Petfinder picks are cat-sized--under 15 pounds. For new readers, the purpose of these Petfinder posts is to encourage pet adoption. If you don't live in the area and/or can't adopt an animal, but you agree that the photo shown is cute, share it with everyone you know. Somebody out there just might adopt the animal, or might go into the shelter and find an animal they considered even cuter.
Zipcode 10101: Ginny from New York
Believed to be a cross between Chihuahua and Schipperke, Ginny weighs only ten pounds. She's described as shy at first, but friendly and cuddly once she gets to know people, with no serious health or behavior problems.
Zipcode 20202: Squishy from D.C.
The adoption fee looks like a lot of money for not very much dog, but if you want a 13-poud dog they do say the fee includes all the veterinary care this 13-pound dachshund is likely to need. They say he's a good pup whose basic training is not complete. Dogs are slow learners about things that aren't part of their instincts, like not making puddles in the house, so it may be just as well if your house is the very first place the little fellow learns not to mark as his territory.
Zipcode 30303: Farrah Pawcett from Atlanta
Thought to be about ten years old, this little Shih Tzu may have some sight and hearing loss but seems to get around comfortably enough. Her health and behavior are described as good, not perfect. Again, her "adoption fee" is steep but is said to cover a large vet bill.
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