Thursday, November 25, 2010

Adopting pups from shelters and rescues

Deli has a family!

Yesterday I received a call to let me know Deli has gone into foster-to-adopt (pending her spay). She is the long legged brindle girl with lots of energy, and has gone to a home with two young boys who will no doubt give her a run for her money. Good luck, Deli, I hope you had a good first night with your new family.

Whee! I gotz kids!


On a dog forum I belong to, a poster put up a photo of her new pup (who looks quite a bit like Zuke from our Lucy's litter!) - a pup she obtained from a newspaper ad when she was looking for a Doberman pup. Three months later, she can tell it is no doberman - more like a lab/rat terrier mix. But she loves it and she is very involved with her dogs, so it will have a good forever home. Her post got me thinking, though.

Some of Lucy's litter are now listed on the SPCA website. I chuckled - or to be honest, I groaned - to see them listed as “corgi cross”. There may be some corgi in there somewhere, but the pups like Pumpkin and Hubbard are much more Newfie cross or Mastiff cross than corgi!!!

I'z no corgi - I'z gonna be a GIANT breed! Mah mama's genes sure don't fit ME!


In fact, the only ones that may be corgi-sized as adults are Peanut, Summer, Patty and Acorn. And even that is a “maybe”. Many, like Deli, are more likely to be lab sized.

For those who have been reading this blog for information on the pups, a relative of Lucy’s late owner says Lucy is a corgi-pitti cross (which would be my guess too-- corgi with either rednose pitti or possibly some Rhodesian ridgeback), and there is a good chance the father of the pups was a newfie cross (newfie-pitti, perhaps?) who also lived on the property.

It is also possible there was more than one dad (as often happens in backyard breedings) –those fawn pups with black muzzles look like they have some mastiff or boxer in them somewhere!

Whatever we are, we is 100% CUTE!

So here is the bottom line: the breed identities on both the BC SPCA site and on sites like Petfinder.com , may be misleading and sometimes downright wrong. This is particularly true with pups - young pups often look amazingly similar regardless of breed. These sites are excellent resources when looking for a pet, but searching by breed may mean you miss a dog that would be perfect for you; searching by size is no guarantee that the pup will end up the size you want.

Meet the pup, find out what you can about its history, consider its current age and weight (an eight week old pup who weighs 15 pounds is NOT going to be a small or medium sized dog!), and be prepared for anything. Hopefully by the time you accept the fact that this cute little pup is a hundred and twenty pound fur-covered teenager, you will have spent lots of time teaching good manners, and will love him/her so deeply that you would no sooner get rid of the dog than of your human kids. In fact, if you've done your job as a doggy parent, you might even prefer to get rid of the human kids!

And if you really want to know what size your dog will be as an adult, please consider adopting an adult or senior dog. In fact, consider adopting Lucy - a lovely, lively, cuddly 2-3 year old - um - corgi cross!

Lucy and her litter are currently in foster care and are available for adoption through the Cowichan and District SPCA, pending their spays/neuters.

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