adoption
Our guide to animal adoption; learn why, where, and how to prepare to adopt a cat, kitten, dog or puppy from an animal shelter or rescue group.
Damaged Goods
“I hate to say it, but you’re damaged goods,” he said in a gruff, matter-of-fact tone. “You just aren’t what we’re looking for.” I nodded my head, holding back tears, and thanked him for his time through quivering lips. My evident heartbreak must’ve triggered a small slice of humanity in him, and in an apparent attempt to console me, he said, “We’re just looking for people who have it all together. Scars and stuff just make people grossed out, you know?” I nodded, the first tear halted in its tracks by fleeting shock that he could say such a thing to someone who had been through what I had.
By Anna Fischer5 years ago in Petlife
The Wiggling Box
About 6 years ago I saw this tattered brown box on the side of the road. I didn’t think anything of it when driving to work. Honestly, I just rolled my eyes, thinking someone threw it out of their car, and by the time I got to work it had slipped my mind. However, on my way home the box was still there. As I looked and got closer I could see that it was wiggling its way toward the road. With curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to check out the box. When out of my car, I slowly made my way to the moving box peered inside, and discovered that the wiggling box held 9 crying baby kittens.
By Brittany Nicole5 years ago in Petlife
Big Ben's Big Journey
Big Ben's story started in the summer of 2013 when I graduated from high school. My mother was never a pet person yet she cared for animals but would never let me have a pet of my own until I moved out of the house. So I started dating this boy that I had known a long time and I started to stay at his place due to family issues with my mom. This boy and I fell in love and Big Ben was the beginning of our family. We were out and about on one of our million dates we went on and started talking about dogs. I was so interested because this boy had 3 of them. All I wanted was a dog to call my own and to care for. So we struck up a conversation and decided to go look at the local animal shelter to see if there was any possible way we could take a buddy home. We started to walk and look through the different cages and saw dogs of many different sizes. Most of them were younger and would have been adopted in a few days. But then we came across this big golden bear of a dog in a cage and he looked adult but not too old and seemed slightly scared and a little excited. We asked the head of the shelter if we could possibly bring him out and see if he would like us. Within seconds my boyfriend and I fell in love with Big Ben. Clearly so did he because he came up to us and started wagging his tail like he knew us all his life. The head of the animal shelter started crying and said to us that he had been there for almost 9 months and that he was scheduled to be euthanized in 3 days. My boyfriend and I looked at each other and knew immediately what we needed to do. We paid his adoption fee and brought him home to his house because my mom did not allow pets. This caused me to move out with my boyfriend and raise Mr. Benjamin together. He was a chow and golden retriever mix so he had some breathing problems. Overall his health was fine. He was the best dog you could have ever asked for and ten years later I am married to my husband who was then my boyfriend. And in August of last year Mr. Ben reached the age of departure and left us and is an angel in heaven. We gave Mr. Ben almost 10 wonderful years although I should say that he gave them to us. That day, if we never decided to go to the animal shelter we would have never met him. He was a loving and cozy friend and was always there for you no matter what went on in our lives. He will be forever missed and always be apart of our minds and hearts. Long live the golden boy, 'The bear dOge' Mr. Big Ben.
By Samantha Roquemore5 years ago in Petlife
Love And Sorrow
I was never going to have a cat. There’s nothing wrong with cats, but with my allergies, living with a cat didn’t seem possible. Then, in the spring of 2020, a stray cat had kittens in my scrap wood pile. I thought it would be handy having a few cats around the property, so I cut a cat door in the wall of my shop and started putting food and water inside, to encourage her to move her kittens in and stick around.
By Beau Harmon5 years ago in Petlife
Jay
I first saw "dipstick", as they called him, running full blast with no care, a chip on his shoulder, and enough confidence that made me even question if I was looking at a dog and not a college boy. What sold me on him was his attitude to small children, because my grandmother had all of us grandkids at her house all the time it was a must he was good with children. I had been on the look at shelters for a while, I had lost my previous dog to a FedEx truck. I was looking for that connection I had before, and normal shelter dogs weren't working. Even though he was not being fed well, he was infested with ticks, and these people did not want him he still had spirit. This was also a situation that I felt if I did not take him home with me, he would die. He would ultimately meet the same fate as his mother before him, with a bullet to the head.
By Kaysha Mock5 years ago in Petlife
Vicki and Ani
The vastness of the lonely long road ahead of me, that one teacher that disapproved of my homework and announced it to the class as a lesson of what not to do, and shaky hands did not help my anxiety on my way to the first day of third grade. First day of school in Armenia felt like a whole new challenge, my cold grey desk awaited me as did the same students from last year who did not use to choose me for group activities. My grandmother walked with me every day, everyone in our neighborhood knew each other and I got to see the other neighborhood kids walking to school with similarly anxious face expressions. Just the day before, we had been playing tag, building random structures with sticks and stones, and anything else we would think of on the spot. One of the older kids used to walk me up to my apartment on the fourth floor where my grandmother would stand at the doorway shaking her head because I had yet again disobeyed her order to get home early, and by then it was dark and scary for me to walk up the flight of stairs alone.
By Tamara Tatevosian-Geller5 years ago in Petlife
Accidental Adoption
It was mid-October in Michigan, and I was visiting my family from South Carolina. I hadn’t been home in awhile, and my youngest brother, Max’s, 13th birthday was coming up. My mom and I were sitting in the living room, with a glass of wine, trying to come up with a fun surprise for a 13 year old boy.
By Danielle Hein5 years ago in Petlife
My dog wears shoes
Zoe is part border collie, part shar-pei, and part bull terrier. I was told by the service dog organization that they were going to find a dog to train for me and asked me if I wanted to be part of picking one out. We met at the animal shelter, and began our search. We looked for about an hour and a half, and after interacting with several dogs, we had not found one that we felt was right. As we were leaving, one of the volunteers said they had a puppy that was brought back to them by a so called service dog trainer that said she was not right for their program.
By Steven Crane Sr5 years ago in Petlife
Fork in the Road
This is a tale of how two souls from different worlds came to be one soul family, one of the human race and one of the canine race. It would take great heartache from both of their past to bring them together. As fate will have it, a girl and her four-legged girl furriend would have to take a leap of faith to find their second chance in life.
By Raquel Valdez5 years ago in Petlife
