Finding That Perfect Pet

Everyone knows that some pets are better for some families than others. Busy families might do better with cats than with dogs, since cats don't require walking. Some families have small houses or yards, so if they are selecting dogs, they might need to look at smaller breeds.

Many things go into the selection of a dog, and just showing up at the local shelter might not be the best way to select a new member of the family. In fact, some statistics show that if one merely shows up at a shelter and allows emotions to rule over the selection process, that the chances that animal will be abandoned again are very high.

I have known these things for years, and when I wanted to add a dog to our family I took them all into consideration.

But what I did not realize is that each individual shelter, even if they are affiliated with a national one, can, and most likely does, have its own set of rules or guidelines for what makes a good pet owner.

The most recent addition to our family - a mixture of Chihuahua and terrier - joined us in the summer. What an experience it was getting Jake into our home!

I looked online in our local newspaper and on pet sites that list pets for adoption. Our family needed a small dog that was past all the puppy joys and problems. When I saw Jake's picture, I fell instantly in love.

I filled out an online application, then had about six more email exchanges back and forth with the shelter. They kept asking more and more questions. I never gave up, but I did begin to wonder if I was selecting a pet or applying for a child adoption.

Our family passed, finally, the initial screening process and moved on to the next one. A worker came to our house to meet each family member and to inspect the house and yard. She also wanted to see if our cats were friendly. She did bring Jake with her and he jumped into my lap and fell fast asleep. That was a great sign to the shelter volunteer, since Jake had been through so much and was not very trusting.

My spouse and I thought that Jake might get to stay with us, but that was not the case. He sadly left our home and we thought we might never see him again. We thought we had been rejected as pet owners.

But that was not the case. Soon we received word that we had been approved as Jake's new owners, and we made arrangements to pick him up two days later.

The paper work associated with this adoption was nothing like I had ever experienced too. We had to agree to feeding the dog certain foods, when and how often he would visit the vet, etc. And we were told that if we decided to give Jake up we had to make sure he came back to the same adoption shelter. We signed a paper saying that within the next three years, we would not give to any other individual or family.

I knew I had signed that paper. But I didn't think much more about it until the incident with the dog that Ellen DeGeneres adopted, then gave away. Obviously, she had signed a similar agreement, because the shelter took the dog away from the family Ellen had chosen to be the dog's new family.

I'm glad that pet adoption is a serious process. I just wonder if it needs to be as complicated as it was in our case. Or as rule driven and strict as it was in the case of Ellen.

This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.PetLovers.Com/ which is a site for Pets.