MSN...Poor Little Rich Dog

I read this on MSN, hopefully the link I post will work.
Anyway, it is very very true. I have a good friend, who is a very compassionate busy person. She has a black lab...who for two years stayed tied up in her back yard because he was "bad"....she moved in April to Northern Virgina....and since she didn't know anyone at first, the dog gots lots and lots of attention, well now...his fate is worse, he has a crate in the basement where he spends 98% of his days. He does take walks sometimes....and goes to play in the backyard. But I think it is awful...if you don't have time for your dog...or cat...or any pet, try to find them a home where someone does have the time.


http://slate.msn.com/id/2103801?GT1=4244

 

Sad, but very true. I see this in NYC a lot where I grew up.

 

my niece was like that - she was pregnant and got a beagle puppy. That poor dog didn't get any attention. I was able to talk her into rehoming the dog when she got pregnant with her 2nd child.

And I paid to have her 1 year cat spayed after her 2nd litter!!!!! Then she gave the cat away - the money was well spent even if she did give the poor thing away

 

Wow. Thanks for sharing that article. It makes me sad that dogs must suffer through their lives that they never asked for. What makes me more sad is that apparently the families subjecting the dogs to these lifestyles don't even see what they're doing to another life.

I may have mentioned this before, but I had to give up a dog last year. I was stupid, never had a dog before, and got way in over my head. We had him for only a couple months... we had to crate him when we weren't home... we had to crate him while we were sleeping (because he truly wanted to eat the poor cats)... we had to keep him in one room with us when we were home (because he really wanted to eat the cats)...

anyhow, we gave him up because it was wrong to keep an animal and subject them to that life. We thought (stupidly as I said) that we could bring a dog home, make him friends with the cats, take him for walks and camping on the weekends, and sleep with him. BUT, when we knew we were wrong, I refused to let him suffer by wasting away in a crate.

I didn't want to give him up, I loved him. But, I did it because he deserved so much more than I could ever dream to be. I saw depression start to settle like a cloud over his eyes. I knew it was time to allow him to lead a better life.

Sorry for rambling on... but I felt I had to relate to the story (and I sometimes resent myself for how it happened and how naieve I was about dog ownership).

 

You did the right thing, Lucidity03. If only more people were like you when in that sort of situation. Unfortunately a lot of people don't think of pets as family, which is what they should be.

 

When I was younger we got a shih tzu puppy, and our backyard at the time had no fence. So we tried training him as it was summer and someone was always home...but he just wouldnt train no matter what. So once we all went back to school and no one was home all day, he ended up in a kennel most of the day. It was really sad, he spent most of his time in a kennel, it wasnt a good life for him. He always got so excited when he'd get let out, but he'd always pee on the floor AFTER we'd bring him back in, so he just pretty much stayed in his kennel, got taken for a walk, then right back in the kennel. Eventually we gave him to a friend. Sadly, this friends neighbor had not taught her children that dogs will bite if you poke them with sticks through a fence and put your fingers through the fence. So the little boy got bitten, didnt even draw blood. But they put the dog down anyways.

 

What a sad reality. :cry:

I will never understand why people keep pets like this.
When I was growing up the people down the road from me had a large, black lab that was chained up in their tiny back yard 24/7. It never got walked or got any attention. It just lived in that yard until it died. I always felt so bad for her. Why even have a dog?