>>>> One of the other problems I've been having with adopting out of >>>> province is with agency 'home checks' -- sometimes they have contacts >>>> 'away' who can do them but it seems I live too much 'away', or else >>>> they want me to go visit the dog with my whole family before adopting >>>> and, I know that is the best way to do it, but it's not an easy thing >>>> to do.
I tend to have problems with many of the rescue agencies, both large and small animals. I couldn't get barn cats from the humane society, simply because I let them live outside. (Better to send the extras off to be gassed I guess, than to give them a good home, where they will be loved, vaccinated, neutered and fed for life...) And many dog adoption agencies won't place dogs in homes unless they will be the only pet - again, I guess they think it's possible to place all the gazillions of unwanted pets into single-pet families? The big beef that I encountered after we adopted Buck, was the turnover in the USERL volunteers. No one in the organization locally knows him at all now, but they COULD decide to "repossess" him. And if something dire happened and we had to downsize, we technically would have no say in picking his next home, and that's just not fair to Buck. We know him - no one at the agency does. The USERL had no initial policy for ever making any adoption permanent, but we've petitioned them to grant us permanent ownership of him. I think they may change their rules and grant it. Why don't you just give the group a list of breed/crosses that you think might work. Who knows - maybe some suitable stray will pop up on someone's property so that you could have a private adoption. Karen Thomas, NC
