Heartbroken Family: Read Before Adopting A Pet

[Coral Dolpfin Cove]

I know that this is a rather lengthy post, but even the smallest details seem important.

My grandmother and her neighbor, Mitzi (who is nearly blind), are both elderly women who have lost their husbands in recent years. Until recently, Mitzi had a rat terrior dog named Max. Unfortunately, Max passed away in 2004, leaving Mitzi devastated. Her granddaughter, Melissa, came to stay with her temporarily, and brought along her cocker spaniel named Chloe. Mitzi is extremely attached to Chloe, and was saddened to learn that Melissa has plans to go to Richmond, Virginia and is taking Chloe with her. Knowing that I am still in town (Virginia Beach) on college vacation, my grandmother and Mitzi asked me to help them search local animal shelters and adoption centers to find a new dog to give a loving home to. Our family believes that adopting from animal shelters is the best thing to do because so many unwanted animals are euthanized each year. My previous dog, Shadow, was a stray who literally jumped into my father's lap when he opened his car door. Our current dog, Daisy, was no longer fed once her previous owners discovered that she had gotten pregnant, and once her litter of four male puppies were born, all five of them were placed in a ditch full of water. Also, because my grandmother and Mitzi had a particular dog in mind (female, housebroken, short or low-maintence fur, and small-medium build), shelters are the perfect place to look. My grandmother and I had made plans to go "dog hunting" last week, but due to schedule conflicts we were unable to go together, so yesterday afternoon (January 11, 2005) I visited a couple of local animal shelters just to see what they had up for adoption. At the second shelter I visited (the local animal control) I saw several small, low-maintence dogs, but unfortunately, none of the kennels were marked for me to be able to tell the sex of the dogs, if they were strays or were surrendered, if they had any medical problems... nothing. So after I described the type of dog I was looking for, a shelter worker pointed me towards kennel #4. Inside was "Daphine," a seven year old, long-haired black Doxin, who had been surrendered by her family of two years because their "child has allergies" and could not be around her. The shelter worker also pointed out that Daphine had a skin condition which caused the fur on her back to thin. I was told that when Daphine was brought to the shelter, she was flea infested and that was what caused the condition, but with proper medical attention, the condition should clear up fine. I was directed to the front desk, where I was given what little information the shelter had on Daphine: she was friendly, good with people of all ages and other animals, quiet, did had problems with escaping, was already spayed... I immediately called my grandmother and, knowing that the shelter opened at 11 a.m., made plans to bring her and Mitzi to meet Daphine in the morning (January 12). We got to the kennel at 10:58 and had to wait in the waiting room for two minutes while they finished cleaning the kennels. After showing the dog to my grandmother and Mitzi, I got permission to take her to the "visitation area," where we sat and played with her for two hours. When Mitzi said that she was ready, I got all of the forms to fill out for the adoption. The receptionist once again reminded me of Daphine's skin condition and asked were we okay with the medical responsibility of caring for it. Of course, we had all agreed that we would take care of it. After telling the receptionist that Mitzi has a viison problem and that I would be filling out the forms for her, we got the application completed and submitted. We continued to play and bond with this incredibly sweet and playful dog while the application was processed. More forms were filled out, and then a shelter supervisor (actually she was a "dog catcher") came in and, once again, reminded us of the skin condition and wanted us to know that it could be something fairly easy to treat such as an allergy to fleas or food, or it could be something much, much worse, that could cost quite a bit of money to take care of. She also told us that it was important for us to understand this because there have been several families wanting to adopt her. My grandmother and Mitzi discussed it, and said that if the price of treatment got to a point where one of them alone could not afford it, then the two of them would split the costs to have Daphine treated. They were willing to pay whatever they could (living on a fixed income makes it a little more difficult for them to afford major expenses), they just wanted to get her home. When all was said and done, we went to the waiting room again while a shelter technician took Daphine to have her shots (don't ask me to spell it the right way- her Boardatella or "kennel shot") and to have her tested for heartworms. Once again, the receptionist felt the need to remind us that Daphine has a skin condition that could be very serious, and once again, we had to explain to her that we were well aware of the condition and still, we wanted her. The receptionist then ACCUSED my grandmother and I of pressuring Mitzi into taking Daphine, when all we were doing was explaining to Mitzi that, although the skin condition could be something serious and costly, it could also be something very simple and expensive to treat. I was already extremely frustrated with the receptionist when she asked Mitzi to come to the counter to sign her adoption contract. Keep in mind that Mitzi is over eighty years old and can hardly see people standing directly in front of her, much less words on a sheet of paper. My grandmother and I each stood on one side of Mitzi as she prepared to listen to the receptionist's details about the contract. The receptionist then looked at my grandmother and I and said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "let me explain this to her alone without the two of you intervening in what is being said." Well, with all due respect to the elderly, I have always been taught to stay with an elderly family member when they are signing any type of contract to make sure that a, they understand EXACTLY what they are signing, and b, they are not being "taken for a ride." After all of the forms were signed, we again sat down to wait for Daphine to be brought to us so we could take her home. The shelter technician returned and said, "We have one problem." Daphine tested positive for heartworms. Knowing the seriousness of heartworms and the costs of its treatments, we were forced to leave the dog that was rightfully Mitzi's at the kennel after becoming emotionally attached to her. We were heartbroken to know that this sweet dog will most likely never find a home because people do not want to adopt sick dogs. We are also aware that Daphine will probably not live very long because she will not receive treatment for the heartworms. We left the kennel and for several hours this afternoon, I cried over the loss of an otherwise perfect dog that will probably have to live out the rest of her life in cage. I feel terrible for my grandmother and Mitzi as well, because they too had gotten attached to her in that short time. If you asking why I am sharing this with you, it's because I am going to try to work with a local "help-line" to get a new regulation passed regarding the detection of and possible treatment for conditions in animals that are up for adoption. The shelter that I visited, as well as many others, do not give families information that is vital to the decisions that are made in regards to adopting a new pet. Adopting a pet is not a decision to be taken lightly. Had Daphine not been tested at the shelter, we would have adopted a sick dog whose new family may or may not have had to funs to pay for her treatments, and who could have died not long after coming home. With help, I am going to try to get a regulation set that requires all animals in shelters to be tested for deadly illnesses such as heartworms and other parasites PRIOR to being put up for adoption, and to have the results of these tests on file, so that when a loving family falls in love with a pet and plans to make it their own, they will not have to go through the same pain that my family was put through today.

If you are looking to adopt a pet, please go to your local animal shelter. Before you spend enough time with the animal that an emotional bond begins to occur, and BEFORE signing an adoption contract, have the shelter test the animal for heartworms and/or other parasites and, if the results come back positive, make your adoption decisions accordingly.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[Sasha]

That's a wonderful story! Very good!

Poor Daphine. She sounds like a very sweet dog.

 

[Sorrell]

That's so sad I suppose the good news and bad news is that there are so many dogs in shelters looking for a loving home such as this.

I completely agree with you that animals should be tested before being introduced to families. All of our cats are shelter animals and the most recent one we learned was pregnant after we adopted her. My brother also adopted a cat and upon taking her to the vet for a "new pet check up" he was told the cat has Feline Leukemia. Being a starving college student, there's no way he could afford treatment for the cat and was not able to keep her. Some simple tests could have prevented all of these situations.

The sad thing is that most shelters and rescues are running thin as it is. I would approach the vets in your area about donating their services to the shelters instead of trying to get the shelters to dish out more of what they don't have

 

[MAM]

the biggest problem is funding. county shelters, "the pound", only have so much money. they don't invest any more into each animal than they have to, simply because they cant afford to. if you request tests to be made before you adopt, that can often be done. but most pounds don't make it a practice to test each and every animal that comes through their doors before putting them up for adoption. they just can't afford to do so. if no one adopts that animal, and due to space limitiations they are forced to euthanize it, the money they spent on testing was wasted. sounds cruel and harsh, but thats the reality of it. now private shelters and rescue groups, such as the one i volunteer with, we do test ALL our animals before putting them up for adoption. if the animal is sick, or even just has kennel cough, they are not available until they are healthy again. they don't appear on our website or anything. now, if the dog or cat has some long term health issue, such as FIV or feline leukemia, or heartworm or tick/valley fever, we disclose this to potential adopters. we have one cat in our system, been with us for a couple of years now, FIV positive, living in a foster home. most likely, this cat will forever be with our group, but we're okay with that. we've also had a dog that needed to have leg amputated. knowing no person would adopt a dog with that kind of need, one of our volunteers adopted him instead. but a county or city pound can't afford to keep an animal in their system for years. its just not practical or possible for them. the money just isn't there.

the idea of trying to get some regulation passed for testing is great. and maybe it could be done for private shelters and groups like humane societies and such. but city and county pounds, they're government funded, as oppposed to the others that get most of their funding from grants and donations. getting somethign passed to give pounds more funds is whole other ballgame. but i agree, more needs to be done. the number of animals in shelters that are put down every day is hard to believe, and quite sad. i wish you the best of luck in getting some changes made. its a noble cause.

 

[tekknocolor]

There is a medication to rid of heartworms in dogs (don't know if it is suitable for other animals) that is fairly inexpensive. The name of the product is Ivermectin. It is a 1% injectible cattle wormer with the trade name of Ivomec ™ . You can purchase it (without a prescription) for $40 - $50 at your Veterinarian Supply Store or through a catalog from a Vaccine Wholesale Supplier. The bottle comes in a 50cc size. You should consult a veterinarian on dosage for the animal if you purchase from the supply store. I used this on my dog and she was cured of heartworms and since then, we've used it for all our dogs... errr... my parent's dogs.

 

[Coral Dolpfin Cove]

Thank you all so much for your support! One thing that I forgot to mention was that the "dog catcher" that spoke with us about her skin condition told us that several people had wanted to adopt her. My question is, if this is the case and so many people wanted to adopt her, then why wasn't the test performed prior to our adoption?

 

[pwrpufgirlz]

I'm also wondering how they got results in so few days. I'm pretty sure the heartworm test takes a while.

Can I cross post this on my dog forum?

Another thing, if you really care for the dog, you could get ahold of the dachsund rescue. I know that one exists, possibly on a national level, they might be willing to get her out of there and get her all brand new again.