Hello puppy

Sonel’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Family
#1 Her family of used toys, donated from a friend
#2 A t-shirt commemorating her sister, who had passed on

This photo was taken probably somewhere in March. The T-shirt shows Donna’s birth sister, who has passed on. You can read more about her sister here.

While Donna is a local mongrel, she was never a stray like some of the other local mongrels in the shelter. You see, Donna was conceived and born at the shelter. She and the rest of the litter were the unplanned children for a couple of dogs slated to be neutered but have not yet had the procedure done.

It was thus why I had mixed feelings when I read a post about terminating pet pregnancy recently. On the one hand, terminating a litter of puppies will help by not adding additional strain to an already overcrowded shelter support system. But on the other hand, I also can’t help but be glad that the shelter kept the puppies of the already pregnant mother dog or there would not be a Donna. :P

I did write before that when we explored adopting a dog, we visited and wrote to various shelters and the SPCA. None of the dogs left a strong impression on us. And we might just as easily have gone the other way, just continued with our busy lives and not adopted a dog at all.

But we got lucky, we met Donna. And we are still lucky today that we don’t have the problems that some of the other adopters of the same shelter seem to experience – aggression against other dogs, snapping at children, destroying the furniture – things that got some of the dogs returned.

We are lucky.

Life is never black and white. Humans make choices that they either believe make themselves better people or are choices that they just have to live with. The choice is really down to the individual or collective of people. A pregnant dog would not have a choice if the humans decide to take away her unborn puppies. As the guardian, a human that lets the puppies live and is committed to their well-being for their entire lives cannot be faulted. Neither is the responsible abortion of puppies wrong if no one would commit to them.

All I can say is Donna, who was adopted then returned, went on home stay than returned again, got lucky and so did we. And this blog exists documenting the minutiae of everyday, the good and the awful, so that hopefully people who are thinking of getting a dog for their family and happen to visit our blog will seriously consider before taking the plunge. And if they do intend to get a dog, I hope they would consider adopting one.