From: kkv@inel.gov (Jamie J Ferguson)
Subject: Re: Christmas Puppies and Re: Snow Dogs
Organization: Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 22:21:08 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.193536.12630@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> rlt@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (r l taylor) writes:
>But anyway, I've been reading the Xmas puppy thread, and I got to
>wondering.  If a shelter has a period of weeks when they won't adopt
>out pets (generally a good idea, though I think they should judge
>each case individually) how do they handle the overcrowding?  Do
>any of them let a prospective adopter "reserve" a specific pet,
>maybe pay board on it, to be sure it will still be there after the
>holidays?  I can't imagine a bigger letdown that to go down to the
>shelter on the first day of Adoption Season :-) and find out the dog
>(cat, whatever) I had been dreaming about for 3 weeks, had been put
>down while I was waiting.


I volunteer for the local Humane Society, and we try not to allow people to 
adopt animals "for Christmas".  We don't have a shelter, so all of our
animals live in foster homes (those at the pound end up being destroyed).
We have a "pet center" in the mall on Saturdays, so animals can be 
adopted on 12/19 and 12/26.  If someone wants an animal to be held
until Christmas it is up to the foster home -- the foster home is NOT
asked unless the volunteer dealing with the prospective adopters feels
comfortable with the situation.  So far I know of one kitten that is
being held and I am holding a puppy at my house (the puppy is going
to the son of a friend of my mother's, so I feel pretty comfortable
with it being a "Christmas puppy" since I know the people).  All we
can do is try to make sure whoever adopts an animal seems like a good
person, but you can never be really sure -- whether it is Christmas
or not.

It is probably a little easier for us to handle it because we don't
have a shelter, and thus we don't get overcrowded in the same way.
I'm not sure how other cities manage this problem.

By the way, we are building a shelter but it'll be years before we
get it finished -- I believe we break ground in the Spring.


Jamie

the pack:  Kenzie   -- 1 yr old black Lab X
           Meggin   -- 8 month old Australian Shepherd X
           Harrison -- 4 month old Border Collie X

the herd:  Kieri -- 5 1/2 yr old lilac point Siamese
           Zak   -- 5 1/2 yr old blue point Siamese
           Duke  -- 1 yr old seal point Siamese



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