The Moving Excuse

Welcome to the St. Louis Senior Dog Project blob.  We're an all-volunteer dog rescue organization.  We take in dogs of all ages (but specialize in older ones), spay/neuter, vaccinate, rehabilitate, and then find them new homes.  See some of our adoptable dogs on our website.   Visit us at our regular adoption events (Saturdays 11 to 3 at Kirkwood Petco) and maybe you'll see a dog to adopt or foster.

Ellen's Notes:

Sometimes I need to remind myself that most of the people who adopt our dogs are good people eager and able to provide a good home.  I've adopted dogs out to people I wish would adopt me.  I  love the emails and letters I receive about dogs in their new homes.

I even understand that some of the dogs we adopt out won't work out in their new homes.  That's part of the game, and we'd rather take the dog back and find it a home where it will fit in.

But I'll never understand why someone will own a dog for four years, eight years, even 10 years, and then decide to move and leave the dog behind -- all for the flimsiest of excuses.  I consider "We're moving to a place that doesn't allow dogs" to be one of the flimsiest of excuses.  If you have children, you don't move into places that don't accept children.  The same thing goes for dogs.

My second least favorite excuse is one I wrote about recently: Giving up the Dog for the Significant Other.

So this week both of my least favorite excuses merged and left me a little cranky.

One woman turned in her dog to the humane society because she was getting married and moving into a new place.  Actually, her fiance turned the dog in.  Since the dog's microchip tracked back to me, I found out about it and had a lovely conversation with the man whose idea this was.  Forgive me, but I told him his relationship was doomed.  Nice people don't ask you to give up your pet.  And those who are too spineless to refuse such a request will probably be too weak to stand up for themselves.  Doesn't sound like a good arrangement to me.

The second case was very similar.  But this time the man was giving up his 14-year-old dog.  Again, he was moving someplace where he couldn't take the dog (with his new girlfriend, I believe).  I told him the future for an abandoned 14-year-old dog isn't all that bright.  Why not find a place that will take a dog?  Poor dog.  Doomed relationship.

I'm not saying it's always easy to move with your pets.  But here's what Amanda, one of my foster parents, had to say.

"When I turned 18, I went to the local shelter and adopted two female black dogs, both weighing about 50 pounds.  I was so excited.  I had never had a dog growing up and was not going to wait any longer.  My boyfriend at the time (now my husband ) and I fell onto some hard times and it seemed like we were constantly moving from one rental to the other.  A few years later we were blessed with a little girl and not too long after, I was pregnant with my son.

"While I was pregnant with my son, we had trouble finding a landlord who would take our dogs.  But I did not give up and finally got a "yes."  Let me tell you, it was quite the place.  It was a tiny cottage, 30-year-old shag carpet and an awful smell of sewage coming from the basement.  The cottage was so tiny, we could barely move.  We lived there happily for two years and never minded the small quarters.  It did not matter to me. My dogs were happy too, and we were a family.  Giving up my dogs was never even an option.  Things eventually worked out and I had Beana and Jane until they were both 14 years old and passed away a year apart from each other.   And yes, we moved about 5 more times since the little cottage .

"If you think of your dogs as a part of the family, you'll find a place for them too. You just might have to try a little harder."

So there you have it.  I'd like to hear your thoughts, too.

Ellen Ellick

President/Founder

St. Louis Senior Dog Project

EllenE9466@aol.com

Comments

[Kati]

Yep - the Moving Excuse - I know it well. Interestingly enough, it sometimes becomes the "shifting" excuse. As in, when the individual returning the dog suddenly realizes that you think he/she is a complete dolt for using the moving excuse, he/she suddenly "develops" a child/spouse/parent who is "allergic to the dog so it wasn't working out anyway".

[Katie]

I don't have any tolerance for people who use the moving excuse. My girls (ie dogs) are non-negotiable.

[Chris Doebert]

WHY would you move somewhere or date someone that doesn't accept your animals? They would never ever break up with me or want to live somewhere else without me, so I'll show them the same courtesy.