Our Best Efforts Aren't Always Good Enough

This is Whoopi. She is a German Wirehaired Pointer (mix), somewhere between 18 months and 2 years old. At this moment, I have my fingers crossed for Whoopi because she is scheduled to have a dog-dog introduction today with her potential new family's Boxer. I'm on pins and needles.

Whoopi has been with us a long time and we would really like to see her go home! She has been at the shelter since March 23rd. That's 15 weeks -- about 12 weeks longer than an average stay for a dog at our shelter. It's not that we mind having Whoopi around, but when a dog is with us this long we start to get a little anxious.

We have some pretty good ideas as to why Whoopi is taking a little longer than other dogs to place. For one thing, it's not uncommon for dark-hued dogs to stay longer at animal shelters than others. In addition, Whoopi is a medium-large, adolescent dog with a lot of energy. How many people you know want to take that on? German Wirehaired Pointers aren't as popular as say, Golden Retrievers, either. The good news is that Whoopi came to us with some training under her belt and we know she has it in her to be a very good girl, in the right home.

But let's get back to the "dog-dog introduction" for a moment. We require all dog adopters to bring any already existing dog family members to the shelter to meet their potential new "sibling" prior to finalizing the adoption. This is a pretty important step in the adoption process. The following story illustrates the point . . . sort of.

Week before last, a very nice dog was returned to the shelter, after about a week in his new home, with multiple -- and I mean MULTIPLE bite wounds on his face, head, and front legs. The incident had occurred on about the third day after the adoption. One of the resident dogs had attacked the new dog. The new dog did not fight back. The adopter's veterinarian put drains in a couple places on the injured dog's face/head and sutured a wound at the base of one ear. The adopters kept him for a few more days before realizing that the adoption would not work, and returning him to us.

By the day after his return, our veterinarian was able to remove the drains and we sent the dog into foster care with a very caring and responsible volunteer. On that day, we let the dog hang-out in the administrative office until his foster mom could pick him up. He still looked a mess, and was a little sensitive about having his head touched, but otherwise he was happy and affectionate. He is a really sweet dog.

So, you're probably wondering, as I was, what the heck happened?

No one on staff had any reservations about these adopters. They brought their dog in for a dog-dog introduction and it went fine. The staff told me that the adopters were devastated when they returned the injured dog to us; they were in tears. But, here's the twist. The dog that came in for the introduction was not the dog that inflicted the damage on the new dog. They had lied on their application about a second dog at home--they indicated that this second dog was deceased.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that they had obtained this dog, the aggressor dog, from us some years ago. That's why they didn't leave him off the application altogether; they knew we would have records of that adoption. Whether the dog had "issues" from the time of adoption or they developed later, I don't know.

It's more than frustrating when this kind of thing happens. All of our adoption requirements are designed to (1) minimize the likelihood of harm coming to our animals and (2) maximize the likelihood of a succesful permanent adoption. Yet we failed to protect this dog from harm and his adoption failed miserably. Not much we can do when people are dishonest.

We're frequently criticized for making people "jump through hoops" to adopt a dog. How do you think the polygraph requirement is going to go over?*

*This is a facetious statement. Please do not alert the media.