How did you get your furbaby? (how much, shepherd, clean, breeders)

[carlitasway]

I'm always curious about how people got their furbabies. Whether you bought yours from a breeder or adopted or took in a stray, let's hear your stories! Here's mine:

Our husky, Belladonna, picked us. We live a little out of the way and sometimes dogs get dumped. Bella came to our porch and kind of stayed there. She looked thin and dirty and it looked like she had been roaming awhile. My husband brought her in to show me because at the time I had just had a hysterectomy and was in bed recovering. She was gorgeous and happy but I was nervous because I knew nothing about her. She played well with the kids and was patient with their excitement. We don't have a fence so I told him if he wanted to try to keep her he had to give her a good bath and was responsible for cleaning up after her if she wasn't house broken. She was.

She was house broken and so well behaved we were scared someone had lost her so we started asking around, posting ads, checked for a chip. The people who responded to the ad were looking for different dogs and she wasn't chipped. So after a week or so we decided to keep and chip her and take her to the vet. We'll have her a year in May. She's been a great addition to our family.

[TigerLily24]

Originally Posted by carlitasway

I'm always curious about how people got their furbabies. Whether you bought yours from a breeder or adopted or took in a stray, let's hear your stories! Here's mine:

Our husky, Belladonna, picked us. We live a little out of the way and sometimes dogs get dumped. Bella came to our porch and kind of stayed there. She looked thin and dirty and it looked like she had been roaming awhile. My husband brought her in to show me because at the time I had just had a hysterectomy and was in bed recovering. She was gorgeous and happy but I was nervous because I knew nothing about her. She played well with the kids and was patient with their excitement. We don't have a fence so I told him if he wanted to try to keep her he had to give her a good bath and was responsible for cleaning up after her if she wasn't house broken. She was.

She was house broken and so well behaved we were scared someone had lost her so we started asking around, posting ads, checked for a chip. The people who responded to the ad were looking for different dogs and she wasn't chipped. So after a week or so we decided to keep and chip her and take her to the vet. We'll have her a year in May. She's been a great addition to our family.

Beautiful!

Mine are all shelter dogs/rescues, including my husky Elly. And, I am convinced that they all picked (or were picked for) me in some fashion too, as it just cannot be coincidence that I ventured to the shelters the days that they were there.

[no kudzu]

We lost our 16 year old Bichon and after 6 months of grieving I decided to look for a rescue. We found Lucky a 4 year old Bichon who was just perfect and had been relinquished only 1 week prior to our finding her. she is now 11.

About 1.5 years ago I decided she needed a playmate to keep her exercised and frisky so i looked at rescues again. We found Toby 4 hours away in South Carolina. He was listed as Bichon mix and had a picture of his head only. Perfect I thought-two matching dogs. During one phone call when I asked about weight I thought I heard 16 lbs which is what Lucy weighs. Even better.

We get there and I ask "Where is Toby?" Oh he's right there at your feet....where I see a 6 lb pure breed Maltese! (Rescues don't always guess correctly at breeds) What the heck, he's cute, healthy and will fit the bill just fine. We love our happy dogs and our 2 purchased 11 year old Ragdoll cats.

[bmw335xi]

Pinky - Shiba Inu - Purchased from reputable breeder
Lucy - Maltese - Rescued from the streets
Roxy - Chihuahua/Papillon - Adopted from a shelter (recently passed away)


I'll be looking for a new companion soon. I always check the shelters in my area first. If I don't find one there, I'll look at reputable breeders.

[TinaMcG]

We lost our two heart dogs within two months at the end of 2012. Hallie left us on Halloween at 13 years. Jimmy, 14, was gone two days after Christmas. In between the losses, Hallie and Jimmy were telegraphig each other back and forth, Hallie from the Bridge, Jimmy from our living room. Jimmy was ailing with crippling arthritis and a terrible gum disease called CUPS and we were debating whether to have his teeth removed. He knew all the pain meds, supplements and physical therapy weren't doing much good, and he saw how much we tried to do for him and how feverishly we had tried to save Hallie's life. They decided enough was enough, and Jimmy knew he would join his housemate before the end of the year. But they both knew there was no way this house could be without a dog, so they devised a plan.

In spite of my reluctance to get a second dog after we lost Hallie, I was moved one day to browse Petfinder, and up came a listing for a little girl, a 7-month old lab-shepherd mix puppy found as a stray in southeast Kansas. My husband and I cried when we saw her photo, which looked eerily like Hallie. That afternoon, she was ours. We named her Karma because I was sure she was a gift from Hallie. I had no idea Jimmy was in on the gift until after we said goodbye to him right after Christmas. Karma has made the unbearable bearable. She has brought life and love into our home, and for that we will be forever grateful to Jimmy and Hallie.

[Katie1]

Katie & LadyBug purchsed from breeders. But as a breeder most of my dogs were bred by me!

[atina33]

Shepherd mix: North LA Shelter as a puppy

Maltipoo: was walking on my street on a scorching hot day, about 40% underweight, matted, unspayed, flea and tick infested. She curled up into a fetal ball when I approached her and allowed me to pick her up. Darn thing stole our hearts so we failed on our plan to rehome her. The ironic thing is that she is the type of dog I never would have picked for us. Guess you could say she picked us instead.

[subject2change]

Our two current dogs are shelter dogs (one a foster failure). Two of our previous dogs were shelter dogs, and our first dog was a free-to-a-good-home puppy.
One of our cats came from the shelter, one we found in the middle of a busy street, and our most recent cat addition was kicked out of 2 homes when we brought him home to try and find him a family. That family turned out to be us, so unofficially, I guess we were foster failures again.

[WildnFree]

I drove 8 hours to pick up my first boy. My second boy I had shipped from another country, then drove 3 hours to airport to pick him up.

[foxywench]

jasper and ruby both came from breeders
Dozer was a road side rescue, the direct result of backyard breeding.