Adopting Vs. Shopping

Do you remember when you were a kid, how your parents would take you to the pet stores or animal shelters to take a look around? I sure do, although It was hard to walk out without wanting to take home every animal I seen. Thats where my love for animals began.

I saw all these shelter animals begging and pleading for someone to take them out of there and into a new home, some place where all the barking and meowing and the yelling stop.

Now I don't know what's it's like living in a shelter, but i can imagine its like living in a jail cell. Although I have never been in one of those before. But if you do, then you can just imagine how it is for them dogs and cats in there. Some dogs and cats were just left behind with no waring. They were asleep in a nice cozy bed one minute and the next they are someplace so loud it's hard to get any sleep. Strangers walking by poking fingers through, and they have no idea who they are or if they want to hurt them or not. When animals are backed up in a corner or rushed up on, they can't escape so they try and be as big and bad as they can. But when that happens you just assume they are mean and move on to the next one. They have never been here before; they don't know how to act when strangers are checking them out because they have never been in this situation before.

You have to give them a chance to come out of there shell. Do you think that if you were ripped from your bed and thrown in a jail cell with no explanation and then the guards come at you or rush you that you wouldn't be a little mad. I can guarantee you would be upset, but the difference is, we can talk, and animals cannot. So, we have no idea what they have been though gone through or what they are thinking. But we often judge them on first impressions, and we shouldn't do that.

That first impression is not the real impression these babies want to show you, but as far as they know you're going to take them away and they don't know what is about to happen next. Give them time. After all they deserve some time to adjust

You can foster to adopt, which just means you can run a little test run to see if this dog or cat will fit into your lifestyle. If not, they still have to opportunity to be in a home setting while they wait for their right owner to adopt them, and you will be saving another life from the shelter life. You are also there to help them feel comfortable enough to come out of their shell and show their true colors. This is great because they may need some training and that will boost them up to be the best pet they can be.

So, if you're looking to add a furry family member to your home, I strongly encourage you to foster to adopt and make sure to give that baby some time to unwind and show you just how great they really are.