I wanted to address the outdoor dog thing - our rescue also went to that policy - but only after like 99.9% of those outdoor homes that were applying had their last SEVERAL dogs either hit by cars or run off never to return. I'm sorry, but it's pretty hard to adopt dogs to homes like that. Accidents HAPPEN, I've had sad things happen to my own animals on a couple of occasions over the years, but dogs unsupervised and loose outside is a problem in most areas of our country. There are some select homes where it works out fine.
And so many folks say that the dog will only be outside in a kennel when they aren't home but my area is a small community and we've SEEN those dogs pretty much live outside with no attention
.
I have many neighbors let their dogs run outside when they aren't home and those dogs are constantly in danger from traffic and a nuisance to everyone. I just threw water on one yesterday who was going after my outdoor cat (yes I do have an outdoor cat
).
You DO get emotionally vested in these animals and you want what is best for them.
BTW, I agree that 2nd hand smoke IS harmful to animals just as it is to humans. But I would still adopt to a home with smokers though I would rather they didn't smoke for the animals sake.
We also ask if people would allow us to do a home visit. We almost never do it, unless there are some real questions, and sometimes that has to do with the dog they want, not with the people themselves (like escape artist dogs).
You guys really would not believe some of the people that we have apply to adopt, I think if you would spend some time processing adoption applications you would understand better why we ask some of the questions we do. . . it's not that we want to weed out the good ones, it's that we want to protect our animals, who we are the only voice for, from ending up in some bad situations.
I could give examples, and will give one just REALLY quickly because I have to run - before we had our more formal adoption process, we adopted a pup out to a family who about a year later didn't bother to reconnect with us when they decided they no longer wanted the full grown dog, even though they'd signed an adoption contract saying they'd contact us if they no longer wanted the dog. They dropped him off at the nearest high kill shelter who thank goodness scanned him, found our microchip, and got him back to us before they euth'd him. And of course much worse things than that happen, we had a couple of dogs end up with a hoarder after the people we adopted to rehomed them. . .
I could go on and I have, sorry.
Again, I'm not saying that some of you aren't right in your irritation over some rescues, but I beg you to treat rescues as individuals entities, just as you would any breeder you would purchase an animal from.
BTW - I once bought a corgi from a breeder who was JUST as strict as our rescue, and boy did I have a lot of respect for her caring for those animals that she brought into the world!