So, we were off to see the little guy at the adoption center back in February. There is a lot of religion among dog literati that adoption groups are either a blessing or a curse. Some do extensive home checks and take many applications per pet, making it harder to get a dog than simply getting the grist of the puppy mills from a pet store. But if they just let you take a dog home, who the heck knows whether you know what you are doing?
In the end, our adoption center asked a large number of questions, but let us go home with the dog without a home check. I like to think this is because we were pretty focused about it-- we'd thought hard about whether we had the right setup, hiring a dog walker because of our long days at the office, how much we both wanted a dog, and how much of an investment this would be. Certainly our volunteers were very serious about getting it right. It's hard for me to judge whether it's the right thing to have lengthy application processes-- certainly the presence of these dogs at shelters is a testament to the lack of foresight of many dog owners, but aren't they better off in someone's home?
