It's time to celebrate big time. My nephew Eric and his girlfriend Chelsey have made the huge decision to adopt the rescued Italian Greyhound they have been fostering for the last three months. I wrote about Squiggles in a past post and even posted a picture of him. The picture above is the picture sent along with the announcement of Squiggles adoption. We are so proud to have Squiggles in our family of dogs. Beeks and Max have been told the good news and want to know how soon they get to play with "the new kid".
When good people adopt the right dog for the right reasons it is truly a time to celebrate. Squiggles came from humble beginnings. He was a puppy mill dog and when Eric and Chelsey started fostering Squiggles he was extremely timid and severely under weight. C n'E fostered a number of dogs before and after fostering Squiggles. They saw how frightened Squiggles was when he first came to them and how much he has grown since being loved and cared for by them. Dr. Grandin talks about Thriving not surviving. Well, it is clearly evident that with E n'C, Squiggles is thriving. He is gaining weight and he is learning to trust humans again.
I know there are a lot of unwanted dogs and cats and most end up in shelters and or rescues. But I didn't know actual numbers. I wanted to know some statistics about animal shelters and puppy mills so I looked on line at the ASPC website(ASPC.org)and they stated that every year 5-7 million companion animals enter shelters. And 3-4 million are euthanized every year as well. I know that more and more shelters are becoming no-kill shelters, but still large numbers of animals are euthanized due to the inability of shelters to provide for great numbers of animals over a long period of time. 98% of pets in pet stores come from commercial breeders more commonly known as puppy mills. I read that in commercial breeding facilities females are may be bred two times a year and when they are no longer able to breed they are killed. Puppies that can not be sold are also killed. One really good website I found about the devastating environments in puppy mills was http://www.awarenessday.org/.It is a travesty that as a country and society we allow this neglect to continue.
Again, I am so excited that Squiggles has found his Forever Home with Eric and Chelsey. Thanks for being in our family Squiggles! Way to Go Chelsey and Eric!!!!
P.S. There is an article in the NY Times that is very interesting regarding greyhounds and their use to pursue coyotes on a ranch in Oklahoma. Read it and see what you think about the use of greyhounds in this capacity. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/sports/26greyhounds.html.
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