Pound Puppies

Saturday morning TV just isn't the same anymore.

I remember when the Smurfs were on, with Gargamel on the constant pursuit of the little elusive blue creatures, of Papa Smurf and his squirrelly brood.

I also remember watching the Transformers and I remember falling in love with the Pound Puppies. They also sold them in stores, the Pound Puppies, and you could adopt one, name it, it came in this little box that kinda resembled a doggie house, they were so cute. I wanted one, didn't get one, but Treebee did...she got everything I wanted, I was such an abused middle child.

But back to the Pound Puppies....

These are our Pound Puppies.

This one is Steamboate. (He's English)

And this is Flaire Bear.

We've had Flaire for a little over a year. He's a pretty good boy. Likes to play a little rough, so he ain't no wussy man's dog.

He'd been at the pound for about 3 months, his days were counted. Not to mention he, by all accounts is a Pit Bull, he was probably on his way to the death chamber in a few days. As a matter of fact the day we got him, Mr. Vasey actually got to the animal shelter past the time when they allow people back to view the dogs, but when he said he was there to see our lil Flaire, they gladly let him back to see if he would be a good fit for us.

And Steamers was a rescue dog. He was born to a mommy doggie who was in the rescue and so they kept the puppies and tried to find them furever homes as well. Steamers was the last of the litter, just him and one other male, they'd been there a while past their brothers and sisters, which I can't understand why, he's about the most loveable little guy. My only complaint is he likes to wake me up at the butt crack of dawn. But it's hard to say no to these faces.


Which brings me to my point.

I read this story today, it was linked to CNN.com and I also came accross this story from a communitybulletin board I read, this isn't something new. In my former life as a community newspaper reporter, at least 2-3 times a month a press release from the SPCA of Texas would come accross my desk all telling the same tale. Between the dog fighting and puppie mills hundreds of dogs siezed. All bred and overbred just so some redneck scum can make a few bucks.

People buying puppies keeps these kinds of lowlifes in business. They are just as bad as those that breed them for fighting, an illegal money making business. As are puppy mills, or should be in my opinion. And the people that buy these puppies are really no better than those that sit ringside at a dog fight, they are keeping an illegal business, in business.

Thousands upon thousands of pure bred animals are in need of homes. It makes me sick to think of the thousands of other dogs that are bred under questionable conditions, treated appallingly and infested with a host of illnesses, and people would rather get that, then a dog that's probably already lived in a home, is already potty trained and will love you furever, but instead will have suffer a death at the hands of an animal control officer because, they gave him his chance and they needed to make room for even more unwanted dogs.

Rescue groups are overrun with pure bred dogs, a simple search on-line and you can see, often they have to turn doggies away because they just can't seem to get rid of the ones they have fast enough to keep up with the ever growing pet population.

Now I understand, there are breeders out there and they are doing what they do for the betterment of the breed, and I'm ok with that, they have quite stringent conditions for homing their puppies and they don't over breed their momma's. But those kinds of breeders are few and far between. Real breeders don't advertise, they don't need to.

I don't say this to chastise those who have bought their pets from so called breeders. So don't be getting your panties in a wad, I say this for awareness, so that maybe next time you'll save one, who needs a furever home. And stop supporting the needless abuse of animals.

So the moral of the story, adopt. And in the words of the great Bob Barker, "Please help control the pet population, spay and neuter your pets." Because I know you think your pooch is the greatest thing since sliced cheese, but don't get your bitch pregnant so you can have a bunch of adorable puppies running around that look like your dog. Because 1. you can't keep them all 2. responsible pet owners don't breed for the hell of it.