I haz a puppeh

Okay, all together now… “Awwwwwwww!!!!!!!”  Guys, this is Penny.  Penny is a 10-week-old coonhound.  We’re fostering her for a while for a local rescue.  Penny doesn’t have a significant story, really.  She wasn’t abused.  She wasn’t starved.  She wasn’t injured or sick.  She was one thing… unwanted.  Her story is exactly the the same as millions of others across the country.  She was the product of irresponsible breeding, and her owner was camped out in the Tractor Supply parking lot giving her and her litter mates away for free just to get rid of them when they learned that they couldn’t sell them to make a quick buck.  Y’all, I despise a lot of people, and backyard breeders are right there at the top of that list.  They told me during our short conversation that they had sold the first five of the eight puppies for $200 apiece and couldn’t get rid of the last three.  *sigh*  I offered to take all three puppies, and he was agreeable to that until I made the mistake of telling them that I was with a rescue.  Backyard breeders HATE rescues.  They think we “cut into their profit.”  Seriously.  So when the “R” word came up, he balked and would only let me have one puppy.  Since I had to choose, I took the female so that I would at least know that she would be spayed and not contribute to our atrocious overpopulation.  See, that’s how it happens here.  People are irresponsible and don’t spay and neuter their pets; they give them away to people who are in the market for a free pet because they say they “can’t afford” shelter adoption fees; these people also “can’t afford” to spay and neuter those pets (or provide good food or other basic vet care, but I digress), so that one unwanted litter turns into dozens of unwanted litters and the problem grows exponentially.  (Oh, and these are the lucky pups that just go to irresponsible homes… the unlucky ones are scooped up as free bait for dogfighters or moving targets for practice.  Yeah, reality is harsh.)

But Penny is safe.  Penny is LOVED, she is WANTED, and she is SPOILED!  My dogs are teaching her how to be a dog, and we are teaching her how to be a GOOD dog.  haha.  I don’t know how long we’ll have her, but she has a place here with us for as long as she needs us until her forever family finds her.