Having always previously gone down the pedigree breeder/premium puppy route, I vowed to rescue when I lost my beloved Rott to cancer at the age of just 2 years. (Besides, my experience of dog breeders is that they're all basically money-grabbing, self-interested cunts who like to pretend that they actually give a shit about their 'product', as opposed to winning their stupid little dog shows and making a stack of cash).
Having done so, we've never looked back. Charlie the Rottie was a 'drug dealer's dog' who was found being beaten in the street by his charges - using 4" timbers. Nearly blind through his injuries, with much of his fur missing through uncorrected flea allergy plus hideous neglect, he was a catatonic wreck when we took him home, notwithstanding the marvellous work the Rescue did with him. Two years on, he is now a proud, confident yet incredibly kindly and trusting dog; I am so immensely proud of him. In particular, he stopped our friends' 3 year old little girl from wandering into the stream that marks our land boundary just as our eyes were turned for a split second. I've watched her literally pull the toy bones from his immense jaws, reaching down his throat to do so, and he doesn't even so much as frown (if I were to try this, it'd be an 'instant scrap'
). Of course he gets purposely spoiled rotten and lives like a Lord now, I make sure of that, but he deserves every minute.
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Beware of gavia articulata oculos...
Dr Lave wrote:
Of course, he's normally wrong but
interestingly wrong