Woof!

The puppies followed Brian Gordisky, the Adopt-A-Dog kennel manager.

A wiggle of puppies, mostly black lab mixes and 2 chow adorable mixes, arrived at Adopt-A-Dog, this week. Brian Gordisky, Adopt-A-Dog’s kennel manager drove a 16 hour round trip to pick up the puppies who came from For The Love of Dogs Shelter in North Carolina.

“We are working with For the Love of Dogs in particular, said Allyson Halm, the president of Adopt-A-Dog, Greenwich’s private shelter. ” We all have driven down there, met the proprietor and we’ve spent time at the shelter.  We’re comfortable with their ethics and morals, so we’ve chosen to stick with them.  A lot of other groups come up here with a truck full of dogs, and we’re not comfortable with that.  We go down to hand-select and spend a little time with the animals – so it’s not a cash and carry, it’s a more intimate relationship.”

One of the chow mix puppies looking for attention.

Looking for fun.

Adopt-a-Dog, as an organization, decided that now would be a good time to bring down the puppies.  They knew that a lot of people are looking for puppies around Christmas.  The shelter also wanted  to encourage people to stay out of pet stores, and not to purchase a puppy mill puppy.  “All puppies in pet stores come from puppy mills, no matter what the store tells you,” warned Halm.  She hopes that people will research puppy mills to see what horrors these  poor animals come from.

“You walk into a pet store,” she added, ” and you see that cute little puppy, chances are good that it is younger than the paperwork is going to say. The puppy mills people, worried about the shelf life of the puppies,  want dogs that will last longer in the pet shop, so they give it a younger age.  So then we know that these puppies have taken too soon from their mothers.  They don’t get the social interaction,and discipline that the mother and their litter mates will teach them.”

“And even worse, many of the puppy mills puppies have both emotional and health issues”,  she added.  “We are hoping that with bringing these puppies from the South now, we can encourage people to adopt, not shop.”

A quiet little puppy.

Halm said that the puppies will be available the day after Christmas.  She feels that the week before Christmas is the absolute worst time to adopt a puppy.  “The weeks before Christmas are a stressful time,” she explained.  “Puppies should be adopted in a stable environment, and pre-Christmas is not stable, at least not in my home!  There are dangers of the poisonous plants, electric extension chords, tinsel, glass balls, all the decorations that are out- and the fact that  you are out shopping, and you’re not at home.  You are not there for the brand new animal who needs you!”

It would be difficult to chose a puppy.

She suggested that prospective puppy owners can come to the shelter, fill out the paperwork now.  Then get all the items that you will need for a puppy, and put them under the tree.  The children can unwrap the lead, the collar, the bowls, the dog cookies,  whatever it is that you need.  Then the following week, when most children are of from school,  and everything has settled down, and you are home, bring home your puppy.

And one more...