You know we adore dogs, and even if there comes a time that we don't have dogs living with us, we will always consider our home to be a place for dogs. To this day, Freya literally dances for joy when I come home, and greets every guest in our house with an offering (after barking at them that is). Our dogs were our segregate children long before we had our own. As well as our own shelter dogs, we have fostered two abandoned dogs, and helped them find good homes where they live and thrive to this day. Dogs fill a home with joy and love, there is just no other way to say it. Yes, adopting dogs is a good thing to do, and I honestly believe that both our dogs know full well that we rescued them, and our relationship is affected by that.

So yeah, it would not surprise me if we were among those somehow heaping guilt upon you.

BUT - loving an animal has nothing to do with where it comes from. If anyone finds fault with you for loving and caring for another, then they have no concept of what they are judging you for. You are taking a major step by opening your home to an animal, you need to be sure it is right so that poor animal does not end up BACK in a shelter. If that means purchasing a pure bred this time, then that is a wise decision. Wouldn't it be far worse to adopt an animal that didn't work out, and it had to go to the shelter twice? This happens every single day. Freya was so ashamed to be in the shelter, I can only imagine what it would have done to her to be abandoned twice. There are many ways to bring an animal into your home, and just as many pure breds looking for a home - the only thing that matters is that it is right for you and the only way to do it "wrong" would be to somehow support a puppy mill, which you are clearly not doing.

If we have been guilty of every acting superior because we adopted our furry friends, please do accept my apology. I fully expect we will own an Italian Greyhound one of these days, and it is unlikely it will come from a shelter. It would not surprise me if you were to own a shelter dog one of these days, but only if it is the right dog at the right time - we were very fortunate, and perhaps it is that amazement at such good fortune that gets channeled into something akin to judgment or superiority. I can't wait to meet your dog, I'm confident it will not want for love and affection in your home. The opinions of others will never alter that, so F em.