Dear Frustrated Applicant

 FROM SIBERIAN HUSKY RESCUE:

Dear frustrated rescue applicant,

 I do understand your frustration, and I am truly sorry that you are so upset. I ask one last favor from you. Please consider putting yourself in our shoes before you get so upset with our process.

Abby, blind, frightened and in pain

We’re not just a “rescue” or a faceless corporation; we’re people with good hearts that go way beyond the average person to help a defenseless animal in their time of need. The adoption fee that we ask doesn't begin to cover what we spend on each dog. We neuter or spay, groom, de-worm, heartworm test, vaccinate, microchip, treat injuries, illness, fleas, buy quality dog food, bowls, tags, collars, leashes, heartworm and flea preventative, crates and anything else we need. The $300 adoption fee doesn't even cover one healthy dog that comes in, let alone all the ones with major health needs. Just this summer, one young, healthy boy went in for routine neuter surgery, complications arose and the fee was almost $900. If you still think $300 is high, please call your vet and price out all those things I listed above and see what it would cost you. Now add on operating costs of insurance, website, hosting, phones lines, business cards, etc., and I think you’ll agree that this isn't out of line.

We are an all-volunteer based organization. Everyone is donating their time; no one is paid a salary. We don’t have a facility; the dogs live in volunteer’s homes. 100% of donations and adoption fees go to run the rescue and help save the lives of orphaned dogs. Furthermore, think of all the personal donations made by our volunteers – food for longer term dogs, gas used to drive back and forth to the vet office, home visits, events, going to shelters, doing behavior evaluations, training, etc. This week alone, one volunteer drove over 36 hours to pick up three homeless pups that we were able to bring in to rescue. She drove her own vehicle, paid for gas with her own money.

Not only do these amazingly generous volunteers spend money on gas and incidentals for the dogs, not only do they give up their time and space in their homes for these dogs, but they also at times give their hard earned money as a donation to the rescue just to keep it operational!!

 Abby after her surgery, happy and alert and pain free!

Many the dogs come in sick and stressed because they’ve been in a shelter and lost their family. They don’t understand what’s going on. We nurse them back to health, comfort their emotions, spend our OWN money on them and turn them into adoptable dogs. The last thing we want is for them to end up in the same situation again.

Have you ever had a job where you had to work with the ‘general public before? It’s not always pleasant or easy. Have you ever placed an ad online to sell something? Sometimes you find that people will lie and try to cheat you – you don’t know if they are honest from an e-mail or quick contact, I doubt you would trust the first Craigslist response you receive.

People will say ANYTHING to get a dog from a rescue. Most are honest and good, but some will lie and manipulate. They’ll waste our time and say they have a fenced yard and then when we ask for a home check, we find out they live in an apartment. Or, we’ll do a vet check and find out they never vaccinated or spayed or neutered their own dog. Or they make up references just to take the 'easy' route. The list goes on and on… Even with all our screening, sometimes dogs are still returned to us by people who promised us that they would "never give up a dog…”

If all breeders would screen better, the way the rescues do, maybe we wouldn't have such a problem with homeless pets. There wouldn’t be Siberian huskies dying daily in shelters because someone chose to breed them irresponsibly. If you buy from a breeder, (we do hope it’s a responsible one and we’ll be happy to make some suggestions), you’ll pay hundreds, if not thousands on a puppy. If you buy from a pet store, and remember those cute puppy's parents are living in deplorable conditions in a puppy mills, you have no idea what health and behavior problems you’ll have. And you'll spend around $800 or more for that privilege. After you buy the dog, you’ll still have to pay to have them spayed or neutered and vaccinated.

Did I mention to you that we take our adoptable dogs back in to rescue? Many breeders (again, we're happy to recommend good ones) and certainly no pet stores will say that, so if you have a life change and can’t keep your dog because of death, divorce, job loss, allergies… you’ll be on your own.

 A happy, healthy Abby at the dog park with her adoptive family

Our gorgeous and many times pure bred Siberian huskies are typically adopted in a matter of a few weeks, we take care of their needs and make sure they are behaviorally sound and as healthy as possible – we owe it to them to do everything in our power to make sure that they aren’t going to be homeless again.

We don't give up on our long term dogs either. Some stay with us for months because they are so under socialized from living as breeder dogs that they need this time to learn how to not be afraid of stairs or tile floor let alone to function as a pet.

Imagine this: Pretend you are out for a walk in a park. You find a scared, beautiful but very thin Siberian husky. She has no collar and leash. You take her to the vet and find out that she is micro chipped. You call the number, but the phone line is out of order. You post flyers in the neighborhood and place ads on facebook to try to find this dog’s owner. No one comes. You then take it to your own vet and make sure that she has everything she needs. You spend your own money to bathe her, feed her… you housetrain her, work on that food aggression issue and teach her how to play. You love her and let her sleep with you at night. You clean up her messes and accept the damage when she chews up your favorite pair of shoes. You make sure she is spayed and has her vaccines. You love her like your own dog and go about trying to find her a good home. Will you give this dog, who you’ve loved and cared for, to the first stranger that sends you an e-mail? Probably not – and neither will we.

We’re sure each applicant is a good person, but please remember, we don’t know you yet. You are just an e-mail address and a piece of paper. This is why we call your references and talk with your vet. This is why we need to speak to your landlord. This is why we want to see your home and meet you before we say “yes, you may adopt one of our dogs”.

Adopting from a rescue will give you amazing satisfaction of knowing you’re part of the solution to the animal over-population problem. You get the satisfaction of giving a home to an animal in need and in turn your new family member will give you unconditional love. We hope our adopters don’t think of the adoption fee as anything more than their contribution to paying it forward, and giving us the ability to help and save another dog. If all you can see if the price tag and hassle, then maybe we’re just not a good fit.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. If an applicant is not willing to go through our process, we’re sorry, there are plenty of other families out there willing to endure our scrutiny in order to save a life so we will move on. We do understand that our adoption fee may be out of your budget, if that is the case, we would like to suggest that you go to a shelter and adopt a dog, the cost is less and you can still be part of a homeless pet solution – and we applaud that!

 Abby celebrating her birthday at HOME

We have our policies because we know they help us place our dogs into wonderful homes with good hearted people who understand the breed they’re adopting and are well educated on what it takes to be a responsible pet parent. We also have our policies in place because we know we owe it to dogs that are not yet homeless and puppies that haven't been born yet to still be operational when they are discarded and need our help. We have to be responsible to the dogs first. That is our mission and the basis of our organization.

We have been told that adopting from us is about as hard as buying a car or as rigorous as adopting a child (that is absolutely not true). As a response – I will proudly say “yes!” This dog will potentially be a member of your family. If you can't see the importance of that, then perhaps we both need to move on and go our separate ways.

Our job is to advocate and protect the dogs that are in our care, not make it easy for you to make a snap decision to get a dog. Once you open yourself up to our process, we hope to welcome you with open arms into our rescue family and call you friend. But we need to KNOW you first, we already know and love the dogs.