San Diego yesterday

I took a quick trip to San Diego yesterday to visit my daughter. The drive down was great until about 20 min. into it when the whole freeway jammed on their brakes. We were reduced to crawl speed; as I wondered what the heck was going on I realized that there were no cars on the other side of the freeway. It was really weird looking to the left and seeing no cars. It was a bad accident; up further there were lots of fire trucks, ambulances, police vehicles and a helicopter taking someone to the hospital.

Once through the mess it took no time to get there. The first thing we did was visit the Humane Society; my daughter has told me all about it and I wanted to have a look. It was very full; lots of mixed breeds, a few purebreds and a few puppies. Two of the dogs there attempted to bite me or whoever walked by right through the cafe. I thought it odd that they had these dogs in the public area; a child cook easily stick their hand through and be injured.

The facility is very nice, much nicer than most shelters I've seen. There were a couple of dogs that pulled at my heart strings. Especially the old ones; I hate to see old dogs in the shelters; this makes me the most sad. How can someone live with a dog into its senior years and then pitch it?

The shelters are a much needed service but it is not a good place for any dog to be. I can't even imagine how my dogs would act if they got left there. It is very difficult to temperament test dogs that have spent time at a shelter; everything is sort of in a mess as far as stability goes. What you see is most often not what you get at a shelter. Stress levels are high so dogs are not themselves. They are also in a state of limbo; typically it can takes weeks to months to see the true dog once home and relaxed.

So as much as it is an awful place for any dog to end up at; it is needed. And the people who take in these dogs and care for them do their best. It is sad that there are so many unwanted dogs in the world; many of the dogs I saw yesterday will have a difficult time being adopted. As for the old ones; where are the golden years? More people need to consider giving the old ones the best years of their life.