Raising them right:

(here is a link to the original)

Something you may not know about me: A year ago I became involved in rescuing dogs. It started with one very sweet, very scared dog. She was adopted quickly, and replaced by another. Then a couple of puppies needed a place to stay because their current foster parent was leaving town for a week. And so on.

I haven’t counted an exact number but somewhere between 75 and 100 dogs have called our house their home over the last year, mostly very temporarily but some have stayed for months while waiting for the “right” person to come along. How do you know if they are right? That’s the trick, isn’t it?

During this time it has become very clear that it is not the dogs (and cats, yes, cats too) that are the issue, it is people. People suck. Dogs don’t lie, or cheat, they don’t pretend to be something they aren’t. They won’t take advantage of you to further their own agenda. They won’t leave you for dead at the end of a dirt road or throw you off of a bridge. People have done all of these things, in the small corner of the world that I inhabit. People suck.

How do you find the right one? You learn as much as you can, and you take a leap of faith.