Holy crap! I’m sorry I doubted you. I’ve been with various animal rescue organizations in Northern California for years. None of our local shelters charge nearly that much. Our base rate for dogs at the city shelter where I volunteer has the lowest rates at $80 adult/$100 puppies. The highest shelter fees come from the SPCA at $100 adult/$150 puppies. That’s only if they aren’t running a special, which they usually are. Even the breed rescue I’m with (Chako Pit Bull Rescue) only charges a couple hundred dollar and half the time our adoption fees are sponsored by a donor and the adopter doesn’t have to pay.
Glad to hear he’s eating a little. I hope he continues to improve. Parvo is the worst. We see so many sick and dying puppies come into the shelter with it. Like someone mentioned above it’s in the dirt and stuff, so try not to take him outside in common areas until he’s fully vaccinated.
Your first link goes to the Oregon Humane Society, the second dog is available from Oregon Dachshund Rescue, Inc., and the third is available from Oregon Friends of Shelter Animals. All of these are private organizations.
Try a municipal (local government-run) shelter, like the Multnomah County Animal Services; their fees appear to range from $25-120. And it’s probably where those other shelters originally got most of their animals in the first place. Eliminate the ‘middle man’.
Oregon Humane actually gets some of their dogs from the shelter I volunteer at! They drive down once every month or two and take a lot of our tiny dogs and some pit bulls back up to Oregon with them. We’re thankful because we are an over crowded municipal shelter that is trying very, very hard to save as many lives as we can. I had no idea they were charging so much for them.
Note that at least two of your links to expensive shelter include multiple vet visits, shots, and 30 days of included pet health insurance. Hindsight and all, that would have been a less risky way to go.
Despite that, kudos to you for doing the right thing and taking care of the little thing.
Oh! Having an appetite is very encouraging! I’m delighted to hear it.
The worms might be because worms sometimes bail on a patient that’s very ill. Or, between the virus and the meds, they might just not like the neighborhood at the moment. Either way, good riddance to the little buggers.
Keep up the good work! I know this is hard - thanks for the update!
If you were willing to take an older dog, that would be cheaper, also, probably. The shelter I deal with (in Denver) charges only $50.00 for a 5yo dog. The next most expensive is $125.00.
Older dogs are already house trained and smaller dogs are available as well as larger ones.
I echo the person, above, who recommended public shelter as a source of dogs. They make sure they are healthy and have any needed shots before you get them. They also come ‘fixed’, which is an operation that you will have to have performed on your new puppy in a few months.
BTW, I get no picture, assuming you didn’t adopt what looks like a spiny anteater.
They also include neuter/spaying and chipping, so you could just take $150-$200 or so right off the adoption fee because if they don’t do that, you have to do it. IMO, might as well let the rescue people deal with the surgery/rehab and with a vet they see probably 5 times a week anyways.
Not sure where the OP is, but in the upper northeast most shelters & rescue orgs charge $300-500 for *any *puppies regardless of pedigree because they’ve usually shipped them in from other places given we have a high spay/neuter rate locally.
Well, back to the legal question: did you have any kind of contract with the breeder? Many irresponsible breeders offer “one year” or “six months” health guarantees, trying to pretend they are responsible. Perhaps an email exchange claiming the puppy was healthy? If not, and if your state doesn’t have a puppy lemon law, I think you are SOL.
Most rescues and reputable breeders would be freaking out if a recently-placed pup developed parvo and would be working with you.
No, she didn’t present herself as a breeder. More so just ‘oh hey look I have a puppy’. I’m pretty much resigned to being SOL even though Oregon does have a puppy lemon law. The vet bill so far is MUCH less than it could have been, given he’s recovering so nicely.
And as for the comment about the rehoming fee, unfortunately that was pretty much average from what I was seeing through my days of stalking the site. One person actually requested a ‘rehoming’ fee of $1200 for a boston terrier pup, to which I told them they were crazy.
In my experience, the rescue organizations take the “adoptable” dogs out of shelters pretty damn quick. And they do good work and I’m glad of it, but it does mean that the city shelter runs very very long on lab/german shepherds, pit bulls, and chihuahuas. If you are looking outside of those breeds, the pickings are pretty slim.
I had similar problems when we wanted to adopt a puppy. Money wasn’t a big issue, but I like the idea of rescue. However, lots of people won’t adopt dogs out to households with children under 10. We found a dog we liked 100 miles away, but they wouldn’t adopt if the whole family wasn’t present at the adoption–even if I was willing to talk to them on the phone, it wasn’t enough (husband, son, and my mom were there). Other dogs were adopted out almost as soon as they were listed. I know shelters see the worst cases and I understand why they are gun shy about adoptions, but we ended up going to a very reputable breeder (I swear! I did my homework) because it had been weeks and weeks and nothing even a little plausible had developed.
I used to volunteer and be on the board for a couple of dog rescue organizations (racing greyhounds). We charged a $250 adoption fee for our dogs, and that was the “going rate” of all the greyhound adoption groups in the area. I know this because we occasionally discussed raising our rates and always decided to stay competitive to avoid controversy. Anyway, when I adopted my first greyhound I realized just what a bargain it was. Not all rescues are this thorough, but here is what I got for my money:
[ul]
[li]the dog[/li][li]nylon collar and leash[/li][li]turnout muzzle (it’s a greyhound thing)[/li][li]2 t-shirts (me and hubby)[/li][li]records of the dog’s post-race-retirement vetting[/li][li]copy of the dog’s pedigree (race registration, not AKC)[/li][li]one extra dose of dewormer just in case[/li][/ul]
We immediately took the dog to our vet and he complained about not being able to do anything but love on her because she’d already had:
[ul]
[li]been spayed[/li][li]no fleas and ticks[/li][li]no worms [/li][li]had a dental[/li][li]was up to date on all shots[/li][/ul]
All of which would have cost me around $1000 if I’d had to pay for all of that stuff ala carte. So it was quite a bargain. Many rescue/adoption groups state what is included in their adoption fees on their website, but if they don’t, I do encourage everybody to ASK.
One other thing relating to high adoption fees: some groups feel that there is a correlation between a person who is unwilling to pay the adoption fee and a person who is unwilling to pay for necessary vet care. In other words, if you think it’s not worth paying $300 for the dog, you’re likely going to dump the animal back into the shelter system when he gets sick and needs $300 in vetting. So a high price can be a way to let those people screen themselves out.
It’s also extremely important to ask about return policies when adopting/buying animals. Reputable breeders and rescue groups want the animal back if you can’t keep it, for ANY reason. We feel strongly that we’re in a better position to find the right next home for it. We’re in “business” for one reason only, and that is to look after the best interest of the animal. We don’t care if you suddenly think the dog is the wrong color or what, we want him back. Any place that does not have a written return policy is money-driven and doesn’t care about the animal, so you’re more likely to get sick animals from them.
Update on little Toby. He’s still with us. He had started playing and running around last night but today he’s back to sleeping constantly. He’s eating canned food now and keeping it down but doesn’t have much of an appetite. I’m forcing about 5-10cc of Pedialyte/water down him every hour or so, to avoid having to use subq fluids again and it’s keeping his hydration in check. Still no blood which is good but lots of mucus. Here’s a pic of him when I first got him and he was feeling better. Thanks for all the support and advice guys. He’s not out of the woods yet but I’m not giving up on him
