New nonsense

[Happy]

We lost our lab "Cash" just a few weeks ago. He went from healthy, happy and a part of everything I do to extremely ill over night. Now everywhere I look is somewhere he should be.
When Cash decided he lived with me I wasn't looking for a dog. He picked me and wouldn't take no for an answer. My "free" dog ended up needing expensive knee surgery (perhaps from less than stellar breeding) that easily topped Otis's price tag. He had many years of chasing balls and running to meet my car at the end of every day after that surgery so it was well worth it to me. With all said and done I couldn't put a price tag on that boy. I'd give about anything to have him back. I got lucky.
If I do think about another dog one day I think it will be an adult dog from a rescue but I'm nowhere near that point.
It's sad but there are all sorts of ways to make money and anything can be a commodity.

[labradors]

I'm so sorry for your loss of "Cash" who sounded like the purrfect dog who chose you! It sounds as if he had a wonderful life at your place. The worst part of having a dog is when we have to say goodbye .

Hugs,
Linda

[WLLady]

I went through a phase where i said no more animals......because it just hurts too much to lose them. but then, just how empty would life be without the furballs/featherballs. Sometimes my animals annoy me to no end, and i wouldn't change a thing....i know pretty much all of us here have been there at least a few times! it sucks every single time-and would be amazing if they all had a little longer on the planet with us! but it sure makes me a better person in this life, and incredibly there's room inside my heart for every single one of them.

i've been there as a starving student too-and used a food bank to get by....and learned the value of my money....i think our next puppy is going to be from friends of ours. the adoption agencies are insane-we couldn't adopt a puppy because we have a horse. and no fenced yard (we are on 112 acres.....?!). We can't get pet insurance because we run our dogs through the woods, and there's a clause for that. there's also a clause that if a dog is "worked" (ie for hunting, livestock protection etc) that insurance will not cover any injuries, regardless of if it was "work related" or not. We tried to get skeet covered and he LIVED for duck hunting. That dog would retrieve the decoys as fast as we could put them out LOL. No one would cover him because he was considered a "working dog" because of the 4 duck hunting trips a year-on our property, at the river, for 2 hours apiece. We'll adopt someone's covid "cast off" in a little while as our second dog. the time is coming when there will be many many dogs up for adoption because everyone is going back to work and not putting the time in that the animals need. but i absolutely refuse to pay 1000s for a dog unless it's a breeder/lineage/specific hunting line dog. and oh, they're MUTTS. not labradoodles or cockapoos. MUTTS. lol. there, my rant over.

[Brebis]

This is Monty, an Old English Bulldogge the parents of my stepson’s girlfriend bought last fall. My stepson and his girlfriend look after him and he’s a sweetie but being young can be quite rambunctious. They live on a farm but they bring him to visit me in Kingston and get used to being in a city environment and he’s quite good.
When they told me he was $4000 I just about fell off my chair! They have a bitch too who is expecting so, he’s s going to be a Dad in December, I suspect to recoup the cost!
Must admit he is handsome, but don’t think I’d pay that much!

[Ontario Chick]

If he is well bread and worth breeding, not an unusual price.

[KimChick]

I must say, we do miss our dogs. But they are also expensive, not just to buy, but to maintain because there are vet bills, etc. I guess it just depends on the reason people have for getting a dog. If I ever got another dog, it would most likely be to alert us if someone comes on the property, or a poultry guard dog (like a maremma that I saw on FB).

[lolotsung]

Sorry for your loss @Happy Hope you feel better soon.
https://www.rainbowsbridge.com/poem.htm

[Shnookie]

Sorry for your loss Happy. I have been checking the Humane Society website daily for months. Dogs go through a lot faster than they used to. Part of that is because the adoption fee there includes spay/neuter, checkup, and some vaccination. This all costs a lot less through them than if you pay yourself at another vet. They have had an in-house vet for the last few years. I have noticed that they often put an ad on their website "adoptable dogs" page which has no picture. Descriptions in the ads on their websites are useless and generic. They don't actually tell you anything about the dog or cat. They claim that the website is updated every few hours. I have also noticed in their Facebook page that they show many dogs that have never been shown on the adoptable page already with new adopters.

I drove to Moose Jaw last week to look at a 5 month old pup in a private sale for $200. It was advertised on Kijiji as a German Shepherd. When I got there I found out that it was in fact a Husky/German Shepherd cross with no vaccinations. The size, conformation and behavior were more like a Husky than a German Shepherd. Not what I want, so I didn't buy it. The seller had only had it for about 2 months he said.

[Ontario Chick]

Scary, and good for you @Shnookie for waiting to get what you want.
If people weren't able to make money on indiscriminately bred dogs, there would be much less of that happening.

[Shnookie]

The seller said he paid $600 for the pup, when I first got there. Later in the conversation he said that someone owed him money and gave him the pup as payment, so I think he paid nothing. He also said he couldn't afford to keep it. I noticed after I got home that he changed his ad to say the dog was a German Shepherd/Husky mix and added some more information. I had told him because of the way his ad was originally written that I thought it was a pure German Shepherd. I did like the way it looked - coloring and coat were that of a sable shepherd, and it seemed to have good temperment, but no training. I also liked the size, but I cannot give a husky-type dog enough exercise to keep it happy and out of trouble.