Where the Hell Are All the Dogs?

 

When Mark and I visited the Miami-Dade Animal Control three years ago, we walked into a noisy, smelly, crowded facility. There were a lot of dogs of every breed in there and Mark and I managed to fall in love with a couple of them. But it was when I picked up the scrawny, dirty little schnauzer that I knew Lilo was the one. We renamed her Bette. 

We certainly didn't expect to lose Bette so soon, she was only three years old. Since her death, not only have Mark and I missed that little dog, so has Chandler. So yesterday we drove the long drive to the South Side of Chicago, to Chicago Animal Care and Control. We're looking for another playmate for Chandler, a smallish dog that does not shed. Chandler does enough shedding of fur for two dogs. Anyway, we walked into the place and were surprised at how clean and quiet it was. A large city like Chicago, we expected chaos.  We expected a hell hole of barking, stinky cages, and lots and lots of dogs. After presenting our credentials at the door, we were allowed to go into the dog adoption area. There were about twenty five dogs in there, in very clean cages. Not a bit of doggy odor, no poop in sight. What we didn't see were small dogs. Only pit bulls. It was a room full of pit bulls, of which only about ten were deemed adoptable. I don't get it. Where the hell are the dogs? Where are all the abandoned dogs, the dogs that people didn't want and turned over to the city? Where are the strays and the lost dogs that never found their owners? In a city of nearly three million people you would think that there would be hundreds of dogs in there. Unfortunately, we couldn't take one of those pit bulls. We already have a big dog and at my age I cannot handle more than Mr. Chandler and a small dog. So next time we will be visiting the Anti Cruelty Society, and I hope they have more to choose from. We really wanted to save a dog from being euthanized, so maybe if we take a dog from a no-kill shelter there will be more room for one transferred in from Animal Care and Control.