The other site is not nearly as cheesy, you’re right.

I found their other website via Google (http://poms4u.tripod.com/). They do have pics of a show dog, but seems to be some time ago (1994). Other photos make me wonder. They do appear to be all over the web – lots of people are selling Poms and bragging about how their dog came from this breeder’s lineage, so hard to tell. Interesting website though – if only for the “cheese-factor”.
Funny how they have two websites isn’t it? Very different looks to them.

Re: Pom Site? I have not seen it. The fact that they took it down after getting highlighted in your post pretty much tells me it’s not a legitimate breeder. If it was they would have nothing to hide nor feel the need to take it down. I had the same thing happen to me after I posted “Playing on both sides of the fences” – all of the sudden none of the sites had dogs available. Hmmmm… They did a few hours before I posted!

It’s amazing how these cockroaches head for the hills when a little light is shined upon them. Let’s all be a spotlight shall we?

Interesting about the Pom site… Did you get to see it?

Normally I would also agree with Mary too. I think if you buy a dog (in general) it’s not a rescue, but then I wonder… what do I call Jasper (my Sheltie)?

Jasper and his sister Jasmine were stuck in a dirty, nasty, flea-infested pet store window for the first 7 months of their lives (the first two being spent in a puppy mill I presume). A woman happened by and took pity on them and a cat. The place was so dirty that the cat’s litter box was overflowing with feces and both dogs and the cat had fleas so bad that they had lost patches of fur from scratching so much. She made the pet store owner a low offer to get them out of the store and then brought all 3 of them immediately to our animal shelter. She also reported the pet store to the Humane Society. I adopted Jasper after fostering both him and Jasmine. So do I call Jasper a rescue? He was purchased from a pet store. Did he become one when I adopted him from the shelter? I guess defining a “rescue” is harder than I thought.

As for the Pom site? I guess you have your answer. It appears to be down. Did a little blog post bring it down? Hmmm…..

In the case of Frankie, even though he might not have gone through the animal shelter system, I would say that you “rescued” him and enriched his life a thousand fold.

I wonder why is it so important for us to define what is a rescue dog…? Is it because, like Edie mentioned, it is currently the “trendy” or “right” thing to do in people’s minds. Is the label important so that people will know what side of the fence that they fall on…?

I hold people who have adopted animals from a local animal shelter and who take in multiple animals in the highest regard. I have also met a lot of people who have very definite opinions and attitudes towards those who do not get their pets through adoption or rescue efforts.

We did not rescue Penny from the humane society nor pick her up as a stray on the side of the road. We didn’t even go to a local breeder to get her because we didn’t know of any in our area that bred Bichons. We happened to find out that one of our neighborhood pet stores had Bichon puppies and that was how we got her, but whenever we mention that to some people, they give us that “look” and say that we should have either got her from a breeder or that “they” always get their dogs from the humane society.

It used to bother me in the beginning, made me feel like we were somehow bad for not “rescuing” a dog instead of buying Penny…like we were somehow contributing to the problem of dog overpopulation and puppy mills all by ourselves. (I know that the store that we bought Penny from does not support puppy mills. They only get their puppies from local breeders and keep careful records on the parents and how often they were bred and other litter information).

When I look at how much our lives have changed and how much happiness and joy that Penny has brought into our lives it doesn’t matter what anyone says. I won’t tell you how much we paid for her, but I will tell you that without a doubt, she is worth every single “penny”.

I don’t want to discount the puppy breeder experience though because it’s what turned me against them. Had I not seen for myself (on a mission to buy a puppy, of course) I’d have never believed people did stuff like that. Much like taking teens to the morgue to get across the message about drunk driving some of us need to be hit in the face with it. So don’t think me bad for “rescuing” from a bad breeder, just remember that experience prompts many of us to do for dogs where we can.