“Mom! Dad! He wants to come home with us! Can we keep him, pleeeeeez?”
It’s a charming moment. But adopting on impulse is a lot like marrying in haste—you’re likely to repent later. Suzanne Gassner, director of education for the Humane Society of Missouri, suggests answering these questions before you commit:
• How do you perceive your companion? As a member of the family? As somebody to hang out with you and participate in activities? Or as someone just to be there when you come home and snuggle?
• How much time do you have? If nobody’s home for 10 hours a day, that’s very, very hard on a dog. Two cats curled up together don’t care whether you’re gone the whole weekend.
• Do you have enough space for a goat? Do you have a fenced-in yard for that labradoodle? A dog on a chain feels vulnerable and gets incredibly anxious; it can develop a lot of paranoid behaviors, like pacing and chewing.
• What’s the animal’s activity level? Size makes no difference. Great Danes are like big cats. A little beagle alone inside all day, pretty soon he’s stripping your wallpaper. Some animals just need a job—even if it’s getting the frozen peanut butter out of the Kong.
• Can you handle the whole package? Consider your pet shedding all over the Aubusson rug…pricey medical care…getting the pro-
per gear…managing travel logistics.
• Have you done your research? Guinea pigs, sugar gliders—those little guys have very specific needs that are easily forgotten.
Find Out Whether
• The animal’s nocturnal (if you’re not).
• Its lifespan makes sense for you (a parrot might still be living at home in 2073; a mouse might be gone by 2015).
• There’s an odor that makes you queasy. (Ferrets and hamsters can be…fragrant.)
• The animal bonds to just one human, or hates other animals on sight.
Remember
• Opposites attract. If your household’s chaotic, you might want a dozy critter. If you’re sedentary, a hyper one will fix that in a flash.
• Being told to care for an animal doesn’t magically instill responsibility in a child.
• A wary shelter pup or kitten might turn into a party animal once it has a home. But if it’s cowering or shaking, make sure you’ve got a peaceful home and a gentle hand.
BREEDING TELLS
Even if you’ve adopted a mutt, he or she has breeds in the mix, and breeds have built-in abilities and quirks. Observe which traits are dominant, and you’ll see clues to what’s fun for this dog, how it learns best, and how you can avoid disaster. Sight hounds that love to run aren’t great bets for off-lead excursions. Water retrievers will see a muddy pond and splash in. Scent hounds track a lot better than a Lhasa apso can; French bulldogs aren’t candidates for agility. A Russian wolfhound might not be the brightest sparkler in the parade, but border collies and German shepherds can practically do trig; poodles have huge vocabularies, and golden retrievers are natural-born therapists.
