Adopt Don’t Shop

My family has had a cat, five hamsters, a fish, a dog, and now, drumroll please: two guinea pigs.

We’ve enjoyed having pets, and although we bought the hamsters and fish at a pet store, we’re definitely of the adopt don’t shop mindset.

Our cat, Tiger, was a stray we adopted. While having a family garage sale, he was meandering around the neighborhood. It was raining and we left a little makeshift bed out in the garage. We took him in and enjoyed having him as a pet, he definitely was fun to have around, and we enjoyed having him as part of our family. We had him until we got ready to move to our current house. What we decided to do was give him to another family who was looking for a cat to adopt. You see, we have a number of family members and friends who struggle with cat allergies and didn’t want to bring the cat into another home.

While we had Tiger, my sister and I got interested in hamsters, when a friend of ours had one, and we started researching them. We ended up picking out teddybear hamsters. I named mine Lucy (top hamster pictured) and my sister named her’s Bess. Although we bought them at a pet store, I don’t think there’s hardly ever any at the shelter, and we wouldn’t have known about the option as it was 10 years ago now.

The hamsters were unique in that they were the first pets my sister and I had that we were almost completely responsible for. From cleaning their habitats, to feeding them, filling their water bottles, and entertaining them. It was a good challenge for two late elementary school girls.

Perhaps a year or so after Lucy passed, I decided I wanted another hamster, I decided on the name Daisy for her (bottom hamster pictured). The two hamsters were very similar, but I was happy to care for both.

Fast forward to midway through high school and my parents decided we could look to get a dog, so all of us started looking at the animal humane society website. It was summer and anytime we saw a dog that we liked we’d talk about it and head over to meet them, many times they were taken when we got there, and sometimes we’d realize it wasn’t the right fit, either they needed more exercise than we could provide or they were too big for our home. After a couple months of searching, we found ourselves at the Animal Humane Society again, and saw, sitting quietly in his pen, a black little cocker spaniel, named Jack. We decided to ask the employees if we could see him and realized that he could be the perfect fit, he was about 20 pounds, fluffy, a great breed for us, and a great temperament. So we took Jack home. It was quite literally the perfect timing as we took him home on what we were told was his fourth birthday (October 2nd)!

Jack was a great dog for us, he would cuddle with us, but he would also get excited and run down the stairs to greet us when we came home. We even took him with us on trips to the north shore of Minnesota. He would also come to holiday gatherings with us, and even a friend of mine’s house on occasion. He met numerous dogs and got along with nearly every one of them. Everyone who met him loved him, especially us, his family.

Unfortunately Jack had skin problems later on in his life and got cancer in the end. We realized he was getting to be an older dog, and we decided to have him humanely put down, it was so hard, but we all said our goodbyes…

This Christmas my sister decided she wanted to adopt guinea pigs, so after some research and buying all the supplies, we went to the Animal Humane Society again this morning and she found a bonded pair of female guinea pigs to take home (names tbd)!

Welcome to the family guinea pigs!

#inmemoryofjackglader our dog.