Seth and I are dog people, always have been and always will be. Once we got married we of course wanted a dog but our apartment only allowed dogs 25 lbs or under... we didn't want a small dog. Nope, Seth and I love the dogs that are too big to sit on your lap but do anyways.
When we bought our house we immediately started talking about getting a dog. (We bought a house that sits on a half acre so we could have a big yard for our big dog to run freely.) When it came to talking about what breed of dog we wanted we said that we both love golden retrievers but found they are so expensive to purchase from a breeder. We started looking at Golden rescues and realized that most of those dogs were older or had health issues that we didn’t have the money to commit to.
We LOVED the idea of rescuing a dog but we weren't sure where to start. Seth and I decided we wanted a rescue puppy because we wanted to train the dog ourselves for our first dog and we wanted to save the life of a puppy. We started checking Petfinder.com to see the available dogs in our area. Puppies are hard to adopt because a lot of people want a puppy so we had a hard time finding one that we thought would be a good fit. But then one day, we found a puppy that we fell in love with.
Real Rott Rescue is in Cleveland, Ohio area and will forever hold a special place in our hearts. The puppy we found was named Camilla and she was part Golden Retriever, part Boarder Collie, and part St. Bernard. We immediately filled out an application for her and after being approved, we were told that she was already spoken for. They sent us three of the other puppies that were still available and that's when our lives changed. Enter Bindi.
Binidi was one of the 22 puppies from the Golden 22 litter with Real Rott Rescue. After talking with Seth, we decided to put down our deposit to take Binid home. Since she was going to be 8/9 weeks old when we brought her home, we decided to change her name to Riley. Riley's foster mom, Nikki, was amazing and started calling her Riley so she could get used to her name. And on June 1st, 2017 we were able to bring home the newest member of our family.
Rescuing a dog is much cheaper than buying a dog and it was the better option for us. We liked the fact that Riley came home spayed since most rescues don't let their dogs leave without being spayed or neutered. The part we LOVED about Real Rott is it was not a shelter like most humane societies. All of the dogs go into foster homes and are able to be a part of their foster family before finding their forever homes. Riley potty trained in 2 weeks because of it. The foster parents work with the dogs and the dogs get to be with other foster dogs or dogs that the foster parent has. Riley got to be with her 2 brothers and Nikki's other dogs until we brought her home and because of it, Riley loves other dogs and is very friendly with them
When you buy a dog, you're able to pick out the exact dog you want. When you rescue a dog, they will most likely be mixed like Riley. But the fact that you are saving not only your dogs life but the lives of other dogs as well means more than anything. When you rescue and take your dog home, you are freeing up a space in the rescue for another dog to be taken in. Some shelters put dogs down, Real Rott Rescue tries to save those dogs that are about to be put down. So when we rescued Riley, 3 lives were changed: Riley's, another dog's, and mine.
Next time you're looking for a family pet, please consider adopting. According to humanesociety.org, "2.7 million adoptable dogs and cats are euthanized in the United States, simply because too many pets come into shelters and too few people consider adoption when looking for a pet". I can't promise that they will be the perfect pet but you will change their life and hopefully they will change yours.
