Photo: MAILEY MCLAUGHLIN / Atlanta Humane Society

Maybe you’ve held off on adopting because you want a purebred dog rather than a mixed breed. This article discusses finding and adopting purebred dogs from rescue groups. You can also get some tips on adopting a purebred, and what to look for.

Do you have any experience looking for and/or adopting a purebred dog from a shelter or a rescue group?

Photo: Pete Souza / The White House

To be fair, there’s a lot of people that are questioning the authenticity of the tattoo on Mickey, and you can check out the thread on urban legends site Snopes for more details. But as people on Snopes were trying to determine whether this was a hoax or not, they came across some images that looked very real, including a Hello Kitty tattoo on a dog. Bottom line, there are people that are really tattooing their pets.

Certainly there are some legitimate reasons to tattoo your pet for identification purposes, and there are tattoo registries set up to find your pet via an identification number tattooed onto their skin.

But for cosmetic purposes only, what are your feelings about tattooing pets? Would you tattoo your own cat or dog? Do you think the practice should be banned?

Photo: Balkanpix.com

Do you let your dog show love with a smooch on the lips? 

Photo: MAILEY McLAUGHLIN / Atlanta Humane Society

They fear the first family’s choice will increase the dog’s popularity, creating shady breeders and fickle owners who don’t know how to care for the delicate breed. I care, I really do. But somehow, I feel the water dogs of the world have gotten a fairer shake than my dog: a pit bull.

While Diesel is the most docile dog I know (he jumps when I drop a pan in the kitchen), he’s always followed by looks or “ugghs” when I tell people that he is “a pit bull/bulldog mix.” Often, before I even say anything, I’m asked: “Is your dog vicious?” “Is he friendly?” — questions I’m sure would never be asked if Diesel was a Chihuahua — or even a smaller breed.

Now, some of you might think I should suck it up and get used to the questions: After all, I decided to own this type of dog so I need to deal with the consequences. But what about the fact that I’m a dog lover who is raising a dog that would’ve probably been abandoned in the pound, simply because no one wants the stigma of owning a pit bull. In my eyes, I feel I’m helping the cause by giving this dog a good life and showing others that yes, pit bulls can be friendly and kind and just as playful as any other dog that you might meet.

Any other owners of misunderstood breeds out there? Does your dog face a certain stereotype? If so, how do you handle it?

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We went to a local rescue group to adopt two cats. The rescue group insisted we bring one cat home first, then adopt the other one a week later. I’ve always been told it is better to bring two cats in at the same time. Will I have problems now bringing the second cat into our home? The first cat only has three legs. Could that be why they wanted us to wait? He gets around fine — you’d never know he was handicapped.

It is always recommended to adopt cats in pairs, as the buddy system tends to work well for them. The most stressful experience most cats undergo is change of environment and having another feline companion to help them through the transition to a new home is, in my opinion, imperative. This is most important if the cats are already friends or litter mates, so there would be no reason to introduce them to the home separately.

The fact that your new cat is a tripod would also not necessarily make a difference, as this handicap does not tend to slow them down a bit or affect their ability to adjust. The only instance that might make this appropriate is if two random cats that did not know each other at all were selected. In this case I would bring them both home at the same time and set each of them up in separate “safe” rooms and slowly introduce them to each other and their new home simultaneously.

Cats should always be housed in pairs. Contrary to popular belief (myth) cats are not solitary. They hunt alone but live in colonies. It is always ideal to adopt in pairs and have multiple cats so they have a chance to interact with their own species. This is particularly important if your cats are indoors only. To put it in perspective, imagine a human locked in a house their entire life and never getting to see, speak to, or touch another person, ever! The only exception to this rule would be the little 6-week-old kitten adopted and kept as an “only cat” its entire life. These cats become very poorly socialized and often can never be introduced to another cat as they are typically extremely aggressive to their own kind.

These cases are sad, and the cat essentially has been “ruined” by its humans, and now cannot enjoy the companionship of its own species. The long and short of it is two are better than one when it comes to kitties — great news for most cat owners.

This group gets a large number of its dogs from Southern states, then finds homes for them. There was a link to a page entitled “Why do Labs Need to be Rescued?” (http://labs4rescue.com/why.shtml) that had four reasons why Labradors are not valued in states such as Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana. Georgia, too. They are:

• Spay/neuter laws are not strictly enforced (and many residents believe a dog loses his/her instinct and aptitude for hunting when they are sterilized).
• Labrador females have large litters, and the population isn’t large enough to support all of the dogs.
• Some Southerners hope to supplement their incomes by breeding and selling dogs.
• The Labrador population booms in Southern shelters when hunting season ends as dogs with inadequate hunting skills are “surrendered.”

My initial reaction was that this was an unfair assessment of Southern dog owners, but as I talked to friends about it, ones who have lived here much longer than I have, I began to wonder if they were right.

Do you think Southern dog owners are more irresponsible than their Northern counterparts, or are Southerners getting a bad rap because of a few?