Is There Anything Other Than A Puppy Mill?

[CarolineWH]

When we got our first dog, it was from a private family...They were a friend of my husband's and I was introduced to dogs in the family for the first time in my life...My Mother hated dogs and I am not sure if my Father liked anything...Never really got to know the man and had no regrets. Now at this late age in life I would like to have taken the time to sit down with him to find out what had happened in life to make him the way he was, but that is another story and this is about dogs...Please forgive...Sometimes I love to go back in time too much...But it is fun...

Our first little girl was a mixture of Cocker Spaniel and Chihuahua...Now seeing her Father was the Chihuahua, figure that one out... But it happened..She was a feisty little dog and would take on big dogs anytime..Then she would look at her size and run for home...She was our "Ginger"....It was hard having a dog with three kids but I loved her and I was hooked...After our first little girl, seven more followed...One that we had ordered two States away from a reputable breeder, was a mess. This made me wonder if there is a reputable breeder...I guess I still do...

One dog ago, when I thought this would be our very last, we again ordered a little girl Sh*h-Tzu...I forgot to say but this became our favorite breed of dog after our Ginger...So we stayed with them..For some reason they had a tendency to contact some rare blood disease where their immune system would shut down...The vet told us this was from too much inner breeding...He may be right on that...Anyhow, we had this little girl on order...This woman was very prominent in the circles of dogs and we waited six months for her to be born as we were getting the girl choice of the litter. She was the only girl so we just adored her. She lived until she was 6 years old...Again bad health and hip problems...This woman told us that she was not a puppy mill by any means and they lived in a nice house...When we went to see our baby and again when we picked her up I noticed one thing...In the dining room area was a stack of cages...Maybe nine of them..The dogs were well taken care of but they were caged in the kitchen when we arrived...When we picked her up to take her home, they were all in cages.....To me this is pretty suspect as they were not trained and maybe 9 of them in all...

After this little girl passed on I did not want anymore dogs..We had just built our wonderful large dream house and the carpeting alone had a sign on it that said "no dogs allowed"...But my husband missed her so much and I gave in to yet another dog at our late age in life...He wanted another girl but this time we decided to change breeds...Sometimes I wonder why I even say anything like no more as it isn't even a stop sign anymore...It is useless babble...I looked at the Sunday paper and a breeder had a Yorkshire Terrier about 50 miles from here...We went up there and without a doubt with the separate building in back for his dogs, we knew we had still found another puppy mill. I will say this about him...He had a great reputation and knew his business....He had only three puppies to start out of the litter...One little girl was sold and this left only one remaining. She was to be ours....They also had a little boy....We paid our money down for the little girl and left to pick her up in five weeks. She was only four weeks old...I was happy as he was happy....That's about it...He gives me the world so I give him a dog...

The next day he was mowing the lawn and rang the front door bell. I opened the door and there he stood....He looked adorable and I am a sucker for cute men...Especially if they have tight shorts on, open neck shirts and Australian hats...Add hot and I am a positive mess....He looked at me and asked me if he could have the boy too...He said that this way I would have my own dog...I told him that he was crazy as I didn't even want one to start...He kind of pouted as he closed the door but said OK....I guess we all know that I immediately called the breeder and he knocked off $100 for the boy and so we have twins..Completely different looking...He is beautiful light brown and she is the color of all the others....She speaks eight languages and is brilliant and he is dumb as a brick but oh, how we love them......

So this is my story of puppy mills...I think that there are many of them around and we either were lucky or unlucky....Looking back with the love that they gave us.....No regrets....We just love them to death....Take care, Caroline

P.S. I add. I wish that they were not around but how many people would go to all the trouble that these people go through having puppies and the work....N O T T H I S K I D!!!!!!!!!!