I’ve always lived in big cities, and always wanted a dog, but my parents wouldn’t let me have one when I was growing up. Ironically, they started getting dogs as pets around the time I left home to go to school—at one point, they had as many as six dogs; usually Dalmatians or Golden Retrievers. I finally decided to get a dog for myself when I moved to New York City ten years ago because I lived in pet-friendly housing and there were no parents to prevent me from doing so.

I adopted my first dog from North Shore Animal League in Long Island—Scarlett was a seven-year-old Miniature Schnauzer suffering from epilepsy and a ravenous appetite. She was the only adult small dog there and she had been returned three times due to her illness, which could be managed with daily pills. Life with Scarlett was not always easy, especially as her epilepsy worsened with age, but she did introduce me to the world of canine breed-specific rescue.

I often researched her breed in an attempt to find ways to better treat her epilepsy, and stumbled upon the New Jersey Schnauzer Rescue Network (NJSRN; www.njsrn.org), which had a Web site that often contained postings about available dogs and had good information on schnauzers. One day, I found an urgent posting about an elderly schnauzer that was surrendered to a county shelter because her owner could no longer keep her. Due to space restrictions, she had a limited number of days to find another home. Something inside me compelled me to call the shelter and list myself as a “person of last resort”; i.e. if she was not adopted and due to be euthanized, the shelter would call me to get her. That phone call did come, and I woke up early to catch a train. The shelter sent someone to pick me up at the train station and left me in a small room to meet the dog. For an elderly dog, this one was very energetic, and I decided to take her with me. I named her Nina, and she gave my husband and I over three years of joy.

My efforts to rescue Nina from an unnecessary death caught the attention of NJSRN, and they invited me to work with them as their New York City representative. Over a period of three years, I often went to shelters and apartments of strangers to evaluate dogs for their temperament and adoptability, to interview potential adopters from the Manhattan area, and many schnauzers came through my apartment for baths, haircuts, food, and affection. My favorite moments come from going to a dirty, smelly shelter, picking up a dog and taking it home for a makeover! Some stayed for less than a day, some stayed for months at a time. In each case, the goal was to find out who these dogs were and what would be the best home for them.

I also worked with other breed-specific rescue groups. In my attempt to find a big dog of my own, I contacted Minuteman Samoyed Rescue and they told me to go to a NYC shelter to see a dog that had been surrendered by its owner because she didn’t have enough time to take care of him. I finally learned what it was like to fall in love with a dog at first sight—Pippin was handsome, gave me his paw to shake right away, but he had many behavioral issues due to poor socialization when he was a puppy. I learned that I had to be honest with myself regarding what I could handle and what I couldn’t. For three years we worked on fear-based aggression, competed for dominance, stress-related gastrointestinal disorders, and separation anxiety. I loved him, but nothing could quell his anxiety when I left him alone to go to work, and I had to go back to Samoyed Rescue to help me find him a good home. It took six months to find the right environment, but it was worth the wait and the effort.

My vet often invited me to come and look at other dogs that had been abandoned or surrendered—I saw beagles, Jack Russell terriers, pugs, dachshunds, and many more. Each time, I would call or search the Web for a local rescue group and we would work together to find them a temporary or permanent home. At one point, we had the good fortune to take in a lovely male dachshund named Mars, and I fell in love with the breed due to their intelligent and affectionate nature. Unfortunately, Mars could not join our family as we had Scarlett, Nina, and Pippin at that time, but we both agreed that we would have to get a dachshund when we could.

We found ourselves dogless in 2002, and we knew we couldn’t stay that way for very long. We sent an application to a dachshund rescue group in NYC, and they recognized that our rescue efforts showed that we were strong candidates for adoption. Although we had shown preference for an adult dog, they offered us the opportunity to look at a litter of puppies! Their mother had been abandoned in front of a grocery store while she was still pregnant, so the puppies were “born into rescue.” Once again, I fell in love with one of the biggest males in the litter who seemed very mellow and confident at the same time. We brought Baron home at thirteen weeks old, and my experience with Pippin led me to socialize Baron extensively through puppy kindergarten, obedience training, and intensive socialization sessions. I took him everywhere with me in a bag—on the subway, the bus, and various shops that allowed dogs. Typical of a dachshund, Baron does not care for big dogs and is very territorial, but he is wonderful and fits into our lifestyle beautifully. Dog owners often say that “dogs are like potato chips, you can’t just have one,” and we were no different. Once we felt that Baron had been properly housebroken and socialized, we put the word out to all our dachshund rescue contacts that we would be ready to adopt again. We were very upfront about what we were looking for: a spayed or neutered adult that was housebroken, could be left alone during the day, and most importantly, would play with Baron. We were certainly interested in adopting a retired show dog, and that is how we got in touch with Coast to Coast Dachshund Rescue (CCDR) who at the time was placing retired show dogs and other dogs from a breeder.

We filled out the application, got our references together, and welcomed the home visit and interview. We were used to this routine as we had done rescue ourselves and had adopted at least once before—as former rescuers, we would have done the same thing in placing a dog! It is very important to be honest and candid with rescue groups; while their priority is to place the dog in the best home possible, they also want the adopter to be happy with their decision. CCDR is well-known in the rescue community for being very good at matching up dogs with adopters. After the July 4th holiday this year (and after meeting several candidate dogs), we met a three-year-old male named Kaiser. We were told that he was very defensive at first—skittish and aggressively vocal (barking and growling), but that he was very affectionate and playful once he was comfortable. All that was true, and Kaiser is now fully integrated in our home. He will always be sensitive to new environments, but he energizes Baron and loves us very much.

We have made the conscious decision to always adopt a dog from a rescue group—we loved raising a puppy, but it was a lot of hard work and we don’t always have the time to do it properly. We like adopting an adult dog and seeing him or her flourish under an appropriate routine and lots of affection. If you are partial to particular breed as I was (and still am), almost every breed has its own national and local rescue organization on the Web. The people in the rescue groups often know the specific dog very well through foster care, so you would have a very good idea of what you’re getting. They are also a valuable resource of information on the breed, and are generally very accessible. Some find the application/interview process burdensome, but consider them as safeguards to ensure that the dog goes to the best home possible. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the time to resume rescue work again, but it was one of the most rewarding and sometimes heartbreaking things I have ever done.

Web links:

North Shore Animal League: www.nsal.org

New Jersey Schnauzer Rescue Network: www.njsrn.org

Coast to Coast Dachshund Rescue: www.c2cdr.org

Minuteman Samoyed Rescue: http://doghows.org/flash/mscr/index.html