Sometimes I just don't understand people....animal re-homing rant

[AngieChick]

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I take issue with this. When my father was deployed to Thailand for a year my mother moved in with his family. She was 22 years old with a 1 year old and a 1 month old (yikes!), they had been married for 2 years. My father felt much better knowing that she was safe with his parents and near his sisters for support. My mother was a very dedicated wife and mother, so lets not judge the character of others because they have made different choices in how best to cope with the hardship of having a spouse deployed.

Back to pets - when we moved from CA to Oregon we had 2 dogs, 2 cats, a rabbit, a lizard and 2 kids. It was among the hardest 18 hours of our lives. However, it never occurred to us to not take any of our pets. Yes, it would have been easier (and cheaper) to find a rental without pets, but we knew that when we acquired them. I understand that sometimes things happen in ones life. But moving does not generally have to cause a family to rehome their pets. Yes, it can be really hard to move them, but sometimes we have to do really hard things, that's just how it is.

 

[chixie]

maybe they can't take the dog with them for some reason or other... my dad was in the air force and I remember moving and we had to leave our poodle behind with family... we moved to germany... he let us get a pair of doves there ... when he got his orders to come back to the u.s. we couldn't bring them backand had to rehome them with our neighbor who had several other birds.

 

[Felicia]

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I agree with you completely Emzyyy

 

[WingingIt]

I'm not sticking up for them or blaming them, because I don't know them, either way. I'm a military spouse and at our post here German Sheps are NOT allowed in housing. If you are coming from another post and own one of what they deemed "dangerous" breeds, you HAVE to either live off post (if you can find someone who will rent to you with a large dog, which is hard here) or you have to find a family/friend/rescue/stranger to take your dog. Hubby has deployed twice and we did not get a year's notice either time, so they might not have had that much notice, especially if they moved posts and ended up in a unit that was deploying soon after their arrival. We know when hubby's next deployment is set to be and it is over a year away but this's the first time we've gotten that much notice.

Lots of people are up to their eyeballs in debt for one reason or another (some good reasons, some not) and some of them choose to move 'home' to save the extra money to pay off bills, some go because they are new to the area and know noone and want the family support because there is no military support stepping up(like our last unit, the FRG and Rear D was a JOKE, we had two meetings the whole time Hubby was gone and noone even bothered to contact me to tell me when they were coming home), some go because they want their family to raise their kids while they blow all the extra money partying and cheating on their spouses...........

I'll just hope they found a great home for their pup with someone who can and will take care of it forever.

 

[chickencoop31320]

Quote:
I take issue with this. When my father was deployed to Thailand for a year my mother moved in with his family. She was 22 years old with a 1 year old and a 1 month old (yikes!), they had been married for 2 years. My father felt much better knowing that she was safe with his parents and near his sisters for support. My mother was a very dedicated wife and mother, so lets not judge the character of others because they have made different choices in how best to cope with the hardship of having a spouse deployed.

Back to pets - when we moved from CA to Oregon we had 2 dogs, 2 cats, a rabbit, a lizard and 2 kids. It was among the hardest 18 hours of our lives. However, it never occurred to us to not take any of our pets. Yes, it would have been easier (and cheaper) to find a rental without pets, but we knew that when we acquired them. I understand that sometimes things happen in ones life. But moving does not generally have to cause a family to rehome their pets. Yes, it can be really hard to move them, but sometimes we have to do really hard things, that's just how it is.

My post wasn't meant to hurt anyone's feelings or infer that ALL military spouses are moving home for the same reason. I said MOST not ALL. That's also why I said IMO- that means from my own experiences and what I have witnessed. If you could seen half of what I've witnessed living in military housing you would know why I said what I said. It's actually really sad when you think about the children involved.
I'm glad your mother is a good spouse, the military needs more of them.

 

[georgialee]

I don't get it either. We moved from MN to NY with 4 cats - all in a large kennel in the car we were hauling behing the u-haul, lol! Some people today really lack a sense of responsibility

 

[Hobbley_Farm]

As a military spouse, I have to say that there are any number of reasons that they may not be able to keep their dog. Ignorance and selfishness are definately posible. But there may be other reasons to. There may be medical reasons on top of finance, on top of who knows what.

My husband has been deployed twice and I can cut some slack to other military families here. Sometimes the best laid out plans do not work. You never know what the mental state of a family may be when their Soldier is being deployeed. You don't know where they are being deployeed, what danger level and so forth.

I do agree that many people feel pets are disposable, and that is wrong. However, without knowing every single factor, I take pause in judging.

This animal may be a very beloved animal and that is why they are trying to rehome it so that it's living conditions stay comfortable.

As far as rehoming fees, I DO believe in modest rehoming fee's for pets as it keeps the baiters away for the most part. Many animal rescue groups will suggest this. People who have to pay even a little bit are just a little bit less likely to do evil things to the animal.

Anyone who is or has ever served as knows how stressful and heartbreaking a deployement can be. As others have stated, not every post has the same rules as far as pets are concerned.

And lastly,
we have a many animals right now, and should my husband be called up, it is entirely possible that something could happen to me where I could not care for the animals properly and would rather rehome them than have them suffer. Does this mean I do not deserve to have any animals? Right now I'm fit enough to care for my animals (body and mind). But what if...? Would I be slammed also for rehoming what I felt I could not take care of properly if my situation changed?

 

[geareduplyn]

When I moved from CA to SC. I hired an animal mover, and sent a semi load. Still had 4 dogs, 3 parrots and a cat that couldn't be caught until the last minute in the car with us for 2845 miles. moving critters is not difficult .

 

[chickencoop31320]

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Well said.

My husband is active duty Army and we're coming up on our 3rd deployment at the end of this year. Like my signature says, we have A LOT of animals right now. We considered his deployments before getting ANY of them. We have kids 12 & 7 who help out, I would only rehome them as a drastic last resort.
IMO I think the real lesson here is: when you opt to get an animal, consider all the possibilities before you jump in.
AND
At least these people are trying to rehome the animal instead of dumping it in the country, the city streets or the animal shelter.
Every animal deserves a caring home for life.

 

[chickencoop31320]

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I love the little Pekingese in your avatar.
My sister used to have one just like him named "Brownie". He was the sweetest lil dog