I had a really silly incident when I adopted my first Bloodhound too. I'd previously adopted a Black and Tan Coonhound from the same pound with bad separation anxiety. She's pee if I went in the next room and she couldn't get to me, and bay and bay and bay. I had to take her everywhere with me, and took her to visit a friend out of town one night. He said it would be ok to leave her home because his roommate wouldn't be back so the barking wouldn't bother anyone. I asked him to call him and let him know there was a strange dog in the house just in case he did come home, so she didn't slip out. He did that, we went out, and came home to no roommate and no dog. My friend called his roommate, who said he'd let her out because he thought she needed the bathroom, and she'd run off. They didn't have a fence and he just opened the front door and let her go. My friend is a cop so he called in to work to see if anyone had reported a loose dog, and someone had called but when they went out to investigate all they saw was a raccoon. We went to that spot, and saw my dog laying injured on the shoulder. I completely lost it, but somehow we got her picked up and taken to the vet hospital. They kept her overnight until a particular surgeon came in, but she had to be put down. A couple of days later the pound called to say they had my dog. I told them they couldn't possibly have, but they wanted proof. So I went there with the invoice from the vet, and out of curiosity looked at the dog. They were almost identical, and I was still so upset over my dog dying I thought I might have been given a second chance with her. I waited until it was time for her to be adopted, and went back to get her. The kennel was empty, and when I found the ACO she told me they had had to put her down too as she had an internal obstruction that would have taken all of their vet budget to treat. I was in tears, she was in tears, and she told me she'd just picked up another dog she thought i'd like and was sure nobody would come for. She brought out an enormous overly-friendly Bloodhound and it was a done deal. I told her i'd be back when the week was up, and called every single day to make sure she was still there. I was waiting for them to open the morning she was available so that she could get out of that place ASAP, but maybe I had a sixth sense too. I signed everything I needed to and was leaving with her when a strange woman came up to me and asked if she could help me. I said no, i'd just adopted this dog. She had a mad look on her face and told me the dog was supposed to come into their rescue, and I needed to give her to them. She called another woman over who was with the same organisation, and both of them starting asking me question after question. One of them went inside to talk to the ACO, and came out and asked me if it was true that my last dog got run over. So I had to go through the whole story of what had happened a couple of weeks before, and then she told me she'd got my address and phone number and would be checking up on the dog. At this point the ACO came out and set them both straight, luckily she was the type not to take any crap. They were still mad as they had made a vet appointment for the dog, but instead of rescuing one of the other dogs due to be put down, they just left. Their attitude was not that of a caring volunteer, but of someone who thought only they were capable of taking care of an animal.
A week or so later I ran into them at
Petsmart where they were running an adoption event. We'd just gone in for dog food. Again I got the 5th degree about how I was taking care of her. I'd had to call the pound to let them know the dog had heartworm and would need to be treated before I could get her spayed, and they had passed this on to the rescue. So the interrogation continued about how and where I was going to get this done, and whether I could afford it. I really wish I had told them where to go, even more so when they kept creeping around the ends of the aisles and watching us! Ladybird lived out a very happy rest of her life, some of which was spent doing Search and Rescue but most sleeping on the sofa. It makes me mad to think she could have spent the majority of her last 18 months in a shelter because the volunteers didn't think anyone was good enough to look after her.
