Originally Posted by addevo  As others have posted, there are plenty of Yorkies who end up in rescue who have been well loved and looked after - they are not all victims of abuse and neglect that are going to take months of training and hundreds of dollars at the vet to rehabilitate. Owners pass away or go into nursing homes, get deployed with the military, lose their jobs and have to move in with family who won't let them bring their dog, etc.
What's worse, as hard as it is for most pet owners to understand, there are alot of people in the world who have friendly, healthy, well behaved little dogs that are quite willing to dump them at a shelter when they have a new baby or start dating some dope who doesn't like dogs.
Rescues are actually MUCH more trustworthy about telling you all of the negative aspects of a particular dog - particularly known health and behaviour problems - because they want to make a permanent match and don't want the dog to end up homeless again. Breeders just want the cash, and people who are "re-homing" their dogs through Craig's List or the newspaper often conceal the real reason they are getting rid of them, such as they aren't housebroken or they eat their own poop or they throw up all the time and they don't want to spend money at the vet to find out why. These are true stories from friends who have purchased dogs from breeders and newspaper ads, but that's not what you originally asked about.
But I just realized that I haven't answered your original request for a "real life" positive story about rescues. I have one - a woman dropped off a pregnant Yorkie at the shelter where I volunteer. Misty is a WONDERFUL dog. Beautiful shiny silver and gold coat, well mannered, housetrained and sweet as can be. Her owner had never bothered to get her spayed, so when she turned up pregnant, little Misty got dumped at the shelter because her owner didn't want to deal with taking care of and then finding homes for puppies that weren't purebred. (meaning she couldn't SELL them).
Misty gave birth to her puppies, and despite her inexperience with motherhood, she was an excellent mother to them. Once they were 8 weeks old, she was adopted by a woman who'd previously adopted a Yorkie from the shelter. "And they lived happily ever after" I was heartbroken that I couldn't adopt her myself, but already have a Yorkie female in the house and the shelter recommended that I look for a male. So we adopted one of her puppies. And like his mommy, he is sweet and calm. Once he grew out of puppyhood, we got him certified to do pet therapy, and he now visits nursing homes. So there are two happy ending stories for you about adopting from a shelter. Actually, there are 5 happy endings. We've kept in touch with the owners of the other 3 littermates, and they are all over the moon with their dogs, too. So please tell your sister-in-law - respectfully - that I can show her 5 examples of healthy and wonderful little dogs that have come from a shelter.
Whatever route you take on getting your Yorkie, please remember that there are no "perfect" dogs and you need to expect to spend a significant amount of time and money on keeping them happy and healthy. The more time you invest in training them, the happier you all will be. And according to a study I just read a study by the research firm IBISWorld, the average dog costs $13,330 over an estimated lifetime of 13 years, and as much as $1966 during the first year. And that number is probably low for Yorkies - they often live longer than that and are prone to problems with their knees and teeth that may require significant vet expenses down the road.
My recommendation would be to engage in serious discussions with as many of the Yorkie Rescues and your local animal shelters as you can. The rescues are run by volunteers, and shelters are always understaffed, so it sometimes take a long time to hear back from them, but please be patient. Tell them what you are looking for and let them work their magic. They are excellent matchmakers, they truly DO have YOUR best interests in mind (they want satisfied adopters more than you will ever know) and if you are willing to wait, they WILL find what you and your wife are looking for.
So in my long-winded way, what I'm saying is that No, not all dogs from shelters have serious problems. But also, No, it isn't easy to find one. If you follow an ad in the paper, you can have a puppy tonight. Getting one from a rescue takes longer. It will take perseverance and patience, but the rewards are more than worth it. Please at least look into it. |