These are
Old Dog Haven dogs. Penny on the big cushion I adopted shortly after moving to Lake Stevens and she was with me for about six years, which made her 15 or 16 when she died. A dog that got thrown out by somebody for whatever reason, it wasn't good enough. She was loving, loyal, protective, funny, and beautiful. She was much loved and is much missed.
Missy the overweight Dalmatian. Someone put her in the basement with a large bag of kibbles and left her there alone. Dalmatians are sensitive, social, oh so loving animals. She ate and ate to comfort herself in her loneliness. I fostered her for awhile until someone adopted her and took her home. That was an adoption I regret to this day - I never should have let her go, and the reason why thereafter I ever only took in 'final refuge' dogs. Those are dogs who would never be put up for adoption but that I would love and care for until the end of their days.
People throw away dogs for all kinds of reasons: "We're moving, we have a new baby, we wanted a puppy, he didn't like my brother"....once a dog is in "the system" there is very little chance he will ever get out, especially if that dog is old, black, or a so-called 'bully' dog.
People throw away dogs that would protect them unto death, dogs that would love them no matter how ugly, how mean they became, dogs that would stay by their side through sickness, homelessness, the sun's fierce rays or winter's harshest storm.
Millions of dogs are dying because people won't walk into a pound or shelter and welcome a "used" dog into their arms, preferring instead to perpetuate another kind of inhumanity; puppy mills. Because that is what they do every time an animal is purchased from a pet store, Craigslist, or the want ads. Puppy mills are a blight, an inhumane disaster for dogs and many other species. They exist for one reason only, to increase the income of those who run them.
