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My husband, in all his wisdom, feels that bringing a dog into your life is best done on a whim…because if anyone thinks about the possibility of caring for an animal, they will quickly talk themselves out of it. This same logic is applied to having children.
But for the less impulsive soon to be pet owner, it is important to find an adoption establishment that suits your specific needsThere are some fantastic online resources that can link up people and pets from all across the country (including the commonwealth of Puerto Rico). Petfinder.com is a good place to start in that they link up with several organizations in whatever area you live in.
I found my lovely Otis on Petfinder, but I adopted him directly through the Liberty Humane Society. I am one of those impulsive dog adopters. I need to meet the dog and sign the papers on the same day. I had made up my mind to get a dog, and all it took was Otis (then called Beast) to rest his large scarred head on my lap. We were living together within days.
Upon visiting shelters in the Jersey City area, I realized that there are an overwhelming amount of dogs (especially pit bulls and pit mixes) that need a loving family to live with. Liberty Human Society is my favorite shelter to work with. They require background checks, including a note from the landlord if you are a renter, expressing that you could, in fact, have a dog in your apartment. In addition to the standard adoption fees, they will not release dog that has not been altered (euphemism for neutered or spayed). These things are/should be standard practice for a shelter; at LHS, however, they were also genuinely kind; they knew the dog’s personality and temperament and made me feel comfortable and confident about adopting from their facility. What I liked the most about the shelter is that to this day, when I walk Otis in Jersey City, he is recognized by the caring staff that looked after him during his stay at the shelter. LHS is located next to Liberty State Park in Jersey City (a dodgy end of town, I recommend driving if possible). They can be reached on the web at http://www.libertyhumane.org/
Its important to remember that these places are usually underfunded and over worked. LHS somehow manages to maintain charisma and heart in spite of these obstacles.
Other Local adoption resources worth mentioning are
Hudson County Animal League: http://www.hcalnj.org/
Companion Animal Trust: http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NJ400.html
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