“Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever.” -Karen Davison. This quote connects to my thesis statement: Adopting pets from shelters will give you a great companion and will save a life, because it shows that if you save an animal their life will be changed forever and it will probably save their life too!! It also shows that if everyone saves animals then soon there will not be any animals left to save and then basically, mission complete!!

“Purrrrr” my cat purrs happily as she stretches when I stroke her soft, silky fur. “I remember when we adopted you Scottie. We were at the SPCA after my Sunday school and we were not even looking for a kitten but we saw you and immediately my mom and I had to call papa. I remember nervously waiting for him to answer the phone, “Hello?” He said, “Hi!” my mom and I said, “So, we might have seen this really cute cat and guess what?” “What?” He reluctantly replied, “She doesn’t have a tail!” (Oh by the way Scottie did you know that most cats have longer tails than you? Well the reason why you have a very short tail is because your breed, manx is a special breed of cats which have a mutation that shortens your tail oh and also your breed is hypoallergenic, and why mom and I were so elated was because mom is allergic to cats and she is not allergic to manx. Oh by the way Scottie, hypoallergenic means unlikely to cause an allergic reaction)  “Really?” Papa said a little more excited

“Yeah!!” Mom and I cheered into the phone.

After Mom rubbed her face onto your fur to make sure that she was not allergic we went to lunch and Mom said if you were still there when we get back then it is meant to be!!  And that is how we adopted you” I finished.

“Hi! How can I help you?” “Hi, I just have a couple questions. My first question is, what do you do if there is not enough space for all the animals to stay? Do you send them to foster homes? “Well, sometimes we will give them to foster homes but most of the time there is no one who wants to foster the ones available because we normally foster out the ones who are older or who have diseases. Or we foster out some of the animals that get stressed out easily or who just aren’t themselves when they are at the shelters, and need one on one human time.” “Why are there so many animals with no homes?” “Well, unfortunately some people adopt from breeders instead of from shelters.” “Isn’t it the same because the animals would already have been born?” “Well, kinda but not quite, because if no one adopts from breeders than they will have no reason to breed animals.” “So is another way to help animals and overpopulation is to foster because it helps free up space in shelters and gives some animals the one on one human time that they need?” “Exactly!! Now you are getting it!!”

“Hello!!” “Hey!!” “Guess what?” “What?” “My mom is letting me get a pet!!” “Awesome!! What kind of pet do you want? A cat, a horse, a dog?”  “ I am pretty sure I want a dog but I’m not sure. But if I get a dog I want a poodle. Do you know how to find reliable breeders?” “What! You can’t adopt from a breeder. There are PLENTY of adorable puppies that you can adopt from shelters.” “Shelters? What is a shelter?” “An animal shelter is a place where you can adopt pets in need of a home and most importantly in need of love, also if you adopt it will save a life!!”  “Oh, I will adopt from a shelter then, thanks so much!!” “No problem!!” 

You see, sometimes the problem isn’t that people choose to buy pets from breeders but that they don’t know any better. Or in my friend’s case not knowing about animal shelters at all. This is a perfect example of why we all have to help the community by telling our friends, family, and the people around us about animal shelter so that they don’t adopt from breeders. *whine whine* “Isabel did you hear that?” “Yeah.” *whine whine* “There it is again!” “Sophia why are we here again?” “Isabel, you know why, we have to use some of the trash here to make a model for our presentation so we can present it to the SPCA.” “Oh yeah!” *whine whine* “Hold on, there is the sound again. Let’s follow it.” “Wait Sophia, oh great.” “Be quiet Isabel, look who I found.” “OMG, she is so cute!!” “Shush, you’ll scare her.” “Ok, ok! Sheesh” “Sorry Isabel, but this adorable puppy will be great for our presentation about overpopulation and animal shelters. And since she is so adorable, everyone will be convinced after looking into her eyes!!”

This is why you should adopt from shelters because this happens a lot but instead of Sophia, and Isabel finding this adorable puppy, people that work with animal shelters go to places like dumpsters to find abandoned puppies, and if we don’t adopt from shelters then none of these adorable puppies will get adopted. 

You might be wondering the other opinion or why people abandon animals at all. So Basically, people abandon animals for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the owner might suddenly develop an allergy to their pet and be forced to give their pet up if the allergy is not easily treatable. Second, the owner might be moving and either cannot take their pet, doesn’t want to take their pet, or forgets to take their pet. And lastly, if the owner suddenly or not suddenly and just forgets to give the animals/pet to someone else. 

But the excellent news is that all of these have solutions. For the first reason, you can either test to make sure you are not allergic (like my mom did in the first mini story)  or instead of abandoning then you could give them to someone that they already like or a shelter that will take great care of them. For the second reason, if you know that you will be moving soon you may want to wait to adopt your pet, check if the place/apartment/house/condo allows pets, and maybe write a reminder to pack your pet’s thing and most importantly your pet. And lastly, try to remember or set a reminder to decide who your pet will get to even if you just got your pet or you are perfectly healthy because accidents happen and you always want to be prepared if you can. 

But anyways, my point is by adopting animals from shelters and educating you will get a great companion and can save many lives!