Word: doggedly
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...family is familiar with all this, as are the growing number of U.S. households "adopting" animals these days. The agencies tend to be cheaper than retail pet shops, and the families tend to feel they're doing a good deed by taking in a dog or cat that may have been abandoned or abused. A few years ago we turned to a "Schnauzer rescue" agency because, after our first miniature Schnauzer died of old age, we decided we liked the breed but were having trouble finding an affordable buy from stores or specialist breeders...
...weren't prepared for the overweening bureaucratic scrutiny the agency subjected us to. There were long, psychological exam-style questionnaires to fill out, strict contractual pledges to sign - and interrogations of the neighbors, whose names we had to submit as character references. When the agency finally delivered the dog - I'm withholding its name because it's still a minor, at least in human years - the agents insisted on staying for much of the afternoon to make sure we weren't going to make it mow the lawn or clean the bathrooms...
...sure, I appreciated the agency's concern for these animals - it was without a doubt reassuring to know that the dog we were getting had come to us via an ASPCA culture instead of a cramped metal cage at Mutts R Us. And I'm a genuine dog lover: I cried at the end of Old Yeller just like everyone else. Our dog is one of Miami's most coddled canines. (He's on my lap right now as I write this because a loud thunderstorm is spooking him.) But there was also something a bit over the top about...
...that's exactly what I feel like telling DeGeneres and her dog adoption agency this week. I report on Florida and Latin America. The former has one of the worst child welfare agencies in the nation; the latter is a region where most kids wish they lived as well as Brussels Griffon terriers do in this country. So yes, it concerns me when I realize that we handle the adoption of animals with more care and love than we manage the placement of abused children in foster homes; or that people like Leona Helmsley leave millions to pets in their...
...story (DeGeneres' show is syndicated internationally) got it just right. "Having done animal adoption for over 30 years," Margo Dover of Austin wrote, "I would have said that a compromise was in order. Mutts & Moms [the agency] should have gone and met with the [family DeGeneres had given her dog to], seen if the situation was appropriate and, if it was, collected another adoption fee from the new family. There should always be room to move off a position if it is in the best interest of the pet, [because] it is hard enough to find good adoptive homes that...