LA family leaves dog at shelter... because

Little Kopit wrote:
I haven't read the full thread or looked at the video.

When I was a child a dog of ours lost his mother and had never been separated from her. My parents put an ad in the paper. "Well behaved dog with personal loss for sale." A family in the oldest of cars came to see him and my parents were sure he would be cared for.

A year later they brought him back for a visit. He ran to all of his favourite places, gave us all lots and lots of kisses and returned to his new family car when called.

Our dog with a great big grief had an excellent happy rest of his life.

(His name was Tawny. Look up the fiction book about the hero in a cowboy story, who had also suffered a loss. It's an oldy but goodie available on the used bookstore market. By Thomas C. Hinkle. 1927 original publishing date.

:C

Are dogs capable of recovering? Sure. But the question remains: WHY do you get rid of a dog because your other dog died? For what purpose? And why would you then turn around and get a new dog (as in regards to the OP's story)?

Animals aren't matching bookends - just because one is gone doesn't make the other obsolete. And it is easier for an animal to adjust to a loss in a familiar setting than to be displaced right after that loss.

I adopted two parrots several years back. One, Dog-bird, was at least 30 years old (they found him in a parking lot and it is believed he was wild caught). The other was 28 years old and hand-reared. They had been together for the entire 28 years. I took them both (the owner was 80 and couldn't care for them anymore). Within 6 months, the 28 year old died of cancer. I was extremely worried about Dog-bird - he had never been alone in 28 years. Within a few weeks, he got over his grief. In the past 3 years, he has become a camping bird and has created a new "flock" with the dogs. He didn't need to lose his home - he needed time to get over the loss and to develop a stronger bond with his existing family.