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Review content:
While this place has wonderful dogs and it is well-maintained, I wanted to caution parents with children. It has taken me a full month to write about my experience there because I want to write in a fair and non-emotional manner, but I believe that anyone adopting from this rescue should hear my story.
My family and I have rescued two pets in the past. We have a large home, a lake to walk around and I am a stay-at-home mom. We have two children 10 & 12 -- old enough to assist mom and dad with proper care and love for a new animal.
I took my son to this rescue on a weekday afternoon. We were new to the idea of getting a second dog, and relatively new to Atlanta, so we wanted to check the place out before submitting an application. Also, we did not want to have too many applications filled out at too many rescue places.When we arrived there, we filled out the application, but we did not have my older dog's paperwork and my husband or daughter with us (we did not know when we arrived that we needed them).
My son was shown 4 dogs. The first three showed a little bit of interest in him, but the last one, Bishop, fell into his arms, licked his face and it was love at first sight. This was a Tues. I was told that we could come back Sat. and there would be a lot of dogs -- I said there was no need, they had obviously fallen in love with each other and we wanted this one.
While I understand the policy of not holding dogs, please hear me out. I called the agency at 8 a.m. Wed. and left a message and said I was coming that day with EVERYTHING I needed to get the dog. I was just about to leave my house to pull my daughter out of school to meet the dog, and called the rescue one more time to say I was on my way.
Much to my dismay, the person told me another couple was looking at Bishop. I told her, please tell them I am on my way and that my 10-year-old son will be heartbroken if the dog is given away.
I am sure you can tell where this story ends. The dog was given to that couple. When my son returned home from school, expecting to see Bishop, I had to tell him the story. I have never heard him sob so much in my life.
This rescue cares a lot about animals. It is obvious from its facility and the care that it takes to adopt dogs to families with good homes. Having said that, however, they fail to acknowledge the human element in this process. The director told me there was no way my son could have bonded with this dog because the bonding process takes much longer. I beg to differ. I knew with my first rescue dog and we knew with this one. To rub salt in a wound, they called me the next morning to say we were approved.
If you have children, please consider this and make sure that this does not happen to you. They have beautiful dogs, but could be a little kinder to children and families.
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