Pre-Owned Pooches

When Christopher Oliver, a Glendale 11-year-old, decided he wanted a dog, it wasn’t just a whim. For one thing, his family already had one, a high-strung Shih Tzu. “I had been wanting a dog for a long time (but) one I could play with,” he recalls. “We had to get a nice dog that would be nice to be with.”

In the process of solving his problem, this thoughtful lad discovered the joys of adopting what animal shelter operators call “an older dog” rather than a puppy.

One day, a flier arrived in the Olivers’ mail from the local Humane Society containing pictures of adult dogs available for adoption. Christopher asked his mother, Meg, to take him to the shelter.

The dog that initially caught his eye already had been adopted. But during the visit Christopher met Lucy, a 5-year-old shepherd mix. “I liked the face,” he says. “The face was cute.”

As Meg Oliver tells it, the family’s Shih Tzu was not as friendly. “Lucy was the most loving dog you ever will meet.” It didn’t bother the Olivers one bit that Lucy was an older dog and “physically challenged.” As Meg put it: “She had a gimpy foot.”

Lucy’s paw had been damaged years ago when a motorcycle ran over it. That was one of the reasons she’d been passed over by other families, who are usually looking for puppies. “But it didn’t seem to interfere with her [normal activities] at all,” Meg says.

Describing the process the shelter requires of potential adoptive families, Christopher says: “We came to the shelter again with our other dog and took Lucy for a walk. They mostly ignored one another. They didn’t attack each other. I think the messed-up paw was [a factor in] it.”

The Glendale Humane Society’s community relations director, Leslie Eppick, agrees. “The other dog saw no threat--and since animals don’t dwell on their handicaps, Lucy [had maintained] the sweetest personality.”

Eppick strongly recommends that families consider older dogs as adoptees. They are low-maintenance pets, are already spayed or neutered and housebroken, and are often accustomed to being with children. They only have to be fed once or maybe twice daily and, unlike puppies, can safely be left alone in the house or yard.

She also happily counters the old saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks: “Most TV and movie dogs were shelter-rescued animals who were adults at the time of adoption by their trainers.”

Meg Oliver particularly likes the low maintenance. “As a mother, I didn’t want to go through the toilet training experience again.”

Eppick says: “Puppies are just like a human baby--a lean, mean pooping machine [and] must be fed three to four times daily. They cry all night for the first week [of adopted life] and [worse yet] chew up everything in the house.”

She reports that families who adopt puppies frequently return them to the shelter, recounting such experiences and lamenting, “Does this ever end?”

No such traumas beset the family that adopted Lucy. Last Christmas, the Olivers visited the Glendale Humane Society shelter to participate in an annual “Santa Day” program where families have their pictures taken with the pets they are happy to have adopted. And when Santa noticed Christopher and Lucy and asked, “Little boy, who’s this?” the lad responded, “She’s my best friend.”

BE THERE

Adoptions--Weekend hours vary at area animal shelters. Glendale, (818) 242-1128; Burbank, (818) 238-3340; East Valley, (818) 756-8445; West Valley, (818) 756-8481; Castaic, (805) 257-3191; Agoura Hills, (818) 991-0071.