Some rescue groups too rigid

Have you ever tried to adopt a dog from a purebred rescue group? Well, good luck!

We have raised two different German shepherds (our preferred dog) — one for 11 years and one for 15 years. We had cats too. There were a number of years we didn’t have any animals because of our long-houred jobs, which wouldn’t be fair to animals.

Now that we are retired, we felt it time to once again have some animals. So last year we adopted two kittens from N.O.A.H. and they have been wonderful.

Then we felt it was time to get another dog and first contacted Washington German Shepherd Rescue to do so. Well, we were going to house the dog in the large workroom of our garage in a pen overnight, which was not acceptable to the rescue group. We agreed to accept whatever requirements they had, but that still wasn’t good enough.

Then we contacted Northwest German Shepherd Rescue and have not had the courtesy of even a reply to our application.

They want to have good homes for these wonderful dogs, but don’t go outside of their stringent criteria or you are turned down flat or not even responded to. No one loves German shepherds more than we do, nor does anyone have more expertise than we do in raising them, but we’re not good enough in the rescue groups’ eyes, so there isn’t a dog in our house now. That saddens us greatly.

Rose Marie Branson

Everett