Rescue dogs…..adopt, don’t shop.

Both our dogs are rescues.

Scout, on the left, is a labrador x whippet and was dumped in a carrier bag by the roadside in Romania when she was just a few months old. We’ve had her since she was six months old, and she’s now three.

Murphy, on the right, is a pointer x lurcher and was handed in to the RSPCA when his previous owners got divorced. We think he was about three when we got him, and that was seven and a half years ago.

Scout is a headstrong, feisty madam. Murphy is a really gentle soul.

Having a dog is a challenge, and more so with a rescue as you’re never really sure what they’ve experienced. We were so lucky with Murphy. He settled in from day one and just acted like being with us was the most normal thing. Having a lurcher brings additional challenges……you get used to bracing yourself when a cat/rabbit/squirrel comes into view and have to be careful about letting them off the lead. As well as being able to run like the wind, Murphy has the added party piece of being able to jump over six foot garden fences, which is a real liability!

With Scout, it’s been much more of a long haul. She is the funniest, sweetest thing sometimes, but she can be a bully and is very demanding! She has a random aggression problem which means that we can’t usually let her off the lead without a muzzle, and even then it has to be with caution if other dogs are around.

As someone who works by myself most of the time, I thoroughly recommend having a dog for company, excercise and social contact. With any dog you can’t be sure what it’s personality traits will be, and that’s more of a risk with rescues but I would still say, “Adopt, don’t shop.”