A few months back my fiance and I were seriously considering adopting a dog. Although neither of us are new to the world of dog owning, this would have been the first canine we owned together. After searching what seemed like thousands of shelter and adoption agency websites, we finally found the dog of our dreams! We discovered a dog named Riley on the One Tail at a Time website. Riley was a cute, fuzzy, teddy bear-looking Golden retriever Chow mix. After countless days of e-mailing back and forth between Riley's foster owner, and other members of the business, I was later informed that Riley was "no longer available", and that they had decided to place him in a home with owners who had "previous Chow-mix experience".
To say I was devastated would be an understatement. Not only had we had high hopes that this Riley was soon to be ours, but the company did not inform us that anyone else was looking at the dog. I completely understand that the sooner they can place an animal, the better. And I would have been completely rational about the whole experience had my fiance and I been aware that someone else were looking at the same dog as us. The representatives who were e-mailing us sure had us under the assumption that we were only steps away from adopting Riley. We even went through the trouble of having them call not, one, but THREE different references. They were so particular, two had to be friends/colleagues, and the other a family member. They called my land-lord, my sister, a friend and a co-worker. The day after they had called all of my references was the day they decided to clue me in that they had placed Riley with the other family. And their justification for the incident was COMPLETELY unacceptable! They told us that one of our references did not answer right away, and that they got a hold of all the other family's references.
Long story short, I would advise you never EVER adopt with this agency, unless you want to jump through hoops to do a kindhearted thing such as adopt, and pay just about as much as you would at a breeder. The puppy adoption fee is $425! That's a lot of dough to shell out for SAVING an animal! Not only was my heart broken, my pride bruised, and my fiance and I embarrassed that all of our friends, family, colleagues, and even our land lord under the impression that Riley was going to be ours, but the company was even going to come to our home and "observe" how the dog reacted to the environment and us! I am completely understanding about making sure a dog or any other animal for that matter makes it into a great home, but I'm pretty sure after talking with all of our references they should have been able to gather that we were a safe go.
I HIGHLY recommend looking into REAL shelters, such as Stratham or Methuen. The morning we received the horrible news about Riley, we drove up to Stratham, NH and adopted a wonderful boxer/lab mix. The employees there were extremely helpful, and the adoption fee was only $250....what a difference!
Although I am extremely satisfied with my new dog, and happy she is a part of our family, my experience with One Tail at a Time will not be forgotten. And my happiness with my new pet does not negate the fact that we were still very much looking forward to making Riley ours. read more