The Lady at the Vet

So today when the kids and I were leaving with Pugasus from the vet's office, a nice woman came in with her cat. Casey crawled up next to the cat and meowed at it from outside the kitty carrier. Pugasus wanted to sniff the crate, and the woman commented that they were in the process of adopting a rescue pug. I told her all our pugs had been rescue pugs over the years and asked which rescue organization she was using. When we adopted our first dog-- Mr. Bojangles-- we used Pugs n' Pals. After he passed away, we moved a little closer to home by using Little Angels Pug Rescue for Chuffy and Pugasus. And now San Diego has a pretty active Pug Rescue group, Pug Rescue of San Diego (yeah, real original name-- but that's so people can find them easily, I'm sure!).

In any event, with each of the pet adoptions, we had to complete a pretty lengthy questionnaire about why we wanted a pug, why a rescue dog, how much made, how much we thought we'd spend, and so on. And they sent someone to our home to check out the yard and make sure it was dog-safe. And they asked us to sign a contract promising to neuter the dog (they all were when we got them) and promising that we would not give them away and if something happened making it impossible for us to keep the pugs, we'd return them to the pug rescue group. The whole process took something like a week or two each time. Then we went and picked up the dog or dogs and we brought 'em home to given 'em love.

So back to the story. I don't actually remember which rescue group the woman said she was using because her next comment threw me for a loop-- even though I know she meant it as a joke. She said that she couldn't believe how much work it was to adopt the pug. She said that she thought it was probably harder to adopt a dog than it was to adopt a child-- and explained that the application was lengthy and the organization interviewed her and everything. Even though I knew she was being rather tongue-in-cheek, I just couldn't help myself. I said, "Well, all our dogs have been rescue dogs, and both my kids are adopted. And I can assure that the pet adoption process pales in comparison."

Was that mean of me? I just felt weird that she was comparing the process of adopting a child to that of adopting a dog. I'm not saying pets are inferior to people. Wait. Yes I am. I am saying just that. I love our dog. But when push comes to shove, my kids will always come first. I would never mis-treat our dog. I would never let anyone else mis-treat our dog. But seriously, adopting a dog and a child-- not even in the same league. I think I really embarrassed her. And for that I'm sorry. Was I being oversensitive? Probably. I didn't get much sleep the night before. But really. No. comparison.