Pets
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Study: Pretty pups picked first at shelters (also, clicky poll)
I definitely believe the results of this survey. When we adopted Chessie we actually were intending to go in to the shelter to look at another dog we saw online because she was SO gorgeous and perfect and just the "look" we wanted in a dog. We were all about the shallow. I am so so so so infinitely glad we gave other dogs a chance because when we got to the shelter the dog we originally were interested in was acting like a terror (aggressive toward people and the other dogs, barking nonstop) and the report the shelter had about her needs and personality was really different from what we thought we could handle/would fit with our lifestyle.
We gave other dogs a chance and based on the shelter staff's description of her and our interactions with her, we chose Chessie. Definitely her behavior was a plus - she was calm and shy but still friendly, and after spending a little bit of time with her she warmed right up. All the other dogs were barking loudly but she was just sitting there with her precious little head tilted to the side and her cute little face staring up at us... aww, I am melting just remembering back! I am glad we took a chance on something that was not what we were expecting because we were so pleasantly surprised and she is just perfect for us.
Combo of age, physical appearance, and behavior with people.
Both H and I had setters (Irish and Gordon, respectively) growing up, so I think we're drawn to generic setter characteristics (some level of nostalgia or whatever you'd call it, from our childhoods). Long way of saying, when I saw Lucy's online rescue photo, I thought she was pretty and wanted to meet her.
Key points in our decision when we did meet her were how old she was (we wanted an adult dog, not a puppy) and her temperament/behavior around us (she was friendly and greeted us w/ a wag, but certainly no jumping or barking, which was a great fit for us). Energy level and exercise needs also figured into our decision.
So I guess her looks did attract us, but the decision was by no means made until we nailed down overall compatibility.
I wasn't so concerned about her behavior around other animals as we don't have other pets nor do our immediate neighbors. As a bonus, turns out she's great around other animals (except geckos, which she savagely hunts
).
I chose behavior with other animals, BUT Age was also a huge factor for me. (I wanted an older cat because I had a 11 y/o declawed cat at home.)
Why I chose behavior with other animals: there was one cat that was ALL over me. He was such a doll. But another cat came up to him and I while I was in the cat room, and he SLAPPED him, claws out, a claw got stuck in his little head skin and I just heard it pull out. There was no way I was going to take him home after seeing that, despite how sweet he was to me, I couldn't let Jackie get the brunt of those claws and be defenseless himself. (He was declawed when declawing was expected for indoor cats...)
So I changed rooms, and met Eastwood, and he was declawed as well, older, and handsome as ever. And he wouldn't leave me alone. The rest is history
I had a LOT of factors that needed to be met, and Eastwood met them all.
See my post above in this thread. For both of our dogs, the rescues played matchmaker (actually the first rescue called their volunteer "Director of Matchmaking" LOL) and suggested a dog, rather than us choosing which one to apply for. It's a great way to find your pet.
"The hardest thing is to live richly in the present without letting it be tainted out of fear for the future or regret for the past." - Sylvia Plath
Neither of our dogs were chosen on looks. R was a puppy, and we saw a picture of a pile of puppies and just specified to the rescue that we wanted a girl. They asked us some questions and picked the pup that they thought would work for us. We didn't see her until we picked her up.
S sort of just fell into our laps. Or, we took her because her old owner kept her chained outside. And trust me, she was NOT cute when we got her. lol She was a big matted mess. She's adorable now.
One of our cats was adopted for looks. M is a Siamese mix. I always wanted a Siamese and he was gorgeous.
P initially got my attention because she was pretty, but that wasn't enough to get me to adopt her. The fact that she was a senior in the shelter in the middle of kitten season is what got to me.
And L became mine because someone I knew couldn't keep her.
I picked "behavior with people" because for my first dog, I fell in love with him because of how he interacted with me when I let myself into his pen. His appearance played a small part, but not in the way this article says... he's black, so no one else wanted him.
My second dog was purely looks and dire situation. I saw an adorable dog on Facebook and the post said he had 24 hours to live. My heart broke, so I saved my heart by saving my cute dog.
my bookshelf!
Bloggy
I'll admit that I was initially attracted to Leo's picture on the shelter website, but there were other pekes there that were just as adorable. When he'd been there for a few months, they made a video of him being his goofy self (minus the randomly peeing on everything to steer his way around) and I fell in love.
We went to the shelter by ourselves to meet him and he was so loving and gentle and sweet we had them put him on hold until I could bring Archie to meet him.
He had an amazing personality then and as he's gotten more used to being a beloved pet rather than a stud he's become even more lovable. Still working on the not marking everything in sight.
My first cat picked me and I wasn't even looking to have a pet.
My second cat, I was looking or a black cat to match the first one, but then she looked into my eyes and I was done.
Our dog ....
Again wasn't looking to have a pet. H took me to the shelter to look at puppies. Did.not.want.puppy! 90%+ of dogs here are some sort of Kelpie, Staffy, Cattle dog mix. None of which would fit our lifestyle. After walking around looking at all the adorable yet 100% inapropriate puppies, the director said. "You want a dog about 12-18 months old" yep "you want a big dog" yep "you want a sedate dog" yep. "I have the dog for you, come with me"
And as soon as her de-sexing stitches were out, we brought home our lovely 12 month old Bull Mastiff/Rottie cross. She wasn't even officially up for adoption yet because of her surgery. But since obviously since we were the right family, they were OK with showing her to us.