The covid-19 pandemic has been so weird for Americans. We're used to be able to doing pretty much anything, anytime. In an instant we were told to stay home, keeping a job or your business was not even considered. Work from home, don't go out without a mask... People wanted to get a pet since they were home a lot or got a pet for companionship for singles, seniors, to cope with the stress of the pandemic, etc. To be honest, even though I haven't gone out much in years so this stay at home thing isn't new to me but I still wanted to smoke. I don't know why, I just did. Animals can actually help us to quit smoking. Stress relief is one way because if you're enjoying time with your pets and can't stick a smoke in your mouth, dog walking is exercise, and they just love when we might feel overwhelmed. So I was wondering how many people have adopted a pet since the covid-19 outbreak?
I'll go first. We were looking to adopt anyway before the pandemic. When it hit it was hard to adopt because the animals were being adopted out so fast the ones you looked at online might be gone in a few hours. We adopted a long hair kitten from the SPCA. He's almost 8 months old, was pulled from a feral cat society with his brothers and sisters when they where about 3 months old but they couldn't get mamma. He had severe bordetella (Respiratory disease) had worms and of course loaded in fleas. His foster family got him cleaned up groomed, parasites and bordetella treated, and loved him. He was socialized with their other foster kitties, the family's dogs and cat, and around kids. When he got here we were extremely surprised at how quickly he adapted and how well our 3 other cats accepted him. He trusted them before he trusted us. We're still working on trust with us but he's coming around nicely. Here's our new family member, Panzer (aka Floof):
Post your pets if you recently adopted one. I'd love to see anyone's new fur babies!
Ah, yes, that inescapable puppy pee until full training finally sets in
Took a full year with my last pup back in the early 2000's, but when she "got it" she got it and that was the end of those in-house piddles!
They already are; you would think they have been together since birth! He is also a lab/pit mix (I think he looks more pit than she does because he has the big jaws). She is melding into the family nicely!
Oh they look so miserable together 
Ha, Ha.
This is “Agent Jack Bow-wow” but we just call him Jack. Jack was adopted by a kind lady from the pound and she quickly found out she couldn’t handle him. He had some bad habits (like a lot of us) and he needed rehab (like a lot of us). She put an ad in Craiglist detailing some, but not all of his bad habits. I have a lot of experience with dogs and we decided to give him a try. The first thing I did was to take him to our vet where I explained Jack’s odd behavior. On a hunch, I asked for a thyroid test. Turns out I was right. Low thyroid. Jack will be on med twice a day for the rest of his life. But its a small price to pay. It took about a year to highly train and socialize him to people. He used to growl, snarl, and snap at everyone. He bit me twice. But today he is a kind and gentle soul who loves hugs. An amazing change. I don’t use him as a service dog yet, but I have severe emphysema and he is trained as my service dog should I get worse and the need arises. Our lives are so much better with Jack. He thinks he saved us!
Your friend in Montana
Charlie was rescued almost 2 years ago, so not during the pandemic. He was actually my first dog rescue (I've rescued many cats and had labs in the past). Even though it was during the pandemic, I couldn't believe how hard the process was. I searched daily on websites and there were so many rules, and unbeknownst to me, other applications in front of my mine. Several times, I thought I had found my dog only to learn someone else was ahead of me. . So when I saw Charlie after searching for 2 months, I jumped on it (which I thought I had done before actually). It was a very frustrating experience and I almost bought a dog. With all the dogs out there needing a home, I was shocked at how hard it was. I ended up driving 170 miles to get him. Just insane.
I won't go into all the details, but it was a rough few months at first. After lots of money spent on at home training, destroying my shutters and hurting me several times, I didn't give up. He's my best buddy now. This was his rescue picture. The smile really got to me.
