Update on Keegan

Well, my efforts to help the lab/husky mix, Keegan, were unsuccessful. His owner returned Keegan to the shelter last week. Now, he is back on their online adoption list.

The owner called me before she returned him, saying that he was just too much dog for her. She was very upset and sad about her decision, but she felt it was the right thing to do. In many ways, I agreed with her. She was in so over her head--no experience with training a large young dog and gone 8-9 hours a day for work at a high-stress job. She was a very kind, intelligent woman, but extremely tentative, making it easy for Keegan to walk all over her.

I debated whether to take Keegan myself and foster him. He's such a great dog, and with a few weeks of training and regularity at my house, I knew I could easily find a great home for him. Ugh, I wanted to (and still want to) do that for him so badly! BUT I am so overwhelmed with work, and my kids are home for the summer. I didn't want to bring Keegan to my house, only to feel completely stressed out. And because Keegan would need to be crated whenever we went somewhere, I knew I would feel a constant pressure to get back home. Extended day trips would be cut short every time--and I didn't think that was fair to my kids.

Plus, can you tell I have boundary issues? I wasn't the one who adopted Keegan, so why was I making myself feel so responsible for him? I felt I needed to let him go--but knowing he's at the shelter still nags at me....

The woman who had adopted Keegan told me that the shelter spent almost no time checking out her qualifications. She got to the shelter at 2:30 and left with Keegan by 4:00 that same day. They asked her if she'd had a dog before, which she had, so they felt she was qualified to take him. Knowing that Keegan had already been returned to the shelter TWICE before (this will be his third time there within a year), you'd think the shelter would have been more careful about who they adopted him to, right?? So sad.

Keegan's adoption listing is also sad, inaccurate and incomplete. I don't consider 80+ pounds to be a medium sized dog. Also, the listing says they don't know whether he's housetrained, but one quick question to his previous owner would answer that. He is definitely housetrained, and it would mean a lot to potential adopters to see a check mark there. And how difficult would it have been for them to write a short bio? I'm sure the shelter staff are busy and overworked--but it's the animals that pay the price.