Over the years that I've been blogging here at Talking Dogs, I've found that I rarely get comments from readers. However, I do receive email messages and telephone calls about blog posts I've written.
Since I began devoting Saturday's posts to Dog Song Saturday, I've received tons of fan mail thanking me. Love to get those messages! Some readers have even called. One fellow from Texas talked for about half an hour about our dog songs being used to accompany a children's float in their local Christmas parade. Now, that put a big smile on my face.
Missouri puppy mills is the other blog topic that generates quite a response. Unfortunately, for me, it generates a lot of hate mail from commercial dog breeders (puppy mill owners.) This past Saturday was an exception.
A toy poodle dog breeder (I'll call her Mary) from Ohio called me. She first clarified that I was the person who'd written about [name withheld dog breeder]. I hesitantly acknowledged that was me. In fact, I was pretty quiet and kept my answers to her initial questions to a bare minimum. What was going through my head: oh no, now these people have tracked down my phone number!
Wrong. Majorly wrong. Mary turned out to be a highly dedicated dog breeder. She'd been approached by [name withheld] who wanted to buy some puppies from her. Because Mary wants to know exactly where her puppies are going, she hopped on the internet and googled [name withheld]. There Mary found my blog post about her want-to-be puppy buyer... who'd lost her commercial dog breeder license in Missouri for many violations of the law.
We chatted for awhile and the conversation underscored what I've been saying for years. A reputable dog breeder cares about their dogs. They make sure they are well socialized, have access to good veterinary care, and they are placed in good homes. Many follow the whole life of the puppy, keeping diligent health records, as well as show ring accomplishments noted in their files. They certainly don't knowingly sell their puppies into slavery.
While I strongly encourage adopting from a shelter, I recognize the value of ethical, honorable dog breeders.
Hmmm... where's a dog song about that?!
.
