Personal Narrative: Dog Francois

So a couple of weeks ago I was at a horse show, and keep in mind, horse show people are the most extra group of people I've ever known in my life. A lot of people bring their dogs to these shows, and on this specific day someone had brought their little fluffball. So obviously, I was obligated to pet it because it's law that you have to pet the tiny fluffy thing, and then his owner, completely unsolicited, goes "ah yes, this is Francois. He’s a Meagle-poo". First of all, who names their dog Francois? Your dog is going to go to the dog park and some huge Rottweiler is going to come up to it all "Hi my name's Chopper!" and your dog is going to be like, "Hi I'm Francois!", and those will be his last words before he gets eaten alive. Second of …show more content…
Be jealous.), because I most certainly am not. But, for me I’ve always seen the other side of the spectrum as well - the puppies waiting in both kill and no-kill shelters. According to the ASPCA, 3.9 million dogs are brought into shelters each year. In addition, approximately 31% of shelter dogs are euthanized. I’m not going to lie, the puppies at Happiness is Pets are freaking adorable. But, there are dogs less than a mile away that are at risk of dying if they don’t find a home. Shelter dogs are not broken or used. You’re not getting a Goodwill dog. You’re giving an animal who for some reason or another wound up abandoned, whether it was because their farts were too smelly or they didn’t act exactly like the dog in the Beethoven movies. I have two shelter puppies of my own, a twelve-ish year old longhaired dachshund somebody found in a dumpster looking for food on Christmas Eve 2011, and a collie-looking mutt thing whose mom and dad were in a kill shelter when they got their freak on and after the mom was rescued, they found out she had a couple stowaways on board. Muffy is a perfect example of a completely unbroken shelter pup. She’s never seen anything bad - she was born in a loving foster home and then came home with us. Buddy’s a …show more content…
For those of us who don’t hate themselves deep down, Happiness is Pets is an establishment where you can buy puppies, but they hook people in by letting you take the puppies out of their sad little cages. For the sake of my project and no other reason whatsoever, I took a trip to Happiness is Pets, but I got so distracted by the floofiest little golden retriever puppy I’d ever seen in my life that I forgot to investigate. [if it’s allowed, pull out the snapchat picture of you flipping out about the floofy puppy] LOOK AT ITS FACE. TELL ME YOU WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN DISTRACTED. So, I turned to the internet. Happiness is Pets has been linked to a breakout of canine distemper, puppies dying of pneumonia in their care, and the vet they choose to use is not licensed in Illinois - he previously had a license in the state of Indiana, but oh yeah, that was revoked for “unspecified reasons”. But more than that, Happiness is Pets claims their puppies come from breeders where they live in fields of flowers and sunshine and happiness, and that the “majority of their dogs come from USDA-partnered breeders”... see, there’s one word there that disturbs me - the majority. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? WHERE ARE THE OTHER PUPPIES COMING FROM, NARNIA? The real answer is mass dog breeding facilities, otherwise known as puppy mills. Happiness is Pets works with breeders such as