Yesterday I went to the Saraland Produce for fruit...the young clerk was concerned over a puppy that had been hanging around all morning and seems lost and confused. It has run up to me as I was going into the store and was such a cutie pie. It was shivering as the temp was in low 40's. The clerk wanted to know if she should call animal rescue or not and another woman was saying since it had a collar on to leave it there. I wasn't about to let the poor thing freeze (temps were expected to be 28 that night) so I took the pup to my vet. She didn't have a chip so I took her to the animal rescue. Here's where the "DUH" moment comes in.
The guy at the shelter told me because I live in Satsuma that they may not be able to take her. I told them she was found in Saraland, not Satsuma, and was told he'd have to call his supervisor to see if he could take the puppy. He said if he could not take the puppy I'd have to take it home, call the Satsuma shelter (we don't have one), and they'd take the puppy to Mobile...which is at least 40 minutes away.
He got his supervisor on the phone and when he told him I lived in Satsuma I told the guy if they can't take the puppy I'd return it to the produce stand where the clerk could call them and THEY could pick up the puppy. ?????!!!!! Hellllllllllllo....
Needless to say I don't think they wanted to get out in the cold so they kept the puppy with assurance that they do not kill dogs unless they're too sick to treat. They keep them until they find homes for them.
I would love to have kept the puppy but having one dog already I know how expensive it can be...so, here's hoping that sweet pup finds a good home. At least I know it will be fed, have shelter and be looked after for now.

That is so ridiculous! But I'm glad you took the puppy in. Our Humane Society takes in any animal brought to us regardless of where the person lives. The only thing I can think is that they have too many animals coming in and need to restrict how many they take in. I know our intake has increased as people are losing their homes, having to move in with family, having to move out of state to find work. We are almost always filled to capacity.

Yonuh, Molly was a Katrina dog...I tried to find a home for her when she showed up but because of the number of animals in shelters we could not place her...so we kept her...thankfully.
I'm glad your shelters take in animals no matter where the person lives who brings them in. I understand shelter scan only keep so many, too. If people would be more responsible (fixing their animals and not abandoning them) things would be better.

Yes, Dee, exactly. We also run a low cost spay and neuter clinic and sometimes have money to do the surgery free. Educating people to spay/neuter their pets is hard. So many people still think it's wrong to do that. Changing the culture is always hard. We do charge more for people who come pick up their lost pets when the pet isn't fixed, and we offer the surgery for free. There are so many people who won't fix their pets; I don't get it. And we never euthanize a companion animal in the shelter if it's adoptable. We even have trainers who work with the dogs on basic obedience to make them more adoptable. It is sometimes heartbreaking to work in a shelter, even though I'm not frontline staff but in the business office.

I'm too much of a softy to work in an animal shelter. I'd have
my house full of dogs, and probably cats, too. And horses. And
donkeys. And alpacas. No snakes. Can't stand snakes and spiders.

And then they'd consider you a hoarder and you'd be on Animal Planet up there with the others! LOL

Right U R! yonuh, Did you see those cool dogs in New York City
getting ready for the Madison Square Garden Westminster Dog Show? I love looking at them. But I gotta tell ya, this here
Goldendoodle is an awesome critter.

I don't get to watch shows like that unless they're on the broadcast networks as we don't have cable.

Gotcha! A hound won the whole show! Cool, hey!

I'm waiting for a lab to win top honors at the Westminster, someday!