Black Dogs And Cats Need Homes

This paragraph has nothing to do with black animals, I’m venting.  If you want the real story go to the next paragraph.  First of all all the SEO (search engine optimization if you’ve been in a cave or don’t have a website) instructions say to put as many words about your subject of your post in the first sentence or first paragraph or barring that in one of the first paragraphs as you can.  I’m usually not this vocal but Screw The Search Engines.  (I wonder if they can interpret that and ban me from being listed under Google?).  Of course it’s a good idea to like talk about what you’re going to talk about early in the page or people get bored but if you try to force your writing not toward good content but using these key words as often as possible you are doing what I call webwrite or webwhoring if you will.  It’s stilted and not your style or my style or anyone elses but it’s identifiable because it loses all of the authors personality, it may be technically well written which is fine, if your writing a technical book.  But in the chase of the almighty follower or visitor or click on an ad or stat counter everyone is competing.  Yes I am to (I have to justify some of this time to my husband as I could be like working?)  BUT I’m stopping part of it.  You will read my blogs if you will read my blogs.  I would probably (definitely, I have diarrhea of the mouth when typing) write them anyway because when I started it was to advertise another site and business we had that didn’t work out, also I had been writing all this stuff in emails and my friends and family REALLY want to thank you for taking the pressure off of them to read every single one of them because you might not EVER know when I’d slip something important or interesting in them.  Except my eldest daughter, we will call her JJ (because that’s her name), she admitted totally to skimming my emails if they were over 1 sentence and she was rushed.  She said I would call her if she was supposed to do something or someone died.  So I’ve gotten off of subject again but that is how I write.  I know it could use some polish (probably with grinding compound for paint or maybe sandblasted) but this is me.  Not optimized me so I can get people here so they can click so I can keep doing this which is GREAT but ya know what.  I forget to click on peoples ads even if  I’m interested, I hardly ever click, I would LOVE to make enough money on the web to justify being here but I don’t).  It’s all cool.  I guess what I’m saying is I may ramble and just say what I think sometimes but I’m not a total webwhore.  For those of you who don’t care or know about seo or optimizing your writing I’m sorry and I’m not quite ready for the white jacket.

THE REAL POST ABOUT BLACK CATS AND DOGS

Now for the black kitties and puppies that are sitting in shelters.  This all started with an abc news article . I found the link through crittersize on twitter.  Black dogs and cats are not as readily adoptable, they are euthanized more and are no more likely to bite than the next dog.  I hope we all know black cats are not really bad luck either?  The shelters have even taken to offering special deals on large black dogs.  A labrador retriever would come to mind, usually they are the most gentle dogs but because they are big and black they are passed over by potential dog parents.  I would think if it was a black pit bull it would be REALLY hard to find a home for.  I wouldn’t adopt a pit bull unless I knew it’s parents but then I would have no qualms.  Trust me this bichon frise (dispatch) turns into a fighting machine when he thinks something is after his mama so you can’t go by the breed. The shelters have started putting costumes or scarves on the black dogs and cats to catch potential parents eyes.  I think it’s an excellent idea along with specials on black cats and dogs.

Black Cat with Costume

There is a website for black dog adoption located in New York state.  Petfinder is a good place to start looking to adopt a black dog or cat.  If you go to advanced search you can even specify declawed cats.  I couldn’t see anywhere to specify color but it’s been my experience if you go to the individual shelters links there will be a multitude of black animals.

I’ve had black animals.  When my kids were growing up on the farm (we raised dogs, cats, deer, and raccoons by that time) every time there would be a litter of kittens or more rarely puppies, or we would go get a new dog my oldest daughter would invaribly want the black one and she would name it Blackie.  Then it would die.  Through accident or illness or simple disappearance it would die.  After about 4 of these animals we told her no more Blackie.  All black animals were to be named something other than Blackie.  You see I’m not superstitious but there is common sense.  We then had Cujo who was a 10 lb terrier and Martin who was an Airedale/Shepherd mix.  (Yes we had a black dog named Martin but we had Abraham, Martin, and John, where have my old friends gone from the song and John died so it was good to be named Martin!)  Cujo lived about 10 years and Martin lived the entire time the kids were in school I think, they might have even been grown when he died.  This is all the more remarkable because he was severely poisoned once and I had to dribble water in his mouth for 3 days because all he could do was lay outside and moan. I don’t know why we didn’t take him to the vet but I was married to my first husband and we were really poor due to various addictions.  His not mine.  Martin was a shy shy dog, imagine a stocky Lassie that is black.  He was freaky shy, wet on himself shy, you can barely pet me shy, and if you are a stranger forget ever getting close to me.  One time we had an auction because my grandparents had came from Germany 100 years before and NOTHING had ever been gotten rid of  or hardly thrown away since then on the farm.  Martin the black dog escaped from the wash house where the dogs were supposed to stay because he was shy and Abraham just didn’t like some people.  Martin escaped but couldn’t find his people.    Martin discovered @ long farm auctions they sell food and if he begged they would feed him.  For some reason the ladies started feeding Martin everything he would eat which included several ham sandwiches and at least one blackberry pie.  After that Martin was not shy.  He LOVED people?  That was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen the dog was @ least 8 years old then.  My first dog ever was named Shep, he wasn’t all black because he had a white muzzle and paws, think lassie without the pointy snout.  Shep was prettier than Lassie though, @ least to me.  Shep will get an entire post someday because he would actually babysit me, I didn’t think it was so cool then when he wouldn’t let me climb but it is really cool now.  But my point is Shep was mostly black and a toddlers dog who took his job seriously.  I’m thinking about a black lab now for our next dog or maybe a lab mix that is black.  Mugsey wasn’t black but that is OK, we will never have another Mugsey.  If you don’t know who Mugsey was see link @ the top of the page.  The last black cat I had I inadvertently called it Blackie once in awhile but it’s name was Devil, even being named that was better than Blackie.

As Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer) points out in his book A Member of the Family first comes the fact the dog is an animal, next that they are a dog, next what breed and next it’s name.  There is NOTHING to do with color there and Cesar points out the breed is secondary to the animal being a DOG.  In other words all dogs should be thought of animals, dogs, breed, and name.  Therefore if you say snookums doesn’t ever bite because he’s snookums he probably would bite under the right circumstances because he is a dog and that is what dogs do when terrified or hurt or when they feel extremely threatened.  Except for Dispatch of course.  Just checking to see if you were listening.  Dispatch is a white dog a little furry puffball but as I’ve said he turns into teeth and growl, moves as fast as lightning if he thinks a wild animal is getting his mama.  It’s something to behold, a rabid white puffball.  But that’s my point.

So to conclude my diatribe (diatribe=diarrhea of the mouth) IF you are thinking of adopting a dog or cat PLEASE don’t dismiss the large black dogs or the black cats and kittens just because of their color.  It has NOTHING to do with what kind of dog they are.