Chris was a young human full of enthusiasm for life. A newly-minted adult with stable employment and living alone, Chris decided to bring home a pet. Chris looked in the paper, got a new pet named Buddy, and all was good.
Except Chris didn't have the amount of time needed to spend with Buddy. Buddy spent lots of hours home alone, and when Chris was home, they didn't work together on learning proper pet behaviors. Chris decided that, living alone, these otherwise unacceptable behaviors were fine, cute actually, and left Buddy to grow up into an adult pet, not knowing any better.
Sometime later, enter Pat. Pat and Chris fell in love. Even though Pat wasn't crazy about the way Buddy acted, Pat put up with Buddy because Pat loved Chris. Besides, now that there were the 2 of them, Chris and Pat could work with Buddy together. What a great way to bond!
But Buddy's bad behaviors were now learned behaviors and ingrained habits - hard habits to break 
after so much time. Despite working with Buddy when Chris and Pat weren't at work or doing Chris and Pat together things, Buddy's behavior didn't improve much. Chris and Pat forgot they could call us at HAWS for help. (We even have a staff trainer/behaviorist that does 1-on-1 sessions!)
More time passed, and Chris and Pat decided to have a family. Buddy didn't realize that humans and animals are different, and tried to treat the new little human, Jamie, like a littermate. Chris and Pat decided that Buddy and Jamie couldn't co-exist, and Buddy would have to go.
Buddy came to HAWS with this profile: "Buddy is wonderful and an awesome pet...but doesn't know how to act properly around humans. Buddy needs work on this and that. Buddy may have to live in a home with only adult humans." Chris and Pat pleaded with the staff not to put Buddy to sleep, ever, and the HAWS staff promised to try their best! But with Buddy's profile, they couldn't make any guarantees. Immediately Buddy started working with HAWS' trainers and socializers, in hopes of making Buddy more adoptable. Buddy joined the other available pets in the shelter looking for homes.
Chris, Pat, Jamie and Buddy's situation isn't unique. A very common reason given for relinquishing a pet to us at HAWS is "not enough time." When there's not enough time to train, care for, or work the pet into a busy life, the pet most often is the one that loses out.
Actually, Chris could have done a few things from the beginning to change this scenario. A pet is a commitment for a lifetime - and with many pets living 12-18 years and longer, the pet owner needs to think about where life might take them over that time. Going to get married? Have a family? Move to a different place? Start working different hours? Thinking logically now may avert the trauma later. And take the time early on in your relationship with your pet to train and set guidelines. A little hard work now can really pay off later on.
By the way - Buddy wonders what happened to Chris, Pat and Jamie. Our hope is that every Buddy will find a new Chris, Pat and Jamie, and live happily ever after. And we have seminars and classes galore at HAWS to help make your relationship work, so YOUR Buddy hopefully doesn't have to end up in a shelter.
