I think that Adoption is so wonderful for everyone involved. Whether it’s adopting children or adopting animals. It is such an amazing thing and a true gift. When you adopt, you’re giving them the option to have such a better life.

My fiance and I just recently adopted a puppy. His name is Jasper and we are so happy yo have him as a part of our family. We’re not really sure what he is but he looks like a cross between and pit bull and a great dane. He’s only nine months and he looks huge. Hopefully he’s done a lot of his major growing but I know most dogs don’t fully grow until two and a half years.

I got it for my daughter for her 5th birthday and they’ve been best friends ever since. She sometimes says she likes cats more but she still loves him so much. He follows her everywhere, which can be annoying but she doesn’t mind. She sleeps with her and is so protective of her, it’s so sweet and it’s so amazing watch the bond between an girl and her dog.

When I was in high school I wrote a paper on the importance of adoption vs getting a dog from a pet store. I talked about puppy mills and all that the birthing puppy mothers go through. If you really think about it, it’s really sad that some dogs live the life they do. There are so many more pro than cons when it comes to adopting a puppy.

One major pro that I saw when we got Jasper was that he was already house trained. We didn’t have to worry about him making a mess in the house because he already knew how to be in one. He’s also super obedient, he knows how to listen and he even can do some tricks! He’s still a puppy though so he’s still pretty goofy and high in energy (but so is my daughter so they can play all they want)

A con that I’ve seen is that you never really know what you’re bringing into your home. Sure he had all of his puppy shots, rabies, and has been neutered so mostly everything is taken care of. But here in the last few weeks he developed a skin condition. The vet we called said it sounded like mange. He was scratching a lot to the point that he started losing his hair and the more closely you looked at his skin you could see that it was dry and irritated. He could have easily just had an allergic reaction or excessively dry skin from being outside or something but we still treated it like it was the worst. He’s gotten better but still that was a little stressful

I still think adoption is a wonderful thing and even fostering. It takes a person with a big heart to take someone into their home and raise them. I hope one day that I have the opportunity to adopt a child one day. I know a few people who were adopted and they have been given such wonderful lives and although it’s sad that they don’t have a connection with their birth parents they still live such successful lives and the parents that raised them give them so much support and do so much for them. It’s so incredible to see. It’s truly a blessing.