Angels of Scotland Kennels review: ethics 1

Our family has had dogs for close to 30 years while we brought up our 3 children and two grandchildren. In the fall of 2012 our last Westie died. Our Scottie the year before, both of old age. It took us a couple of years to get up the courage to consider adopting another dog.

We came across Angels of Scotland on the web. I contacted the lady who said that she didn't have any puppies at the moment and was not considering giving up any of her adults scotties although Foxie was retired. I asked her to consider allowing us to adopt Foxie. She got back to me the next day and said she would sell her to us. We drove down to Vergennes from Montreal 48 days later and fell in love.

Foxie was having a hard time adjusting to us for the first few days but slowly seemed to come around after 4 or 5 days although she nipped at a neighbours dog at one point. Then on Saturday our 38 year old son came by and slowly introduced himself to Foxie, very gently. After about 15 minutes, just cuddling, she bit our son on the nose, breaking the skin and caused bleeding. Although we were concerned for our son, we were more concerned about Foxie around our 5 year old grandsons and 9 month old granddaughter. We visited with our vet who ultimately said that while Foxie could be trained, to 99%, even at 8 years old, there was no guarantee and therefore always some risk.

Foxie had mostly lived in a large pen with a number of other scotties for most of her 8 years. In retrospect we should have considered that she had limited interaction with people. We initially asked the breeder how Foxie was with children and she played down an innocent incident with her granddaughter a few years ago where Foxie's paw was stepped on, presumably by the child.

The next day i drove back to Vergennes and, in tears left Foxie back at the breeders. As much as I had become attached to Foxie, there was no way I could take the risk with by grandchildren, even that small a risk.

Since I brought Foxie back, I've had time to recover although I still get teary eyed when I think about her. It was a VERY sad day for me. At the time the breeder made the point that I hadn't given Foxie enough of a chance and in that, in isolation, she may have been right but that even that amount of doubt compounded by the risk surrounding my grandchildren, I still believe I did the right thing. I had no choice.

When i met Foxie and instantly fell in love with her, and was asked for $2, 500 to own her, money was no object. Having fallen in love with her, signing a contract saying that if i was to return her at some point there would be no money back, was not an issue. Blind love.

In the interim I've had a chance to talk to our vet, several breeders and dog owners and all are shocked that the breeder would not have made some sort of good will return of some of the money I paid for an 8 year old dog for only 9 days. I have to say that I was too emotional that afternoon when I brought Foxie back on November 4th to get into that, but I've been told by some breeders that it does seem rather un ethical, not withstanding the contract I signed. A breeder in Ontario said that she would have returned 1/2 which would have meant the breeder had the equivalent of renting out Foxie for $1, 200 for 9 days. $133 per day. "Not a bad return" she said !

I asked the breeder to consider the above but haven't heard a word in weeks. I would have thought that she would want to protect and maintain the integrity and reputation of your kennel.