Definitely with you guys on the shelters. Also, even if you have your heart set on a particular breed of dog, there's a pretty good chance of a rescue group for that breed being nearby. Each rescue group is operated a bit differently, but most of them take in rescues of a particular breed, or mutts that have some of that same particular breed in them.
They are usually great groups- one complaint I hear from people is "Well if they can rescue dogs of one breed, why not just rescue all dogs?". I wondered that myself, so I asked a friend and colleague of my wife, who runs a Beagle rescue group here in town. (Oh, have I mentioned that I am OBSESSED with beagles? I've told Donna that we need a lot of land when we grow up because I want like a hundred of them, all running around baying at the top of their lungs and flopping their ears every which way. I'm like "beagle beagle beagle beagle beagle beagle".) :AHEM: She said that most of these breed rescue groups are small, volunteer groups who do the rescuing/fostering of the animals part time. Only having one specific breed allows for the volume of animals coming to this group to be relatively small- with few members doing it on a part-time basis, having a glut of animals incoming would be impossible to deal with. Also, many breeds have specific health issues and needs, so whichever breed a group is rescuing can be assured that their foster and adoptive family has been well-briefed on their particular special needs.
Ok, story time now.
So a few weeks ago, Donna and I were taking Moonshine (The oft-mentioned and oft-threatened with death Parrot) to the pet store so he could meet people and pick out some new toys. It's one of his favorite things to do, and we try to arrange our schedules so that we have at least one free saturday afternoon every couple of weeks to do it. Anyway, just so happened on this particular day, at this particular pet store, there was a large rescue group meeting. A PUG rescue group. Are you following me here? I opened the door to the petstore and saw a HERD OF FREAKING PUGS!!!!!! (Yes, I know a group of dogs isn't called a herd. Eff Yoo. This was a herd.) They were absolutely everywhere. It was like....the most amount of cute I'd ever seen in one place at one time. I immediately dropped to the ground and was absolutely rolling in pugs, laughing like an idiot as half a dozen of them had a licking contest on my head. Everywhere you looked, there was a rotund little smooshface waddling around as happy as could be. I estimate there were 50+ pugs. (This was a very large pet store, by the way.) Moonshine was loving it too, he really gets fascinated by dogs in general, and had never seen wrinkly little fat ones who looked like cartoons. We even met one pug with one eye and 3 legs. Donna named him Lucky. Anyway, that was the best day at the pet store ever. I was in cute overload mode for the rest of the weekend.
It's really pathetic. Some students are so stellar and do their best. Then I have some students (like the one noted in my prior post). I think I have at least five students this quarter that claim that there was a death in the family for several weeks in a row during this quarter. It really amazes me. Why would students shell out major money for college if they aren't going to do the work?
that he was taken from had let his collar grow right into his skin! I will NEVER understand how someone can go and get a beautiful puppy or kitten and just neglect and abuse them like that, I'd love to get my hands on one of these 
one day! 
