I’m a little late in posting this, but I wanted to share this with you all. It’s no surprise that we love animals here in the Saylor-Tillery household, and we have a house full of them to prove it. I would not have it any other way.

What you may not know about me is that I don’t personally believe in the act of breeding and mass-reproduction of animals, for sale or otherwise.  According to the Humane Society of the United States, four million cats and dogs – about one every 8 seconds – are put down in U.S. shelters each year. These animals are the products of pet overpopulation, and many of them could have made wonderful pets. Between six and eight million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters each year, far too many to all find homes.

I believe that the solution to this problem is twofold; 1) take the time to spay/neuter your pets. It’s inexpensive, minimally invasive and a one-time step to ensure that you are doing your part to not end up with more pets than you can handle. 2) consider adopting your next pet from an animal shelter. Continuing to support the breeding of more animals when there are so many homeless bundles of joy in the world is just brutal and oblivious. Chris and I have adopted two dogs from our local shelter, and both of them have proven to be the smartest, healthiest, most loving pets I’ve ever known.

Because our experiences have led to such a happy ending, I recently submitted a success story to the Humane Society of Eastern Carolina to be considered for submission on their website. They were exceptionally friendly and eager to share our story with the world. Special thanks to webmaster Tina and assistant facility manager Katie for their kindness and assistance. Keep in mind that this was right around the time that we were in initial discussions of adding our second dog, so Tess is notably absent from the post. You can read about how Riley has changed our life by clicking here, and you can read stories of other happy pet-owners by clicking here.