Charles and The Puppy Mill :0

So sometimes I’m amazed at how unsuspecting I can be! Probably by now all you lovely bloggers have caught on to how crazy The Charles can be! I mean all dogs have their moments but sometimes I wonder if he was dropped on his head during birth! Seriously people, there are little crazy quirks that our animals all possess and then there are just plain WEIRD ones that make you wonder what happened to them in the first month of their life before you brought them home?!

We purchased The Charles from a local puppy store by the base. I didn’t really think anything of it. I mean he wasn’t even a month old, the place seemed reputable and they guaranteed that we could get his papers stating he was a purebred. From the beginning he seemed happy and well adjusted and we have loved to watch his personality grow and shine (oh and boy does it)! However, there are just some things that freak him out and I have no idea where this fear comes from.

I never put it together until the other day…and boy was I shocked! I was talking to my boss about her volunteer work with the local SPCA. I was telling her how I would love to get a kitten but the Hubs is deathly afraid of them and refuses to let me (long story..remind me to tell you later). I went on to tell her that we would also love to get another dog for The Charles but right now we can’t afford the extra expense. I inserted the comment that when we get another dog though, we are getting a rescue one and not paying an arm and a leg like we did for The Charles at the store. Her next comment stopped me dead in my tracks…

“Oh no! you didn’t get him there..those are puppy mill dogs!” What! I mean …What?! But that couldn’t be possible..could it? That’s when it hit me..all of his crazy weird reactions might be for a reason. I proceeded to tell her how whenever we put a blanket or sheet over our normally wild dog he will play dead (literally he doesn’t move, even with the offer of a cookie); how he is fine going down normal steps but he was scared to death of going down the basement steps; and how he has really bad separation anxiety and will vomit every morning and not eat when it happens. My boss told me that it is typical puppy mill behavior..oh no! But he was so young when we got him, what could have happened to him during that first month to cause this? Apparently sometimes just having the mommy dog being over bred causes these weird reactions in their puppies (it can make them mentally weird)!

Let me tell you…I was devastated. I mean, not my poor little perfect (forget all his past faults) little Charles! How could he have gone through this terrifying experience?! I rushed home and informed the Hubs of this terrible thing that our pup has endured. He then was like “well, that makes sense he did come from a “farm” in Pennsylvania” .. which is apparently infamous for being full of puppy mills…again what!

Now whenever The Charles does something really strange or bad we just blame it on him being a puppy mill pup!  This is seriously disturbing me though..it makes me so sad to think about all of those poor dogs being over bred and the puppies that suffer from it..not cool!

The Hubs said that we rescued him..yeah too bad we had to pay SO much..but at least he’s safe :)

Down with Puppy Mills…