In recent years, some animal rescue groups have sometimes become hard to like. Unfortunately the very name has become too often associated with arrogance and rigidity.

They can be strident, unrealistic,  and exclusive in their effort to save and rehome animals in trouble. It is easy to generalize about them, also easy to forget that there are many wonderful animal rescue organizations who work hard to keep the balance between saving dogs and protecting them.

It is not an easy line to walk, and people can get pretty obnoxious walking it, and it can be frustrating to the many people who wish to save a dog in trouble.

I am getting my next dog Bud from an animal rescue group that walks the line well and with dignity and grace, it’s called the Friends of Homeless Animals/Rhode Island, even though it’s members are scattered all over the place.

Carol Johnson is a member of FOHA/RI and she is fostering Bud and supervising his treatment. We have worked well together, she lives in the very deep South.

I like to think we are becoming friends. The application for a dog is odious but defensible so, and the group will bend if they have a reason to bend (I balked at sending a list of every dog I have had that has been euthanized, and when and where. It seemed over the line to me.)

She checked with all of my references and with my vet to make sure I am not a monster, and didn’t care much that I write books about dogs. We never even discussed that until the adoption was approved. And she still make me send her photos of our fences.

They didn’t push it too far, though.

This is an organization of dedicated volunteers, they charge very little money, live off of donations, pay all medical costs for sick dogs, transport them for free to their new owners all across much of the country.

They charge $200 if the adoption request is approved, and will refund it if it isn’t.

If you change your mind after agreeing to adopt the dog, they get to keep the money. Most of the sites I saw are charging $400 and $500, pushing the poor and many of the elderly out of the experience of giving a dog a good home.

Many rescue groups will not give a dog to people who have jobs outside of the home, who make little money, who have a chronic illness, or who are older, or who don’t have  expensive fencing. Yuk.

That is very wrong, in my estimation, and surely not good for the dogs who are deprived of many good homes. I know lots of people without five-foot fences who walk their dogs several times every day on leashes and would be wonderful pet owners.

I decided to swallow my  pride and I took the application form seriously and answered the scores of questions. Carol (you can actually call these people and they pick up the phone and speak to you) persuaded me these intrusions were for a good reasons, they get burned a lot, and they don’t want their dogs to suffer any more than they have.

They seem to specialize in small dogs. And they are quite honest about any troubles.

I am comfortable recommending this group,They are worthy and empathetic and real. They help a lot of dogs, Carol has six living in her home in Arkansas now, most, if not all, have had heartworm and are either in treated or successfully out of it.

Bud has about six to eight weeks to go in his heartworm treatment before he can come to us. We will pick him up in Providence, R.I., about five hours from here (my birthplace.) Carol reports this week that Bud licked her on the face for the first time, and is now playing with the other dogs. This is promising, as he is still sick.

He was treated poorly in his prior situation, was abandoned and was initially terrified of men (very reasonable and rational, so am I).

Carol is not certain if he is fully housebroken or not, since she has six dogs she is fostering, she can’t always tell. He does like to play and seems to be growing more affectionate every day. I am very successful at housebreaking new dogs.

Bud has anxiety issues about crates,  Carol says, so we will have to be careful about that.

I feel strongly that Bud will thrive here, and that we will love him, he  seems a slightly mellower version of Gus. Carol says there is a sweetness and peacefulness about him.

I am not looking for another Gus, or for Bud to be like any other dogs. He isn’t a rescue dog or abused dog or a toy dog for us, he is just a dog, and that is how he will be treated here.

My big training idea is to give dogs a chance to succeed and live their natural lives. They don’t need the labels we put on them. And I never tell other people what kind of dog they should get and from whom.

That is all good news for this dog, dogs tend to thrive here on the farm, and in the country, where they are more likely to live the life of dogs, not furbabies.

Bud will go in or outside to the extent that is safe and that he wants to and is comfortable. He will get a chance to hang out with us in the pasture after slow and deliberate assimilation, which we have done many times before.

Aside from Red being kicked by Chloe, our former pony, we have had no injuries to dogs on the farm.

But we take no chances.  Bud will need some time to figure us out, people and dogs, and where he lives now for good. He will get the time he needs. Fate is dying for another playmate, and I hear that Bud likes to play.

I will, of course, share the process. I wish he was coming sooner.

So that’s where we are, another month or so to go. I have to give this rescue group some points, they sure don’t rush it. And they take responsibility for what is theirs to take.

I’ll do the same.