Almost every day, I get messages from people thanking or praising me for deciding to “rescue” Bud rather than buy another dog from a breeder.

The idea seems to be that I’m  somehow (finally) virtuous or noble for rescuing a dog rather than buying one for any reason. The messages all say there are so many lovable dogs who need homes, it is good of me to rescue one.

I guess most people don’t know that I have rescued dogs, cats, sheep, donkeys, even chickens and cows for years. I even rescued two Swiss Steers and a beef cow I had absolutely no business rescuing or owning.

These messages and this point of view is alien to me, however well meaning. It is just not the way I think of dogs.  I have never written a message to anyone in  my life thanking for them getting a dog from a shelter, or a breeder, or a rescue group. Why would I do that?

I think everyone who can read and sit up knows by now that some dogs are in need of  rescue, but I never use those terms to describe my dogs, I never say they are rescued or abused.

Why?

Because I think every dog is a rescue dog in one way or another, at least to me.

Dogs lead hard and fragile lives, there are minefields everywhere for them, and every time a loving person buys or gets one or walks into one on the street or goes to a shelter, they are “rescuing a dog.”

From abusive, lazy or ignorant people.From people who don’t pay attention to their health, or who over feed them, or who train them so loosely that they bite or hurt people and other dogs, or run into the street where they are hit by cars and trucks.

I am a steward of my dogs, not a rescuer, and I have  seen lots of rescue people mistreat their dogs – as in condemning them to the cruel fate of a no-kill shelter, where many languish in crates for years or for the rest of their lives.

I’ve seen breeders mistreat dogs, and shelter workers misrepresent dogs to get them adopted. And I’ve seen countless people keep their dogs alive beyond reason and in great pain for selfish reasons, project all kinds of mindless human neuroses onto them, confine them in yards or tied to trees, ignore health care, or feed them unhealthy foods.

I know of many people who shout at their dogs rather than train them, or turn them into furbabies, emotionalized representations of dogs that were once proud and useful. The manner in which I get a dog does not make me a saint, or in any way better than you.

People buy dogs on impulse, because they saw one on TV or in the movies, or because they think they will go to heaven sooner than the rest of us. Or because they just want to rescue something.

I don’t love a rescue dog any differently than one that comes from a good or bad breeder. I get the best dog for me from wherever I come across it and I love every dog I have ever had.

It’s something of a minor miracle when a dog gets into a really good home where people will learn about the dog and love it and train it in a knowing and healthy way and give it the life a dog deserves.

Nobody has a lock on wisdom and caring or righteousness when it comes to dogs: not me, not breeders, not rescue groups, not shelter workers. In my heart, I thank every person who gives a dog a good home, I could care less whether they bought one or rescued one.

Red is a rescue dog, he was saved from a farm in Ireland that was not good for him. Frieda was a rescue dog. Pearl was rescued from overbreeding. But was rescued from an irresponsible owner.

Purebred dogs are often rescued from lives that can be improved upon; from overbreeding, confinement, lack of attention. Every dog needs to be rescued from any of the scores of pitfalls that could affect and befall them.

The animal world is slipping into the same tarpit that our political system has fallen into: labels, judgment, dividing other people into warring groups.

Do us dog lovers really need to turn each other into members of warring factions who spend time and energy judging one another rather than taking care of dogs.

My job as a steward of my dogs is to ensure that they have the very best possible lives. That they are healthy, well-trained, much-loved. I am an equal opportunity dog lover, I don’t need to label them or polarize people by telling them what they must do.

Bud is not a rescue dog, he is a dog to me, that is what I call him. My dog.

And I would not ever thank anybody for getting a dog. Any yahoo can get a dog, from almost anywhere, and for all their talk of screening, no breeder  or rescue dog can be 100 per cent certain that a dog up for adoption is going to the right place. Nobody is inside, reporting out.

I thank people for getting a dog in a thoughtful and deliberate way and taking the best possible care of the dog. I thank people for being a steward of their dogs, not a hero.