ADOPT BLACK DOGS!

Meet Joy...if you haven't already.  She is a rescue dog from Texas. She's MY Joy! 

I wept all the way through that Texas shelter looking for the right dog.  There were so many I wanted to take home, including a new puppy who couldn't stop shaking, she was so scared, and a beautiful husky whose looks reminded me of my old dog Bart, but whose temperament was much more agressive.  Couldn't handle that.  I saw Joy in the first room.  I bravely went through all the rooms, weeping as I walked, but wound up back in front of her cage where she lay in feces and urine.  I cried some more, and through my tears asked to meet this one.  Her name was Jada at the time.  A popular name I later learned, but a name to which Joy never responded.  I added Joy to the Jada, but it still didn't work.  Joy was the name she wanted.  It seemed so unreasonable to give such a name to a dog who was so sad and so sick (she had heartworm and parasites and fleas), she had allergies.  But Joy she became. 

When I was unhappy with her I would sigh:  "Oh Joy..."  And she would hang her head.  I would call to her at the dog park:  "Joy, Joy!  Joy!"   She didn't play the first three months I had her.  She had all she could contend with just staying alive.  But after she was treated for the heartworm, and after we stayed in one place for very long, she became her name.  I cried again the first time she played.

I got Joy at a discount because Thursdays in that particular shelter are the days they take 50% off black dogs because no one wants to adopt them.  I was a bit taken aback by such a thing.  Then thought, well, it's the south, maybe its prejudice.  But I later learned that no, black dogs are not the first to be picked.  Everyone wants light colored dogs. 

Well, I just want to say:  Black Dogs are just as WONDERFUL as any other dog!  Joy is the finest, sweetest most loving dog I could have asked for. 

Think about it if you're in the market for a dog.  Get a rescue.  And if there's a nice black dog waiting to be adopted, take him or her home and let them love you.  It's just NOT fair that they are much more often euthanized.  What difference does color make?  I guess it still does to some.  But for heavens sake, GET OVER IT!  They'll give you far more than you ever invest in them.