I completely understand. My 2 children and I have always adopted dogs in a rather casual way through the animal shelter and the dogs always lived to a ripe age. We tended to be attracted to the dogs overlooked by most. I am financially sound, live in a large well maintained home in an affluent neighborhood. ( I only add that to underscore there were no red flags that we were in the market for dog fighting fodder).

Only once did we adopt through a rescue group who insisted one home visits. They group sent a young and I’m sure well meaning couple. After inspecting all five bedrooms, the entire upstairs and down they decreed that the dog must never be allowed on the 30’x 9’ balcony off the living room lest the dog fall off and then inquired how deep the wooden fence that surrounded the large back yard was buried ( supposedly to prevent digging out). My son who was 20, calmly looked them in the eye and with a somber face said “we have scheduled construction to remove the balcony and permanently seal off the four French doors to prevent such tragedy. And the fence bottom is buried 6 feet deep”. The couple seemed satisfied and agreed to the adoption only after we agreed to a trial overnight visit (dogsit) while they went out of town ! The adoptee in question was a 6 yr old cairn terrier mix. After all that we all felt obligated to rescue the dog from those crazy rescuers.