This time of year, many of us are turning our thoughts to the gifts we'd like to give to a loved one.  There are so many fabulous gifts choices out there, and one really BAD gift choice: a puppy or kitten from a pet store or a pet broker. 

Whether you are thinking of obtaining a pet for yourself or for someone else, I want to urge you: don't purchase from a pet store. Or from a pet broker (one of those individuals who offers to bring a puppy to YOU). Many of you have heard the reasons why you shouldn't buy from such places. The puppies are not well cared for.  Many are not socialized properly.  Many are ill, or have been over-vaccinated and/or live on antibiotic therapy.  Some have been abused.  Most are not good, healthy representatives of their breed type. All of them live in horrible conditions until they get to the pet store.

I want to tell you about another reason, and then I'm also going to show you, quite graphically, why you should NEVER buy from a pet store or from a slimy pet broker (and yes, folks, they ARE slimy, even if they look like your grandma, as they often do).  My reason is heartbreaking, and it involves the animals who NEVER get to leave the horrible conditions they live in at the puppy mill.  I'm talking about the Mamas of those puppies that you buy.

I want you to know about Jaymee, who was rescued after EIGHT years in a puppy mill. Eight years of living in a tiny outdoor wire cage, of being chained down to be bred, or having litter after litter until her body was exhausted. She was rescued by a wonderful network that cares for Cairn Terriers – Colonel Potter’s.  The foster Mom who has graciously allowed me to share her words is Terri, who adopted my Thibideaux to me and who opened her heart to Jaymee as she has to so many other Cairns from Col. Potter’s. She has been trying, since she took Jaymee into her home last year, to break through to this frightened and traumatized little dog, just as she'd been able to do for all the other Cairns she had fostered in the past:

Jaymee was rescued in August 2007 from a Missouri puppy mill. She is terrified of men, and….after several months and bites - I got her.  Boy was I GREEN!  Just thought this girl would melt in my arms like my boys all did....Yeah - Sure.   "Don’t mess with me!” is her mantra.  First week here I tried to hook her to the yard lead – forgot that they chain them down to mate them at the puppy mill.   Bite #1.

Next time, I tried to catch her to brush her... Bite #2

They suggested I use a smaller crate to keep her in to make her feel secure... Yeah - that was Bite #3. On the chin - drew blood and required a tetanus shot for me. She now sleeps in a crate (condo) big enough for a Great Dane - and crates on command and is very happy in the condo.

This was all in the first eight weeks.  Slowly just following the gang she caught on to the routine, follows well and knows directions. But still, she showed little life, no spark and no fun.  It gradually got better.

She does learn well by repetition and watching my guys.  Playing is coming slowly - she is a toy borrower, grabbing them all and taking them to her crate.  I have to clean toys out of her crate once a week. When we are all outside playing she will get a ball and run and run and run.  But I am never allowed to have it or touch it.  When I play inside with the guys, she watches - then runs away.  Sometimes, I can hear her growling and playing with toys but when I peep around the corner - she stops. 

Now - six months later - she is calmer, follows me around the house and yard, but always runs away.  Still terrified of everyone but me, my dogs and neighbor.  Somehow along the line she picked up a signal of raising her paw when it is ok to pet or cuddle her. That is adorable.  But I cannot approach her standing up - she runs.    I have to kneel or crawl over to her.  I know she is happy but still terrified of whatever was inflicted upon her in another life.

I asked Terri to tell me a little bit about what Jaymee looks like, and got this reply:

She is a wheaten silver with black ears and tail.  [Because she was bred so often] she had some mammary tumors which have now been removed.   Actually looks good, like a little tummy tuck!  She has lost all front teeth except one on the bottom [due to the terrible diet that puppy mill dogs are fed].  Does have all four large canines, and about half of her back teeth. Her paws are splayed from the crate wires.  That’s another thing, she stays in constant crouch.  Her hips are wider - she waddles like a duck. She has a damaged eye with a scar and a bulge. 

The Inner Puppy is coming out in Ms. Jaymee!  Six months to the week, we have breakthroughs!  Still have some scampering away - but I just keep heading in my direction and ignore her and she scampers less each time.  In fact when I don't look at her, she is on my heels. When I turn to talk to her, she scampers - just not as far!   Two months ago I was almost ready to throw in the towel and give up.  But the last few weeks are a miracle and a blessing.

Her head is higher, her ears are in High Happy, and her tail goes up more and more every day. For the first time on Thanksgiving morning - I saw her roll and play with a toy in the living room.   Later that day, she alerted me when someone drove up to the neighbors - tail up, ears up and prancing and barking! 

Early this Monday morning she joined in the morning workout of chasing balls up and down the hall - full of enthusiasm and being considerate of others too!   

Terri concludes by saying this about Jaymee, after her eight years in the puppy mill, bearing countless litters of the cute puppies that you saw at your local pet store:

I know what I describe is sad but she is so beautiful.   And loves to be loved - she is just scared. She is one of the lucky ones that was not shot or euthanized at the mill.   That happens to a lot of them.

And Terri is right – Jaymee WAS lucky.  Lucky not to have been taken behind the barn and shot, or euthanized by car exhaust, or left to die during an unsuccessful whelping, the puppies who could not be born left inside her to die, too.  Or simply left to starve, as often happens at puppy mills when a female dog is considered no longer useful.  That happens to a lot of males, too – the fathers to those cute pet store puppies.  Business is business for puppy mill operators, and starving a dog to death is cheaper than wasting a shotgun cartridge.

I urge you to take a look at the links below.  Both come to me from Terri, and permission was granted for the use of each.   The first link is to a web site run by a Col. Potter volunteer, who wants you to click on the PUPPIES link on the left side of her page – I will warn you, it is graphic.  But you cannot close your eyes to this situation:

http://sites.google.com/site/candidcaninephoto

The second link tells a more hopeful story – it is the visual story of some of the dogs rescued by the Col. Potter network (turn your sound on): 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xlDGGokAWxo

What can YOU do for all those dogs sitting in their wire crates in puppy mills throughout the Midwest this holiday season?  Well, for starters, you can recognize that this isn't a holiday issue.  This misery happens year round without any breaks. You can recognize that puppy mills are a big business industry for pet stores, as well as a small home and farm industry for those who supply the pet stores. You can choose to not do business with ANY pet store that sells dogs and cats and to trade only with the ones that don't sell animals.

What else can you do? You can recognize that our part of the country supports one of the largest populations of puppy mills in the United States.  That countless farms in picturesque parts of the Midwest – so often the ones showing charming scenes of horses and buggies and rustic farm folks – regard running a puppy mill as nothing more than a sensible addition to their family’s income.  That the breeding stock that those cute pet store puppies come from, on such farms, are regarded as nothing more than farm produce to be bought, sold, and discarded when it is no longer useful.  That those picturesque farms are often death camps for the animals that must live there.  You can decline to support ANY business run by such farms, whether it is fine quilts or furniture or home-baked goods.

Most importantly, you can resolve to stop the puppy and kitten mill trade at its source, by NEVER, for any reason, purchasing a pet from a pet store - and by refusing to patronize stores that do sell pets.   And if you must……..I want you to think of the pictures you'll see on the web sites above and in this article.  Because when you do purchase that pet store puppy or kitten, you are permitting and helping that misery to continue for your cute puppy’s Mama.  A Mama like Jaymee.