that's totally true!I'm all for adoption but they make it so hard to adopt certain breeds of dogs that its almost impossible to get. You can walk into any pound and get a pitbull or a terrier or some random mix of dog and they'll thank you for taking it off their hands because they are in general less desirable dogs and there is 30 others just like it in the cages beside it. You want a golden retriever, or a shiba, etc., they are in such high demand that there are questionnaires to fill out before they would even consider letting you adopt it - how big is your yard, is it fenced, how many walks per day will you take it on, how long, how many hours a day do you work, etc. etc. etc. The local shelter got a golden retriever in December and essentially like buying a house, said that because of how high the demand they expect for the dog, you had until x date to put in a questionnaire and then they would review them all after... I'm not jumping through hoops to spend money - a dog is a dog whether it is in a shelter or in someone's house.
I went with Kijiji - bought our dog from a family that had two goldens that missed the window to spay the female. Obviously not a puppy mill, the owner obviously cared for all the dogs, still texts me asking for pictures of her.
i have 2 kids and a whole bunch of dogs in the house all day every day, i dont think theyll let us take any dog LOL
but then we're an amazing environment for dogs as they get tons of exercise (she walks about 10km daily), they get socialized and tons of love from us (esp my youngest, he cuddles them at every chance he gets)
but a lot of dogs need "to be the only dog and to not have kids in the picture" so that reaaaaaaally narrows down our choices. As our old 14 y old dog shows signs of her age, we think about it here and there. It'll be interesting!