Pet Adoption - A New Adventure

I've recently received some exciting news!  Our lease was coming to an end in January, so we were faced with the choice of moving or staying in our current condo.  We love our place (despite the somewhat questionable location in Northgate), but when we moved in last January, the owners told us we couldn't have a dog.  At that point, I could live with it, but it has now become a must for Jon and I.

Thanks to Jon's amazing negotiating skills and a crappy economy (they know they'd have trouble renting to anyone else for what we're currently paying), they said yes to a dog!  So now begins the search. I originally wanted to find a Boston Terrier from a breeder, but quickly changed my mind for two reasons: a) the cost from a breeder was looking like upward of $1,200 (and that doesn't include micro-chipped, spay/neutering or shots) and b) there are just so many dogs out there that are wonderful just waiting to be adopted.  Needless to say, we're planning to adopt.

Thankfully, there are a ton of options in the Seattle area for adopting dogs.  We're waiting until after the holidays to actually adopt a dog (too much traveling in the next two months), but that hasn't stopped me from scouring the adoption pages and Petfinder.com.  Here are the local shelters I have found so far:

• Paws (Lynwood) - http://www.paws.org/
• Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue (Redmond) - http://www.spdrdogs.org/
• Seattle Humane Society (Bellevue) - http://www.seattlehumane.org/
• Seattle Animal Shelter (Seattle - Interbay) - http://www.seattle.gov/animalshelter/Default.asp
• Everett Animal Shelter (Everett) - http://www.everettwa.org/default.aspx?ID=35

 If you know of any others, please let me know! I'll be checking them all out over the next two months so I know what to expect and what the procedure is once the time comes.  Until then, I'm going to begin puppy proofing my place and reading up on my "What to Expect When You Adopt a Dog" books!