February 15th, my wife and I adopted an eight week old female chihuahua/terrier/dachshund mashup of a mutt from the San Francisco SPCA. Besides all the dogs that have added pages to Dogster, she has got to be the cutest dog on the planet and we love her madly. She’s already spent a good bit of time at Dogster HQ and even though she’s only 8 inches tall she’s real brave and gets along with all the dogs and bipeds.

Four years ago I really did get the idea for Dogster after noticing my wife (girlfriend at the time) was visiting rescue and adoption website to get her dog fix. While it would make her laugh to see the cute faces, it made her sad knowing that these dogs needed homes and she couldn’t give them one. We both lived in apartments at the time which did not allow dogs. I thought it was a shame there was no easy way for people to make websites for their own dogs, so I set out to make one. Four years later we finally have a landlord that agreed to our having a dog and her name is Moxie.

Adopting a dog from a shelter is very purposefully not easy. If I hadn’t been running Dogster I doubt I would have known that though there are hundreds of dogs in every city needing a forever home, shelters and rescue services are extremely careful about giving them away. After spending all that time helping a dog or cat out, the last thi they want is for it to ever be abandoned again. Their pet applications ask surprisingly personal questions such as “how will you ensure the animal’s health if you die” and “how much can you spend on your dog monthly.” There’s also going to be a fee of a couple hundred dollars to pay for the spaying/neutering, vaccines, and for the care of the animals they have that aren’t adopted. I recall a couple years ago thinking it was outrageous the SPCA charged $250 to adopt an unwanted dog. Yet when I wrote the check earlier this month it seemed too small.

I would also like to say a special thanks to Ken White and the excellent Peninsula Humane Society for helping us in our search. In the end we found Moxie at the SF SPCA just 15 blocks from where we live.

If you would like to find a shelter or rescue center near you, I would highly recommend using Dogster Local or Catster Local. Or if you already know great shelters that aren’t in our directory you could add them!