Can you believe that this has been one of the top news stories?The country has been obsessing over what kind of dog President Obama will get his daughters.This really falls in the special interest category to me.But,I might be biased because I’m a cat lover.
Anyway,we have found out which lucky animal gets to be America’s first dog! It’s a Portuguese water dog named “Bo”.He’s a cute little thing,but not everyone is happy with President Obama’s choice.Seems like that’s becoming the norm for some folks! Let’s gripe about our new president constantly & do our best to find fault in anything that he does.
This time the Obama complainers are pissed about the fact that “Bo” may not technically be a rescue dog.At least not by their standards. Here’s more on the latest gripe someone has with President Obama from The AP:
“The Obamas repeatedly said they wanted it to be a rescued dog such as one from a shelter. Their search was complicated by daughter Malia’s allergies, which would rule out many of the “mutts” the president has said he would prefer.Enter Bo, a 6-month-old puppy given up by his first owner and matched with the Obamas through his breeders.
Because he was given up by his first owner as a poor fit and is now with his second owners, the Obamas, but never spent time in a shelter or with a rescue group, Bo is a “quasi-rescue dog,” says Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of The Humane Society of the United States.
Here’s where the intrigue comes in:
_ Bo’s breeders happen to have bred Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Portuguese water dogs. The Massachusetts Democrat, an Obama friend and political ally, also acquired a pup from Bo’s litter. Bo’s breeders are fans of Obama and named Bo’s litter the Hope and Change litter.
_ Bo’s first owner lives in Washington
._ Bo was returned to the breeder in early March, fitting the spring timeline the Obamas had given for their dog adoption.
_ Kennedy and his wife Victoria helped line Bo up with the Obamas. Before moving into the White House, the pup spent nearly a month with the Kennedys’ dog trainer in Virginia.In fact, Bo is a gift to the Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha, from the Kennedys, said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama. The puppy officially arrives Tuesday.
“They were starting their search with shelter dogs, but when the Kennedys learned of this dog and offered it as a gift to the girls, they met the dog, it was a perfect fit for their lifestyle and for Malia’s health concerns,” she said, adding that the Obamas are making a donation to the Washington Humane Society.
“Because this gift came before their pound search sort of was completed, they made a gift to some of the places they were looking.”
Still, conspiracy buffs might speculate that Bo was meant for the Obamas all along. Was his adoption engineered to look like a rescue — or at least blur the line to head off criticism that the Obamas had picked a purebred from a breeder? The Humane Society’s Pacelle acknowledged that the Obamas never flat-out promised to get a dog from a pound or rescue group. And the society has kind words for Obama on its Web site:
“Thanks, Mr. President, for giving a second-chance dog a forever home,” it says.
“He’s in a gray area,” Pacelle said of Bo. “But I will say that many animal advocates are disappointed that he (Obama) didn’t go to a shelter or breed rescue group, partly because he set that expectation and because so many activists are focused on trying to reduce the number of animals euthanized at shelters, and there’s no better person to make the case to the American public that you can get a great dog from a shelter than the president.”
The group later removed its congratulatory message and replaced it with: “First Dog Unveiled. Concerns about impact on shelters, demand for breed as Bo makes his debut.”(End of Excerpt) Read the rest here.
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