We have a dog that absolutely no one seems to want, and this worries us. Molly is a really sweet hound who loves children, is energetic and has been well-trained.
Her problem is that because of airborne allergies, she must be on a special diet. Not an expensive one, just one where she shouldn't have certain ingredients. There are many dog foods and treats that don't have these ingredients.
However, it's an extra challenge for pet owners who have other dogs, since they would have to either make sure that Molly doesn't get their other dogs' treats (if they have the wrong ingredient), or they'd have to switch their dogs over to what Molly is eating.
And Molly has a few other small challenges, too -- she is a big happy girl who needs to romp and play each day. meaning she is not an apartment dog or a good dog for someone who doesn't want to commit to getting her the physical activity she needs. She also needs to be monitored for flareups of her allergies, which fortunately are managed right now.
We took Molly because someone came to us asking for help for this sweet dog who at the time had skin problems that rendered her unadoptable. We have a soft spot for dogs like this, because of another dog that we tried to help but were unable to do. His name was Lenny, and his skin problems, which were entirely different from Molly's, were so bad that we had to put him down. We all loved Lenny, and it broke our hearts to lose him. When we saw Molly with her raw red skin and sad face, we were reminded of Lenny, and decided to take her in honor of him.
That was six months ago.
We're still glad to have taken Molly in, but we haven't been able to find a new foster for her (her current amazing foster, who has nursed her through her skin problems, works longer hours and isn't the right home for Molly, who craves more exercise.) A lot of our fosters would love to take her, but some of them work long hours or have small apartments or older arthritic dogs who couldn't keep up with the bouncy, enthusiastic Molly. Or they have cats, a no-no for Molly.
So we are kind of despairing that things will change for Molly. We won't give up on her, but right now things look pretty gloomy.