I learned last night that a friend of mine, a very passionate advocate of animal welfare was denied a dog by a rescue group. She was absolutely heartbroken, she had met the dog, she had picked out his name, she had started to weave his life into her family. I couldn't stop thinking about her story last night and it's bothered me all day today.

This is not the time or the place to get in to the whys and details. Bottom line, rescue failed. A dog missed out on an absolutely fantastic home and now my friend is doing her research to find a breeder. She is so turned off by, hurt by rescue, shell shocked by the discrimination that she experienced.

Badger was my very first dog. I bought her from a breeder. I would have been denied from most rescue groups. I had a 3' chain link fence and two cats. Guess what? It didn't stop me from getting not one, but two Siberian Huskies from a breeder, and then two more from a shelter.

I am also the person who later installed a 6' iron fence and also the person who later moved so my dogs could have a larger yard. Consider that Taysia Blue Rescue has saved over 500 lives and think again before you deny another application without connecting with the human behind it.

I am embarrassed and ashamed that collectively we, as rescue groups, choose to interrogate instead of have conversations. We jump to judgement before opening our minds and hearts to a person at the other end of an e-mail - and this ultimately, my friends, is at the expense of the animals. We pile on and suggest that someone "doesn't deserve to have a pet". What I see and hear almost every day makes me so frustrated. Certainly there are times when an applicant isn't right for a Siberian Husky and yes, we've made judgement calls and yes applicants have been denied, but I hope we are growing and opening ourselves more and more to taking the time to listen and learn first. Conversation, not interrogation.