To buy purebred or not to buy?

[Camille]

So right now I'm in the middle of a 2 day long debate with my mother. I will begin this story from the beginning:

I volunteer at an animal shelter in my town. I adore all of the dogs that I work with, from the Presa Canario to the pit bull pups. I brought my mother to the shelter and handed her probably 15 or so dogs. Each one she found something wrong with. It's ugly. It's a girl. It's not friendly enough. It's a pit bull (????). It smells. He doesn't like me. He's too hyper. He's too funny looking. He's too big. (One of the cats we have at the shelter smacked her really good on the foot after one of these comments, which I found to be hilarious...but I digress)

After becoming very frustrated and yelling some rant about how all dogs are beautiful and she's superficial, I drag her to the barn to meet the pit bull puppies. She picks up a gorgeous little fawn and white colored girl with sleepy eyes and oohs and ahhs about how gorgeous it is until she tips it over and reveals it's a female. After that, it's not what she wants anymore. Besides, it's a pit bull and might grow up to feast on her flesh (or her land lord's). After that little comment, I was done. I threw my hands up in the air and I was completely and totally finished until she squealed about the dog that had been following us around the property for 2 hours...the woman who owns the shelter's personal English bulldog.

Now my mother has me on a search to find her the most perfect and beautiful PUREBRED English bulldog MALE puppy with PRETTY BROWN MARKINGS "just like that one."

Now, my thing is, I'm having a hard time actually going about doing this because every weekend I go to adoptions and stare at a dog that has been in the program for 2 years, and was at a shelter for 3 years before that. I play with dogs that have been returned by their owners (purebreds) that were too much of a strain on their personal lives to keep. Too hyper, too aggressive, too much of a responsibility. And my mother wants to adopt from one of these people that, in my mind, contribute to this problem. Sure, it's fun running and wrestling and grooming my sweet babies every weekend. But I'd much rather see them in loving forever homes getting belly rubs and not having a care in the world.

What do you guys think? Am I being closed-minded? Should I just find my mom an English Bulldog (which, by the way, are EXPENSIVE) or should I try to convince her to adopt a dog after searching PetFinder? We looked at the bulldogs in our area and they were all either "too old," had "too many health issues," (lol) etc. I'm looking for a solution, so give me your input.

P.S. If you say my mother shouldn't own a dog if she's says things like that, I concur. Sorry if someone misinterprets this as me being hateful to my mother- we don't exactly have a relationship, I just offered to help her because I wanted her to get a breed that was right for her (she lives in an apartment and she wanted a boxer...not exactly smart). I suggested schnauzers, greyhounds (yes Lisbeth...my favorite, haha), boston terriers, pugs, etc. Small short haired dogs. In any case, yeah. Not being hateful, just really frustrated. No one calls my sweeties ugly...I love my furbabies.

[Camille]

-sigh- Me and my mother don't talk much. Okay, so we went to the shelter, she picks him out. I give her the website to do the adoption process- you fill it out online, they do a home check, etc. Right before she was going to get everything all tidied up, her landlord instated some kind of "pet rent" policy (she lives in some condos in Clear Lake, since you're familiar with Houston area you might know where that is) and now he's in foster care and she's trying to figure out how to pay this "pet rent." Mom and I, like I said, don't talk much and I hear these things through my little sister who my mom sees around 3 times a week. SIGH I'm confused by the situation myself. I've never even heard of pet rent...

[Susan Sadeghian]

I live in CA and EVERYONE charges pet rent per month AND a pet deposit. Pet deposit can be a one time thing or a yearly thing and it can be $500.00 in addition to the rent.
Its so anything the dog may destroy will be covered and so when people move out even ppl without pets who may be allergic can move in=cleaning fee for pets so to say.
Many here have size restrictions,they welcome big dogs up to 40lbs. To me thats NOT a big dog and many have breed restrictions,some have up to 75 breeds on breed restriction,greyhounds are on many of them since landlords and homeowners insurances think that greyhounds need to run a lot and long for 24/7 in order to NOT destroy everything in their side at their home. I know its a misconception.
Farmers insurance charges by deed not by breed so as long as the dog does not have a huge bite history they will cover any breed for both homeowners insurance and rent insurance,but your moms landlord has no problem with breed restriction just a pet rent which here is completley normal and I looked in other states cause we may want to move soon and most other states and most other landlords have pet rent or pet deposit or both. You usually just dont know about it til you have a pet and are trying to rent with your pet,but EVERYONE seems to have it. It probably was in the contract for pet owners in her condo,but since your mom wasnt then and did not say she wanted pets the landlord did not think it was important. I could be wrong. There may be a few places that dont charge pet rent as long as you can proof the dog is a good k9 citicen or get referal from the last landlord or last neighboers he or she lived with.
For some reason landlords dont really like dogs but will welcome them for extra cash so to say. Or if your mom has renters insurance saying they will pay for anything the pet destroys she may not need to pay pet rent. One place we were looking at said their insurance charges them more for pets so they have to charge pet owners more,but if we take care of our own insurance, they wont have to charge us extra.
I heard a letter from a trainer goes a long way to say your pet wont destroy anything.
Hope some of these suggestions help.

[Belles]

When we moved into our house, we had to have ALL the carpeting replaced in the bedrooms because the people before us had cats with no scratching posts and dogs that were not trained to use the dog door.

Uggghhh... If I were a landlord, you bet I'd charge a pet deposit. No monthly surcharge for pets, but if there was an insurance requirement, that is up to the tenant and I would ask them to provide proof of an insurance rider for each dog. I think this is also why most apartment complexes only allow small dogs.. they skirt the insurance liability issue.

[Susan Sadeghian]

Small yappers to me are more annoying then big dogs,most small dogs in our area bark all the time and many have the napoloeon complex " I am big and in charge and will prove it to you by biting you before you bite me and if I cant bite you I will take it out on the furniture by using it as chew toys or peeing on it, that will teach my owners to leave me behind".
Thats just my experience but like I said I met some nice quite little dogs too, ok one or two,but most yap or howl a lot and use everything incl body parts as chew toys and their owners think its cute. Little do they know if they escape and end up at a high kill shelter noone there will think its cute and they have to make room and dont have time to see if the lil guy is bluffing or really aggressive,they have to take him or her at face value. My daughter said if she were a landlord she would have size restrictions,nothing under 40lb with possible exceptions for some 35lb dogs that are not yappers and destructors.

[Susan Sadeghian]

Most homeowners insurances will charge more for any pet over 100 lbs.