The dogs on this page, all clients of House of Faison's, were rescued from area animal shelters.

According to the Humane Society of the United States:

8-10 million cats and dogs enter shelters every year.
Half of those are euthanized
3-5 million cats and dogs are reclaimed by owners from shelters each year
There are more than 4,000 animal shelters in the United States
Percentage of dogs in shelters that are purebred--25%

From behind a wooden crate we saw a long black-muzzled nose poking round at us. We took him out - soft, wobbly, tearful; set him down on his four, as yet not quite simultaneous legs, and regarded him. He wandered a little round our legs, neither wagging his tail nor licking at our hands; then he looked up, and my companion said: "He's an angel!"

John Galsworthy

It costs U.S. taxpayers an estimated $2 billion each year to round up, house, kill, and dispose of homeless animals. Roughly half of all dogs and puppies entering shelters are killed . . . that's one about every six and one half seconds.

Seven dogs and cats are born every day for each person born in the U.S. Of those, only 1 in 5 puppies and kittens stay in their original home for their natural lifetime. The remaining 4 are abandoned to the streets or end up at a shelter. (The Humane Society of the United States)

The public acquires only 14% of its pets from shelters; 48% get their pets as strays, from friends, from animal rescuers, 38% get their pets from breeders or pet stores. (The Humane Society of the United States)

Thank God I got the rejects. These animals are very, very affectionate.

Eartha Kitt, about her two poodles, who weren't up to the breeder's "standards"

You paused outside to look into my cage. I tried to play it right, wanting to catch your eye with a shy glint in my own, a soft bark, that said, "Choose me," in a canine grammar I hoped you'd understand.

R.S. Jones, his account of his dog Scout's adoption from a shelter

I very much believe in rescuing animals, not buying them. -- Candice Bergen, on finding her dog, Lois, a terrier/basset hound mix

"Hi," I said. She came over, licked my hand discreetly, allowed herself to be scratched for a time, chased her tail in a dignified circle, lay down again. I remember thinking: "There are times God puts a choice in front of you." I often had such thoughts back then. We took the dog. -- Stanley Bing

She had no particular breed in mind, no unusual requirements. Except the special sense of mutual recognition that tells dog and human they have both come to the right place. -- Lloyd Alexander