Although it can be fun to go to the pet store and shop around for an animal you like, the animals at the pet store cost hundreds of dollars and are in no danger of being put down. If you really love animals and you want to help one by bringing them to live in your Bolton homes, you should consider adopting an animal from a shelter. If you've never been to the shelter before, we'll tell you all about what life is like for rescue animals.

The animals at the shelter have all been abandoned. Perhaps they once had a happy home in their former owner's Edmonton real estate, but tragedy struck and their owners moved away and left them or decided they didn't want them anymore. A lot of rescue animals have never been loved at all. Instead, they were abandoned at birth to fend for themselves, donated to the shelter by their parents' owners, or owned by people who mistreated and neglected them.

At the shelter, staff do everything they can for the animals. They make sure they get enough food and water and time to play. They fix up the injuries they received from interlocking paving stones and spay or neuter them to make sure they can't produce more unwanted pets. They give them attention, but they can't give them a home. Only you can do that. And you must do it quickly, because most shelters are so overloaded that they can only keep animals for a few weeks before they must put them down to make room for more.

When you visit the shelter, you will find all sorts of animals. Young ones and old ones, happy ones and sad ones, pure bred and mixed. You will probably want to take them all home, but you need to think carefully about your personality and the animal's so that you will end up living happily together in your Riverdale real estate. Don't decide right away. Take time to meet with several animals before you make your decision.

Adopting an animal from the shelter is a lot cheaper than buying one from a store or even adopting the kittens and puppies your neighbors have at their Newmarket homes. You can get a cat or a dog from a shelter for $60 to $100, which includes a means to get them home (collar and leash for a dog, cardboard carrier for a cat) as well as a free vet checkup for their shots and a discount on the animal's spay or neuter operation.