Will Falconer, DVM Moderator
I'm with you, Darci. Difficult situation, and as much as I used to encourage adopting pound animals, I've backed off on that, seeing how damaged they often are. I wish it were easier to cure the damage, but even with decades in the homeopathic practice trenches, my colleagues and I are often plagued with tough cases that don't go very far, much like our experience with Winnie.
I'm leaning toward natural rearing breeders for recommending a source of youngsters nowadays.
And, I'm also rethinking "just get one rabies to be safe." I think, unless it's prevalent in your area (learn via the CDC MMWR data), you may be better off not vaccinating for it. Between fears of rabies or fears of euthanasia, I think we may be overreacting to the disease. I've certainly had cases who were severely damaged by just one or two rabies vaccines.