Since this is a personal finance forum, I decided to focus on the financial advantages of pet adoption vs. buying a purebred. While I certainly have opinions on the ethics of adoption, I will leave those for another forum.

10: Adoption fees are low (around $100), but prices for purebred puppies are very high ($2,500 is not unheard of).

9: With most adoptions, you are getting a dog that is already spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and perhaps even micro-chipped, so you save yourself those costs.

8: You can find a dog that is already crate and/or house trained, saving the time and aggravation of potty training and the costs of cleaning up “accidents.”

7: If the adopted dog is beyond the teething stage, you save yourself the sometimes very high costs associated with teething-related destructive chewing (chewed up shoes or clothing, chair legs, baseboards, etc).

6: You can find dogs that have already completed obedience training and are well socialized, so you do not have to pay for puppy preschool or obedience classes.

5: The majority of shelter dogs are mixed breed. I strongly believe that mixed breed dogs are healthier than purebred dogs, on average. Especially when dogs are bred a certain way just for appearance (to make them “cute”), they can develop conditions at young ages that are serious, expensive to treat, and sometimes fatal. I know hundreds of dogs, and sadly I have known several young purebred dogs who died very suddenly and tragically (and after thousands of dollars were spent on veterinary bills) due to conditions that their particular breed is prone to; I have never known a mixed breed dog who died that way.

4: Mixed breed dogs are tough! I do not know of any mixed breed dogs that need prescription diets because of sensitive stomachs or skin, allergies, or breed-related teeth conditions. I know plenty of purebred dogs that do.

3: Adopting a shelter dog is an inexpensive way to live like a celebrity! Young Hollywood hotties Hillary Duff and Orlando Bloom, to name just two examples, have adopted dogs.

2. You will really feel like a million bucks knowing that you have given a wonderful living creature a second chance at life!

1: All right … This one’s not finance-related and I will readily admit that I am extremely biased, but who could possibly resist this (note the blurry tail due to constant wagging):