When it comes to getting pets, I’m very much in the rescue, don’t buy camp. There’s so many wonderful dogs and cats that need homes in animal shelters that it seems insane that anyone would pay, say, a dog breeder for a pet. That said, I’ll admit I’m less clear about how I feel about the practice of swapping a 1996 Land Rover Discovery for a dog. Maybe it’s because I’ve only encountered it one time, in this particular Craigslist post, and I haven’t really had time to fully process it.
The ad, from Columbus, Ohio, is pretty clear about what the deal is:
I’m looking for a female toy breed puppy. Looking to trade for a 1996 Landrover Discovery Runs and drives >134,000 miles needs some minor fixes but it doesn’t affect driveability
Yeah, a 1996 Land Rover for a 2020 dog. The Land Rover has a snorkel and everything, and the puppy likely will have a little cold, wet nose she’ll shove in your face, adorably.
The puppy wanted must be a female “toy breed”, and while “toy” isn’t a breed as such, it’s clear that the dog-desirerer/Discovery-diswanter is referring to what the American Kennel Club classifies as part of the “Toy Group,” which are small dogs that can be considered “companion dogs.”
I wonder what those “minor fixes” are on that Discovery? A Discovery of that era could likely have no working lights and owners might consider that a needed “minor fix” compared to all the other things that could go wrong, but maybe it really is minor, like ashtray misalignment or something?
I also wonder if this person is really that open to any kind of Toy Group dog. I mean, a Pug and an Italian Grayhound are both in this category, but are about as different physically as I can think of any two dogs of roughly the same scale being.
I mean, one is like an adorable alien made out of twigs and the other is like a cute little fuzzy bag of wheezy chili, so I think it’s kind of interesting that the Land Rover owner would be fine with either, but, well, seems like it.
I can picture a very exciting parallel test drive happening with puppies and car keys being swapped, too.
Overall, though, I think this seems like a fair trade.
(thanks, Joshua!)