This really all depends on your roommate, if you have one and they like dogs, go for it, if not, on either point, no. Pets actually aren't the easiest thing in the world to take care of and more if you don't have friends or family in the area you'd have to board your dog and that's a touch rough on the critter if you do it a lot.



Well an adult dog is always a better choice than a puppy for a first pet, probably less destruction off socks and shoes too. Now, theoretically no creature, that I know of, actually requires meat [just nutrients naturally unique to meat] but dogs and cats happen to come from the only two carnivorous mammal suborders, but unlike cats and other obligate carnivores dogs are pretty omnivorous, they don't actually rely on any specific nutrient like Taurine found only in meat [naturally] to my knowledge. Obviously no cat can survive on naturally occuring non-meat diets, and I'd be very hesitant to try it with a dog. Of course, that's 'natural', and if there's any place in the world where one might expect to find vegetarian dog food stocked in stores, California would probably be it. I'd advise some serious research on the matter including discussing it with a veterinarian first, Celia might know. In any event, the meat you feed cats or dogs, unless you are giving them table scraps, isn't raw, it's in a can meaning it's throughly cooked, or in a bag of dry food meaning it is very throughly removed from anything most of us would consider 'meat'.

Also I don't know what dogs are best for non-shedding, but I can tell you a Huskie is definitely not one of them.



Can't help you on that score, haven't lived in Cali since I was knee-high. Also I can't think of anyone on the site who is there, I think Phelix is, but haven't heard from him in a while and its a very big state, I'd be surprised if someone wasn't though. Still, I doubt there's any place in this country that doesn't have some equivalent of the APL or Humane society who can let you know who to talk to for advice and will cheerfully unload a dog on you.



Good luck, my best advice though would actually be to hunt around for someone who already has an apartment and a dog, kind of ease your way into it with minimal commitment.