Foreclosing On A Pet

The Resendiz family lost their first home to foreclosure in the subprime mortgage mess. They were forced to squeeze into an apartment - all six of them.

But one member of the family couldn't make the move, CBS News corresondent Sandra Hughes reports.

"We always wanted a house and a dog," said the family's oldest daughter, Jessica.

Fourteen-year-old Jessica Resendiz was talking about the family dog, Daisy Mae.

Jasmine is the baby of the family, whose first word was "Daisy."

"We wanted the American dream, basically," said the girls' mom, Jenny Resendiz. "You buy a house, you get a dog, you have a family."

In the past year, shelters in Massachusetts, Florida and California have reported an up-to-30 percent increase in the number of family pets left homeless because of the mortgage crisis.

Many owners will bring their animals into a Humane Society. Others will abandon them in the foreclosed home.

The increases have brought thousands of animals and dogs into shelters. In rural California, the problem is horses and exotic animals.

But no matter the pet, the emotion seems the same.

"We have seen them here with their head down crying filling out the paperwork," said Karen Zich of the Riverside Humane Society.

Riverside County's home foreclosure rate is the eighth-highest in the nation, up 228 percent over the past year.

Half the dogs at the shelter there were from people whose homes were in foreclosure?

"Yes, that is right lost their homes and had to move," Zich said.

But for most of these abandoned animals, having already been a family pet makes them good candidates for adoption - like Daisy Mae.

"I fell in love with her," said John Williams, Daisy Mae's new owner. "It was that quick."

Now, the Williams family of Rancho Bernardo are making a new home for Daisy Mae, which makes the Resendiz family feel better - and hopeful that like Daisy Mae, they could have a new home in their future.