I don't have time to read through the entire thread right now, SO...
What was your reasoning for buying vs rescuing?
Simplified=
#1, the "knowing" part
#2, I wanted a dog I could "compete" with, particularly in agility and nowadays herding
#3, I wanted a herding breed, it's just what I like.
Extended=
-I wanted to be able to somewhat get to predict the size, temperament, "breed", and health (more overall than anything) of the dog I was getting.
-When I got my first bought purebred I had slightly less standards then (I was turning 13, he was to be my birthday gift actually, a well thought out <but sadly not well thought out enough> gift), but a few things in mind, I had watched my first ever agility competition on Animal planet just the previous year, it was by the AKC so at that point, having no one in my life to guide me at all, I figured that in order to compete in "agility" my dog had to be AKC registered, thus a purebred. I ended up on the Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
Now, I know better about the true differences in a good breeder Vs a Responsible breeder, and that you don't need a purebred to do agility, but I got into herding and still wanted to stick to a herding dog, but again I had very high standards, namely that the dog didn't have a "long flowing coat", and wasn't a Border collie or GSD because I was and still am SICK of the politics (not just those IN the ring either, actually those outside of the ring I've found are worse). It's not to say I didn't look, I did, and ran into several problems, the most being "lack of selection", pretty much nothing ever came through our local shelters/rescue that was remotely what I was looking for (pit bull, lab, coonhound, beagle, husky/part husky, "bite risk"/"single pet home only", etc.), that and as I just posted recently, I did find two VERY purebred Beaucerons in rescues, who refused any out of location adoptions *sigh*.
Yes. Namely, a puppy who was dumped in my front lawn one night (this happened to 3 counties at least that I know of, 3 different occasions), she was actually to be my first agility dog, she passed around 6 months old (we guessed she was about 8 weeks old).
Did you feel any guilt for purchasing?
Absolutely NOT, never will. Because I put so much thought into it, they are mine for life, and because I know what I was passing over at the shelter (pretty much everything that wouldn't have fit well into my household/life) I feel really good to have brought a well bred dog into my life.