Are rescue shelters making it too hard to adopt a pet?

Treatz, I can't tell from your post whether you live here in the US or not; but it sounds like you do. One way that you might be able to get a dog is to look on your local craigslist, or even in the newspaper, or the free little weekly papers that come out everywhere.
Many times, I have seen ads where a stray dog has come to someone's house, and they rescued the dog, hoping to re-unite it with the proper owner. Sometimes, the owner is never found, and then the person may have to put the dog up for adoption, and it is usually either free, or just a re-imbursement of whatever money they have spent on the dog.
It seems to me like a rescue shelter would have let you adopt a dog, especially since you have a good recommendation from your veterinarian, as well as other good references. I think that sometimes the shelters do make it hard to adopt a pet; but then will just go ahead and kill the animal instead if they are short on room.
Some pet rescues are now charging several hundred dollars to adopt a pet, so that also makes it impossible for someone who doesn't have a lot of money (but would provide an excellent home) to adopt a shelter dog.
It makes no sense to me that the shelters cry for people to adopt these pets, and then refuse to do it when a person wants to adopt one.