is it a bunch of old and sick and wrecked animals living in a fairy tale? is it our personal feel good candy store where we get all warm and fuzzy over a one eyed, three legged, cancer dog with a beautiful grizzled face?
no it is not.
saints is an idea..it is an ideal..it is a very real belief that thru our animal's stories, thru their individual lives and personalities and idiosyncrasies, thru the opportunities to meet them and spend time with them...they suddenly for the very first time become real. they are real...they have value...and if they have real value...so do others just like them out there.
so while we cherish and protect the animals who come here, while we show the world who they really are...we have a bigger job to do. we have to move the vison further...it has to expand past our gates and into the shelters and into the minds and hearts of joe public. we have to reach the day when some poor old wrecked thing has as many serious and committed applications for adoptions as any puppy out there.
and that means that saints is not just a house full of nice old animals..it is a forward movement of changing values and attitudes.
tonight was a bad night...i am so tired of saints being delegated to some kind of warm anfd fuzzy fairy tale. we are not the answer to anyone's prayers. we are not a place to come to suck in goodness and then return the world renewed. we are not a vehicle to launch careers, businesses or personal agenda's from....we actually have a job to do...to not only protect and promote our animals but to protect and promote what we believe. and this is a huge responsibility..it means everything we say and we do as SAINTS, we consider thru and thru. it means that we seriously respect our work here and what we stand for every day.
we don't cut corners, we don't get sucked into things that have nothing to do with us or the animals we work to save. we don't pass our name out like some kind of 2 bit slot machine coin...gee maybe it is worth nothing, maybe it is worth something to someone, maybe it is sometimes worth something to us..maybe... the 3 cherries will win.
i did not build this place to become a wishful thinking opportunistic prostitute...i built it to be thoughtful, caring, compassionate AND smart. i am trying to build it to last beyond me, not to go down the tubes when i die.
i want a world that looks at old animals differently...not with pity, not with regret but with joy and with pride. i want a world where an imperfect animal is not viewed just as a liability but as someone special and valued and unique.
saints is the reality of real animals in our world. cole was no more special than spot down the road on a chain. lahanie no different than any horse, sold over and over again and finally left rotting out in the rain, ellie is no different than the easter ham on your plate....esther was not expendable because she is old, rotten and stinks...all she needed was a little bit of concern and some care....and she is so very lovely...now everyone can see this too.
i want people to see past these walls and to look out in the world outside so saints does not even have to exist anymore, even if i do happen to die.
and i will tell you the real secret to saints...it is not love, it is not compassion or caring, it is not some crazy peoples very soft hearts....it is respect. i respect these animals...i respect myself...and i respect SAINTS and the real work that she does here and that is the message i try to send out.
saints is an ideal, it is a dream that is based in reality and it is not something to toss around haphazardly lest it fade or gets lost or disappears. and saints is not JUST the animals here right now..it is what our work today will mean in future years.
the wellbeing of saints takes a lot of thinking about....how much we as a group are willing to invest and commit to that careful thinking will decide where we end up.