Rescue Journal

calvin is not coming today

Carol  ·  Apr. 6, 2011

they pulled him from the shelter and he is too sick so they are getting him vet care. maybe he will come later..maybe they will send someone else down the road. he is getting good care with ace of hearts so i don't really care now that he is safe..., one less to have to worry about right now.

or is there?

6 weeks ago a little old dog came in thru emergency and we were asked to take her on..i said ok. she didn't end up coming here, one of the vets ended up taking her home. apparently she is completely and unpredictably incontinent which really doesn't work well with a very busy on call vets schedule so the email came today asking if we could still take her. i got nicole to pull it out of my email so she can work out the specifics of this.

sometimes i feel like there are all of these old animals juggling around up in the air...some from weeks or months ago that i thought we had dodged the bullet on but then suddenly still need to come into care.

one of the emailers is looking for a solution or suggestions on finding a new home for a 16 yr old, declawed hyperthyroid/cardiac cat who should live in a single pet family home. i have no suggestions or solutions to offer...if that poor little ancient cat loses it's home...it is freaking toast.

what i don't understand is why people actually believe that there are good homes out there just hanging around and waiting for no longer wanted, second hand pets (esp. old ones with medical issues)...and apparently someone like me has this magical long list in my pocket that i can just pass on so getting the ancient pet out of one home and into another is easy peasy.

well wouldn't that be a sweet dream.

the reality is...most of our senior animals will NEVER find a new home. they will live and die here..and no one will ever adopt them...end of story, period.

honestly..headaches and rescue are a bad combination...today i feel like just popping my head off and tossing it right into the pond. it is all so pointless...the human race will never understand what the words loyalty, committment and family actually mean in regards to companion animals....for some reason our society thinks these words are used at our convenience.
maybe instead of juggling rescue balls, i should just be lobbing them at some humans heads.

sorry bad mood again today..i don't want every discarded senior animal to end up on my kingsize bed.

Comments

Marisa

Erin and Bunny express best how I feel most of the time. The truth is, in most instances, people don't CARE whether there's a home for their sick, elderly or incontinent animal. They just want them out and they don't want the inconvenience anymore. I have spent HOURS with people trying to work through the problems they are having with their animals. But their minds are made up almost from the beginning. They just don't want the "burden" anymore.

And what steams me up even more is when people actually get accusatory with rescues when they can't help them, "Aren't you a RESCUE? What good are you if you can't help me? Do you realize you're letting animals down?" Aaaargghh!!! Drives me absolutely stark raving mad (in both senses of the word).

Cora

When we named our rescue Broken Promises, all the people not involved in rescue thought the name was really sad and could understand why we picked it. All those involved in rescue got it and that in itself is sad. Way too many broken promises for many of the animals.
Cora
brokenpromisesrescue.com

Margie

Hi Carol, thought you could use some cheering up, so I emailed you a few photos of Bodhi (Alf). :)

Tracy

Take heart Carol and SAINTS supporters! Some of us out in the big, cruel world love our senior pets and work to give good homes to them.
In 2008 our family adopted a (supposedly) 14 year old shepard mix dog from our local SPCA. She was deaf, incontinent and had difficulties moving her back end. The SPCA said she needed a place to spend her last few weeks so we took her in. With clean water, good food, some medications and gentle exercise, Nikko lasted for 52 more weeks and we cherished every moment with her. We hope she was as happy in our home as we were to have her.
Our current senior is a 14 year old mutt that we have had since he was a 6 week old puppy dumped in a local park. He will continue to receive all the love, care and medical attention he needs until the end of his days.
As time and resources permit, we will add more senior animals to our family and give them the best home we can provide.

lynne

it is always the animals that suffer. they cannot defend themselves, protect themselves, they are at our mercy and that seems to apparantely be lost to alot of people. i almost try not to think of all the abuse that goes on with animals, but i see it every day and not just with domestic animals but our wildlife. they are treated equally as bad. went with my daughter and the school to the game farm broke my heart at watching the lions tigers and others pacing and pacing cause there was nothing else for them to do. tried to enlighten some of the kids that this was not good but they are only 5 so did not work. it really is heartbreaking that we as humans have so little regard for lives that are not human. they are just animals and so have no feelings and basically are just there for the show. i guess i just try sometimes to turn a blind eye and pretend it is not happening. it so totally sucks and i so try to show my grandchildren that animals are beautiful and are to be loved .

Bunny

I stand with Erin - I've got a few shitballs I'd love to lob at certain someones because karma doesn't come fast enough and besides I want to see the youtube upload to prove karma came at all. People, in my view, have no loyalty, commitment or feeling of family towards one another, why are we shocked that that none is passed on to our once beloved pets. I have an acquaintance that recently patted herself on the back on F/book because she took in a dog from a rescue, but after one year she decided he would be more at home at a farm. Whatever the hell that meant. I swear that not 6 months later she is back on F/book showing a photo of her new adorable fluffy doggie and once again promoting herself as human of the year for rescuing a dog. Not only did she put her elbow out patting herself on the back, but actually scolded everyone else for not doing the same. I was shocked at her nerve and wondered how her older not so cute rescue dog was doing "at the farm". No head lobbing, Carol, Mystic will just go drag it out from amongst the skunk cabbage and bring it back.

Lori Paul

I am always upset with abuse cases but I know some people are mentally ill so I chalk it up to that but people who have had pets for years then want to re-home them when they become old and inconvenient really depress me. I feel you do us all a service when you point out that it would be less cruel to just put the animal down because I'd hate to think these people just walk away and go get another pet. Keep fighting the good fight Carol.

erin

i believe in karma...but it would so rock if we could throw shitballs at assholes until karma gets around to dealing with them

Ann

I would love it if you lobbed some of those balls at human heads! I cannot for the life of me understand how there can be so many senior (which often also means special needs) animals out there that suddenly people 'can't' (read: don't want to) keep anymore. How is that possible! After that many years with my old dogs, how could I possibly think of losing them/dumping them?! They're my life... they're old.. of course I give them the care they need and see them to the end. Argh...