i guess all kinds of collisions happen in all kinds of lives.

sometimes my practice of nursing collides with my practice of rescue just like sometimes both rescue and nursing collides with my personal life. and when i am currently immersed and concentrating solely on one of my particular three lives..occasionally the other lives come knocking at the very same time. so realistically i can be a sad and frightened nurse daughter holding my mother as she dies..or i can be a mother late for a family funeral or wedding because one of our rescue dogs, cats or horses was suddenly put down or a nurse helping a client with a sick or problem animal or assisting a co-worker in finding safe haven for the pet of a client who has died or gone into care.

it is virtually impossible to keep all of my lives totally separate.

anyway..in the next couple of weeks, there is probably a new old dog coming in from one of these collisions of multiple lives. i nursed his owner for years before she eventually died and i know the dog well and liked him a lot. he is in big and multiple trouble with bylaws for barking his fool head off. he barks about everything, inside and outside the home and he has one of those really loud barks that carry's thru walls and totally bugs the very close next door neighbors even when he is inside the house. i heard it enough each time i visited to know how loud and enthusiastically this dog likes to bark.

they had originally adopted him from the spca as an older dog and i remember thinking at the time that maybe they could have found someone smaller, less rambuctious, more cooperative and easy to live with than this oafish, loud, excitable and cheerful nutbar who was like living with a runaway train. but that is who they fell in love with and came home with them at the end of the day. this dog is still all of the things that he was..he is still a big, oafish happy, noisy, busy-body mixed breed who has not mellowed much at all with age.

they went back to the shelter to see about returning him and the shelter staff honestly and responsibly told them that any chance he had a finding a new home is very long past...he is now a very old, big, hairy, and loud oafish dog...not too many people are actively looking to adopt someone like that.
in fact in 20 years of rescue..i have never once seen on anyone's application this particular wish list for their new family pet.

anyway...they don't have my personal cell number so they called the office and left a message for me instead. i called them back got the full scoop on the problem and said to call me back in a couple of weeks and i would figure out plan A B and C and try to squeeze him in somewhere around here.

sigh...quite frankly the dog is an old and giant barking idiot-stick but i know him, i like him and apparently, i am going to help him (if i don't shoot myself first.)