Rescue Journal

deep thoughts this morning

Carol · Nov. 1, 2011

it was a decent night...everyone was fine. i had a bit of a headache from the noise of the tv's and the bright lights but better that then drugging them all. i got mad at june and pugsley for ripping the shit out of a pillow bed and making a huge mess...and even that was a good thing cuz outside fireworks suddenly become less concerning then carol in the immediate vicinity.... stomping around, bitching in fine form over the loss of minnie pearl's favorite bed.

i did add the roboxin to joey's med mix on the advice of our vet (great minds think alike diana!) and it worked well...he played with his toys last night and was much happier so that was great.

i took yesterday afternoon off and i am thinking of taking off part of today off too. thursday and friday are big vet runs....wednsday i should spend cleaning my car and quickly organizing the shop and saturday i am back to work...so today might be a good day not to do much at all.

here is what i think about ollie and maybelle...looking at myself as i say this.
desperation is a funny and progressive kind of thing. you start off with a problem and try to find a solution..the solution you come up with doesn't work. and so you try the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing. always there is a deep caring and concern for the animal(s) involved...and you keep thinking the answer you need is just around the next bend...but it is not there when you get there so you take a deep patient breath and keep on searching. and suddenly, one day you find yourself somewhere where you never intended to be.

i actually really liked ollie and may's family once i had the chance to meet them...they did love those cats and tried pretty much everything not to have to nuke them. i don't think in the beginning, when the incontinence started to become a huge issue, that they ever envisioned the cats in a wire crate with a heat lamp in the garage for a year...i think they saw it as a safe and temporary solution til they could find some fantasy great home who could love and still live with the cats despite their peeing. it took them awhile to realize that no great homes are waiting for chronically peeing cats.

they said they read the blog for the longest time...and always i said we are too full and finally when it came down to either keeping them in a cage forever or nuking them..they decided to take the chance and sent the email.

quite frankly..i wouldn't have taken them if they weren't in that cage...if they were still happily, toddering around and peeing in the house..i would have said keep them or nuke them...at least they would have died in a world that was ok.

so if you look at this progressive and unhappy journey down that wrong road with which i am so familiar..maybe in the end they actually did the cats a huge favor...they will have if the cats end up liking living here i suppose.

the longer that i am in rescue..the more that i learn. and sometimes families aren't really the bad guys..they are just people like you and like me who sometimes make mistakes and then don't know what to do.

i wish we all had the right answers, all of the time...but given my own personal track record...we usually don't have those perfect answers...all we can do is keep trying and then hopefully stop before we go too far down that insidious misleading road.
ollie and may will be fine here...but i can almost guarantee they will never, ever find a real home...not unless there really are peeing cat miracles....and i have yet to see one of those for chronically peeing shelter cats. someone special may deal with their own cat peeing if they get stuck accidently with one...but NO ONE in their right mind goes looking to adopt another one.

Comments

sheila

It is a bad idea to proof read a write up after you have hit submit. Oops sorry for the errors. Especially where I forgot to say in the second sentence our idea for Aviva contest.

sheila

Just to add my two cents to what Carol said. First I hope everyone read and listened to the video of what our idea (and I say ours because it can't just be Carol who sees this it has to be a collective a belief)

Second as semi finalists there were a couple of extra questions that were asked that I filled out that are not showing on the public board (Actually Leila answered this queston because my answer was too judgemental of others as opposed to SAINTS and she changed it for me)

The question was "why does your idea deserve to share the aviva community fund" Here is part of the answer

1. The title “Helping Along the Human Animal Bond” needs to be celebrated and acknowledged. At present, it is not a concept embraced by shelter/rescue workers and we need to change that. Shelter/rescue workers are very good at acknowledging the human/animal bond when uniting animals with “owners” they perceive as good. But all too often, when animals are surrendered to shelters/rescues because the human(s) is unable to provide basic medical care, is dealing with mental disabilities and/or substance abuse, there is a lack of empathy for the humans and it is all given to the animals. What goes unacknowledged is that very often, because humans are going through “hard times”, their bond with their animals is stronger and it is often with reluctance that they surrender their animals. We need to learn to separate these humans who are dealing with human issues from those owners who neglect, abandon and abuse animals because of their lack of responsibility or lack of kindness. I believe SAINTS strives to recognize the differences and has as much empathy for the owners as they do the animals. In empathizing with the human and animals, they acknowledge the human/animal bond and therefore are the ideal ambassadors to highlight this idea.

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After I submitted this I was reading the comments under our idea and I was quietly shocked that someone had written a sentence essentially berating those that give up their animals. Oops s/he didn't read our idea they just voted.

Also Leila and I have a dog that pees in the house and, more often then either Leila and I would like, defecates in the house. Oliver will often eat his poop because I believe he knows it upsets me and Leila and he is trying to clean it up. He was one of our fosters who became permanent because no one wants a pet that goes in the house. And Leila and I understood this without any anger or blame.