Rescue Journal

can't sleep.

Carol  ·  May 11, 2013

that's not quite right..i can sleep..i have already been asleep a couple of times but for some reason I keep waking up again.
lets see if I can bore myself to distraction.

you know..there really is no such thing as share-sies in rescue.

a few weeks ago I said we would take in a little dog. the family was desperate, they had just moved and were going to be evicted because the dog was barking non stop during the day. it was a new case of separation anxiety, brought on by the move.

I said yes because I felt sorry for Nicole who gets stuck saying no, no, no...over and over again. I asked her to make it clear to the family tho that once they surrendered, there would be no further contact with the dog. she did and passed on my number and we never heard from them again.

sometimes I wonder what people think rescue is...are we a long term 24 hr/day babysitting service to help make certain problems go away? are we an extended care facility for aging pets where families can come visit them on holidays and weekends?

well maybe those kind of services are needed but that's not what we do here. we take in senior and special needs animals who are losing or have lost or never had a good home. we aren't a service to make life easier and less difficult for pet owners.

when someone comes in thru our gates..they left whatever life they used to have behind. it is all or nothing..they either still have a home and a family (in which case they do not belong here) or they don't. and if they don't, they find their new home and family here.

i don't know what that little dog's family ended up doing...worked out the problem? gave him away on craigs list? had him euthanized? i just know he didn't come here. we obviously ceased to be the solution once the surrendering rules were made clear.

i can't imagine committing 100% to griffin if only 50% of him came to live here. we get the hard work, the medical expenses, we deal with the worry and drama of caring for a little blind dickheaded dog and then step back so the previous family, when it is convenient, can still come here to love him?

how would this be fair to him or to us?

it doesn't matter how or where or really even WHY someone gets rid of their pet...the bottom line is...they got rid of their pet. rescue, craigs list, euthanization..it all means the same thing in the end, the animal no longer lives with them.
as far as i know there just aren't any services out there to provide free care and housing to people's pets. there are long term boarding situations i suppose where for $25 a day you can have your pet to visit and cuddle periodically and keep it somewhere other than your home. but that would get to be prohibitively expensive after the first month or so and you would still have to cover any medical costs on your own.

we think because we love them...we can give them away and yet somehow still have them. but how does that work in the real world? the world where an animal has lost his or her home and had to come live here?

this is not a terrible place filled with unkind and unfeeling people..this is a place that is filled with homeless animals who were lucky enough to find a home here with us.

when we lose someone like griffin...we are the ones who now suffer great loss. whatever families he ever had in the past are long gone and forgotten by now. his home and family on the day of his death and on all of the 1600 days before that, was here...with us.

i was just using griffin as an example...his past families never came here looking for him, maybe they didn't love him that well. i don't know. but i do know that i have never once even thought about them because from the moment that griffin arrived here, he became 100%, our very much loved dickhead and today we are the family who lost our beloved dog.

Comments

Kristen

I think what you all do is truly wonderful work. Griffin was my ex's dog that he loved and saved from a home in 100 mile, but was unable to keep him a few years into having him. You all have given your blood, sweat and tears into what you do, and I wanted to thank you for taking care of the little man. He was loved from far away and you guys loved him till the end.

Carol

with dogs and horses...folks sometimes need to stay in touch..i am fine with asking for occasional updates and watching the blog. I am just not so good with needing to continue physical contact.

the cats like the rabbits...rarely are second thoughts, usually folks don't feel the need to stay involved.

it is a two edged sword.

Lisa

I am still always amazed (although, I am not sure why this still amazes me) at the owners who *love thier animals* but can no longer keep them, who surrender them to us, and then they never, ever, follow up with an email to even see how their old pet is doing.
I think once in 13 years has anyone ever followed up to see how they are doing.
Sadly, once they are gone, they are gone. Their problems have been solved. So how much of a *loved* family member were any of these animals we get in?