rescue

we don't just love animals...we respect them too.
and this is why SAINTS is successful in what we do. it would be much more rewarding and a heck of a lot less stress just to take in animals who are sweet, old, kind, gentle..easily understandable and easily manageable. you know the ones i mean..the ones who make us all warm and fuzzy, not the ones who are problematic and a royal pain.

but we accept that like people, most times animals come with some emotional, mental or behavioral baggage. these beings are not robotic toys who are only allowed to do, or be whatever their controller says. these animals are who they are..what life has made them..what people have done or not done to them since the day they were born.
part of the reason that saints is such a success is because we don't play the roles of saviors. and this is because we are not fixers...we are not saviors.
you cannot "cure" broken hearts, broken minds, broken spirits, broken bodies..things that are broken can never returned to their pristine unbroken shape. and by taking something that is broken and trying to remake into something socially acceptable and shiny brand new..you not only disrespect the pain and the struggles and the suffering of the breaking but you add further suffering by insisting on forcing more change, more adaptations, more expectations on those who are least prepared to suffer anew.
so we apply the bandaides, we provide the acceptence and emotional/physical support so they have the opportunity to allow their open and festering physical and emotional wounds to close and heal over. the scars remain but the pain is reduced.

we are successful here in this special place because we recognize their brokenness and make a conscious decision..we can or cannot accept and provide a decent quality of life for the "real" and current you. this is not to say we don't do "things" to make them feel better, to help them find comfort and help them find contentment. it means we do not insist on them becoming someone whom we view as worthwhile or valuable. we love and accept whoever is you.

we have assholes here..and assholes are sometimes difficult to deal with. but this does not reduce or negate their value as intrinsically unique thinking and feeling beings..it just adds another layer to the actual work of rescue.

i firmly believe that when these animals come to our gates as their very last option, as the very last stop on their difficult life long road...we have a moral obligation to accept them...scars, warts, broken bits and all.
it is that very acceptance that actually allows them to grow. but their growth and any healing comes from inside them by their choice, by their decision to give hope and faith at least one more go.
saints provides an emotionally safe place where we do not judge which animals are worthy of our time, our care, our resources. EVERY animal is worthy of them. a few are sadly just too far beyond our abilities but most can and are offered our open arms and the freedom of being accepted.

any human being who has lived under the crushing weight of the expectations of others of who or what they should or shouldn't be will understand what this freedom from external expectations means.

it means that you can be who you are today and who you may become tomorrow without pressure, without fear, without the frustrations and pain of feeling like you don't "fit" or you don't belong, or will never be "good" enough to deserve love, acceptance, friendship or family.
our broken animals are not fuck ups...they were fucked up..by people, by life, by ignorance, by thoughtlessness and mostly because of misunderstandings surrounding the reality of being an animal which is that they are NOT a human being..they are an animal being. humans and animals are different. and live different kinds of lives.

their value as living beings has not changed from the moments of their births as innocent pure babes to the moments of their deaths as their beaten up bodies and souls become the photograph of every single moment of a life's unhappiness and pain. just like your and my value has not changed.

humans will never have the physical, emotional or spiritual strength to survive an animals life. we are too weak and whiny to survive their lives without going insane.
for this they deserve our respect, they have earned the right to be valued, respected and accepted for their very survival in a world that has stacked itself against them because they are perceived as less than you or i.

fuck that perception, their lives..their souls, bruised, scarred, broken or whole have exactly as much value as mine.