SAINTS

this is why i love rescue…felix is a despot…he barks and gives a little bounce and my job is to pick him up immediately.

and eddy is on the top tier of the plastic cat bed shelves…he leans over the edge to puke and pukes down three cat shelf stories, right on top of max’s ear.

“WTF?” says max..”is it raining cat vomit in here?”

too funny….it would have been even funnier if it had landed on phoebe.

a little 14 yr old, blind, deaf, incontinent, unneutered fighter (he used to draw blood from his recently deceased brother)…maltese cross with very bad knees, and probable rotten teeth, bad kidneys and heart disease plus a few funky lumps and bumps.

hmmm…someone has not aged well nor been to the vet recently.

he is a scruffy, cute, little bugger currently wandering around in circles. his owner just moved to a not pet friendly place and mistakenly thought he could sneak felix in.

he wags his tail when i pet him and he gives good kisses.

i better make him an appointment at the vets first thing in the morning.

never forget that humans rarely know the difference between truth and a lie. there are so many ways to be dishonest in rescue….

…..pretending to be something you aren’t and using the animals as the perfect props.

the thing about this is..the lies can be overt or subtle, at any end of the rescue spectrum…AND the folks lying to you, mostly don’t even know they are lying because they totally convinced themselves with their litany of lies first.

how many times can the rescue hand be raised to the brow with a great sigh of fatiqued martyrdom, before people actually see…the hand is tired for the raising, not from much of anything else.

there is also the rescue garden parties…rescue so perfect in every way..so many happy endings, so many great challenges over come, so much experience, so much valuable knowledge..just waiting to be shared….excuse me..but some of us saw you come into this world, and it just was not that long ago.

and there then is the dark side…rescue gone wrong. animals suffering from the problems of their rescuers…lack of knowledge, lack of care, lack of space, lack of funds, lack of ability to problem solve…too far gone and far too stubborn to try to find a way back to sanity again.

how many times do they have to see their desperate, neglected, suffering and sometimes dying animals before these rescuers take pity and say, enough is enough.

are you in rescue? are you proud to be in rescue?

i am not. i am shamed by the pretenders basking in the light and those that seek to hide what they have actually done in the shadows of the night.

i live in constant fear that one day i too will lie.

apparently you do not have to be nice to me to be my friend….if you are a poodle. 

i pulled the covers off my bed to wash and renee moved them into the kitchen and tossed them on the floor. caspar lifted his leg and pee’d on them…i said..”hey! i saw that!” and he started his two legged dancing, aren’t i cute? thing….ok, you curly haired freak…maybe a little. 

as i was heading out the door to breakfast, caspar barged right past and wanted to come along. my head was hurting and he was being perky, and i am not a great fan of perky on the best of mornings. since my headache was from my sinus’s, it was going to hurt too much to bend over to pick him up and toss him back in the gate.

so i let that perky little bugger come along with me. he climbed up on my lap and leaned against my chest. he licked my arm all the way down the hill…i was caspar’s very best and most favorite friend.

we got to macdonalds and he got his own sausage mcmuffin. when he finished that, he wanted some of my boring plain cheese one….this probably was not a good breakfast for his diabetes. 

we drove home in companionable silence, me trying not to move my head, and caspar licking invisible crumbs from his seat. he came cheerfully flying in the house and then straight out for his field run.

when he got back, i gave him his insulin and yes he tried to bite me.

and here is the thing that i realized…i will take all kinds of using and abusing crap from poodles…not so much from human beings.

and do you know why this is?

because poodles are super cute and people are super not.

she is building us a contact book (volunteers, vets, suppliers, repeat stray dogs home numbers…who ever we might need to call) apparently my habit of losing numbers and then scrounging around, it not all that efficient any more.

please write your contact info for her on the kitchen white board.

thx

i slept last night from 9:30 til 7:15 this morning…it was after 6 pm before the last human left here (lucy’s family came to drop her off, she will be staying with us for a week) and i was fighting a headache most of the day. i think the headache has dug in for a couple of more days.

i was in a pissy mood anyway…i started fussing about the possible legal battle over custody of jerry and the 2 previous legal battles in the last couple of years (one was because a past animal rescue group that was getting sued had left me on their list of BOD many years after we had split, and the other was to regain use of our rented out shop building for saints)

nothing annoys me more than people using lawyers to try to push me around. and here is the other thing, until jerry’s ex owner gets off his ass and files in court instead of just having his lawyers send free-bee threatening letters…jerry has to stay here, i cannot try to find that dog, the home of his dreams….(if there is one…jerry is not the easiest dog, he has some special needs.)

but still…as long as his ownership is in question, jerry has no other opportunities.

altho…maybe i am looking at this all wrong…maybe here is the perfect excuse to drop the ball and wash my hands of his life-long responsibility.

what a thought? what a sweet deal! what if all of the difficult and hard to live with saints animals, previous owners threatened to sue me?

good lord…is it possible that i could pack up jerry’s suitcase with just a “sorry, little buddy”? could i be packing phoebe’s bag and bed up and waving good bye at the gate? could little reggie with his high pitched scream be walking out our door with a bag of tennis balls? could floyd be leaving to torment someone else’s baby ducks (or geese?) all because someone gave them away and then decided they didn’t really mean it?

it is hard enough to live with some of these guys, low blow to make me fight to keep them!

sigh…ethics and honor really do get in the way of any kind of peaceful freedom.

ah well..i have other things to worry about.

max is coughing this morning, dogs with profound cardiac disease are worrisome if they cough. we let too many of the arthritic dogs have way too much fun yesterday..jewel is sore, lucas is sore, max is sore..why does fun have to come with a cost? it will tke a day or two of upping their pain meds to get them back to feeling ok.

the good news is…..

stewart the bunny went out on a foster trial. dawn, who had true, cruz and now este..is a big bunny fan. her old girl just lost her partner so stewart is going to see if he can be her new best friend. they met here first and seemed to be ok together so fingers are crossed that this continues…come on buddy practice your woo and charm.

ok and crappola, i need some advil to get some stuff done around todays not so funny farm.

endora came home on friday. she is doing pretty well. with good pain control, antibiotics and sulcrate she is eating and drinking enough for now.  when she is not eating, she is sleeping and purring non stop. endora is very happy to be back in her bed next to the sink. and i am making sure that harrison doesn’t try to squeeze her out. her mouth should finish it’s healing over the next week or so. love you endora, good girl to hang onto life so well!

i did not take edwina to the vet yesterday. while she is still limping, she is walking well enough so we know her leg is sprained and not broken. if we can convince floyd to leave her alone and practice abstinence for a bit, soon she should be good as new.

speaking of floyd, now he is bugging the babies. i had to block them off from him because he is a dirty young duck and was making inappropriate advances. who knew that ducks were such sex machines? harem management and protection was not what i envisioned rescuing meaning.

marshmellow had his final eye check and passed with flying colors, the vet is pretty proud of himself for doing such a phenomenol job.

jesse STILL did not get his sutures out..we have not done a good enough job at keeping the incisional line from getting gunked up. could ya please stay out of the pond and barn jess, at least for a couple of days?…probably not, so we better be better at cleaning his suture line every day.

currently, everyone else is well. we have a tour at 10 am so i better get this place cleaned up.

We are Legend.

SAINTS has grown and evolved because of the lessons taught to us by the animals. They are at the heart of who we are and what we do, they have molded and refined us.

There are animals who’s larger than life personalities defined us and made us real and they keep us real to this very day. We tell stories about them and while they are no longer here, they continue to surround us in the warmest of memory. Even the volunteers who came after their passing, know these legends of SAINTS.

Wee Hopeful Bug started it all. A tiny little mite of a cat with profound and  uncontrolled bowel disease. She could not by any stretch of the imagination be managed in a home or even an animal shelter, she was just too difficult to care for. Hopey had such a passion for life, I built SAINTS for her, she needed a home made just for her. She died a few years ago of a perforated bowel at just over three years of age. Every visitor who enters our gate, passes beneath her memorial chime. Hope is and always will be the spark at the heart of SAINTS.

IF Hopey is the heart, Bill is the face of SAINTS. He was a big, old, homely and fat lab cross that no one ever wanted to offer a home. But Bill was something more than what the eye beheld, he was a dog who just loved to live. His face had a permanent smile, his eyes sparkled with joy. Bill loved everyone and everything and that big heart of his encompassed every second of living, right to his very last day. Bill died at 17, shortly after finishing off a special treat of Tim Bits, he was glad of the treat before he ended his day.

Any picture of Bill clearly shows that he is and always will be the real face of SAINTS.

And then there is Michael, our Kitchen Troll. Who can forget his crippled crab walking and his out and out cranky orneriness. I can still see him rushing over to the giant food bowl and standing there apparently counting the pieces….432, 433, 434, 435….. if he dared to think that one of the other dogs were eating his food. I can also still see him frantically licking an accidently closed door, afraid that he would not be welcomed back in. There has never been such an adorably wrecked and perfect grump before or after at SAINTS.

Micheal represents our total acceptence and value of each animal’s uniqueness.. Michael was one of a kind.

For those who knew Pops, they knew someone special. He was a partially naked cat with a chronically drooling mouth. He used to live on the counter next to the sink which was convenient for us to wipe his face down. Pops was always wet with drool and not all that pleasant to look at. But he didn’t know that he was sort of gross, all he knew was that he loved us all so much. I used to watch even the best dressed of our volunteers, stop for a moment and toss a towel over their shoulder. Pops wanted loving and they gave it to him despite how icky he was, no one could resist a hug from Pops.

Pops taught us that it is what is inside that counts, his not so great body just held the very best part of him.

Dexter taught us to live every moment and to find fun in all you do. Oka taught us that even while dying, life was filled with special moments too.

Jazz taught us that you do not need to see or hear to wander happily thru your world. Tom taught us that yes…18 year old super dog daxi’s really can fly. Jesse showed us that one day you could be a scrounging dump dog and the next day find yourself the Queen of the MP room. Jeanette opened a whole new world for us, one where cows not only smiled but also could cry. None of us will ever forget Ozzie’s lesson…if you stumble while running, just keep going til your legs eventually catch up again…that way you won’t lose any momentum. 

The SAINTS never truly die, we don’t let them. They continue to mold and shape us and move us to becoming better and better. They are the hero’s we love then and now.

Welcome to the table of Legends, they are the true heart and soul of SAINTS and we were blessed to love every single one….they are the stuff that legends are made of.

The Dog who would be King

At SAINTS, compassion comes in a black and stocky little package who can be a pain in the butt. Joey is the one who tries to make things ok again. When Tony was paralysed, Joey sat by his head, he nuzzled his ears, licked his face and just said to him, “it’s ok buddy, I will take care of you.” This was real compassion, because normally Joey did not even like Tony very much.

Yesterday there was an argument between Al and 4lane. Al walked away with his feelings hurt because he thought 4lane was his friend, (he is but 4lane is twisted sometimes and conveniently forgets this.) Joey trotted along to share some sympathy. Al is quite a bit taller than Joey is, so Joey had to bounce up while they walked to reach Al’s face for a few licks. There were a few of us watching and all going awwww…..as Joey comforted his upset friend on the way back into the house.

Just because Joey is compassionate does not mean he is even close to being a real king…that little dog causes his own kind of problems around here. Joey has to be in the middle of every pack barking scene, he likes to chase the big dogs and steal their balls when they are not looking, if you give him heck for something, he sulks like a baby AND…a couple of months ago, he bit one of our vets on the leg.

Joey is a boston/chi mix and he got Attitude from both of his breeds, but underneath the  ”I am King” abides a heart that sees the hurt in others and tries to help. This is quite a gift.

Joey is only four. He is here because of his best friend Peluchie. Not many people are looking for a pair of dogs. Peluchie is nine and has a grade 5 heart murmur and most seeking  a brand new friend, avoid the scratched and dented.  Joey and Peluchie are best friends. They actully get into a fair amount of trouble together and would behaviorally do better if they were split apart.

BUT…SAINTS is not about breaking hearts, splitting up friendships, taking even more away from them. A home at the price of losing a lifelong, chosen brother, is not worth the hurt that it causes to them.

Joey with his very soft heart, totally understands this and is glad that we do too.

Joey is hosting his table of friendship, of caring, of loyalty and welcomes you. But just because he practices compassion, does not mean you have to miss out on all the fun. Feel free to rabble rouse, Joey is enthusiastically right there on this with you!

The Jewel of the Nile

Ok…so it is not exactly The Nile, more like a big mud puddle, but to one crippled dog, it is an ocean of pure pleasure.

Jewel came to us a couple of years ago from death row at the pound. She was up for euthanization because she had terrible pain issues and screamed constantly. We almost gave up on her too, it took three long weeks to get her spinal and neck pain under control. Jewel has the most extensive and complicated pain medication regime of all of the animals, but for her it works….at least for now.

Jewel LOVES to swim (I think this is because God only gave her 2 inch legs.) There is not a day that goes by that Jewel is not down in the pond. I think she looks like a furry crocodile gliding by so effortlessly, walking for her is not so easy. Whoever bred a german shepherd with a basset hound to produce this tank like dog with no legs…has a lot to answer for. It is her breeding and body size that makes her back cause her so much pain.

Jewel is going on 16 years old, she is quite a miracle to us. We never thought she would last a month, and here she is still going strong, almost two years later.

This is because Jewel is a stubborn dog, she is a spoiled dog, she is a complete DIVA. She has found a place where she gets everything and anything she wants, as soon as she wants it, because now she screams from impatience instead of pain. And Jewel can still really scream.

Whoever named this dog named her well..in her mind, she is truly a priceless jewel. For the rest of us, she is just a very happy and demanding dog determinedly trucking along, she brings us many chuckles because she is just too annoyingly funny.

Jewel graciously welcomes you to her table but she thinks you’d have way more fun with her at the pond.