ok..this really needs to be said....

and i will preface it by saying...i have forgotten and forgiven everyone in the past who has ever taken unintentional advantage of me....

but i just spent the last half hour in the driveway saying no as many different ways as i possibly could....and the bottom line to all of this is...saints nor myself is animal control.

if I....choose to stop and help some animal on the side of the road..then I am choosing to stop and help that animal...i am not picking up that animal to take to mo's or laura's or tammy's and twist their arms into helping him or her...I WAS THE ONE WHO DECIDED TO HELP SO I AM THE ONE TO FIGURE OUT HOW.

people cannot bring me stray dogs that they pick up on the side of the road at 6pm after animal control is closed. i don't care if they say they have no room and cannot possibly take the dog home...i don't care if there are one hundred reasons why they think they can't make room overnight but think that i should be able to because i rescue animals.

i have loose communal animals in every single room, in every single building, i simply cannot bring in an unknown stray off the road and shove them in with everyone else...it is not safe. when I choose to bring someone in...I have a plan...and i have worked out that plan BEFORE i bring them home.

but to expect me to start shifting animals at 6 pm at night to accomndate someone elses initial kindness that begins and ends with the animal in their car is totally unfair to me....i am not here to solve every single animal inconvenience...trust me if i can figure out how to squeeze a strange and unexpected animal in here...then i expect everyone else can figure out the same at their home too.

can you imagine how you would feel if tonight i knocked on your door and said "oh gee i just found this dog on the side of the road and can you keep him here overnight?" i know you have an empty bathroom or guest bedroom or basement or garage...i know you can stick up a child gate somewhere to cordone the new guy off....i know this because you don't have 60 animals living in your house like i happen to have.

please don't make me be a brick wall in my driveway..unbending, inflexible in my refusal to help you. you don't need me to help you not if you are willing to suffer a much more minor inconvenience then you are asking me to do.

saints is not animal control. carol is not animal control. saints is not the spca. carol is not the spca. neither saints nor carol is the answer to figuring out this inconvenient problem that you just picked up on the side of the road.

i can't...no that's wrong...i won't be responsible for them all so don't ask me...be responsible for helping them from start to finish...find a stray, pick up the stray and keep them safe from harm until animal control or the spca opens their doors the next day.

it is not rocket science, it is just common sense....no one needs me to do this for them...find an empty bathroom or bedroom, put up a child gate (i will loan you one)..make a nice and cosy bed out in the garage or down in the basment if you have to..feed them, give them some water and keep them safe overnight....and if you can't possibly do any of that cuz you live in a one floor, one room, without a garage or basement, animal filled shack and without a single dog crate to be had (i will loan you one of those too!)...then resign yourself to sleeping out in the car overnight with your new temporary til morning friend..mr. or mrs. stray dog...he or she will be safe from harm, you can call animal control first thing in the morning... and will have responsibly done well your "helping a stray find safety" job.

there is no need to bring them here....we are already fuller than you are...and that's the blunt honest truth.