this has nothing really to do with the animals..more to do with people and rescue.

its been an interesting and somewhat exhausting week. the usual stuff with caring for 120 sick or senior animals, and even the usual occasional crises like things like blown hot water tanks. life is challenging.

but what i think was really interesting about this week in particular was the many absolute highs and a few little bit lows that comes with people in rescue.

for the highs..OMG! the kindness, the supportive and appreciative thoughts and simple generosity that is flowing in thru the mail, the emails, thru the visitors, our staff and volunteers..its truly overwhelming. multiple acts of kindness surrounding us every hour of every day. it is humbling that this rinky dink little shelter for so many wrecked homeless animals, is so very well loved and cared for.

but yes, there are always a few things that slip in and prick our hearts a bit...

one person told us they wouldn't donate because we don't promote trapping, hunting or farming. (sorry..i personally do think leg hold traps, trophy hunting and commercial farming practices are unduly cruel...but i don't insist that everyone agree with me, it's just want i happen to feel..)

another person called to tell us she couldn't donate because we don't promote universal veganism. some of us are vegans, some are vegetarians, some are not and some struggle back and forth.)

and finally another person who couldn't donate to us because we don't take in new animals.

i shake my head.
saints mandate is to provide sanctuary and shelter care to unadoptable senior and special needs animals.
that is our one and only mandate..altho i will admit to outside of saints in my personal life promoting a total and complete ban on donald trump!)

since we opened 10 yrs ago this mandate has included rescuing a total of 7 cows, a dozen pigs, another dozen old broken down destined for slaughter horses, 10 goats, 20 some odd sheep, countless chickens, roosters, ducks and turkeys and a bunch of meat bunnies. collectively, despite our varied personal beliefs and individual eating habits...we have actually saved many "food" animals from becoming meat. for whatever it's worth..we saved a lot of actual real life lives.

yes sorry...no one currently at saints that i know of traps or hunts..but we don't have a rule...it is kind of like our own individual choice.

and we actually do take in new animals..every time i turn around, a new animal is coming in.

no rescue is going to be physically, emotionally, or spiritually able to be absolutely god like perfect in every conceivable way. we work hard, we do our best but none of us here have halo's or wings. we do however have dirty finger nails and shit on our boots from doing the real work here.

ann, sheila and i were all discussing this..how come when we are overpowered by love and care we are disheartened by the occasional negative pin pricks?

and i know the answer to that!

it is because we are human!!

and sometimes being human hurts!

huge thx to those who help build us strong...to the others, it's ok i guess to remind us that we are not perfect.
my only excuse is...it's hard to be everybody's perfect.
(but we still do good work.)