waiting for the staff to get here so i can go and pick up some of aggie's special food, plus i better check on the barn feed supplies too. i called the vets to ask when they are coming back to look at mah again..her sutures were not ready for removal last week when they were here. i also called and ordered water to fill up/top up the tanks.
trying to stay on top of things while still having time for family/personal things this week.
i always say rescue is not personal..which is true but also isn't. the most effective rescuers can remove the personal from the business of rescue. it is not about me, it is not about you, it is about them.
but you and me do happen to have a lot to do about them.
and rescue is personal when you personally put a lot of yourself into it.
what i do mean tho by rescue not being personal..is try not to take things personally..or at least as much as you can.
it's hard when people don't like you or say mean things about you and by doing so, in effect...spit on your life's work.
trust me..no one in rescue says..."i hate her guts, but she does do really good work."
and there is a reason for this because really how can you actually hate someone who does good work in rescuing animals that you love too?
you can't. so there has to be a good reason why you hate her so...easiest way to justify hatred is to come up with plausible reasons...she has too many animals, she doesn't know what she is doing, her animals are sick and die in her care..she shouldn't do horses, she shouldn't do cows, she doesn't train or actively rehab her dogs.
it is kind of like throw anything at me and see what will stick.
if i took that kind of stuff personally..i would have walked out and quit rescue years ago. i mean really..how many times does a person have to have their feelings hurt in one single lifetime?
so i taught myself not to take these pointedly personal things personally.
as far as rescue goes..i am ultimately defined by my work. i am not defined by popularity polls or how many friends i accumulate. i am defined by what i produced.... a well respected, and quite effective and successful senior and special needs multi-species animal rescue group.
but i tell you, learning to not define yourself by the judgements of others, takes a lot of introspective work. because it is not just the nayer sayers...you have to be careful of buying too much into the yay sayers too. not an angel, not a saint, not a super hero either.
just a 58 yr old, long time human nurse who is dedicated to looking after old, sick and vulnerable animals too.
the hardest part of rescue is separating yourself from rescue. i look at rescue as one of my jobs but not as me, carol, the person.
i am a mother, a grandmother, a sister, a nurse, i am also a rescuer, these are my various roles...but first and foremost..i am a person.
That's funny, when I was out there for the open house I thought you didn't have ENOUGH animals. Also it was eerily neat and tidy, almost surgical. Oh, and that little dog in the corner watching television didn't try to kill me. To tell you the truth I was a little spooked.