Its hard not to feel entitled in rescue. You literally hand out decades of 24/7 service, compromising your privacy, your financial security, your physical/emotional health while you watch others donate a few hours a week, maybe for a few months or even years, without much difficulty or sacrifice at all. You watch others collect paycheques, accolades, new social activities and friendships without the constant demands or the ongoing headaches, without being the bad guy or the butt of private jokes..and sometimes you do feel like what the hell, how is this even remotely fair or equitable?
and lets face it..it's not.
so as a rescuer, as the founder, the current "boss" of a fairly large and successful rescue endeavor..I can honestly say that SOME days it all wears a bit thin and uncomfortable and that's when I struggle with preventing a sense of entitlement from slipping in.
There have been well over a thousand animals thru here and I will hazard a guess 2-3x's more than that in people...staff, volunteers, visitors, donors, adopters, fosters, surrenderers....
I can't say any of it has been easy, very little of it actually fun, and none of it has ever been safe or relaxing..just one series of challenges after another.
I used to think if we just had enough money, if we just had enough people, this wouldn't be such a struggle. But it is true that the more you have the more you grow...and holy smoke man have we ever grown!
But the one thing that never happened was..I never became an angel, I never became a saint. I stayed one single, stubbornly flawed human being with far too much on her plate.
If anyone ever asks me about how to get going in rescue..I always tell them the very same thing...don't. just. don't.
Its not that I don't want people rescuing these animals that need us so badly..its just that to do it well, to do it right is to stand at the end of the line with every animal's need, every other human's need placed before you. This would be fine if you were a hero, if you were phenomenal, if you were so very perfect that you yourself actually didn't need anything.
well...that's not me, no matter how much I want it be.
Most days I get it...I made choices, I gave freely,and i did it without hanging on to a bunch of strings. I am good with it all...most days But some days I do get tired and that spoiled entitled child wails with wanting inside me.
The truth of the matter is...the rescue world is not for entitled little babies....the only option is to silence the wails and face the biggest challenge..reminding myself on the bad days that those of us who choose to rescue have no entitlements...only a responsibility.
Carol just reading about what you do and have done over the years dumbfounds me. And, you have been brave enough and true enough to share yourself. Reading your blog has been a positive thing in my life!
Thank you