I am trying to figure out: What would be a good day in rescue? A day when not too many of the dogs you have been watching flash by on your Facebook screen, begging with their eyes to be saved, flash by with RIP next to their networking name and shelter ID number? A day when the phone doesn't ring with a plea to "come pick up my dog," or "I found a Pit Bull," or , " I have until (two days from now, whatever that day of the week happens to be) to rehome my Pit Bull." I keep telling myself to log a day in my life, but I am too busy with urgent calls, emails, texts to jot anything down. I have even forgotten, on occasion, when someone wants to see one of my dogs for a possible adoption, so busy am I with saving another if I can.
I was just gone for three weeks to Florida, Hong Kong and Taiwan, doing the work that makes my living so that I can save dogs and the following emergencies needed to be settled (in one way or the other): A woman needs to rehome her dog because her mother has become allergic. He is six years old, the daughter has had him his whole weaned life and he needs to be out by March 31 (today, as a matter of fact). My dog trainer, who houses many of my dogs, got a text from a former client saying, "Someone needs to come and get Ledger now. I cannot watch him 24/7. He dug up my sprinkler system and he will be PTS (put to sleep) by this weekend if someone doesn't come to get him." (Ledger is a 10- month old puppy- and happens to be off leash trained and a perfect gentleman when he is at my trainer's house). I had hours to decide if I would save Ledger from this unjust fate at the hands of someone terminally self-centered and clearly lacking anything like compassion. It didn't take me hours though and my trainer knew that i would not say no.
Someone else called to say that a dog had been abandoned in a home when the occupants were evicted. The dog was without food or water when she was found by the management company, animal control was called but hadn't come in three days. By the time my team was able to get hold of the management company, the dog was at Lied, Animal Control in Las Vegas, marked Rescue only because she has bite wounds and what they thought was sarcoptic mange. Set to die on Monday a.m. with little chance of rescue, although I can't "afford" to take one more dog, I can't watch her die just because no one wants to give her a chance. One of my partner's Megan would not let her fall through the cracks and warned me that she was done with getting involved with dogs if they were just going to end up dead.
I had two dogs in major, life threatening surgeries while I was gone. Another who was having stomach issues and needed to get an ultra sound because the issues kept recurring. Another dog who wouldn't stop having diahreeha, even after fecal tests said that he was parasite free.
Another dog was sent back from a foster home, as their dog was becoming stressed with another dog around. They loved my little Spikey, but unfortunately, their dog did not.
It is hard enough to rescue when I am in the city that I rescue in, but add being across the globe with opposite time zones, so that I wake up to emergency messages, long since grown dire. This week I am finally home and I have received so far 4 urgent calls that I can remember. One led to a dog coming into my rescue as he was stray and bound to be hit by a car if he was not picked up. I brought a puppy into my rescue after another rescue asked if I would take her so that she didn't die.
A friend is visiting from CT. He came to help me organize my rescue, as organizing is what he does for a living. I called him one day when I felt that I was drowning in details that would lead to deadly results if certain ones fell through the cracks. I flew him out to rescue me. After calling me "crazy dog lady," for days, he stopped me outside the shelter in Las Vegas as he held a 2 month old puppy in his arms that was slated a day before to die. "I get what you do now," he said, as the puppy licked his face, so full of life you could not imagine anything contrary. We both started to cry.
The final verdict; There is no good day in rescue. There will be no day where perfect dogs don't die, where people don't make the wrong decisions regarding the lives that depend upon them, where an animal isn't hurt for no reason at all. There are only good moments, a lick on the face that means "thank you," a look in the eyes that means "I am happy to be alive." This week I rescued Grace, Ellie and a dog that hasn't yet found his name. There were many good moments.
Please adopt a rescue dog. They will give you a lifetime of good moments. And if you can't adopt, foster. And if you can't foster, donate. And if you can't donate, share.