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4:55:00 AM EDT
The Spring Time of Our Discontent
(Picture Above: Sarah, with newly rescued Shih-Tzu mix. "Casey" was dumped at shelter with hip injury due to some kind of trauma. Possible victim of cruelty.)
I am feeling very mentally restless and depressed over the past few days -- like things aren't fitting......like an intense desire for some kind of radical change.
Perhaps it is the "Spring time of my discontent."
I feel like I should be doing something else -- but I don't know what.
There are a whole slew of emails tonight -- most of them desperate pleas for animals who need rescue.
"We are loaded with cats and kittens!" "Spring litters already coming in!"
The shelter cat euthanasia list for later today contains 30 cats, including one lactating Mom and her suckling kitten.
Then, of course there are all the emails about specific dogs either already on the Euth list or soon heading there.
Phone calls are also reflecting the realities at the shelters.
There was the overstressed Mother of three small kids who called yesterday seeking to give up the 6-month-old, Lab mix puppy that the family adopted from North Shore Animal League when the puppy was tiny.
But, now, Max is, "too big and too much to take care of."
NSAL doesn't want to take the adolescent dog back -- despite Max being THEIR (obviously lousy) adoption and despite NSAL having millions of dollars and a shelter.
I advised the caller to insist on speaking with a Supervisor or Shelter Director. NSAL needs to be accountable for the animals they push into unsuitable homes and then refuse to take back. I don't think the general donating public would be so pleased to hear that NSAL refuses to accept returns. Such is not truly being "no kill" -- not if you're sending the animals some place else to be killed.
Then, of course, there are the numerous calls to give up cats: They're "moving" or an allergic relative just moved in with them. One of the callers I gave the same advice to as the woman giving up the Lab Mix puppy. The woman's two 5-year-old cats were also adopted from North Shore Animal League as kittens, but now her "allergic" Mother has moved in with her. NSAL, of course, doesn't want the cats back, either.
"Insist on speaking with a Supervisor or shelter director!" I told the woman. "You don't want your cats to die and they WILL die if going to Animal Control. NSAL needs to be responsible in taking their own adopted pets back! If they still say, 'no," threaten to go to the press."
I "love" all this. They adopt from North Shore Animal League (or buy from breeders), but then call small rescues like ours when seeking to dump their pets.
But, these kinds of calls and the endless desperate emails everyday are starting to wear me down.
We're not even half way through April and already "kitten season" is as though it were mid July.
Meanwhile, several dogs on the Euth list for today are on for health reasons -- "Mammary Tumors" - a direct result of previous owner's failures to spay.
We rescued a new little Shih-Tzu mix this week (pictured above with his foster person, Sarah) and are due to get a Chihuahua mix tomorrow and a Shepherd mix in a few days.
I should "feel good" about these new rescues, but somehow I simply feel they pale in comparison to the overall and non-stop abandonments and carnage. They don't really change anything and "change" is what is really needed.
I don't personally feel animal rescue to be quite as fulfilling as it once was.
How do we "congratulate" ourselves for rescuing one out roughly 250 animals that went down in the shelters in one week?
Rah, rah.
Mentally restless with a desire for some kind of radical change.
Yes. It is the Spring time of our discontent.
And, it is only the beginning........PCA
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The fact that things are exponentially worse for cats and other animals is precisely why every single person who cares is needed in the frontlines and "trenches", doing what each one of us can for those who without us are truly voiceless and helpless. I know it's depressing as hell and there are times we just want to get as far away from that reality as we can. Then, hopefully, we think about what will happen if and when we do that. And we stop.
Confronted by a truly gargantuan and completely avoidable, senseless tragedy involving over 800 cats just over a year ago, a sanctuary and a bunch of volunteers swung into action to save them, rehab them, and adopt as many out as possible into loving homes.
Can't be done, you say?
Well, THEY DID IT.
Don't give up, Patty. You're doing what you can where you are. Every other person who cares and puts that caring into action is doing likewise.
It ain't enough. But think about how it would be if we all walked away. If even one of us walks away.
You'll have days like this. Weeks. Months, even. And then, you'll do what you exhort us to do. Get up, buckle on the armor and go back to the front lines.
We have to do it. They'd sure do it for us, if roles were reversed. -
Patty, I can really empathize with you. This is a hard time to be involved in animal rescue. I too have been very depressed. I have been doing this for about 15 years and it seems as though things are getting worse for companion animals, not better. It's very disheartening to see so many people giving up their animals for what seem like trivial reasons. The commitment is just not there. And, as you know, finding homes has become almost impossible. Someone said to me the other day that trying to find a home for a cat is like trying to sell sand to someone sitting on a beach.
I am getting ready to have my last spay/neuter clinic for stray and feral cats until the fall. We've done seven in a row (about 100 cats each clinic), but seeing the large number of cats who are still coming into the shelter I work with makes me wonder if there is any hope at all of ending overpopulation and "euthanasia" of unwanted cats and dogs. I'm not sure how that can happen as long as people continue to see animals as disposable. -
I don't know who said it but "Saving one dog(cat) may not change the world, but it sure changes the world for that one dog(cat)."
If your goal is to save them all, you're going to fail. You have to focus on what you can do, and what you can do in a healthy way. Saving one dog a year for 20 years is better than saving 6 dogs a year for one year and burning out.
Stay strong, you do great work.
-Molly
http://adoptjoker.blogspot.com/
4/12/08 7:26 PM
Isn't Sarah the woman who adopted Bubba? She seems so lovely. How is Bubba? I also wonder about Khaki. Has he been adopted yet?