[ SHOWGSD-L ] I want to QUIT !
- From: Kizwiz@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 22:28:59 EDT
This was sent to me by a fellow rescuer. I CAN RELATE.
Pat GSRCNY.ORG
"I Want To Quit!" by Joan Fremo, May, 2001
This week's contribution is late, and I want to apologize to my readers. It
has been such a busy week with Rescue, and sometimes Rescuers just run out of
time. Sometimes, Rescue can be very difficult... I'd like to share with you
my feelings. The following is based on a recent post I made to my friends on
one of my Rescue Email lists. I was not the only one experiencing "one of
those weeks". I want to quit!
My health is bad. There are days I feel so terrible that I can barely move.
My phone bills are outrageous, and I could have replaced my van with the
funds I have spent these last 3 years---on animals that were not my own.
I want to quit!
I spend hours and hours emailing about dogs. There may be 500 messages when
I start---and at 4 AM, when I finally shut down the computer, there are still
500 emails to be read.
I want to quit!
Gosh, I haven't the time left to email my friends. I can't remember the last
book I read, and I gave up my subscription to my local newspaper---I used to
enjoy reading it, cover to cover, but now it often ends up in the bottom of
the squirrel's cage---unread.
I want to quit!
I've spent days emailing what seems like everyone---trying to find a foster
home, help for a dog languishing in a shelter---but his time has run out, and
the shelter has had to euthanize to make room for the next sad soul.
I want to quit!
I swear, I walk away from my computer to stretch my legs---let the dogs
out---and come back to find another dog in desperate need. There are times I
really dread checking my email. How will I find the funds, the help, to save
yet
another dog?
I want to quit!
I save one dog, and two more take its place. Now an owner who doesn't want
his dog---it won't stay in his unfenced yard. An intact male wanders... This
bitch got pregnant by a stray... This 3-month-old pup killed baby chicks...
The dog got too big... This person's moving and needs to give up his pet. I
ask
you, friends---what town, what city, what state doesn't allow you to own a
pet?
I want to quit!
I just received another picture, another sad soul with tormented eyes that
peer out of a malnourished body. I hear whimpering in my sleep, have
nightmares for days...
Many of the "Breed People" don't seem to want to hear about these dogs.
Breeders either don't realize, or just don't care, how many dogs of their breed
are dying in shelters.
I want to quit!
I just got off the phone. "Are you Pyr Rescue? We want to adopt a male to
breed to our female." How many times do I have to explain? I have tried to
explain about genetics, about health and pedigrees. I explain that rescue
NEUTERS! I usually end up sobbing, as I explain about the vast numbers of
animals
dying in shelters across the country, as I describe the condition many of
these
animals are found in. I wonder if they really heard me...
I want to quit!
It is not like I don't have enough rescues of my own to worry about---but
others have placed dogs improperly and aren't there to advise the new owners.
I want to quit!
There ARE some unscrupulous rescues out there---hoarders, collectors, and
folks who will short change the care of the animals to make a dollar. They
save
them all, regardless of temperament, putting fellow rescuer's and adopters
at risk by not being truthful.
I want to quit!
I have trusted the wrong people--- had faith and heart broken...
I want to quit!
AND THEN...
My dog, lays his head in my lap, he comforts me with his gentle
presence---and the thought of his cousins suffering stirs my heart.
I want to quit!
AND THEN...
One of those 500 emails is from an adopter. They are thanking me for the
most wonderful dog on earth---they cannot imagine life with out their
friend---their life is changed, and they are so grateful.
I want to quit!
AND THEN...
One of my adopted Rescues has visited a nursing home. A patient that has
spent the last few years unable to communicate, not connecting---Lifts his
hand
to pat the huge head in his lap, softly speaks his first words in ages--- to
this gentle furchild.
I want to quit!
AND THEN...
A Good Samaritan has found and vetted a lost baby, "I can't keep him, but
I'll take care of him until you find his forever home."
I want to quit!
AND THEN...
"Jamie took his first steps holding on to our Pyr." "Joan, you should see
this dog nursing this hurt kitten!" "I was so sick, Joan, and he never left my
side..."
I want to quit!
AND THEN...
I get an email from a fellow rescuer, "Haven't heard from you in a
while---you OK? You know I think of you..."
AND THEN...
A dozen rescuers step up to help, to transport, to pull, and to offer
encouragement. I have friends I have never seen, but we share tears, joys, and
everything in between. I am not alone. I am blest with family of the heart, my
fellow Rescuers.
Just days ago it was a friend who shared her wit and wisdom, whose late night
email lifted my heart. Sometimes it is friends who only have time to forward
you a smile. Often, it is my friends who forward me the notices of dogs in
need.
There are Rescuers who see a flailing transport and do everything they can do
find folks to pull it together for you. Rescuers who'll overnight or foster
your Dog while you seek transport. There are Rescuers not used to or
comfortable with your breed, but who put aside their discomfort to help. There
are
Rescuers whose words play the music of our hearts. Foster homes that love your
Rescue, and help to make them whole again---body and spirit. Foster homes
that fit your baby in, though it may not be their breed. Rescuers whose
talents
and determination give us tools to help us. Rescuers we call on for help in a
thousand ways, who answer us, who hear our pleas. Rescuers who are our
family, our strength, our comrades in battle.
I know I cannot save every dog in need. I know my efforts are a mere drop in
a sea. I know that if I take on just one more---those I have will suffer.
I want to quit!
But I won't. When I feel overwhelmed, I'll stroke my dogs head while reading
my fellow Rescuers emails. I'll cry with them, I'll laugh with them---and
they will help me find the strength to go on.
I want to quit!
But not today.
There's another email, another dog needing Rescue.
This piece is dedicated, with love and gratitude, to all my fellow Rescuers.
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