Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

"'I must do something' always solves more problems than 'Something must be done.'"--Anonymous

My husband is always telling me I don't have to save the world, but sometimes it seems as though the world--or at least parts of it--shows up on my doorstep.  I don't want to ever be the person who says, "I thought someone else was going to help."  It's not my style.  No, I don't have to save the world, but I am called to help the ones who cross my path.

By now you've read enough of my posts to know that I'm a "pets are people, too" kind of person.  I'm a pet parent, not a pet owner.  My pets will never be as important to me as my boys are, but they come in close.  They are living, breathing creatures and deserve the best life I can give them.  After all, I'm the one who brought them in to my home.  Just like my boys, these creatures are gifts to me, brought into my life for my happiness, for me to care for, love and cherish.  I baby these animals, I spoil them, I lavish them with treats, with love, with homemade food, with beds and warmth and shelter.  I've often joked that if I believed in reincarnation, I'd want to come back as one of my cats.  

So, it deeply upsets me when I see animals mistreated, when I see them abandoned, unloved, unwanted, hungry, and left to their own defenses.  We--society--have domesticated these animals, so it is up to us to provide for them.  Unfortunately, not everyone thinks the way I do.  We have two kitties in our home that were strays in our neighborhood, one of them in the middle of a very cold winter.  Very often in our neighborhood we see dogs wandering loose without collars, most of them aggressive, untrained and unloved.  I see my neighbors yelling at their pets, hitting them, leaving them outside without proper shelter and water on hot days, and generally mistreating these pets they claim to have wanted and brought into their homes.  It hurts my heart and quite honestly, makes me angry.  It annoys me when people make a commitment to a pet, then fall short of that commitment out of laziness.  Once they realize the pet is more work than they realized, but they aren't willing to try to give it a better life, so the dog is relegated to the backyard, or the cat is left to its own devices.  If you can't keep a plant alive, if you don't have the time to devote to watering that on a regular basis, then you shouldn't have pets (or children, for that matter).

Friday afternoon, we had a two little visitors--two sweet little cocker spaniel mixes.  I watched as they wandered our court for a bit, waiting to see if they went home with any of our neighbors' guests, waiting to see if any of our neighbors came looking for them--just waiting to see what happened.  After an hour, and after one of our neighbors screamed at them and hit them, I'd kind of had enough.  Ready to do something about it, I realized they'd wandered into our driveway and just sat down to watch while Noah played basketball.  They had that "Yep, this is the house!  The sign on the overpass said a nice woman lives in the blue house!" look on their faces (my friend Sharon jokes that when Jethro escapes, it's to paint a sign on the overpass about the kind pet lady in the blue house...  It's right next to her graffiti about my gravy from a jar on Thanksgiving...).  They immediately took to Noah, tolerated Avery, but were very wary of myself and Shawn.  Unfortunately, Lilly didn't like them on her property and actually broke through the storm door to get out of the house.  A chase ensued (in true Furr Family fashion, of course---Noah in the lead, Shawn in bare feet and literally pulling pants on as he ran to catch up, and me bringing up the rear in my stocking feet, trying to keep an eye on Avery, who was still on the porch), Lilly was almost hit by a car (she now wears the perimeter collar of shame), and all 3 dogs ended up back at our house safely.  Lilly went in her crate inside the house, and the other two (No Noah, we're NOT naming them!) went in the garage.  I knew it had to be done, so I called animal control.  Because the dogs were eager to follow Noah around, he fed them, gave them water, and spread towels out on the garage floor so they could lay down and wouldn't be cold.  I wanted to hug the deputy who recognizing Noah's attachment to the dogs and theirs to him, employed his help in getting them in her truck.

That's not the end of the story.  I feel invested in these little guys.  They ended up in our care for a reason.  They need someone to care about them and to fight for them.  They deserve an advocate.  They were kind to my children, even loving. Their fur was in very poor shape, they were very hungry and thirsty, they did not have collars or microchips and posters have not been posted about missing dogs in our neighborhood.  I've been calling the shelter to stay updated on them, and no one has claimed them.  Honestly, with the kind of shape they were in, and how they'd been treated based on their behavior, I'm not sure I want their owners to claim them.  Is it okay to admit that?  Everyone, even a dog, deserves to be missed, wanted and loved.  From what I've been told, the dogs are not adjusting well to the shelter, and haven't been very nice to or trusting of the volunteers.  Their quarantine ends on Friday, and then the "decision" about their futures with the shelter will be made.  The people at our local are very devoted to their jobs, and love animals very much, but with overflow being a problem, sadly, there is only so much they can do.  

Instead of just hoping for the best, I'm not giving up.  I'm calling foster and rescue groups, counting on one of them to come through for these sweet little guys.  They, like everyone else, deserve to have someone fight for them.  No, I don't have to save the world, just certain parts of it.

I think the little gold one was smiling while he sat next to Noah.  He wouldn't leave Noah's side.