Almost two years ago, I decided to try and do something about the euthanasia rate in our county shelter. It was something that had bothered me for a long time, the exact facts of which were murky at best, depending on who you asked. When I finally got up the courage to call the Public Safety Office and ask the people who really knew whether the dogs and cats at our shelter were ever adopted, I was sickened by the answers I got. At that time, 90% of the animals who entered the shelter were euthanized.
Those statistics completely stunned me and prompted my entry into the world of dog and cat rescue. It is by turn the most rewarding thing I have ever done and the most discouraging. The rewards come in the form of seeing a dog who has completely lost any hope of knowing happiness again start to wag its tail with a single act of kindness and then watch that dog bloom with joy. The hard part is seeing first hand just how little some people are willing to do for an animal they chose themselves.
This blog is a place where I'd like to give the dogs and cats who come into my life their fifteen minutes of fame, tell their story, or at least what I know of it. Some of these animals stay with us a short while, until they are adopted by their forever family, and others who have issues that make them less adoptable become permanent members of our ever increasing family.
For me, it's the individual personalities and stories of these dogs and cats that makes me determined to help as many as I can.
And so I'll start with Thomas.
Thomas is a big lug of a Chocolate Lab who ended up in a high kill shelter in South Carolina. I heard of his need for help from a lady who works with the Humane Society in that area. I had agreed to take two dogs from the group and on the morning we were to drive down to Charlotte to meet someone and pick them up, I received a last minute plea to consider taking Thomas as well. One look at his picture was all it took.
I immediately sent him to a local vet for a check-up, shots and neutering. It was discovered that he was heartworm positive and he underwent the standard treatment for this. Unfortunately, Thomas had a reaction to the treatment and nearly died. It is so sad to think that if someone had simply taken care of him by giving him a single monthly heartworm pill, he would never have gotten sick in the first place.
I brought Thomas home and crated him day and night, not sure whether he would live or die. It didn't take long for my heart to hurt with the very thought of losing him. Thomas is a humble soul who has never had much and during his first weeks in our home, didn't even know to ask for it.
About three weeks after I brought him home, he had a setback, and I again thought we would lose him. He pulled his way back up from this though, and he is now getting stronger every day. He will have to be crated with limited exercise for a couple more months because of the danger of blood clots.
It's taken a tremendous amount of effort to get Thomas on the road back to health, but in the process of doing so, I have come to cherish this dog. He looks at me as if I hung the very moon, and maybe in his eyes, I have. It takes so little really, to earn the eternal gratitude of a dog who has slept outside his whole life, or been chained to a tree or not had enough to eat.
Thomas has been in my life going on three months now, and he is still surprised by his nightly Peanut Butter bone. Kindness should not cause surprise, and I look forward to the day when I see in his eyes that it is expected.
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