Tag Archives: cats

Tails: What Shelter Animals Want You to Know

Yesterday was National Rescue Dog Day and the day before, we put down our rescued cat. We had 7 animals. Now, we have four dogs and just two cats. Some might have thought that when you have that many, losing one isn’t that big of a deal, but it is. My heart broke and continues to break each time I go to reach for Sampson and he isn’t there.

As tears were streaming down my face and I was posting about Sampson’s rescue, I started to think about how easy it would have been for the county shelter to euthanize Sampson at the time (13 years ago). His eye was a real problem and the shelter vet didn’t give a crap about him. There were literally hundreds of other cats going in and out of the shelter – he was just a number – just another cage to clean and mouth to feed. And in an open access, municipal shelter, cage space matters more than most else.

Sampson lived because I took him out of there. He became an important member of a family – loved for over 13 years – simply because he had the chance.

I am certain that many other cats were euthanized then due to no fault of their own. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t take them all home. I am also certain that all of those cats could have become loved family members. I am certain that instead of being killed in a county shelter and stuffed in a freezer, years later they would have been euthanized in a private vet office, being held by “their person who had tears coming down her face” and surrounded by love.

At the garage sale last weekend, so many people commented on our 4 dogs. They would say, “Oh my gosh they are all just adorable,” or “Oh my gosh they are so sweet,” or “Oh my gosh they are such good dogs.”

Immediately, one of us would say, “They are all rescued.”

I say those words every chance I get because they matter. Often people think dogs like ours are bought. They think you can’t rescue little, fluffy dogs. More often, people are in awe at how much our dogs love us. Their eyes widen when they see me walk out of a room with all 4 dogs following me everywhere I go.

They can’t believe the bond we share or the love we have for one another.

I always say, “When you save a dog’s life, he knows.”

Overall, I think more people are catching on to rescue and adoption. But, with a million animals still being killed for space each year, we need even more people to adopt.

Each of our animals came to us as rescues and each came with issues. Some of them took a lot of time and patience, but so would a purebred puppy.

On Sunday, at the ER vet, I cried for Sampson. He was a BIG tiger cat with the biggest heart. For over 13 years he was a part of our family. He was lucky to have the bad eye in the shelter and for me to whisk him away to a real vet. I was lucky to get him.

Any single animal sitting in a shelter or rescue right now could be your Sampson. They are all so deserving. They each just want a chance outside of the shelter environment to show you who they are.

Sure, as a whole, the shelter seems full of rejects and misfits, but when you take each one out and get to know her, you will see so much more. Their individual hearts and souls… the way they snuggle up to you, the way they find sticks, the way they wag their tail when you call them, the way they kiss you when you have a bad day, the way they watch football on the couch every Sunday, they way they love french fries but not carrots.

We have 6 animals now and each one of them could have easily died without ever having a chance to be a pet. No one who loved animals would have ever even known they existed. Each one of them has made someone smile, made someone feel better, made me feel loved.

There are MILLIONS of dogs and cats waiting for their chance to love, to cuddle, to play, to live right now in shelters and rescues across America.

I don’t take the easy ones and yet, everyone who comes to my house thinks I have the cutest, kindest animals in the world. All it takes is rescuing the one who speaks to your heart and unconditional love.

Take a chance today and find your rescue. And then share him or her with the world to show that adoption is the truest form of love.

Tails: People Can Be Prisoners in Animal Shelters, Too

It has been a decade since I worked in our county animal control.  Ten full years and there are moments I remember like they were yesterday.  The beautiful moments where the most unadoptable dog finally finds the perfect home.  And, the very ugly moments where I was forced to assist with the decapitation of a Mastiff who bit a small child.  Those ugly moments don’t just haunt me when I least expect it, they force me to look in the mirror today and ask, “Why didn’t you say something?”

There’s no doubt that I have made an enormous amount of rescue friends in the last decade.  Between the puppy mill auctions and my book, I have had the amazing opportunity to surround myself with true warriors.  Not only do they each continue to teach me on a daily basis, but if I am ever struggling with any animal issue, I know I can count on them to get me through.  I didn’t have that support system 10 years ago.  I was new.  I was naive.

Yet, I was still me and I tend NOT to take things lying down, especially when they concern the well-being of animals.  Hell, the whole reason I was at animal control was to HELP animals.  It certainly wasn’t the pay or great benefits.

What is it about working or volunteering in a shelter that brainwashes so many to look past all of the problems and all of the wrong-doings.  So many, like me, choose silence over action as we watch horrible things take place.  I look back on my days at AC and feel like I lost my voice for a few years.  I mean literally feel mute when I re-imagine those years.

Why didn’t I contact the local paper or go above my superior?  Why didn’t I quit sooner?  Why didn’t I try harder?  Yes, I loved so many of my days at the shelter, but the ones I didn’t like, truly those were grounds for media coverage and terminations.  There were things done illegally, inhumanely.  Yet, I looked away.

I think many people rationalize their inability to speak out for different reasons.  Some people believe that if they left or got fired for speaking out, “Who would look after the animals then?”  Yet, in hindsight, “Who is looking after the animals now, when the people who do care aren’t speaking out?”

I think while my heart knew better, I didn’t feel like I knew enough to take a stand.  Many of the employees had been there a long time and had been doing the bad shit for years, who was I to question them?  (Looking back… my stomach turns because I KNOW, without hesitation, I should I have reported it all.)  There is something to be said about trusting your intuition.  I should have trusted mine.

I think there are some people who don’t leave or question things simply because they enjoy the “god” persona.  There is something powerful for them about deciding who lives and who dies each day.  God help them.

As I look back on that time in my life, I can’t help but feel like a prisoner.  A part of an institution that kept me from speaking out for reasons I wasn’t even conscious of.  Unknowingly brainwashed  to keep the status quo and just keep working.  Truthfully, I am ashamed of myself when I look back on those days.  Knowing what I know today, I could have done so much more.

I wrote this blog to encourage others who work in shelters to REALLY look around at their practices.  If your gut is telling you that something is off, it probably is.  If you are new, but question if the practices are ethical, reach out to someone outside of the shelter and ask them for their opinion – even if they aren’t in rescue.

There are laws to protect people from being fired or banned from volunteering simply because they speak out against the shelter’s practices.

I look back on my time at the shelter and remember it feeling like the shelter was its own microcosm.  As if our actions were judged amongst only ourselves and never upheld to the ethical standards outside our 4 concrete walls.  As if, in our world, it was okay to have different rules.  It shouldn’t be like that.  Animals deserve to be treated humanely in ALL shelters, regardless of demographics or financial standing.

It is easy to portray the dogs and cats in cages as prisoners in the shelters, but the real prisoners are the employees and volunteers who believe their only choice is to continue their day-to-day work in silence, praying that the illegal practices and inhumane treatment of the animals comes to an end.

Don’t be a prisoner, be a hero.  Speak out today and truly change things for the animals.  I promise there is an army of people ready to help you.