Ground Work.......

It is once per week at least i hear of conflict between rescue groups. One differs in policy from the other. One doesn't like someone who volunteers for this group or for that person. The reasons for rescuers to be at the throat of one another goes on and on until hate brews between groups and it is something in which can never be buried. It is a politic of rescue in which i don't understand and quite frankly i don't want to.

With Dames for Danes there are times in which we have been under fire for the way we did something. Be it a person others think are a qualified adopter that we didn't or vice verso. Be it that perhaps our customer service to a caller or someone who applied was answered not in a timely fashion or even at all. In honesty i must admit that customer service to those who are not our adopters already is lax. It is something i don't place alot of focus on as in honesty i came for the dogs....not the people. Does it make me a terrible person or a bad rescue? I have to think not as my primary goal is to take care of the fur flesh in which has my entire heart. So at the end of the day i don't really care what another rescue thinks about my practices, my opinions, or the way i do things. I care that my rescue partners, my adopters, my foster parents, and my good friends know where my heart truly is.

I thought for several hours today about those of us who are rescuers. We devote the majority of any personal time we have left after families, our pets, school, our jobs etc to saving the lives of these fur creatures in which we love. I cannot tell you the last time i sat down without the phone in my hand, a dog on my lap, and actually had a good silent cry. I cannot tell you the last time i have been to the restroom alone, been without a foster, gone a day without talking to my rescue partners, taken a call for a dog, jumped on someone who wanted an unaltered dog, preached spay and neuter........or had a vacation. Vacation is something that isn't within my vocabulary and i ha vent seen one in years. Through these thoughts i gathered that other rescuers are the same and at the end of the day what we have in common is the love for an animal in which we are desperate to save.

Why is it that we don't work together? Although there are some rescues that i literally would damn to hell for their horrible practices, the majority of the difference i may not like about another rescue is not the battle i want to fight. To not spay or neuter is a black mark upon my book for someone calling themselves a rescue. However small issues like how one rescue does their home visits or what they name their dogs is something i cannot quibble over. Does anyone have any idea what we could do together?

I think how many dogs have died in the past because one group didn't want to work with the other? We are brothers and sisters in this fight. Senior rescues are those in which we learn from as there are none of us who are perfect. We at Dames for Danes learn new things each and every day.....and we are proud of that. If there is a younger or even senior rescue with practices i question, i ask. If i don't like the answer then i try to educate with my opinion and help someone do this better. I want to see every rescuer be successful. And quite frankly folks none of us are successful if our dogs are still dying in shelters.

We are supposed to help one another. It takes every solider to win the war and if we all are opposing one another then where are we really? I ask each one of you to mend fences, reach out, and try to band together for the welfare of the cause in which needs our full concentration. I am not asking you to love someone....or even like them. I am asking that your love for an animal be stronger than your petty personal opinions. I am asking that you be the change........instead of the opposition. Look back when you have helped a rescue in which needed your guidance and feel good about what you have done. Give yourself the inner credit and move on to the next. And please.........leave your drama at the door.

If there is someone you need to make up with for the greater good......do this today and let us quit hurting one another. Let us do it for the dogs.....the cats....the guinea pigs......i could care less what it is.......let us get moving. I challenge you to make that make up call tonight and lets get on with what we were born to do....with the support we should have. And for those who are too small to consider the challenge.......i pity you as you are hurting no one but the animals you are trying to save. Get a life.