Special Dogs..............

It is a sad day in rescue when one rescue continually makes up detrimental lies about another to find self benefit in their own actions in which are less than stellar.  My heart hurts when the very ones speaking of high egos cannot let go of their own to see their true flaws.  When thinking of a special dog, one must know that there are experts in which have advised on a proper course of living for that special dog and an inexpert opinion wasn’t an option. Although thankful for the offer of a hand, it wasn’t needed as a game plan was in action as directed by the expert advising. The saddest part of all is that all in which have such an opinion, hope, thought etc, of the special dog, not one of them was jumping at a chance to give this dog a forever home or even to foster for an extended period of time. That would have been an option. 

Each rescue has opinions, policies, and experts whom deal with their issues and whom they go to for their advice.  And although each individual rescue feels they could do a better job, at the end of the day it all comes out the same color in the wash.  Good work stands in the records with the veterinarians who service these rescues.  Good work stands in the numbers.  You must have numbers to first take a look at what you are doing. 

It is as well a sad day in rescue when others buy into lies in which they could know the answer to if they simply asked.  And to allow continual battering of the character of a group who has been owned by Danes their entire life, rehomed hundreds, without asking is a bigger shame.  As well to buy into these lies in which could be discounted, by simply asking, makes one just as bad as the other.

Just the other night it was brought to someone’s attention for the millionth time about a group who was labeled as ‘dog killers’ for the death of a 12 week old puppy.  It was a horrific rumor which held no truth, no credit, and came from the mouth of someone who knew the truth but despite that truth could not go back on what she told.  The person who heard this rumor and was a part of spreading it met the 12 week old puppy who is no longer 12 weeks but closer to 12 months of age now.  Living, breathing, and happy. And knowing this sent an email to apologize for being part of that kind of ugliness.  It was so nice to see that someone sees a little clearer that the rumor was vicious and more than untrue.  It was as well good to see that the truth always comes to light.

Take Dames for Danes, although not perfect by any means we have an extremely low euthanasia rate.  Dogs are not put down for being old, heartworm positive, or for even making a mistake such as a nip on a child. Dames have had dogs who have stayed in foster care for as long as two years time, despite the outcry from those in which thought they took too much funding. 

We could take Blue for instance.  Blue bit a child in his forever home.  He was truly misplaced there as a senior with a large number of children, but a board member felt so strongly he should be moved it was rushed and the board allowed it to go through. (Total mistake by the Board to not have outvoted this)  Blue being a senior was not enamored with a child playing in his food bowl and bit the child terribly.  Policy generally dictates the bite of a child, the dog goes down.  That is a fairly common policy among rescues.  However one board member knew this dog and when he came back she looked into his eyes, watched his demeanor with the older children and could not put him down for his mistake.  It was truly a fight among the board that this dog should be put to sleep and we should not place him into foster care.  The board was upheld by this issue and one in particular fought terribly hard for this boy.  However a foster was located with no children, and there he was placed.  The board member felt strongly enough she would have taken him into her own home if she had too.  For almost two years his vet bills were paid via the rescue.  And at two years and two months, he was adopted to the perfect home.  Although a bitter subject among board members, it worked out and Blue is happy in his surroundings.

Or we could take Rosie.  Rosie seemed to always do well with children but received her forever home only to rush across a room many weeks later and bite a three year old on Christmas Eve.  It was a bite which did require some medical attention.  Rather than euthanize this dog, we found a suitable home for her in which did not have small children or access to them and today she is happy.

Another special boy named Andy who was bounced from home to home because he was extremely misunderstood.  There was a board member who felt he could not make it in a home life.  There were two who felt differently.  The end vote which included the silent voters of the board, won out and he was granted a chance at life yet again simply a matter of finding the right place.  And although I don’t think his foster parent intended on having him forever, the foster failed and this boy is so much loved and happy.  It didn’t come without a price for Andy……..he was bounced far more times than he should have been before he got there. However in the end ….. he got his perfect forever with the perfect person to love him.

You will ask me why there is a difference for some and not others.  There are some dogs out there that are simply not meant to be rehomed.  There are some dogs who will be a great risk to the general public and should not be trusted in any capacity.  There are many different levels of aggression or issues in which sometimes sadly cannot be fixed no matter how hard you try.  Aggression is not growling, pinning, snarling, or barking.  Although some will say it is aggressive behavior it isn’t.  So many humanize these dogs to a point where they feel aggression is a common term and should fit the above actions.  So many forget at the end of the day, dogs cannot talk like you or I, but depend on these actions to let another know they are unhappy.  Biting, tearing, unpredictable behaviors, blood, vet visits, hospital visits can be among those things in which can lead a rescue to find a dog is not safe. 

Most recently a dog came into a local shelter that injured a six year old child.  This wasn’t a nip.  It wasn’t one stitch.  It wasn’t a bruise.  This dog nearly mutilated this child.  The child had wounds in which were so horrific that he will live with them for a lifetime.  Many plastic surgeries, much pain, and no relief for many years to come of skin grafts, this child suffered.  He suffered for being across the street from a home he had never visited playing football with a friend.  The dog escaped the fencing and went directly for the child he had never met and dragged him while tearing into him, while an older child being injured too tried to save the six year old.  Funny enough someone at the shelter found he was a good dog and thought he should be saved.  They contacted Dames for this boy and we declined immediately.  The attack was brutal and was meant to kill the child.  Some place now this dog is out there because someone didn’t have the good sense to stop this dog from doing so.  I will say in my personal opinion this should have never happened.

Another female who appeared sweet in many moments would suddenly lunge and attack someone across the room that she lived with and loved.  Periodically she would charge and try to attack the children in the home. She brutally killed and ripped the throat out of the dog she snuggled with the night before.  In all appearances and a chance meeting this dog was sweet.  But the aftermath of the years of being nothing more than feral, she could not be trusted.  The rescue in which had her euthanized her for not only the safety of those around her but for her own. 

Another was a female who was deaf, blind for the most part, and had a separation anxiety in which could not be controlled.  She would dive through plate glass windows on a regular basis and one day started to attack the other dogs in her home brutally.  She killed a neighboring dog in one of the most brutal ways imaginable.  After medications, vet visits, and regular training on the part of a dedicated foster parent who loved her, it was decided by the rescue and the vet treating this dog that she would not be a candidate to be rehomed as she could not make it in a safe manner. 

So for the critics out there it is up to each one of us to deem what is and is not safe out there.  However when you are a non-profit rescue you have responsibilities to those around you, the dogs in your care, and to the public in general.  There are many things in which could be said and many opinions out there.  My opinion is that dangerous unpredictable dogs should not be on the streets.  I would not want them next door to my child, my dogs, or my person. 

All in all…..if you want to know you must ask.  It would be requested that if you have a proper alternative to please by all means share it.  It doesn’t mean your thoughts will go without proper thought and investigation, it simply might mean that’s not what our experts on the subject have suggested.  We have to trust in those we have spent many years working with and achieved good results.  Most of all if you want to quash an ugly rumor you can be part of doing just that.  And if you think it, speak it, and don’t know the truths then you are simply just as guilty, as the person who created that rumor. I find those who start rumors are usually those who themselves have a guilty conscience.  And this physical year to date....there have been no Danes euthanized with Dames for Danes GDR.

 

My Opinion

All week long I have tormented myself inside.  I kept reading over and over again the story about the Campbell County Animal Shelter.  I am so bothered inside myself about this situation.  And because I am bothered I keep trying to make sense of the whole horrific ordeal.  I can’t.  I am a rescuer and I work every day of my life in some way or another saving the lives of the animals that need me.  And to think that walking among those like me would be a woman who will forever now be dubbed “Bloody Betty”.

When working the shelter floors for those who are employees, and the rescuers who walk among those floors, beside them, though on somewhat different levels, we are all there because some place inside us there is a love for God’s innocent creatures.  There are those who are paid to walk those floors providing dignity and compassion to those animals, who many of are living their last days.  The rescuers are there trying with all of their strength to save those who are there because someone thought they couldn’t be saved.  The differing sides have different emotions on different subjects….but the bottom line is that those who are paid to walk those floors have a job in which can in no way be easy on their hearts.  As a rescuer it is a luxury to not have to live our days watching them die, but sending them home when they are ready.

Doing rescue for the largest portion of my life at this time I have seen many things come and go.  I started rescue on the shelter floor.  I looked each day at the eyes until I could take no more.  It is a rare occasion you will find me standing among the rows, as my heart no longer lets me look.  I am now a rescuer who has the luxury of not looking and being able to help what I know I can help or what I will die trying to help. I can focus on my small number and live in the satisfaction that yes today I changed a life.

Well this Betty………I expected that she had a responsibility too.  It was expected by me that she would allow the animals no one loved enough the common decency to die with a human telling them she loved them.  How hard would that have been? My God she was getting a paycheck while I at times have to do this shit for free!  How hard could it have been to pet them?  And when she knew she had become numb to it……..she needed to leave.  How do you sleep at night?  And the workers?  Her partners in crime?  How in God’s name did woman become so cruel?  Who are you women?  My God you turn my stomach. 

Rescue at the throat of Rescue.  That too is a change in which I have seen come over the years.  It was once every rescue had a common goal.  We all have thoughts opinions and are many times the strongest of personalities.  However our common goal was once to save lives.  I ask you all…..how many lives are we saving when we don’t work together?  How many lives are we losing over our petty bickering arguments and our self righteous needs to be the one who is right?  Get over ourselves how about it?  It is about the animals!  We have forgotten that.  And it makes me ashamed that we all aren’t seeing that.

I am sick and tired of hearing about overloaded rescuers.  Dogs going without shots?  Adoptions of too many unaltered dogs?  Back yard breeding rescues?  People really need to face it……when you see that ‘some life’ is not sometimes better than ‘no life’ there is something wrong. I know some of you will argue this……but if you can I ask that you provide yourself with ‘some life’ and see if it is really right. Please chain yourself to a tree or to the side of a house…..  If you are sending a dog from a chain to a chain…..that isn’t quality.  When you are sending a dog who has never been to a vet to a home who has no vet reference is it better.  Are you sending them some place you could see your dog?  If not what made your dog better? Why did you stop wanting more for your dogs?

Rarely will you hear me say bad things about another rescue.  Believe me though if you hear me say it and you hear me say another rescue is not good, it is because I believe it.  There are some things you don’t and never do.  You NEVER breed a rescued dog.  You never abuse a rescue dog.  You never put down more rescue dogs than you adopt out.  You never put a dog to sleep because you cannot find a foster home.  If you took that dog…that dog is your responsibility.  And that’s as long as it takes or you have done all in which you can do.  Period.  Those are simple rules.  Those among the most golden rules of rescue.  They are unwritten…unspoken ……but words to live in this rescue world by. 

It is long past time for us to come forth as educators.  It is long past time that our backbones stiffen and we pay a little more attention to our shelters, our shelter floors, and serve as support in the areas we can to make a terrible job some days maybe a bit easier.  It is time for us to quit trying to be politicians and thinking we are good at it…..while someone like Betty gets by with literal murder.  Why didn’t we know that?  Someone did.  And someone kept it quiet because they were afraid they would never get to pull another animal on the shelter floor.  Shut up! It is up to every one of us…..shelter worker or rescuer……to make a difference.  We are sucking wind.

If we spent a little less time worrying about the differences in each other, spend the time to teach one another to make infallible structures for our missions, talk to our older rescues, our younger ones, serve as backup systems, support systems, leaving the personal issues out of it, I think of the lives we could save together.  It is time for us to remember it is about the dogs and get back to work.  When there is a Betty among us we have failed all of the way around.  And the dogs lost lives because of it.  Think about that.  And think about why in some way you might have been a part of it.  And fix it.  Fix it before it is too late for more of the lives you say you care about.  Prove it.

It is about the dogs.  That’s all I want to do…..save dogs.  I don’t have to be the best or the greatest.  I don’t have to do much at all except be as responsible as I can be to what I agreed to take on.  And some days quite frankly it is a lot to take on.  There are mistakes made, things forgotten, people forgotten, missed phone calls, missed emails, people who are turned down, differences of opinions, sick dogs, well dogs, dogs who come back sometimes, heartbreaks, tears, joy, and an overwhelming need to give more than just a piece of yourself. 

Rescue never sleeps.  There is never a holiday.  There is never a shortage of help needed.  There is never a lack of love or hate.  There is simply a fine balance of doing what you know you can and that is all any of us can do.  Rescuers are not perfect, not angels, not Godly, not politicians, not heroes, not stars, but simply people who have a piece of themselves that can see the eyes and know the life is precious.  It in no way made us perfect…..yet made us exactly who we are inside.  It is your heart which does the saving……and your head just tries to keep up.  And just like the worker walking that shelter floor our jobs hurt too…..but that is no reason to allow your heart to become hard.

Agree with me or not?  It simply is my opinion.  I do stand by my opinion though.  I will not tolerate another Betty…..be that a Betty who could be working the shelter floor or a Betty rescuer walking that floor…..those of us who really came for the dogs will start today trying to make some kind of difference.  We better get to work and make sure these like Betty don’t hurt our dogs anymore.  We need to do the damage control and know who is around us.  We need to make sure those who are living wrong by these dogs don’t do it anymore.  That means even if it is a shelter worker, rescuer, grandfather, sister, child, policeman, doctor……it doesn’t matter…..report them.  Stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.  Do what you came here for.  Fix these situations and quit playing politics….they just aren’t worth playing if death is involved.

So that’s simply my opinion.