Every time that I walk into a shelter or see requests for help and fosters on Facebook or various rescue blogs, my heart falls into my belly. Every animal deserves a home and warmth and love, but when you start realizing just how many animals there are without those basic things, it's more than overwhelming -- it's disheartening.
When Renny - the two week old drop-off - came to us, my promise to him was that he would never know what it was to be cold or afraid or unloved, regardless of how much (or little) time we had with him. When he became ill just a few weeks later, I chanted that like a prayer. The other cats had all gone into mourning and no one seemed to expect the little fella to make it through that awful time. Preparing for the worst and living through it are two dramatically different things. At one point I was holding him and rocking and crying and begging and pleading with him to eat, to drink, to just TRY...and he put his little paws on my face and hopped down and wobbled over to his food bowl on his own for the first time in days and looked back at me as if to say 'see, Mama? I'm okay.' I know -- it was a lot of pressure to put on a little fella, but it did the trick and while I must have looked like a raving lunatic, I wouldn't take back a second of it. Suffice it to say, our little Renny (so named because it means 'small & mighty' and he needed all the help he could get) is still with us and just as fearless as ever. Every time I look at him, I think of the promise that I made...and I think that he probably remembers it too.
But where do you draw the line between doing all that you can and overdoing it? I wish that I had the answer to this question and my real hope is that I'll be able to see the line as I'm about to cross it. For now, we have the means and space to provide all of the animals in our care with basic necessities plus all of the woobies and treats and tennis balls that they can stand. We're blessed and so are they. That's the point, right? To do the best you can for as long as you can to help as many as you can?
Darnit! Do you insist on making me cry with every post? i'll have to be certain to grab the tissues before sitting down to read your blog. ;)
ReplyDelete"But where do you draw the line between doing all that you can and overdoing it?" In my mind, overdoing it is when you have so many animals that you can no longer provide for them - animal hoarders come to mind. i DO NOT lump you guys into that lot. You give your animals all that they need, and then some, and there's plenty of love and food to go around. i do have to say, though, i can see how hard it would be for an animal lover to not take in every single one they could, and before they knew it, they were overwhelmed. That's not fair to the animals, nor their caretakers. You two are doing a GREAT job, though - keep it up!