In order to help not drive myself totally and completely crazy I have set up limits for myself. Limits meaning #1. I do not take dogs from outside of Ohio. We have enough dogs in Ohio I don't need to go to Arizona, North Carolina, Florida and rescue a dog. Let someone in that state step up. #2. I do not take in owner surrender dogs. I stick to this 99% of the time. I look at each case and make a determination if I will help an owner surrender dog. Most of the time I say no because I need to focus on the dogs that are in immediate danger of dieing. #3. I do not take dogs who are not in danger of being put to sleep. That means a dog another rescue wants I am not going to fight them for it. Or if the dog is in a no kill shelter or another rescue has it and the dog is not in danger. #4. I do not take in dogs that are considered "highly adoptable" Most of the time they are adopted straight out of the shelter or another rescue scoops them up pretty quickly.
By making these rules for myself it helps a little to keep me from stressing out. Sort of.. LOL.
I receive emails every day of dogs in danger or dogs who are moments away from being killed. I have to just delete the email without reading it when I know I do not have room. Once I see a picture and look into the dogs eyes I feel compelled to help and YOU CAN NOT SAVE THEM ALL. I have to remove my feelings and just "move on" It sucks and almost seems heartless but one person can only do so much.
As you can see by the picture above Ohio is a big state with a lot of counties. I would say at more then 1/2 the counties I have gotten dogs from at one point or another. But there are countie I have never gotten dogs from or even heard anything about them.
Yesterday I received an email from someone who said "We are working on helping out Highland County." I had never heard of Highland County before. I checked my map and it is near Cincinnati. Apparently they have 100% euthanization rate at their shelter!!! 100%!! Can you imagine that???? EVERY SINGLE DOG that enters that shelter DIES! EVERY SINGLE ONE! Just makes me cry writing it.
The person who I was talking with said that they gathered a ton of supplies to take to Highland and they are trying to help the shelter out. A women donated 40 pounds of dog cookies to go to the shelter because she wanted every dog to have at least one cookie before they die.
And yet pet stores still exists and everyone is ok with that.........
4 comments:
Everytime I read your blog, I hug my dogs extra hard.
You are doing The Lord's work, and sometimes The Lord says No.
Jeez, that came off all preachy. But thank you for what you can do.
100%??? How can they not adopt out a single one? That's crazy.
We all have to set boundaries. I'm still trying to figure mine out but I realize now anyone that's been doing this awhile needs to figure them out on their own.
You do awesome work! Keep on keepin on! (HUGS)
Ah, yes, boundaries and yet, I, too, have set boundaries for myself and my rescue knowing I will break them but needing to remember I cannot save them all, either. I have to remember my responsibility to those in the current pack - who need training, socialization, vet visits, etc. *sigh* I love my dogs and want others to love them,too. All dogs do better in their own homes, in smaller "packs." Keep up the good work.
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