i am so tired...i have had a total of 5 hours sleep in the last 48. it is strange how the world crashes back on top of you when you return from a temporary other worldly foray but then that is just how life sometimes goes. my family had need of me when i was too far away to be reached.
sometimes the things that life demands of me are bigger than one little me and i am so tired at this moment that i am even less than i usually am.
but there is a little redneck (with very cool boots) living in the freaking freezing north waiting to read what i say so i better find enough inside me to get it done right.
i have dedicated my life to rescue, i have loved and hated and feared every minute of it. and i came back from turtle gardens utterly and completely humbled by the simple monsterousness of it all.
what i found in that place was not what i expected in the least...i expected to find a small shelter struggling to survive. i didn't find that. i found something much more.
i found 3 generations of a family whose love for each other and the animals in their care touched me to my very center core. i found intelligence and thoughtfulness, compassion and respect, i found the simple but often missing common sense that helps us meet challenges much bigger than we.
sheila and i spent almost 12 hours watching and observing and listening to everything that went on around us. we went inside of the kennels and we went inside with the dogs, we were invited into the beginning of a dream of a shelter to house the ones that only one small family struggled to save. we saw and i touched 2 of the aggressive dogs that we were told we would not be allowed to see but we were...we saw how well the animals of turtle gardens themselves, spoke of their care, and how much they trusted this family who gave them a chance for a much better life.. we understood what the vet staff of burns lake had to say when they met with us...that they deeply respected and valued this family who cared for the homeless of a vast northern area. and they knew it was their community which overburdened them and then depended on them not to weaken and fall.
and what touched me most was the 12 hours we spent with a strong northern redneck and his favorite little strong red neck friend...it was their honesty and their humour and their ability to recognize how they wanted things to change.
turtle gardens is an outpost of rescue so far from the rescue we find here in the south everyday. there are real life hero's to be found a in small isolated, northern family who against the most brutal of odds, actually manage to do solid gold and very real rescue better than any of us possibly can.
turtle gardens needs simple things....they need money and they need alot. turtle gardens needs chevron gas cards because yesterday alone, the business of rescuing animals ate up almost $100 of fuel, turtle gardens needs building supplies and good quality dog food and people down here to help them by getting them the simple things so they can do their very difficult work.
they do not need my approval and they do not need my respect but for whatever it is worth, they have them both and with not a single string.
to the labbatt family...thank you for your generosity, thank you for sharing your world, thank you for your honesty and insight and for taking 12 hours out of your very long day to educate 2 innocent southern visitors from an alien rescue world.
and thank you for helping me find real hero's in a world that i thought just did not exist.
and a very special thank you to 2 very strong and compassionate rednecks for being the absolutely most remarkable rednecks that i have ever had the true pleasure to meet.
permission to cross post and or copy granted in advance.
thanks to Carol and sheila. I don't think some of the other rescues ever thought another person or rescue would step up to the plate and head up to the"great white north" at this time of the year being "WINTER" and "Christmas" time. I am very glad you got to come up and visit yvette and her rescue and the local vets.you now know how long a drive it is from Smithers to Topley and i am the opposite way from smithers abit longer to drive (I would have come to see you too but I am a wimp(I hate winter driving, yeah i know i live in the wrong place)If hubby would have been home we would have gone for a Sunday drive on a Thursday ;-)
we are a different breed up here...it took alot of adapting for me and after 2 1/2 yrs i still have alot to learn...i must say i do like the Fraser Valley more then this i believe you said "freezing Isolated north".
thank you writing those kind words about TG what my husband and I already knew. next time you should come up during the summer and we could drive you all over the areas up here that TG helps with taken in rescues...but i think you might need a little more the a 12 hour day (wink wink)
thanks again