many of our animals have been in many different homes over their life times. when they are surrendered here by their current family, they are advised that this is the end of the road as far as their involvement goes. while i will gladly answer the occasional brief inquiry as to how that animal is doing..i just do not have the time or the inclination to participate any further than this.
sometimes, past owners pop up from several homes ago...they are understandably concerned and upset that despite whatever they thought was going to happen, their friend did not end up with a perfect life and instead ended up in a homeless senior animal sanctuary.
i have to be honest here...same rules still apply. once an animal is given away to whatever reality of life...that is it...the animal was still given away. so many people have begged me to please talk to them, let them come and visit, let them tell their stories so no guilt is applied to them.
we all have guilt and wonder in fear for the unhappy decisions we have made. i have them, i am sure you have them...it is part of life. the issue becomes, can you or should you try to re-live, re-write or even re-pay that time in your life at the expense of the animal's current saints life?
in my mind you can't. it is over and done. the animals lived or died.... whatever, however they lived or died and that is the reality for them. if they are here...i certainly don't have the time to waste in re-hashing the past...i am too busy caring for them today to care too much about yesterday.
do you actually think that the previous families consider that maybe their dog ended up matted and cold and wet on a chain? or their sweet and gentle fluffy became a starving homeless street cat and was killed by a car or euthanized in a stainless steel shelter cage?
do ex-pony clubbers who upgraded to bigger and faster, envison the best friend of their childhood days starving to death in a field or upside down in slaughterhouse chains?
this is not always the reality...but if you think about how many horses are slaughtered, or cats are euthanized or dogs are neglected on chains...the odds become pretty good, that maybe the animal they once loved, did in fact end up that way.
lucky for the ones who end up in rescue...those fates they will no longer face. but just because they are in rescue, does not mean their previous owners now have an opportunity to assauge whatever fear or guilt they have.
basically, i just don't have time or the inclination to invest to make them feel untruthfully that everything was always ok.
make a decsion, make a choice and then accept the risk that sometimes unfortunately it becomes a not so great reality.
and be aware that with indulging in animal fairy tales....the animal eventually may have to pay the ultimate unhappy price.
You are absolutely right, Carol. If you let an animal go, you let an animal go. Done and done.