we do have the occasional real life fairly tale ending around here (or should i say...fairy tale beginning?)

i got a nice email from river's family today..it was entitled "river's summer vacation" with lots of pictures.
river as i have said before is one of our happy tales...plain jane, old, no name dog, languishing in the pound, definitely a whole bunch of attitude with the other dogs that made him a pain in the ass to have around here.
5 years ago...his final, forever home came for him..and it makes me so happy to know that river will never need rescue (or me) ever again.

nicole is going to post a couple of the photo's so you can meet this very lucky guy. i wish they were all so lucky but i will embrace the happiness for the ones who do actually get the home of their dreams because there is a place for them like saints....maybe we can't help thousands because our guys do take so much...but for the almost 400 we have been there for in the past few years..i think we have done pretty good.

occasionally i see dogs of ours from a distance while doing my nursing travels...i see maggie the dobie cross in kidney failure who the vets gave about six months to live..i see her walking on a leash with her mom..almost 8 years later...she is starting to look pretty old.

i see max, that drop dead gorgeous mahogany retriever cross that was so messed up in his head from about 3 years ago..i see him out walking with his mom..i even occasionally see him in at the vets...he is looking so good.

i saw a dog at the vets not long ago, from about 6 years ago that i recognized instantly but could not remember her name..i only had her for a few weeks before her real home came along....she too is doing great.

so how many of our current guys will eventually find homes?...how many will spend the rest of their lives here with me...like les and tony?...i just don't know.

what i do know tho is that we have some lovely and healthy cats...cats like winter that just needed an eye out or diablo who just needed a leg off to be healthy and vibrant again. i would like some of our cats and dogs to find some really good homes. oh well, whether they do or not...we need to give them the best life here that we can.

today (and for the rest of the week) colleen's and my job is to get the shop organized..it makes the work in caring for the animals around here easier if we can store and actually find stuff for them when we need it. it makes it less awkward and tiresome for us if we can actually get to the stuff we want without braving an impregnable maze.

who'd have thought that an important part of animal rescue was just keeping stuff tidy and organized?

anyway...i skipped lunch so now i am enjoying a treat of baileys and hot tea until 4pm hits and it is time to start putting the barn guys to bed...then i will spend some quailty time with the furry bodies around here.