a quick update on sherlock...and then...

our vet had a look at his xrays. he thinks his pelvis is fractured also. i have booked him in at the end of the month for more xrays and his neuter at the same time. in the mean time..we are to continue to keep hm confined. we have increased his pain meds as the vet feels his pelvis will be causing him much more pain then his spine. and he remains a sweet little guy.

i want to talk about rescue...because rescue does not just involve animals...it involves people too. we know about the volunteers, supportors, staff, and donors...we understand and appreciate their role in rescue.
but when we talk about the families of where these animals come from...we have our judgements and negative preconceived ideas that fans out and colors everyone.

not everyone who has given up a pet is a loser or stupid. not everyone is uncaring and neglectful or an animal abuser. sometimes they are...i have seen enough sad animals to know this is many times true. but i have also seen some very good people who for whatever reason have given up their pets too.

most times i do not know the whole history on an animal that comes here...i can figure some things out by watching and seeing somethings right in front of my nose. but i don't know everything...in fact..i usually know very little. and what i know the least about is the why's and how's of most people's lives.

i am a bit of an optimist and i do believe that sometimes things (especially involving people) are not just black and white.

in rescue, i have met my fair share of heartless people, thoughtless people, people who just do not care. i have met cheats and liars and thieves and those who build themselves up by tearing others down. i have met angry people and crazy people and people way more messed up then any animals i have ever met.

but these are the few and far between folks...mostly i just meet regular people trying live their lives the best that they know how to.

i have been judged more than most people have ever been....people have assigned to me their opinions on what i do here. it doesn't matter if they know what they are talking about...or if they know much about saints or myself or rescue at all. they think they are right and i am wrong.

so if it pisses me off when i get the bad end of the judgement stick....i want to be careful that when i make my judgements...i have the full story. i do not want to inadvertently hurt someone by surmising and assuming and leaping to conclusions just to make a point.

there are exceptions in every single thing in life....pets SHOULD be forever..but sometimes they are not. most times the reasons for giving up a pet are beyond my conception...but i am not someone else. i am not living their life. i am coming from somewhere else....a whole life long line of my own mistakes that have led me to here.
and sometimes i totally understand the reason for giving up a pet and i completely agree.

i don't think it is my job to beat up on individuals. it is my job to identify and work towards solutions for the issues. and the real issue is...there are too many companion animals for the available homes. there are thousands of dogs being culled and shot in our north. there are millions of animals in north america alone that are being killed in the shelters because there are not enough homes. the newspaper and internet ads are full of puppies and kittens for sale. the petstores are selling bunnies while UVIC was planning hundreds of domestic rabbits deaths.

i don't think people should keep an animal that they are unable or unwilling to care for..i do not think that is fair to the animal. and that is where i and others like me come in. today...this day...we offer shelter and care for animals in transition. one day...maybe tomorrow sometime...we won't be needed for this. every animal will have an appropriate home because our society will insist on this.

i do not know how we will get there when things are as bad as they are now but i think we are hitting rock bottom and soon the only way we will be able to go is up.

as far as sherlock goes...he is a mixed breed pit bull puppy from up near cache creek. he wasn't some poofy little designer poodle pup that someone just had to have to make their wardrobe complete. i think sherlock was lucky to have a home that cared. yes he is still unneutered, yes he was obviously loose to get hit by a car, and yes he was owned by a kind elderly person who wasn't all that well prepared for pet guardianship of a puppy in the year 2011.

so what? there are so many really much more horrible things happening to dogs out there. he could have gone to a life on a chain, or been beaten to death in a bathroom in vancouver which happened a few months ago. he could have been left homeless to scrounge for food until the next gun toting cull began.

we have got to stop knocking at individual everyday people who are trying to live every day lives. we have got to look to the issues of where these animals come from...poverty stricken homes in the north without free spay and neuter support, backyard breeders, puppy millers, ignorant families who breed just once or ten times to experience the miracle of birth or just to make some bucks,
we need accessible low income and affordable housing that allows family pets, education and licensing of pet guardians..not of the animals themselves, affordable or free spay and neuter clinics and a complete and total ban on anybody for any reason breeding more pets.

there is no point in judging an elderly person who took in a rural area mixed breed pit bull puppy and gave him a home....except maybe to say...he was in fact a very lucky puppy to actually have a kind hearted home.