nicole told me yesterday that we are down 10 dogs in the past couple of weeks....
Carol · May 2, 2011
really? let me think here....losses..prince, prudence, little mister, maude, blue...out to foster or adoption...sherlock, suzie, chica, eli..
ok, i am getting close...but who am i missing??
still..that is a lot of no longer here in the past week or two. and with only 2 coming in...theya and cherry. it is definitely feeling less crowded around here right now. i am liking it better.
but there is a price to pay for this. and i ain't paying it so much...the board is right now.
i don't think anyone really understood how many actual requests we get for admissions...and how many hard decisions need to get made. i have said no to a couple of their yes's and they have said no to a couple i would have said yes to. but..the bottom line is everyone is participating and giving it their very, very thoughtful best and this is good.
and the numbers are sliding downwards which is the common goal for all of us here and this is also good.
but i want everyone to fully appreciate what the board is going thru...it is an absolutely heartbreaking, soul bruising, time consuming and frustrating job....if my count is close..in the same 2 week time period, they have had to make sometimes life and death decisions at least a dozen or more times....and really in the grand scheme of things? it is just the tip of the iceberg.
so have you (virtually) hugged one of our board members today? they got thrown into the fire of the most painful and difficult aspect of rescue....it is not one most ever see but it is the one that many times hurts the most.
i am high five'ing all of you...thank you for taking this on..this has been a good change for all of us (especially me) at saints....but for you guys it probably big-time sucks.
don't apologise nicole..we need to talk about these things. it is great to think rescue is all warm and fuzzy and every animal in serious need will find help somewhere. but the sad reality is...most of them won't..there are far too many. if cowboy and sarcee's death opened a bunch of eyes and wounded a few souls..oh well..their lives and deaths do count for something, burying our heads in the proverbial happy sand doesn't do them any good.
as to maximum numbers...there isn't any. it is the mix that we have, it is the workload they require, it is the available space to meet their needs. and where the current vet bills stand. i could manage 100 dogs like theya but 5 phoebe's would put me right over the edge into insanity. we can afford one marvin but 100 of him would break the bank.
that is why each animal wanting to come in is looked at individually. if we had turned away theya who has fit in here so well and already brings such happineess and joy to this place..it would have been a shame...if we had turned away marvin who needed us so badly..that too would have been terrible.
it is finding the balance between the animals needs wanting in and the animals already in our care and it is looking at each one individually. an across the board NO to everyone is just as irresponsible a rescue act as an across the board to everyone yes.