there are times in rescue when you absolutely just have to win. you don't back down, you don't throw up you hands, you don't give up for any reason...ever.
you fight these fights to the very end because if you don't someone is going to get unfairly and unnecessarily hurt.
these would be the fights like for jerry...caving to bullying would have sent jerry back into neglect and uncertainty....back into emotional and physical pain... that wasn't ever going to happen to him again.
or those politically nasty, bordering on lunacy fights where the wellbeing of all of saints is threatened...you don't walk away and passively let toxic waste just spread..if saints goes down...all of the animals here will get hurt. and then there are fights for who is boss..like with phoebe..there is no way, that red whirling maniac is ever going to win...letting her be the big boss here is just totally insane.
but there are fights that just shouldn't happen because the fall out isn't worth the win. these would be the fights when i on purpose back off....i remember taking on the fight to save betsy's life too far...i lost anyway but betsy suffered to win. i am not sure yet about herman, i am waiting for the post mortem report to tell me if i fought too little or too much for him.
pops we are struggling with...do we keep fighting or do we stop and call it quits? but the thoughts surrounding pops are so big, so tangled, so interconnected...he is a whole giant post to write it all out..maybe i will do that later.
there are times i say just stop, now...... because the animal is getting too upset and it is not worth pushing them over the edge to get something done. and there are other times when i make us all follow thru no matter what cuz if we don't the loss will actually hurt them more...this would be like the fight to save yoshi's eye. which by the way i had a good look at last night and i think while it it is healing well...has actually lost the vision now anyway. i will get him back into the vets again...if he is blind in that last eye and the ulcer ever comes back again...we might as well take it out and be done with this fight with him forever.
rescue is full of fights every day...some make total sense...some make no sense at all. some fights are against unnecessary death, some are about the animals wellbeing or safety. some are about people or ideals or beliefs, some are about just trying to survive.
there are so many battles to be fought in rescue..you can find one somewhere every day. the trick is to engage in only the battles that need to be won and to let the other side win "the ok to lose" once in awhile...cuz not all battles should be fought, not all battles can be or need to be or should be won..i just have a hard time sometimes differentiating between the two.
sigh...thinking hard about our pops today.
let Pops tell you what he wants to do