it is just so simple.. honestly we must be stupid or something.

'saints is not accepting any new animals at this time..our vet bills are too high and we need to pay them down so we can afford to care for any new animals we eventually take in.'

"oh..hey no problemo! we will continue to cover fido's vet bills!"

"really? which ones? the 50 dollar exam fee? or are you prepared to cover the couple of thousand for bloodwork, xrays of his bad hips, major dental extractions and possibly tumor removals with biopsy pathology?"

silence is a pretty good answer as the math cha-chings thru their heads.

or..

"hey man..i am prepared to make a $500 donation if you take my precious pet. you can use it for any needed vet care and to support the rest of the animals there."

well gee thanks...$500 will cover about a whole day of expenses around here..or half of a single animal's vet bill and the pet might live here for another 8-10 years. 10 yrs of food, 10 years of medical which gets grossly expensive as they continue to age, 10 years of staff wages to care for him or her, 10 years of heat and electricity, 10years of caring and sometimnes worrying...what a deal that offer is.

look folks...we don't want your money...we want your senior pet to have a good home. and we can't buy or beg or steal that for them..we just have to work our guts out and wear our hearts out caring for them for the rest of their lives in case that great home never shows....which statistically, it probably won't.

and morally..gee i just can't wait to live with myself when i start letting in animals with a cheque attached while i turn away the poor broke slobs from the pounds...hey big or little matted thing with a diseased mouth, arthritis and heart disease..sorry..no cash to pay your way?...then no getting in here....we just do cash and carry...no free rides allowed anymore.

let me make this perfectly clear...no one can afford the costs that their beloved pet brings here....there is not enough money in the entire world to pay for even one life of the poverty stricken homeless to push out of the way, so sweet and much loved fluffy can find safety here.

you want to get your animal in here?...start fundraising and pay offf our bills. when we have the resources to care for all of the animals who need us... then we will gladly take your beloved pet in.

until then....the answer is no.

we lost patches the bunny today. his back end has been getting weaker til finally he lost the full use of it. i thought maybe he had had a stroke and thrown a clot which lodged in his spine. but when the vet examined him, she said there is a parasite that they can sometimes get at birth from their moms that can stay dormant for a very long time. eventually it invades the brain and spine.
patches had all of the symptoms and there is no treatment for this. it is not contagious to the other rabbits, it is just something that he was born with.

i felt so horrible when i got home from work and went to load him into a carrier to take down to the vets. princess leia was laying flat under his chin and he was so content resting his head on her.

it was so obvious that she loved and was trying to comfort him and i had to take him away from her.
it sucked.

patches passed very peacefully and comfortably at the vets, it was a gentle and good death.

does someone want to try paying for that??

rest in peace patches, and i am so sorry for your loss leia.

the answer to getting in here is not so freaking simple...it is about something bigger than that.