doing my part...

i am quite proud to say that i have not yet missed a single voting day in the petfinder challenge...since we are still in first place this time around, it just goes to show you that my little votes count!

i got up early (yuck..5;30 on a day off???) so i can take back that chart. i really pisses me off when i do something stupid that means i waste extra sleeping time fixing it...but that's what happens when you have a brain fart.

i want to say something about the spca cuz sometimes all folks ever hear are complaints. for years i have worked closely with chilliwack and maple ridge and the cruelty dept but also more indirectly with many of the others. chilliwack kindly work as our gatekeeper to keep us from getting overwhelmed. maple ridge was my long time home town shelter so i know most of their staff really well...and the cruelty dept's work is always close to my heart..just because of their most difficult and heart breaking job. but we have also worked with surrey quite a bit, and burnaby over the years, abbotsford, vancouver, and the island shelters have also occasionally sent animals here.
and i am moved by the lengths that they sometimes go to find a safe spot for some very real unadoptables. just like private rescue..they get really attached to the animals in their care..weeks or months later a staff or volunteer member will pop me an email or call me to check on someone that they cared about, just to see how they are now.

yesterday it was steph, who worked with odie's family over many months to help meet his needs...she is popping out this weekend to see him. she laughed (and apologised) when i told her her he was a little freaking busy body dick head! but you could tell even over the phone that she was glad that little mr rabble rouser was happy, having fun and well loved.
look at the actual time and effort and travel angie, ( the cruelty officer who seized them) put in to get wilbur and charlotte back from the island for us when i picked the wrong home for them.
staff and volunteers from many of the shelters visit saints to see their friends again...they just want to see how they are doing, where they are living...and i am sure they need to know too, that they were responsibly right in sending them here.
plus, they all go out of their way to accomondate my crazy rescue schedule. they deliver to here, or they arrange transfers between shelters so pick ups are easier for me. they hold them for days or occasionally a few weeks til i can actually squeeze someone new in here.

colby the new guy coming in today was transferred from surrey to chilliwack on tuesday until my day off to get him, which is today. this works out much better for me because it is difficult to be here to help wih new animal intakes and adjustments during my actual working week. sometimes, as in max..an old crippled shepX (with us as a possible back up plan) they have kept him for months as an office dog until his miraculous home finally came.

you know..i do my part as much as i can to help a wrecked animal in need. and years of experience in working with the spca..a lot..have showed me that they too do their part the best that they can to help the very same animals. there are so many animals here alive and (sort of )well because they tried to find them another option since adoption just was not a realistic plan.

in private rescue, we sometimes think we are the only ones with the right answers, we are the only ones who truly care and this is so untrue. private rescue is just another cog in the big caring wheel going around and around trying to help helpless animals.

and today, it is colby who was helped by the whole of the big wheel...we all did our parts for him.