i don't want to make anyone paranoid but...

there are politics involved in rescue. i don't just mean the he said/she said, i don't like him or her kind. i also mean the politically incorrect, the getting into deep shit, ooops...just landed in an unfriendly rescue minefield kind.

you absolutely have to tread softly around certain things. now i know i don't really look like i tread all that softly, but trust me i do. it is not always just about the animals or doing right and not wrong..it is about avoiding treading on toes...not stepping out of bounds, not accidently offending where no offence was intended at all. and sometimes it IS about doing all of that because you feel for whatever reason that this time you have to.

most of you guys are used to how i do things at saints..most of you guys really love saints. but..just because i do it or we do it..just because you love us, just because i said it or already did it... doesn't mean it is going to go over with someone else all that great.

i am somewhat protected because i have been around a long time, i have a ton of rescue political experience, can handle some of the less fun shit AND i have a blog and am not afraid to use it.

it is really important too that folks don't speak for me..i can and will speak for myself if there is a need. you are free to speak your opinions, share your views, offer suggestions and advice...you can even be politically incorrect if you like. and you can learn like i did when to stomp ahead or when to walk soft in the school of hard knocks. but you are in a whole different league if you put yourself in the ring with me because you don't know where the rescue quicksand surrounding me is and i do.

there are a lot of different folks who read this blog. some are surrendering families who do not want to read that someone thinks they are a loser. there are other rescues here who may or may not like me or each other. there are occasionally prickly people who think a particular post or a comment may be directed towards them when maybe it isn't. there are folks i have taken a whack at or have taken a good whack at me. there are people i have refused to adopt to, removed a foster from, fired as a staff person or volunteer, forgotten to answer an email from or neglected to smile at 2 weeks ago. some read the blog to see if i am pointing a finger their way..some read it out of curosity to see what we are up to now, some want to know how the animals are doing, some want to see if my insanity or how much i suck at rescue is showing its full face yet. and some just like a good, long rescue story that just doesn't ever end.

whatever..i get it. i know the risks when i post. it is one thing to walk into the line of fire knowing full well with bullet proof vest on under my clothes. it is totally another to innocently step into an unseen war zone..people can get hurt by accident or on purpose.

so as a learning tool..i will give a concrete example. and please no one take offence by this, it is meant for learning purposes only. and just so everyone knows..no one has gotten upset over this..i am just using it as an example of what might have caused offence to someone in similar circumstances.

so marta posted and kindly offerrred to contact VRR about the bunny. she didn't know that lisa who also offerred to help him was from SARS. neither of them knew that i had already suggested rescue to the family with the bunny and they do not want to go that route which is totally fine with me. it would have been poor rescue manners to push the family into going thru rescue when they are not ready. it also would have been poor rescue manners to ignore SARS offer of help and go to VRR. it would have been poor rescue manners to dump another bunny on VRR when there were already two other options available for this bunny so why bother them?

i am well aware of the other rescues out there..i pretty much know who does what and how. my personal pilosophy is..i rarely ask other rescues to take animals in. i may ask for cross posting, or referrals if they have any..i may occasionally ask for advice. i may point people in the direction of a rescue web search to seek help from some unnamed but there for them to find source. but i don't give out other rescue's numbers or emails to the general public so they can get stuck with an animal that i don't want or can't take in. it bugs me (a certain rescue is horrible for giving out my personal cell number for every cat they hear about over 6.) anyway..i don't like it so i don't do it to others. and most of the folks at saints, probably don't know this is my comfort zone on how i operate. so on top of everything else that might not fly...asking me to involve another rescue is a moot point. i say yes or no or maybe for saints only. i don't go seeking other solutions out there...that is not my job or my mandate..my job is saints.

and you have to understand that there are other reasons for this too...many years ago...EVERYONE loved Big Dog Rescue, until they found out they were starving the dogs. for awhile, some folks liked and supported a rescue that was brokering small dogs up from LA and flipping them quickly for cash, others supported a rescue that dressed up like animal control officers and stole well cared for family pets from their back yards. there are cat rescues out there with 300 sick and stressed cats. and there are dog rescues who euth for what i consider to be very minor issues but which they think are pretty damn big.
to each his own i suppose..but i would not chose to be responsible for sending any animals to somewhere i don't agree with or where they might not receive the proper care, so i don't.

anyway..the point of this very long post is...there may be things in the background, things on the sidelines, things hidden behind or underneath other things. not everything is just as simple as what you see on the surface of things.

we all like to think that saints is the end all and be all of the rescue world..but we are just a small corner. it is ok to stumble occasionally around here cuz we really don't care, none of us all are that swift all the time on our feet. but it behooves us to use a bit of caution when expanding our involvement in rescue outside our gates. it is a much bigger and wider and more complex world out there.

if you would like to learn more about this...join the brindleweb facebook rescue page. you will get a chance to see and learn from others out there cuz we live in a bubble here and at this stage in my rescue life... i quite like that. but this isn't the best place to learn about the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the ever changing politically correct scene of the rest of the rescue world.