Rescue Journal

the magic cup.

Carol  ·  Jan. 26, 2016

578 people read the cute bif and pink story and 108 folks read the story below with the word difficult in the title.
and i get that we like happy animal stories better than we like complaining human stories but i need to point out that rescue isn't about happy.
this is important because a lot of new rescues are popping up looking for the happy factor. so many believe if they bring in hundreds of out of country dogs they can happily make some money, happily earn some angel wings, happily become a big fish in a tiny pond, happily find all kinds of things.

many of the actual real life endings for the poorly "rescued" imported animals are actually not happy. and eventually the happy seekers find out something important..rescue is not happy, rescue brings a ton of unexpected headaches..like eventual accountability.

these past weeks have been hard on me..between saints and my fulltime paid job, i am working 7 days a week. the shop that i killed myself to clean up on my holidays is falling apart big time already. i am currently sick and not feeling good but i still worked my full shift yesterday, talked to the vets about 8 animals, picked up some barn feed, renewed the van insurence, set up a saints business planning meeting, getting reports from the staff on their animals and what they were up to today, printing off and sorting thru the first dozen resumes because we are hiring again, and then spending the night avoiding the gross face lickers, soothing, cajoling, scolding, letting in and out, mopping up pee and poop and waking up at 5 am with a grand total of about 3 hours of combined sleep so i can do it all over again.

and here's the thing..i am not asking anyone to feel sorry for me..i do this because i truly can.
but i ain't accumulating a bunch of happy time and this is totally fine.

except...it bugs me when rescue is viewed as some kind of pretty, feel good. warm and fuzzy, heroic merry go ride when the reality is, its just plain day in and day out hard work.
yes the turkeys are cute, and blanka is adorably sweet. yes we have many happy, happy tales behind us like fixing and finding homes for lovely little dogs with 2 broken legs.

but rescue needs the people who can suck up the shit, get down and dirty and make it thru to the goal of really rescuing animals..not looking to find money or fame in happy.

if i win the lottery, i will be happy. until then i just want to get thru each day whatever it brings with some moral integrity. i haven't grabbed these sweet, innocent and vulnerable animals and brought them here to fill me up.

my cup has been empty for years.

and that's what makes it magic, cuz i am still fucking here.

Comments

Maggie

Hi, another "read every post" person. But I do it on the weekends, I get up, make coffee and sit at the computer and catch up. I go to the blog and find the last one I read and just read "up" and get the week's Saint's updates. Better than the newspaper ;)

Sheryl

I wonder if the counter only counts the most recent post. So if people only check the blog every few days, while they probably scroll down to read them all, the counter only counts the most recent one as read.

(I hope the way I worded that makes sense!)

Elisabeth

I am one of those 'younger, busier people' Linda refers to, but I still read all your blogs whether happy or sad. Life has lots of happy and sad in it daily for most people, so I don't think it would make any sense or be 'real' if you only posted the 'happy' ones. There are many reasons I believe in SAINTS and am emotionally invested (and a financial contributor). Carol, you have summarized many of them in recent blogs. Your blogs continue to provide daily insight into your reality for the rest of us. Please don't stop writing the tough stories or your insights.

Linda

I also read the blogs whether happy or sad, but then I'm retired. I can see younger, busier people with spouses, kids, job pressures, elderly parents to check on, wanting a happy story at the end of the day to balance out their lives. I was once there too.

Barb Hodges

I also read every post and appreciate you sharing the reality you face day in and day out. Sometimes life just isn't pretty. Sad but true and these stories need to be told too.

Brenda

Oh, and by the way, I read every blog....always interested to hear what you have to say...and look forward to it...the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Brenda

I'm glad you're "still here with your empty cup" Carol.. (makes me think of Oliver Twist) - and thanks always for the reality check.....I really don't know how you do it day in and day out...truly, I don't....but thanks for somehow continuing to do it with integrity and love. Maybe your cup is always empty from continuing to fill up the cups of others?

Cathy

Just wondering why the shop always seems to be a problem. I guess a bit of organization and checklists for everyone would make things run a bit more smoothly. Hopefully a better system can be worked out so that Carol doesn't spend so much time on it. A place for everything and everything in its place.