beware

there reaches a point in rescue where the dye is cast....our work stands on its own..for good or bad.
most of us can't see this...we have a blind spot between intention and result.
and that is our weakness.

i guess the same is true with life in general.

i had a call last week about an uncontrolled blind diabetic who was peeing in the house. the family could not afford the cost of a vet visit and bloodwork and had booked a euthanization instead.
i called one of our clinics to price out the difference in cost...it was about $30 cheaper to euthanize. this is maybe not a fair comparison because diabetics do have continuing ongoing monthly costs but luckily this family had second thoughts and decided to keep the dog and work with him a bit more.

the thing is tho..we can spin our intentions to the right or the left depending on what we want to achieve in terms of results...so i can believe a dog might lose his life over 30 bucks..or maybe he might lose his life because over time his life could continue to accumulate costs of many hundreds (?thousands?) of dollars more.

to me it doesn't really matter one way or another because i am not in a financial position to have to chose between cost and care. i have the freedom here to choose between quality of life and available medical care.

there are times i judge the past owners of our animals harshly for sure..it bugs me when someone drives in with a $40,000 vehicle and dumps their obviously in pain animal who hasn't had any vet care. but i am less likely to judge too harshly the folks who are living on a shoe string that is about to snap because their animal requires some expensive care.
there are many people who could have afforded miley's $12,000 bill...but there are even more many families who would have trouble putting food on the table with a $120 vet bill.

i think ultimately our job is not to judge others but to be willing to judge ourselves.
because we are the "rescue"...we are the ones that promise the animals and the public that we help animals.
our intentions must strive to match our results.

the easy part for us with miley is mostly done...we have finished her needed surgeries, paid most of her bills, she is starting her physio/rehab soon.
but we are not done yet...next we have to find the right family for her. one that has the resources to provide for her care, one that has the commitment to treasuring her as a family member...forever.

it's scary, this inability to see into the future. it's frightening that despite our best efforts and very careful diligence, predicted futures can change. it's terrifying in rescue that we are human and can sometimes make mistakes.
but this is why our contract states...all no longer wanted/ or unable to keep animals must come back to saints.
that is how we try to ensure our intentions match the results...once a saint, always a saint and every single one of almost a thousand..can always come home in a heart beat.

beware the rescue who can't or won't do that...or even worse..the ones that say they do but don't.