"I Love Rescue!"

Welcome to my new blogsite, “I Love Rescue!” 

I was very tempted to call it ‘I Heart Rescue’ but since everyone knows my heart rests with the rescued dog or cat whose number has been called for that long, one-way walk down a windowless corridor leading to the end of their life, I figured you’d know it was more than heart….it’s more like TOTAL, DEEP LOVE!

I’m a life-long lover of animals…mostly dogs, although I have been known to love on more than one kitty in my time….but a fairly new lover of the heartbreaking and heart-rewarding work called “rescue”.

A few months ago, I was led to a wonderful organization called “Angels Among Us Pet Rescue” through a friend’s reposting of their Facebook page onto my own wall on Facebook.  Something about this organization hit my heart and rang ‘true’ in my spirit.  Their philosophy sounded exactly the way I felt about my two precious dogs who came to me through rescue – one from a person who rescued my “Georgia” as a puppy, and one from an Atlanta-based rescue organization whose name is “Bentley”.  With a cautious heart and mind, I “liked” their page, and began to see what they were all about.  And what I “saw” both astonished and warmed my heart and soul beyond expectation…and I’ve never looked back since my 1st day in rescue. 

It has been both rewarding beyond measure, and heartbreaking beyond comprehension.  Just as we do with our two-legged family and friends, we grieve when things go awry, when one of them passes away, when one of them is gravely ill. 

I’ve had the joy of walking into one of our adoption events just as a precious boxer named “Patrick” was being adopted by a wonderful gentleman who worked for ABC and was scouting locations when he came upon our adoption and INSTANTLY fell in love with Patrick!  The coolest part?  Patrick also fell instantly in love with him! 

I’ve known a night of intense panic and worry over seeing a new mother and her five puppies only a day old who had been dumped on a dirty, cold, chipped concrete floor in a rural shelter with nothing whatsoever beneath them except that cold, hard floor – only to feel sheer joy and elation over that Mom and her babies being “rescued” the next day, brought into the arms and homes of loving fosters, then seeing those babies grow up and be adopted by loving families and homes where they will never know anything but love and warmth and safety.

I’ve also watched the agony of a rescued puppy – in fact, 8 of them - become deathly ill with the parvo virus, worrying each hour if all of them would make it – begging people to donate to pay for their very high vet bills, mounting by the hour.  Watching the clock along with the Facebook page, anxiously awaiting good news….only to be devastated by the sadness of reading, “one of our precious pups has passed away this morning but the rest are still clinging to life”.  Seeing photos of them flashing through my mind during the day, taking time to slip away in a quiet place to offer my humble prayers to God for their healing and to mourn the little one who fought so hard but had made his trip to the rainbow bridge, where my own sweet Georgia had gone two years earlier.

The ”heart” of rescue is not in how many hours it takes, it isn’t in how many times we must ask and even beg for money to cover the enormous costs of medical procedures and vetting, nor is it in the hours and days and months spent trying to find just the right homes for these precious souls. 

The heart of rescue lies simply in the act of changing an animal’s fate or direction.  When a dog is “rescued” just moments from being put to sleep or, worse, put to death in a vile “heartstick” shelter, he/she KNOWS they have been saved!  And when they wrap you up in their paws, kissing you non-stop, and look at you with soulful eyes that show how deep their pain really goes, then the “heart” of a rescuer KNOWS that EVERYTHING – EVERY MOMENT – EVERY DOLLAR – EVERY TEAR – EVERY EFFORT was, indeed worth it! 

The moment of “reward” for the rescuer comes when we finally see that rescued dog or cat surrounded by the arms and heart of the person or family who has fallen as much in love with them as we did….and the loving eyes of that precious rescued soul look back  at you, as if to say with those soulful orbs of emotion: “Thank you for everything….I’m home now…thank you!”.  That is the moment of payoff for the heart of rescue.

I hope you’ll drop by often, and please feel free to share the blog, comment below, or make suggestions on what you’d like for me to write about or post.  Thank you, and please do remember to spay or neuter your pets – also, find an organization whose true heart is rescue, and help them make this a better world for all animals in need of a good home.

“Rescue ONE until there are NONE”