I just wrote a check to cover the dogs in boarding and had two fixed last week. This pretty much bottomed out Reunion Rescue's financial standing. It's really hard to see the dogs' faces that I cannot help. I can and do write articles about the ones about to be euthanized, but there are so many. We are living in an insane time.
I get so overwhelmed as do others in rescue work. It certainly draws a line between those of us doing the work and those of us doing the 'educating'. Whenever I hear of a supposed pit bull rescue group who specializes in 'education' and 'outreach', I want to throw up. Everything I learned about pit bulls, I pretty much learned from the dogs. That is how you learn. You go to the shelter and you pull a dang dog. Period.
You don't learn from reading a blog or a magazine. It's nice that there are so many people writing about the dogs, but have they checked the shelters lately? The shelters are FULL of dogs waiting to die. Please, rescues and outreachers, pull some dang dogs.
When things get a little too depressing, I am lucky to be surrounded by healthy happy animals like Del.
Del taking a bath puts things into perspective and me back in a calmer happier frame of mind.
Sometimes we can't change the entire world, but we can change our own little world. Del was eleven when he came to live with us.
He was a purchased bird when a baby like so many. Del is a caique and the lady bought him for her daughter. Caiques are unusual birds, do not speak and not the pet one would first consider for a child.
Del bit the little girl and the lady took him to the pound.
He wound up with Mickaboo Rescue, a wonderful exotic bird rescue in northern California. He was adopted by a wonderful lady who had Del for a number of years and relocated in Texas. I got a call from Mickaboo about Del a few years ago. The lady had lost her home and her marriage was dissolving. She'd contacted Mickaboo about Del.
Mickaboo had transported a white parakeet to me from San Francisco a while back. That bird, Alamo, had wound up at San Francisco Animal Care and Control, a high kill shelter which caters to that affluent real estate. When Mickaboo retrieved Alamo, she weighed only 2 grams and was covered in scaly mites.
They remembered me and contacted me about Del. One thing led to another and Del came to live with us. He tolerates me, but loves Scott. He will let Scott do anything to him. Before we got him, Allison of Australia did an animal communication on Del and he was scared. He'd been let down so many times and was unsure about moving here with us. He was willing to give it a try.
"it was a beautiful day, sun beat down...
I had the radio on, I was drivin...
trees went by, me and Del were singing
little Runaway..I was flyin"
Allison's communication mentioned Del likes lots of fresh fruit. That was certainly true. Sometimes, I think Del would rather eat fruit than the homemade mash I serve the birds twice a day with organic fresh seeds, nuts, veggies and fruits along with homegrown sprouts and other goodies. Once, I tried to mix his fruit into the mash and he went on a hunger strike for a minute.
It makes me happy to try and make Del and the others happy. Like I said, I can't save the world, although for $16,000 I raised last year, I was able to save a lot. When I see the figures of some of these big shot rescues in the 6, 7 and 8 digits, I have to wonder where are the animals they are saving? You sure don't see their names in the daily multitudes of emails and Facebook posts for animals dying across the nation in shelters.
Just my two cents.
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