I can’t believe the animals I have seen outside. We are firm believers in taking care of your pets or not having them at all. Now if you have a Great Pyrenees or Husky this post may not be for you.
Randy was driving to work this morning and saw a lab hunkered down along the side of the road. He was nearly an hour away from home and called me not knowing what to do. Long story short he didn’t turn around to try to capture the dog. There was a house nearby, we already have 3 dogs (2 are rescues) and 11 cats (10 of them recent rescues), and he really needed to get to work and couldn’t afford the repercussions of being late. At what point do we make ourselves stop? At what point do we say enough is enough? We don’t know if we will ever get to that point. Randy is just sick now. He’s afraid he will see the dog hit along the side of the highway on his way home. Our his owners sick about their missing dog? What was he doing out on a night where windchills were in the negatives? Along a busy highway?
Randy told me if he sees it this afternoon on his way home there is no question whether or not he will stop. He said is stomach just hurt when he saw the dog there along the side of the road. I know exactly how he felt. Awhile back I saw four dogs devouring roadkill along the side of the highway on the way home. I cried all the way home. How can people do this? Toss them out along the side of the road to fend for themselves? I will never know, thank goodness. I look at Thai, our third rescue, and wonder how someone could look into his eyes and drive away as he sits along the side of a road somewhere. Or how someone could dump Koal, our second rescue, and his brother at 12 weeks old along the side of a paved road under a broke down car. I don’t get it and pray I never do.
I don’t know if there will ever be a stopping point for us. I don’t know if there can be. On rare occassions like this where we do pass up the opportunity to help a stray it eats at us just like it is eating at Randy now. The initial vetrinarian expenses, the risk to our other animals at home, food, the fact that we keep our dogs inside (four dogs in the house?), and continued vetrinary and preventative care. These are all things that race through our minds when we debate on if we can take on yet another animal. Being in the midst of an adoption and the expenses involved there doesn’t help matters. So for now we are still holding steady at three fur balls in our home, but who knows.
If we hadn’t stopped along the way we would have missed out on some of the sweetest moments in our life:
Thai
Randy and Thai snuggling
Ash has a licking fetish when it comes to Randy
Sometimes enough is enough
Lots of snuggling and sometimes a little jealousy
They are sneaky too
Cat naps
Playtime
Where Ash goes to hide when I’m vacuuming
Koal getting cozy
Thai with his bear
They are not perfect…never have been…probably never will be. They have went to the bathroom on the floor, puked on the floor, chewed up things that mattered, and chewed up things that didn’t matter. They bark, they bite, they get on your furniture, they sneak into your bed, they rub their wet noses on your clean pants, and leave dog hair on your black sweater. They’ve killed cats, injured sheep, and countless other critters around our farm. We’ve heard the trite, “I’d get rid of ’em!” “I’d shoot ’em!” more than we care to acknowledge. But we don’t “get rid of ’em” and we don’t “shoot ’em.” We patch things up. We build better fence. We order training collars and work on training and obedience. Most importantly, we give them attention, so they don’t feel the need to do bad things to get attention or act hyper and crazy because they don’t get out of their pen for more than a few minutes a week (if they are lucky).
They are our’s…for better or worse…’til death do us part.
Take care of your pets in the cold winter days ahead. Bring them inside or into your garage with a dog house or bed to keep them off the cold concrete. Keep them somewhere they aren’t exposed to the elements. Love them and treat them well. They are a member of your family and your responsibility now.
Have a wonderful day and stay warm!
A Simple Prairie Life 