08/29/2024
When you start a rescue… and this goes for any species… nobody tells you about this part.
You hear the stories about people neglecting and abusing pets… you hear the struggles of getting donations and support for what you are doing…. You hear some of the Do’s and Don’ts… the horrors, the successes, the hoarding cases, the crazy rescue scenarios, etc…
Other rescuers will tell you allllllll about all of the above, if you ask nicely.
But what don’t they tell you when you say “Hey I want to start a rescue”?
They don’t tell you about how many you will lose, How many simply don’t make it or How many YOU have to make the call to let go of. (But they should, and we WILL.)
It’s the hardest part. We won’t all admit it, other rescuers may tell you that “the people” are the worst part of rescue… and for the most part that is true.
But there is no coming back from knowingly giving a dog (or any pet) their last meal, their last pets, their last kisses, their last toy, or taking them for that “Last walk” before going to the vet… it WILL stick with you forever, even if that animal tried to unalive you the day before. You will see their faces in everything they touched around your facility.
That crate Miss Unsocialized busted out of and destroyed? You won’t scrap it… it’s still got potential right? No… but she touched it, and you had to let her go, so now the crate lives at your facility because she couldn’t.
That bowl Mr.Bitey turned into shreds of tin? You’ll keep it to use as an example for future volunteers, and then you’ll tell them his story. (No it wasn’t the bowls doing…)
That pair of rubber gloves you used to pick up a deceased pet off the side of the road that nobody else cared about? They’ll never be used again, but they’ll be around.
That ratty old collar that Miss sick Chain dog came in with? It’s going to end up in every “donation” pile around your facility for the foreseeable future or at the bottom of a laundry basket to “Haunt” you later.
Nobody tells you that you’ll have a crematory in your “favorited” contacts so that you can call them easily while balling your eyes out on the drive to their business… or how their staff will quietly hand you the office cat and pull up a seat because they know you just had a very rough day, even when you walk in wearing a professional front… or how a staffing change at their crematory will affect you on a personal level because you genuinely loved the people there… They understood without explanation and now these new people don’t even know your organizations name or history, and it no longer feels like a “Safe space” after you have to go through with letting one go, so now you have to “switch” crematories, when most people only ever use their business once or twice. (It’s a very weird thing… like losing a childhood friend or family member who’s been through your worst moments with you.)
And that cabinet that you bought after your first few loses… thinking “there’s no way I’ll fill this whole thing?!” so you chose NOT to buy the matching one that was being sold with it… that was dumb… You’ll need another one by the next year.
And when people visit your home or facility and see those mismatched cabinets, they will unknowingly ask “What’s in these cabinets?” then it will instantly click when you give them that look of “Do you really want me to say it?”…. “Oh.”
Here at FTSOBH we could tell you the story of EVERY pet we have lost in detail, if there was enough time in the day, because I do think about them all the time, and I know our volunteers do to.
In rescue you lose dogs to illness, injuries, and behavioral euthanasia. (Thankfully we do not have to euthanize for space here, but some organizations do have to.)
And Nobody really talks about it, because the general public can not comprehend the concept of what we have to work through ever day in rescue. The general public still thinks we can “Save them all”…
This wasn’t meant to be a depressing post, however we CAN NOT save them all. That is unrealistic, unhealthy, and in some cases CRUEL to those animals to keep letting them suffer, mentally, physically, emotionally, etc.
So to the other rescuers out there… please remember that there are MUCH MUCH MUCH worse fates than letting an animal go peacefully. Much worse.
And if you are a member of the general public…. PLEASE STOP SHAMING RESCUES/SHELTERS for “not doing enough” to save one that simply couldn’t/shouldn’t be saved. Instead… go volunteer or foster. Find out why we can’t save them all first hand.
Anyways…
Today is and these two over flowing cabinets in our directors home hold the remains of every pet we have lost to illness, injury, or BE, since we started our rescue in 2018… but we remember them in so many other forms daily and promise to save another in their honor ❤️
This is one of the realities in rescue 🐾
P.S. One day, when we officially own our facility, we will spread their ashes across the property. But until we know we can be here forever with them… they will remain safely in these cabinets.
