This is Episode 2. A start has been made. And the start is never where it ends or even where it’s going. But we do continue a few more episodes with Poodle.
Poodle you old dog
With your foggy eyes – for you
We remain unseen.
Poodle was fortunately not a stray when she was surrendered to a senior dog rescue, Act2 pups. Of course, there are plenty of old dogs just like Poodle who are. Tragic, heartbreaking stories.
I have spent a lot of time in animal shelters. In fact my son – Rob of Rob’s Rescues – and I visited animal shelters and advocated for shelter dogs and cats every month for 10 years from 2014 through 2024.
If you want to make a difference in a dog or cat’s life but don’t have the time, energy or inclination to actually adopt one – there are plenty of opportunities to be an animal shelter volunteer. Animal shelter volunteers typically will help to socialize cats and dogs. They will take dogs for walks on shelter property. Sometimes clean cages. Any kindness shown to a shelter animal is a gift. Anyone can do it. Even those people who say – oh I could never volunteer in an animal shelter, I would want to adopt every one of the dogs. Yes, you can and no you wouldn’t.
Back to Poodle. Poodle was surrendered at an advance age to a senior dog rescue. His owner didn’t decide he was no longer wanted. Quite the contrary, his owner was devastated to lose a dog she had loved for 12 years. But the owner had to go into assisted living and the owner’s family did not want the dog.
One is tempted to think the worst of people who surrender dogs to shelters. Here is an essay I wrote some years back on the subject.
It’s tempting to leave it at that question with all the disdain and judgement it conjures up. In our ‘holier than thou’ minds we see some callous Scrooge like character gather this bundle of tired bones and drop it on the shelter doorstep, no backward glance to meet the brown eyes, somewhat clouded, that greeted him with devotion at the door the past 16 years.
It’s quite possible. It happens all the time. Legs start to buckle. Fatty old-age benign tumors develop beneath the skin. Visions of death and dying and all the anguish, vet bills, smells and troubles that goes with old age can cloud even the most steadfast pet owner’s thoughts causing him to act with a fear based mentality.
In the end the dog is surrendered. The deed is done. Whether done with a closed heart or a broken one it doesn’t really matter. It’s also possible that the situation is just inherently tragic. The owner died. The owner went into hospice care……. A worker at the shelter told me a story this morning of a couple who spent two hours sitting on the floor of the shelter saying goodbye to their dog. The woman was very ill and would soon be hospitalized. They were staying with her parents who would not take the dog. They had tried living in their car in order to keep their dog but the woman’s medical issues made that impossible. They left the dog in the shelter as a last heart-breaking resort. A nondescript medium sized brown dog in a sea of similar misfortune. Two months later a family with three children visited the shelter and fell in love with this medium sized brown dog. This story has a happy ending. Many don’t.
The question remains, what are you going to do about it?
So a start has been made. It’s probably not very good either.
One can only hope it gets better. In life and Podcasts, I imagine.