Healing the spirit

It has, simply put, been one of those weeks.

My kids are healthy, my husbands working, I'm at home where I want to be, yet I'm drained. Like many others involved in animal rescue, I put my heart into the cause because I believe in it. I want to help those dogs so much less fortunate than my own who have lived their long, happy, lives never having to worry about being hungry and drinking purified water in their bowls. They've always had soft beds all over our house and been members of our family. I wonder if they realize how lucky they have been.

We pull dogs from the shelter and put them in our homes. We give them food, shelter, medicine...whatever they need to heal. Aside from the physical, we provide the greater gift of emotional healing as well. They learn that trust and devotion don't always go unnoticed...that love can be returned...and that there are few things better than someone who can find that one special spot that makes your leg twitch.

To give up a foster dog is beyond painful. You've loved them, you've watched them become comfortable in their own skin again. You send them off to families who will make them the center of their universe, give them their own Christmas stocking on the mantle each year and fill it full of bones and squeeky toys. Knowing that life is in front of them is the only way you can let them go.

Imagine our distress to be reminded that doesn't always happen.

We have a former rescue dog in a vet hospital right now. She was found barely alive in a field quite a ways from her adoptive home. They didn't care for her, feed her, or take her to a vet for regular care. She was alone and injured and left to die. She trusted us to find her that Christmas stocking home and we let her down.

I tell my kids that the only way you can learn is to make mistakes, but I wish the stakes weren't this high. Logic tells me that there are odds at play - that every placement can't be perfect, but we certainly hope the ones that aren't perfect are at least loving.

For now she's recovering and soon will return to us. I'll meet her for the first time and introduce myself as her new foster mom, though she'll have the entire rescue family rallying behind her. We'll rehabilitate her body and rejuvinate her spirit. With any luck, she'll continue to trust man, the species that caused her so much pain. Somewhere out there is her Christmas Stocking Home and this time we're going to find it because she deserves every one of those bones and squeeky toys.