Sometimes it seems like the people mistreating animals far outnumber the folks working toward keeping animals safe, healthy, and happy. And sometimes it seems like the task of animal rescue is overwhelmingly huge, and doubt that it can be done begins to creep in, just a little. But then something happens that makes you realize that while sometimes it takes a village to rescue one animal, there IS a village out there willing and able to make it happen.
Monday was one of those “it takes a village” days. Around 3:30 in the afternoon I received an email from the no-kill shelter asking if I could pick up a dog, named Bear, from a local vet to bring to the shelter. There wasn’t much information about the dog at the time, just that he needed a place to go, and a spot had finally opened up with the shelter.
Bear turned out to be an eleven month old lab mix. His first owners intended to take him to the county (kill) shelter because he jumped on them and is terrible about walking on the leash. I’m just going to take a minute to go off on a side rant here: those are 100 percent fixable problems AND they’re usually caused by the owners not taking the time to teach the dog proper behavior. Furthermore, an eleven month old dog is high energy. They jump and they pull. You just have to accept high energy as part of having a young dog. You have to exercise the dog and teach them to walk on the leash and not to jump on you. It takes time and patience, but it can easily be done. End rant.
Someone else took Bear in, temporarily, just to keep him out of the kill shelter and contacted the vet about trying to find a home for him. The vet contacted the no-kill shelter and agreed to keep Bear until a spot opened up for him, which ended up being a little over two weeks. Bear’s place in the no-kill shelter opened up on Monday.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me since I left straight from work, so I have no pictures of Bear. I promise he was adorable! He was super sweet, too. He rode in the car well, and seemed to want to please once he figured out what was expected of him. He tried to get in the front seat at first, but after a few times of firmly telling him to stay in the backseat he caught on, and was a perfect gentleman for most of the car ride.
Bear will most likely be placed in a foster home, at least for a while, so that he can be taught proper leash behavior and not to jump on people when he’s excited. And the shelter will work hard to find the right family for him. So, yes, it’s taking a village to save Bear, but there IS a village committed to saving Bear and other pets like him.
