I've just got back home from a 5 day stay over at rescue. Me, 2 teenaged DDs and our 3 large dogs squeezed into a caravan with water from a bottle piped in, a chemical loo (gross!), one "room" in the caravan, all sleeping in the same bed. Covered in mud, bitten by mozzies, picking up shit, cleaning kennels....
.... and happy as Larry!
I've played with the pup who came into rescue from the pound with mange and manky, mucky eyes, bald as a coot and shaking, who's now a bouncy, affectionate babe with a glossy coat and looking for a forever home. I've cleaned the kennel of the ex-pound staffie cross year old girl who's as gentle as a lamb, quiet and biddable and showing HUGE promise as an agility dog and family pet. I've made friends with the GSD with fantastic bloodlines who came in wary of and growly with women and who, thanks to the lady half of the rescue's owners and one very dedicated volunteer now behaves impeccably with my sex and is so well trained as to put my own well behaved GSD to shame.
I've cuddled for the millionth time the Greyhound who was nearly put to sleep in an Irish pound because he was deemed bad tempered, as have my daughters. He's been in rescue for years now and so deserves a home of his own. We've interated with the Staffies no-one wants, the Dobe X and Anatolian Shepherd X brought up with babies whose owners are emigrating and the Boxer X unwanted because his owners had twins. We've handled and hugged the young Rottie who was going to be killed in the pound on the day rescue stepped in and took her and wondered why and just HOW she ended up on the streets because she's absolutely adorable and hasn't a bad bone in her body. And we've cuddled yet again Danny, the Rott unwanted by his owner who a year ago collapsed with a spinal problem, who the rescue spent thousands on to save and who despite his pain and fear when we had to carry him to toilet when he was paraplegic never so much as flinched at us (I was there last year when he collapsed - he barely knew me but let me manhandle him when if he'd wanted to could still have put me in hospital).
ALL these dogs were once someone's pet. They were ALL once someone's puppy... and originally ALL these dogs were bought by someone like YOU, from a breeder, from a friend, from free ads (bloody silly thing to do!). Each and every dog in that rescue was originally taken on as a pup by someone who thought they could handle them and whatever illness/housetraining issue/difficulty they might encounter in the future.
Because you see, there ARE no guarantees. Not even with a pup. The owners of our rescue dogs doubtless thought there were. They probably thought, as so many people do, that it's okay, that if they have a pup they can bring him up their way and avoid the "issues" that they assume rescue dogs have. Which is bloody strange when you consider that most of the dogs rescue see are teenagers in dog years... when the novelty of puppyhood has worn off and when the difficulties set in.
And that's where WE come in. That's where those dogs are handed into rescue as "too hard to manage" or when they're thrown into the streets. And WE sort it out. Whether we rehabilitate the women-wary dog or housetrain the peeing teenaged one. whether we just take in the dog which has lived with children but who is left behind when the owners move house or move to the States... we ASSESS them all. We WORK with them. We put them in foster homes with children and cats, we teach them to piddle outside, we overcome their fears, we teach them not to behave badly... so YOU can be sure that the dog you take from rescue is safe with your children, is safe with your cat. And sure, not all of them are... and when and if that's the case, we, like so many (and admittedly not all, which is why I ask you to seek out rescue which provides the things the one I help out at does) will tell you that the pretty dog you like is not for you and suggest instead those that are.
We ask you not to come looking for a Labrador because they are great family dogs - most ARE but mine doesn't like small DC! - we ask you not to come looking for a small dog.... we ask you to look for a dog which SUITS you. You may want a Poodle and you may write off Staffies... but I can introduce you to a stroppy arse poodle which would hate your children yet I can also show you a few fantastic, gentle, affectionate Staffies which would be your DCs friend for life. You want a low-shedding, couch potatoe? Look no further than one of our Greyhounds, Lurchers or Staffies! A cuddle monster? I have the perfect Anatolian Shepherd cross for you!
These are NOT somebody else's rejects.... these were somebody's tiny puppies once. These are carefully assessed, loved, precious dogs... and we don't rehome them carelessly or lightly. We might, as we have this week, rehome on a foster contract, so that we can still step in, we ALWAYS offer full support and back up and we will ALWAYS take the dog back if you can't keep him, even if that's in 10 years time. Hell, the rescue owner has this week rehomed a young dog (until the rescue took him in he was kept in a kitchen 24/7) to a family with a little boy, on a foster contract so with all food and any vet bills paid by rescue, until the owners are sure that it will all work out. They have the 24/7 support of a rescue volunteer and we will support and take him back if need be even if and when the family adopt him permanently. This is the rescue whose owner has just promised to pay the vet bills of the epilectic dog belonging to an MNer although he is nothing to do with them and is hundreds of miles away.
We CARE... and we are far from the only rescue like that. All this talk of all rescue dogs being unassessed and/or from unknown backgrounds is bollocks! Sure, some are... and we assess them AND you before even considering you as potential owners, for YOUR sake as well as the dogs and we would NEVER rehome a dog to you if he wasn't suitable. And, so many more HAVE got histories and backgrounds, like the Dobe X and Anatolian X who were brought up with newborns in the home and whose only problem is that the family are moving to the USA...and STILL we assess them before suggestiing them to families seeking to offer them a home.
Thank you for getting this far from a shit and mud covered, filthy, glad to be home with a shower and proper loo, happy as Larry to have been privilidged enough to have spent the past 5 days with those dogs and in the company of a very special rescue owner....
Val. :)