www.ShannonLHill.com

I’m always astonished when people comment on “how much” I do for animals. I do what I can, and frankly, in comparison to what some of my friends do, it isn’t very much.

There’s a lot of heartbreak in animal welfare. Just this week, two different friends had to euthanize foster dogs who were ill or injured beyond repair. One of these friends immediately took home a new foster – a cat this time – that no one even knew was pregnant. The cat promptly went into premature labor and delivered 5 nonviable kittens – still more heartbreak. Another friend took home a critically ill puppy, knowing that the little one would probably die, but wanting to give him a chance. I myself had a very bad day after I witnessed a cat’s dying autonomic twitches after being hit by a car.

I have more stories like these than I can count. And these are the stores that make people in the “outside world” ask me and other volunteers how we can do this. Our collective reply: How can we not?

 The beautiful thing about animal welfare is that we get to see a lot of good, too. I had two personal triumphs this week.

First, a woman who lost her home brought her crippled older dog into the shelter and asked them to help. She was in the process of obtaining new housing, but needed a safe place for her old dog in the meanwhile. The shelter put out a plea for a short term foster in which the dog could rest and recover from a knee injury.

All I did was make a phone call to my vet, who immediately offered to board the old fellow for free until his human had a safe place for him again. So Buddy is resting in luxurious safety at the vet’s office, and his person won’t have to lose her best friend along with her home. Such minimal effort for such a great result.

Second, when John and I were at the shelter on Sunday, I was on my way out the door to the exercise area with two dogs when I saw a nice family – 4 little kids and their parents – heading toward the adoption rooms. One of the dogs with me was Tootie, a sweet, quiet, well behaved girl with a big canine smile. And it just struck me that she might be the dog for them. So I stopped and introduced her to them.

They fell in love with her on the spot and went out to the dog park play area with me to get acquainted with her. They put her leash in the hands of a very small girl, and Tootie, bless her, actually slowed her pace to match the child’s. She was so calm and careful not to topple or pull on these little kids. Even their two year old took her leash and walked her, and she walked oh so slowly beside him, instinctively adjusting her stride to the little person’s wobbly steps. The match was made, and Tootie the Babysitter Dog went home with her new family. Made my week.

So if you love animals but don’t think you can “handle” working in animal welfare…yeah, you can. Some things are tough, but the rewards are infinite. You do what you can. You can foster, collect donations of food, towels, and money, bathe dogs at the shelter, walk and photograph dogs at the shelter, do laundry at the shelter (you wouldn’t believe how many loads of towels they go through!), help with adoption events, help educate the public about spaying and neutering…there are so many possibilities, so many ways to help.

Stop making excuses and start making a difference. And when you have your first animal welfare triumph – that first moment when you know you made a difference – email me, and it might even find its way into a blog column.