Major Rant not about books

OK, I know we are a blog about romance books, but I am going to get off topic because of something that happened to me last night. A year ago I started to volunteer for a Labrador rescue service. I have really enjoyed this. I love it when I find a forever home for a loving Lab. What can I say, I love Labs! When I first started doing this I thought I would only be pre-screening people who wanted a dog. We have a list of questions and certain things we look for to make sure you are going to be a good fit for the dog and the dog a good fit for you. I have gotten people upset with me when I turn them down, but we have been doing this for 25 years and have placed close to 400 labs last year. So we must be doing something right. I come to find out that I would also be screening dogs that people need to get rid of. This part of the job has some pros and cons, one of the cons I am going to tell you about.

I got a call at 3:30 AM today from a girl in tears about her parents dog. I guess this dog has some kind of skin issues that have gone way beyond bad. She is calling me at 3:30 to see if I could help her. I told her she needed to get the dog to the emergency animal clinic ASAP. This dog was bleeding and in tons of pain. She had said she had called them and they couldn't help her because she couldn't pay. They let the dog suffer because she couldn't pay. She didn't know what to do and wanted to know if I could help her. Well, at 3:30 AM there was not much I could do. I told her if she couldn't get the dog into the hospital, she needed to get the poor animal to Animal Care and see if they could help her. Even if the dog had to be put down, it would be better then what it was going through. When we hung up she said she would follow up with them in the morning.

She called me back at a more normal hour this morning and thanked me for taking the time to talk with her when she needed someone to talk to. She was going to take the dog to Animal Care today and have it put down. After talking with her parents she has come to the conclusion that her parents NEVER TOOK THIS DOG TO THE VET!! What is with these people??? All I had was visons of was this poor dog last night and I could not get back to sleep. I really wanted to hurt these people, and felt very sorry for the daughter who was stuck in a very hard place, and she lived out of town.

My rant is after doing this for a few months I still can't get over how someone can just get rid of their dog because they don't want it anymore, or how someone could let a dog get as sick as this poor dog where the best result is to put it down. How an Emergency Animal Clinic could say no to a dog that needs help?

I'm glad that even though it was 3:30, I was of some help to this poor girl. I am glad that I am doing this for the dogs, because they really need the help. And I still can shoot the owners of the dog!! I know that if she hadn't called me back to say she was taking the dog in, I was going to call Animal Control with the phone number so they could follow up.

Thank you for letting me get this off my chest!!! And just to let you all know the photo s of my two rescued friends. Can't you tell that they have it made!!

Debra, I'm glad you did what you could do to help. I'm a animal lover and I hate to read stories like this. Dani Debra, bless you for coming to the aid of this poor girl and the dog. I work with a Golden Retriever rescue group, and it truly is heartbreaking to see how some people treat their pets. It makes one wonder how they treat the humans they interact with. Unfortunately, the Emergency Vet does not have to treat an animal unless someone can guarantee payment. The services they provide for an animal cost about the same as when you or I go see the doctor. A dog in this bad of shape could cost thousands. Usually if a rescue group will agree to pay for the services, which they often will, the vet will go ahead and treat the animal. Here the story often makes it to the local papers and press, so donations come in for the treatment of the animal. Our rescue group is lucky in that we have had some huge media cases that have brought in thousands of dollars, so if there is a chance the dog will make it, they will guarantee payment. The dog has to be surrendered to them, and can not go back to the owner. The other sad part of this story is that some people won't surrender the dog. Animal control can take it, the owners can be arrested and fined, but this process doesn't happen without involving the police with animal control. Nothing ever works as quickly as we would like it to, and that does make it hard to work with rescues. Dogs have a very short memory span, so if they can heal and go to a new home they will forget about the past. That's what I have to do (put it in the past) in order to get beyond the hurt humans have caused the pet. My Annie came from a huge puppy mill and I can't think about it or it will do me in. She's a happy girl with a new least on life now!