July 28th, 2009
Since we get up to 30 calls a day these days (and that includes many sad stories) it’s always great to run though a day and know how many animals are around and feeling better and out of pain thanks to our efforts. That’s what keeps us going, so I thought I’d share with you some of the happy endings we’ve encountered.
We helped a very frightened woman whose dog had run into a car (yep, the opposite of what you usually hear) get help for her pet.. The dog was badly injured, the woman was on disability and social security, and very scared she would have to put her pet down since she had no money for a vet. Her dog is healing and will be fine. There were two episodes of puppies with Parvo. The earlier we can get these very ill dogs to the vet, the better their chances. We helped sick kittens today and a 13-year-old dog who was having a great deal of effort moving, as well as a golden puppy who had gotten his paw stuck in the stairs and was in a lot of pain. All these animals got taken care of and are feeling better. And of course their owners are just as relieved as their pets. It was Gandhi who said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Thank you to all who stop by, and to all who support us so we can continue helping.
Tags: animals
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July 21st, 2009
It was a while back that I went to our SAF (Shakespeare Animal Fund) mailbox and found a handwritten note in a very old scrawl, accompanied with a $5 bill. As I read the note I discovered the person had sent us a $5 bill because he (at least I feel like it was a “he”) said he had $20 to last two weeks, and no vet would see his ill cat over the weekend without payment. He said he tried everything, and when no one would see his cat, it died Sunday night. His $5 came with a note, God bless you for what you do.
What we do is offer hope to all those people like him, with small amounts of money but big amounts of love for their animals. As the economy remains a challenge we are getting up to 30 calls a day, all needing help in some way.
What we feel so good about is the number we can help. We are giving pet food out at our office (143 Keystone) so those who think they might have to give away a beloved pet in order to get it fed, get to keep their pets. And we are working with people and vets in the area to get as many animals seen and helped as possible.
Please spread the word, and help in any way you can. Animals enrich our lives so very much, and for those who can’t help their suffering pets, the human suffering can be dreadful.
We get lots of happy endings and funny stories as well. Someone wrote the other day that she had a small dog and an elderly large dog. When she decided to install a dog door the large dog refused to go through it. No problem, the small dog went through and actually held it open for the older member of his pack.
Guess that’s called animal ingenuity.
Please send us your stories, we’d love to publish them here. And thanks for continuing to care for animals; their well being is up to us. It was Gadhi who said, ” The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
Tags: animal story
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February 25th, 2009
Ask people why they volunteer or get involved with us, and you’ll probably get a variety of answers. Sometimes it’s to end the suffering of animals, and other times you’ll hear people talk about sustaining the quality of the individual’s life when we can save his or her pet.
For me, it’s just realizing that we add tremendous value in both directions. And you know how often we know something and it can still surprise us when we hear it validated in some way?
Well that’s what happened to me when a woman came up to me and told me this story. Her mom has Alzheimers, and she was concerned that the nursing home her mom was in might not be treating her as well as she should. So the woman hid a small tape recorder in her mom’s apartment. At the same time she was thinking about taking her mom’s dog away, since with the escalation of the disease her mom was often forgetting to take the dog out and there were many accidents happening within the apartment.
However when the woman picked up the tape recorder and listened in she discovered two things. First, the nursing home was treating her mother wonderfully but more importantly, she said she discovered her mother’s entire existence revolved around her dog. Every sentence she was talking to the dog about something; what was on TV or the weather or about what she was going to have for lunch that day. Her mother lived for her dog.
And this is what we see all the time when we get desperate calls from people asking if we can deduct money from their Social Security checks; they’ll do anything to try to care for a beloved pet who is ill or dying. I think we’re pretty lucky since we get to truly enhance and extend the quality of life for people by helping their pets, and we get to stop the suffering by getting injured or ill animals to the vet.
Every day we hear how an animal has added joy or quality to someone’s life. Tomorrow will be another story…
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