Making sense of it all

Greetings, all,

It occurs to me that I haven't posted on here since February, which is most definitely past my due date. It's been a hectic year, to say the least. I have been working like a dog on the house, which has created more issues than I ever imagined. For those of you who have purchased foreclosed homes, you know what I mean. In April, I took a new position at work and am now doing proposal and grant writing. And of course, i've been fostering the dogs. And this is why I write this evening.

For those of you who don't know, I volunteer with the Virginia German Shepherd Rescue (www.shepherdrescue.org). The rescue brings in unwanted, or abused, or neglected shepherds, fosters them, and helps each one to find what we call a "forever home". I am one of them, and I wear this title proudly. There has been only one instance in the past 9 months of a dog I wasn't able to handle, and she immediately went to a new foster home and was angelic. The people I work with are passionate, loyal, loving, and work very much as a tight-knit family (for example, the foster who took the aforementioned dog from me, which allowed me to take in another). There is not one volunteer in this organization who wouldn't give their left arm to see that every unwanted dog was placed with a loving, caring family, one that would cherish this animal until its final day. And it is with that spirit that I write this post.

An intake volunteer sent a message to us tonight, and part of the post read: "[Animal Control] found her owners (who) no longer wanted (her) and planned on setting her loose somewhere." They planned on setting her loose somewhere. Two weeks ago it was the woman who abandoned her home with her own two dogs, but left the ex-husband's ex-wife's shepherd tied to a tree. Before that it was something else, and something else, and, oh yes, something else.

I can't begin to express my utter disgust with the human race at this moment. I mean, on what planet does someone assume that deserting a dog (tying it to a tree, setting it free, etc) is acceptable behavior? You domesticate an animal, feed it, give it love and a warm place to sleep, and then you abandon it and expect it to take care of itself? This kind of behavior, which is all too common and stretches way beyond the confines of German shepherds, sickens me, and anyone, ANYone who partakes of this behavior should be punished. Period. We imprison people for abuse of other humans, I think the time has come to dole out the same exact punishment for those who abuse their pets.

I've met many people in the past year or so who have been forced to give up their pets for one reason or another, and show extreme remorse. In fact, i've shed many tears with these individuals because I can absolutely feel their pain. I understand that there are certain circumstances that are beyond ones control, but these that I am speaking of tried everything in their power to hold onto their beloved 'kids', and couldn't. They are not the ones I am referring to. This is directed to the shallow, callous individuals who think pet ownership (or as I call it, parenthood) is a right, not a priviledge, and if the dog has to be put to sleep because hard times come and they can't have a dog anymore and they're just too lazy to follow the proper channels to get it into a new home, it's no big deal, it's just a dog, right? Wrong. You are the absolute worst of the worst to me, and don't deserve the unconditional love that a pet provides.

The worst part about it is that if any one of these abandoned dogs (or other animals) were reunited somehow with the former owner, they'd forgive and forget; our four-legged friends are just that way. I, on the other hand, don't forget, and will do everything in my power to make sure that those who don't deserve the loyal companionship of a pet don't get it.

Playing Catch-Up

It's been a very long time since I've written in here, and after all of the recent activity, I felt it was time to get everyone caught up.

First and foremost, I just started a war on Facebook with an old friend from high school. What is the fight about, you ask? Obama, of course. Never in my life have I seen someone divide a nation as quickly has he has. And it's no secret that I'm not an Obama fan; never have been, never will be. That does not, however, mean I wish failure upon him. Quite the contrary. I want him to succeed, I want him to be able to get this country back up and running, and get back those 3.6+ million jobs that we've lost. But call me a pessimist, I don't see it happening on his watch. At any rate, a battle of wills is taking place globally, nationally, and now on Facebook with me and an old friend from high school. Stay tuned...

I recently bought a house. Without going into too much detail, my 30 day closing turned into a 3 month ordeal. I'm sure you've all been there once or twice, so I won't talk too much about that. I will say that I was hesitant about purchasing the home because of its location: Gay Street. Yes, as I said in an email to family and friends notifying them of my new digs, "My homosexual chickens have come home to roost." For those of you who Mapquest the street and know DC, you'll see that I'm in what some would call a 'questionable' area (others would flat-out call it the ghetto). But one benefit of the housing market crash is that I was able to purchase a larger home for a smaller amount of money. Which leads me to....

The dogs. Yes, plural. You all know I volunteer with a wonderful organization called the Virginia German Shepherd Rescue. Well, upon moving into the new place (complete with a yard!), I agreed to start fostering dogs until their 'forever homes' could be found. Much to Cane's dismay, foster dog #1, Jenna, a 1.5 year old purebred German shepherd showed up on New Year's Eve day. There definitely wasn't a ton of love there at first, but they've grown to really care about one another. It took me all of a day to tell my rescue that I was adopting her. Yes, I'm a foster 101 failure.

A few weeks later, Max showed up. Max is a shepherd/ husky mix and damn cute, with an amazing personality. Within 2 days a family expressed interest, came to Gay Street (which is funny only because I think they're very conservative, and when I made a joke about my street name, they told me that I was just happy all of the time. If only they knew the truth...). They knew they wanted him the moment they saw him, so after his minor surgical procedure (yes, he's now the 4-legged equivalent of an Italian castrato), he'll be leaving me this weekend to live with his new family.

Several days after Max arrived, a hoarding case was discovered in W. VA. where the man had died and all of his dogs had been left outside. For how long, I don't know. They ended up in shelter, and I agreed to take one. Long story short, Silver, an 85 pound shepherd is now hogging the part of the bed that the first 3 don't. So, I've started sleeping in the crate. He's a wonderful dog, and don't tell anyone, but I'm thinking of adopting him, too.

I've gotten some very mixed reactions about having 4 dogs, and the one that sticks out the most is this: "You're crazy." This has been bothering me for days now, and I just can't seem to move past it. I'm almost 37 years old, I have no children (human children, rather), I'm single, and I have a house large enough to accommodate these animals comfortably (aside from me being crated at night). What is it that makes me crazy for wanting to help these animals find loving homes? Aren't I doing the same thing that Brad & Angelina are doing by adopting children from poor countries, only with different types of children? Is there a lack of nobility when one chooses to house animals in need rather than kids? And frankly, isn't it really no body's damn business what I do with my time/home/money/love? Forgive me for the high horse attitude folks, but as I get older I lose more and more patience due to ignorance and judgement. I don't care what anyone else does. If you want to be a professional underwater basket weaver, by all means do it. I may not be personally interested in it, but I'll support your decision.

So, having said all of that, my family is growing, and by god it will continue to do so as long as I still have breath in me. And for the naysayers who, well, naysay: due respect, but piss off. Of course, none of those I'm speaking of have ever seen this blog, so perhaps I'll plant that seed next. Yes, I still like to instigate things. It's part of my charm. I believe that is all for this post. Thanks for reading. I promise to try and do better at keeping this updated. And remember, if you're looking for a companion, please rescue one. Millions of pets need a good home. Millions of breeders only want your cash.