I told my husband, last night, about the shelter class this coming Saturday. I told him that, as a dog blogger, I actually have to do dog things, especially rescue things, since that’s where my dog heart beat is. I have to stop just making crap up.
He laughed and laughed.
How many of you dog bloggers make crap up? I don’t mean facts and figures – that’s not right at all. I mean, just winging it every day? I’ve been loping along, trying to find my dog voice, if there is such a thing, playing with ideas. Some days staring at a blank screen, then flipping back over to FaceCrack.
*sigh*
Reading your blogs has been very helpful. Even though I’ve had dogs my entire 45 years of life, I’ve never really thought about dog issues. I deal with stuff as it comes up, as a rule. But this whole dog adoption/rescue/shelter thing really resonates with me. We have two rescue dogs, yes. I’ve never been a big fan of pedigreed pups, having seen first hand, over and over, the health issues so many purebred dogs live with. And most of my dogs have been mixes and rescues, which binds me to the issue.
But reading so many of your blogs, seeing the photos of dogs in need of homes, reading the stories of your rescue pups who are thriving – touches my heart. Not that I’m against purebreds or breeders, mind you. Some of my good friends breed dogs, or own “real” dogs (how offensive is that? Gah!). So many purebreds are gorgeous. And I’ll be the first to tell you that I’d dearly love my next pup to be a Great Pyrenees. A rescue.
There’s a twist here, see, and one which causes me no small amount of angst. I attend a large church here in Tulsa (the land of a million churches), and their heartbeat is adoption. Adoption and foster care. It seems like half the people I know at church have either adopted kids or are fostering one or more. It’s a beautiful thing, really, to be part of. Myself, I’m a care taker for a friend’s special needs foster child. It’s a tiny role, babysitting for her occasionally, but it’s something.
And now with the dog blogging, my heart is tugged to foster or adopt pups. We can’t foster or adopt any kids – we have three teens and their multitude of friends who practically live here – and it’s probably not a good idea to take on more dogs, either short or long term.
Are any of you in the same boat? What do you do with that?
This is a large part of why I’ll be taking the orientation class at the shelter this weekend. If I can’t have dogs come to me, I’ll go to them. And I’ll probably make at least one teenager come with me when I help.
If you haven’t already, look up your local shelters. Find out what they need. Find out how you can volunteer. If your heartbeat isn’t animals, call your local children’s shelter. Find out how you can take in a kid for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Give a child a real holiday with a real family. Do something. You’ll thank me.
Until I write again …
Flea