One Response to “Rescue dogs”

1. task says:

   December 1, 2008 at 12:45 pm

   I love dogs. I’ve never had an attitude, one way or the other, regarding the Cujo Saint Bernard that would like to kill me or the Yorkshire terrier that wants to lick me. Small, dogs, big dogs, tough little dogs or big lap dogs are the way they are through no choice of their own. Dogs born under a Christmas tree on the upper east side of NYC, owned by celebrities are no different than those born in a crack house on Chicago’s South side and are owned by drug dealers. From my perspective they all get equal treatment and receive exactly the same care and affection; I can unabashedly never do the same for people whose decisions and choices in life are almost totally related to free choice.

   That said anyone considering adding a dog to their family would do a tremendous kindness to adopt a homeless one from a shelter, not because the dogs are better than one that is purchased from a breeder or a store but because their circumstances are different. If they reside in a kill shelter they may only have a short time left to live and even in a no-kill shelter, with dedicated full time employees, they will attempt to make attachments that will eventually have to be broken so the sooner they gain a permanent home the better. The history behind some of these homeless pets is often unimaginable and, yes, I would go for an adult because their behavior is often immediately known and someone else is certain to adopt the puppy.

   There is nothing quite like the incredible display of love and affection my dogs show for me as I walk through the front door each and every day. To them they think I barely made it home alive after a dangerous lunar mission or something akin to that.

   I have resigned myself to knowing that someday my little friends will no longer patiently wait for me on the other side of the front door. Either I will not be coming home or they will not be home. And as much as I love my dogs I would rather it be the latter because I know that as great as my affection and love is for them, it pales compared to the way they feel about me and, furthermore, they lack the rationalization process to mitigate their grief. To live with an inconsolable broken heart, because of the absence of a loved one, is almost insurmountable. To that end better it be I rather than they. Possibly that is one good reason why dogs do not live as long as we do. I have known of at least three dogs that have died of a broken heart… most don’t… they just leave us humans behind to live with one, and that, in some strange way, is more comforting to deal with than thinking it could have been the other way around.