I'm on
Facebook, and a lot of my friends and likes involve pets. Not surprising, considering that dogs in
particular are my passion and my underlying mystery theme.
Some of the
posts I get regarding dogs are wonderful and uplifting. But I also receive a
lot of sad stories about abandoned, abused, or rescued pets that need new homes
or fosters fast. Sometimes those stories
are fairly graphic about the kinds of abuse the animals have suffered. I hate
them. But I read them and want to hug
all the animals
I volunteer
at a pet shelter that brings in dogs and cats with the idea of hanging onto
them until wonderful new homes are found for them. It always bothers me that the pets do need to
be rescued because they started out, or wound up, in untenable situations where
their owners don't want them any longer or they were strays or feral and didn't
have real owners in the first place.
I sometimes
consider blocking the sites with the online sad stories. But despite many of them having sad endings,
there are also happy endings--such as one I read recently where a cop was
called to a neighborhood where there were complaints about a vicious dog. When he got there, he saw that the dog was
being harassed by the people who had called and was terrified.
The dog came over to him sadly and hopefully--and the cop wound up
adopting, rather than shooting, the dog.
That's the
kind of story I love to read. And so, I
try to deal with the sad ones, too.
I'm glad to
say that, as I was writing this yesterday, I came across a heartrending poem on
Facebook in a dog's POV about how his life had been unbearable... until a
rescuer had adopted him. Did that ever
bring tears to my eyes!
Also, a
local shelter/shop posted on Facebook that someone had abandoned a dog by tying
it up right in front of their place.
They were taking him to the vet tomorrow and then finding him a forever
home.
So--recently,
though not always, I got to do a lot of smiling as I looked online!
What about
you--do you read sad, or uplifting, stories about animals--or people?
6 comments:
I can't read the sad ones. They are too upsetting to me. I just do what I can, taking in lost pets and finding their homes and adopting rescues.
I understand how you feel, Betty--and cheer you for helping out lost pets.
I'm with Betty. There used to be a series on Animal Planet featuring animal police, but the stories got too heart-rendering for me to watch. I loved the happy ending parts, but the sad and grisly lives some animal lived gave me nightmares.
I can't watch that kind of show on TV either, Monica. I can sometimes read stories online because the people who post them are real animal advocates who are trying to help the pets they write about--as long as they survive.
I'm with all of you - cannot watch the sad ones with crying my eyes out. I don't want to wind up as the crazy lady with all the dogs but I could so go there. I search youtube for funny cat and dog videos to cheer me up after someone post a sad one.
I like that idea, Pam--finding good stories to counter the bad ones. I'll have to make a point of doing that.
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