Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Sad and Happy Pet Tales


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:

Betty Hechtman said...

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.

Linda O. Johnston said...

I understand how you feel, Betty--and cheer you for helping out lost pets.

Monica Ferris said...

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.

Linda O. Johnston said...

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.

Pam said...

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.

Linda O. Johnston said...

I like that idea, Pam--finding good stories to counter the bad ones. I'll have to make a point of doing that.