I spent the better part of today at a HUGE adoption event. I could dwell on the sadness and how it breaks my
heart to see 100 cages full because of human irresponsibility BUT I wont because what good will that do?
There were several adoptions and many dogs are just now getting a chance to live the life they have always
deserved. So tonight as I lay in bed surrounded by my 4 dogs and 2 fosters, Lola and Jack I start to think.
As I lay looking at Lola and Jack I anxiously anticipate the bittersweet moment when they will move on
to the next phase of their lives... going HOME to their forever family.
I'll never be able to explain in words the immense joy and overwhelming heartbreak of that moment
. It’s like my heart, while so full of happiness, is going to break just a bit.
For a short while, these foster dogs are a major part of my life, our family. I pulled them from death,
right into my heart. I teach them to trust, to play, to share. I show them compassion for the first time
in their life, and I promised to love them always...
What a gift to give… Life. Love. Happiness. The holes in my heart are repaired by the joy of a family that is
now complete because they choose to adopt a truly amazing dog.
Yes, I take them in knowing that they will leave me, but the pain of their leaving doesn’t outweigh the joy
of the time I have with them. And my gift to them is happiness, every single day, for the rest of their lives.
The moment will come when Lola and Jack will leave me for another family. I look at my rescue babies and
all of the fosters before these two, and despite the pain, my heart longs for that moment. That moment
is the reason I do this. They deserve a family that will love them forever. A place to call home.
They deserve the life that they almost never had.I remind myself that another dog deserves the chance
to be rescued by me in their place. As one dog waits by the door for me to return, another waits on
death row for me to arrive. And the dog awaiting my return already has a family and the dog still
sitting at the shelter waiting for me does not even know what a family is. So my heart
WILL handle the pain, because another’s fate depends on my strength. Driving home
from the shelter I tell my latest fosters "You are safe and everything is going to be ok
. I promise." And then the cycle starts again.
