Our Rescue Pawprint

Derrick and I are both passionate about rescuing pets. We have the ability to see the love and treasure found in a broken, sometimes ugly, animal. I’ll admit that I am the one usually drawn to the ugly ones :). I wanted to share some of the philosophies I have on rescuing and some of the struggles that we have been through that others may find themselves in.

Reasons I rescue-

First and foremost, it’s in my blood! I have a large family of rescuers who share the same thoughts on saving the broken souls and giving them love. We are the type of people that stop on the side of the road to move that turtle to safety, we swerve to miss the frog in the road, and we don’t turn a blind eye when we see an animal wondering around lost. If I could save all of them, I would! This is easily one of my favorite parts of my family.

I hope that raising my kids in a home where we take every opportunity to fill extra space with fur-babies that are in need of a family shows them to be more compassionate for animal and human life. Helping others should be engrained deep in our souls for this world to be a better place.

Let’s jump right into the obviously difficult part of having any animal in your home:

“I just couldn’t take the heartbreak”-

I think there is a perception out there that those who rescue often are somehow numb to the pain of losing a family member. That we are some kind of super humans with hearts of steel. This couldn’t be farther than the truth. We hurt so deeply with every loss just as others do, but I have learned a couple of techniques to help my heart understand while it takes time to heal.

My big secret is – I talk about it. I have 3 kids, and they hurt so much when we lose a fur baby. Especially 1 out of the 3 is even more sensitive the last couple of losses. She will cry about a loss that we had a couple of years ago because she remembers the pain so vividly. It’s ok. That pain is ok. I feel it too! I cry all the time at random times just thinking about some of the hardships we had and those hard endings. I used to feel like I had to stop the tears, or hide the pain from them.. protecting them in a sense. But we have learned that embracing it and just sitting with them in that moment of sorrow, letting them know its ok and that we feel it too- helps more than anything. Regardless of that pain, we talk about it with them. Every chance I get – I bring up the memory of an old pet, and we laugh about how goofy they were, their lack of common sense, how clever they were, or even what kind of messes they made. Talking about it helps us laugh more and hurt a little less when I remember all of the good times. It just makes it all worth it.

“I just can’t replace them”–

How could we possibly move on to the joy of welcoming another animal into the family when we just lost a part of our souls? The right answer here is that you aren’t moving on. The number of animals I have in my home has no bearing on how broken or repaired my heart is. I will continue my grieving process regardless – but I will tell you, it is much easier to help that heart understand and heal when you are cuddling another family member that could just as easily have no home or be put down because their time just ran out. I never look at a new rescue as replacing an old one. Nothing would replace those holes in our lives. But I strongly believe if any of our babies could talk – they would tell us they want us to save more, just like we saved them.

Our journey has had its fair share of challenges

I refuse to pretend like rescue life has been easy (even outside of loss), but I will tell you there was light at the end of the tunnel in all situations! We have made it through some times when I thought there was no positive outcome. Here are a couple of those highlights:

Dog Fighting:

Our fur family hasn’t been without conflict. I have learned that there are many personalities of an animal that are very driven by their environment. For example, one of our rescues we had since she was a puppy, Ivory. She was a German Shephard mix and about 7 years old when we welcomed another German Shephard into our family. Abby was probably about 3 or 4 years old, and definitely full grown. We knew Ivory was a brute, she was pushy and would play rough but had never been intentionally aggressive with any other dogs. Abby came into our family quietly too.. more of an observer, she was secluded in her previous home. It took several months before we experienced our first dog fight. Holy hell- 2 very large dogs trying to kill each other and me and my husband there doing anything possible to break it up.

Over time the fighting got worse and the fear of us having to give one away was weighing heavy on my heart. We had never had to rehome a rescue and although I wanted the best for both dogs which includes safety for each of them- Derrick {thankfully} wasn’t ready to give up yet. To keep this story short (I promise one day I’ll do a much longer blog post on this situation) after doing in home behavioral training, the fighting didn’t stop. We ended up at our holistic vet who educated us more on the effects of chemicals in our home and Abby was experiencing Sympathetic Overdrive which in simple terms- she was overdosing on terrible chemicals from cleaners, our pest control, etc. It was causing her to go crazy and she would be triggered into moments of rage. Which unfortunately was taken out on Ivory. We changed our lifestyle, detoxed Abby, learned to watch for triggers and boom we had no more fighting. It was a miracle. We had Ivory for another 5 years before she passed and they became the best of friends.

Heart worms:

I wrote a whole post about how we rescued a German Shephard that was heartworm positive and our journey of curing them naturally with a holistic supplement. Check it out here

Salty Introductions:

Introducing pets is probably the #1 most scary moments in my mind. I build up so much anxiety, what if it goes wrong? What do I do? Luckily – we get through each time. Being prepared and watching the signs your pets are giving off is key. One thing I have learned to do is to ensure they are meeting on common ground – outside where each has an option to get away, not feeling trapped. And we do very small times together to help monitor them and give them space too. When animals are overwhelmed, and feeling trapped – they will try to fight their way out. But realizing that their behavior is a product of their environment is what will save them. Ensure that you have checked off all of those possibilities before you jump right to “this is a bad fit”.

Misinformed:

The first cat we rescued, Travi, was a saint- I just couldn’t believe how sweet, social, and friendly he was with all of our other animals! I was sold.. and within 2 weeks Derrick was back getting another cat. Here comes Molly. She hid for about 2 weeks before she even came out in our home. We thought she was just shy- but we soon figured out she had a very strong hatred for dogs. What? How could this cat hate dogs? The paper said she was fine, and we had 3 of them at the time. She would swat at them every chance she got, and she was NOT playing around. luckily all of my dogs would do their best to stay out of her way in general. But she started scratching us, and even worse- my 3 & 4 year old. We had to find a solution.

One day Derrick thought about giving her more space and let her in our front yard. Fast forward a month or 2 and we had ourselves a new garden gnome. She just needed more space. So incredibly happy out front- she would come in when she wanted to, when it was cold or she was hungry etc. But she was always ready to go back out to her throne. Although my relationship with her was very different and had more boundaries than I wanted- she was rescued as an adult and we gave her many happy safe years of the rest of her life.

My Paw Family Tree:

I wanted to take a moment to highlight all of the babies who forever have a print on our heart, waiting for us at the rainbow bridge.

Nestle – This girl was the light of my life! We had her for 13 years. I got her when I was a young girl and kept her with me while I grew my own family. She was such a water lover, naturally. Perfect family dog. Never ran away- always by my side. Incredibly sweet to my kids- when you get a lab, Nestle is what you are looking for. She would love the land we are on now.

Ivory– Our first true puppy rescue. Holy moly this girl had so much love and an equal amount of mischief! She used to scale our 6 ft fence and then run around the house and knock on the front door. We couldn’t keep her from being crazy… most of the time just didn’t have people over because she was just too much and we didn’t have a good place to put her away. She would break out of all of her cages. Way too smart for her own good! However at home with us- she was so sweet and cuddly! She was huge, but full of love. Ivory lived to 11 years old.

Tebow– Deemed the ugliest dog we have ever had {NOT true} this Catahoula was so incredibly smart! He could steal something and no one would have any idea. He sure did love to cuddle too! He was the fastest dog we have ever had, and for some reason at the time we didn’t let our dogs in our bed. That rule has definitely changed haha. But Tebow would go cuddle with me in bed till I fell asleep, and when Derrick would come to bed, Tebow could hear him coming down the hallway and would bolt out of the bed so effortlessly. Derrick would have no idea he was there. He was taken from us way too soon- but I enjoyed the 5 years of unconditional love.

Molly – Oh sweet Molly. She was such a beautiful girl with a really mean streak! She hated dogs and took it out on everyone including the kids. Once she got a taste of the outside she became the sweetest little lawn ornament. She was our protector! She loved to do anything to be mean to the dogs- so here is a pic of her sitting inside the dog water bowl, just to be that mean ‘ol Molly that she was. haha! Always cracked me up though!

Sydney – We rescued Sydney as a senior. Had no idea that she was already a hospice case. She was filled with tumors and apparently her old family gave her up because they couldn’t afford treatment for her. Although we only had her for 4 months before the tumors shifted her quality of life- she was loved so much during those 4 pain free months to last a lifetime!

Belle– Our little bear cub! She was the first senior we ever rescued and the reason why we continued. Belle was said to be about 7-8 years old when we got her. I asked Derrick to go to the shelter and get the ugliest saddest dog he could find. He didn’t deliver on the ugly part cause she was so cute! She wouldn’t even give him the time of day and walked to the gate, didn’t even wag her tail and went right back in. He knew she was the one, and we had about 5 years of complete love for this girl. So content, so chill. She wasn’t bothered by any animal we brought home and she loved a good scratch down!

Maybel & Myles – Our only non-cat/dog pets. We had them for 5 whole years which I hear is good for dwarf bunnies. They served a much bigger purpose than showing us all what a real marriage is like, they also fed our compost! They would let you hold them and never seemed to mind having the dogs around. We always kept them inside and somewhere that we would see them often, like the living room. I could just watch them run around and sleeping together all day. It was just adorable.

Thank you for reading my journey – Tell me about your fur-family!

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