Hard times, Good times...

Sometimes fostering a dog can bring great joy. You take a scared pup into your home, work through the issues, and help them learn what its like to live with love. Then they find a good home and you miss them but you know in your heart they're off to a happy life. That's the reward, the heartbreak and the reason you do it again.

Then there's Trouble. This little brown and white Chihuahua came from a southern shelter. They said he had one deformed leg. Okay, we can deal. Send him up on the next transport. We get dogs with issues all the time. Heartworm is rampant in the south and treating it can be expensive, but we have great volunteers and good vets who help us muddle through the treatment. Parvo? It happens. Sometimes seemingly healthy pups come up and WHAM! Parvo! It sucks, but it's treatable. The volunteer is on 24/7 alert in helping the dog survive but it can be done. We've had to do it a million times and the dogs go on to live healthy lives.
But when Trouble arrived and we placed the little guy on the ground we discovered he had more than a deformed front leg. Both back legs wobbled like he couldn't balance on them at all. Off we go to the vet to discover this little guy was in a lot of pain. Both back knee caps were dislocated and that deformed front leg were all the results of severe abuse. Surgery to fix this little guy will cost over $6000. Yes, Trouble has real trouble.
So we deal. Fundraising goes viral and movies are made and flyers go out. Six grand is a lot of money and bottom line is---we have to raise it because Trouble will be fixed. Castle of Dreams Animal Rescue doesn't give up on any dog.
So we move on and then comes a little Shih Tzu up from the south. She's cute and happy but, after we shave her down so we can see this little girl under all the matting, her face looks funny, lopsided. Something we couldn't see under all the matting. A trip to the vet and we find out her jaw is dislocated. The vet said she must have been kicked in the face at some point.
That's two injured, abused pups in one month. SHEESH! What kind of people abuse animals and then just dump them in shelters? My first reaction is hate. Pure ugly hate. I hate these people and think they should be locked away where they can't ever hurt another living thing. They are not fit to be called humans.
I hate this hate. It's useless. It wastes energy and brings me down.
Instead of focusing on the hate I push it aside and focus on what we can change. We can get Trouble fixed. We can get that little Shih Tzu's jaw fixed. We can move on and keep going and not let the ugly people in this world stop us.
To donate to help either of these pups go to Castle of Dreams Animal Rescue