www.atlantabeaglerescue.org

When you think of the whole picture, doing rescue is overwhelming. There are so many animals in shelters and not enough homes. People still insist on breeding the family pet and people still buy from pet stores and people still choose the wrong dog for their lifestyle. On top of that you have dogs that are ill-treated, ignored, left tied up in a back yard, dogs that are beaten, starved, let loose to roam and face danger from cars, other dogs, people.

How do we work to combat all that and still stay sane?

The most important skill a rescuer can have is the ability to say "No". Dog rescue is not just about saving lives; it's about having the resources to give comfort and aid to each one that passes through your life. If you do not have those resources - financially, physically, psychologically - you cannot effectively rescue. When the focus becomes solely to just save lives you become a collector/hoarder not a rescuer. That is a totally different psychology and perhaps a topic for another blog.

You cannot make rescue your entire life. We all have day jobs, outside interests and friends who do not rescue. We want to make sure we can travel when we want, and have a reasonably peaceful, clean house. We do not house foster dogs outside. If you have too many to comfortably fit in your house, you have too many.  And by "comfortably fit" we mean not having crates stacked up in every room, dogs gated off from one another to avoid fights, no place to quarantine a sick or injured dog. Just because the state says we can have up to 20 dogs on our property does not mean we can do that and remain compos mentis. 

A successful rescuer has to be a people person as well as animal lover. In a field where you see the worst of humanity's inhumaneness it is very easy to give in to bitterness and cynicism. You have to be able to see each person you meet as an individual with their own history. Not everyone who surrenders a dog is a horrible owner. People who have made mistakes with dogs in the past and are upfront and honest about them generally make great adoptive homes. You have to have the skill to talk to them, to really listen to them, and not judge them by words on an application and your own prejudices.

Rescue work should never feel like a task of desperation. Sane rescuers are not scrambling for foster homes after they agreed to take 5 dogs on death row. They do not bankrupt themselves "saving them all".  You can't lose your day job because you are rushing off to pull dogs from some county shelter 60 miles away. This all comes back to the ability to say "no". 

That's not to say we're perfect! Or perfectly sane all the time! I occasionally can't say no to blind beagles, but I do have a plan (RollingDogRanch.org). Sometimes a senior beagle will get to me. I can still say no if I'm outside that comfort zone though. I know there will be another one tomorrow, and another the day after that, etc.

The bottom line still remains the same - you can't save them all. You can save some, and do a better job of it, if you can really believe that statement totally.