When Dog Rescue Become Too Much

My name is Kimberly and I’m the Fur Mom to two cats and three dogs and I also own Keep the Tail Wagging, which was inspired by my love of our fur kids.

When I first launched Keep the Tail Wagging, I was gung ho for my idea to address dog rescue from a positive point of view.  And then we adopted a rescue (we were foster failures) and our sweet Riley passed away a week later from canineparvovirus.  It absolutely broke our hearts and pulled me in to the realities of dog rescue and it became too much.

Why I support dog rescue

All of our pets are rescues except our cat Jaffrey, who was sold to me by a woman who had kittens for $30.  I support dog rescue, because our dogs throw a parade at my homecoming.  Because it feels great when one of our dogs crawls across my lap and falls asleep.  Because they are so easy to please and give so much love and don’t expect much in return.

Why dog rescue has become too much

I’ve stopped following many dog rescue groups, because it’s gotten to be too much.  These people have turned me off, because instead of showing happy dogs with their new family and giving updates; they show images of abused animals all day long.

I understand that animal abuse happens, but when all you do is focus on the negative, it leaves little room for us to celebrate the positive and there are amazing, happy endings in millions of households in America alone.

"Blue and Rodrigo"

But there are many rescue groups who have managed to find a balance with sharing the truth about dog rescue, sharing the happy stories and useful tips so that our dogs don’t end up in a bad situation.  It’s all about balance.

Here’s Our Happy Ending

For now, I’m going to focus on our own happy endings which were a big inspiration for Keep theTail Wagging.  Rodrigo and Sydney are littermates.  Their mom was rescued from a dog hoarding in Oregon in 2010 and they were born a couple of months later.  They joined our family in May 2010.

Riley was a stray that was picked up and turned in to a shelter.  Sadly, she had already contracted canine parvovirus and was only with us for a week, but she knew the love of a family during that week.

Blue is our newest addition.  He was also a stray and the shelter contacted Motley Zoo and they took care of the rest, including vaccinations, neutering, and dew claw removal.  When he joined our family, he was a little shy, not sure if he’d be staying.  By the end of week 2, we realized that he definitely is a puppy.

All of our dogs are loved, trained, and well cared for and these are the stories I now focus on and I write for other dog lovers who have similar happy stories running around their house.  Comejoin us.

Guest post by Kimberly Gauthier of Keep the Tail Wagging.