Opinions ...

So the old saying goes. Opinions are like butts: everybody has one. The intensity and degree to which some people want to shove their opinion in your face is a different matter. It came as a genuine surprise to me when I first started fostering how much drama there is in the rescue world. How many gosh darn egos get in the way of anything getting accomplished. How many people who should all be working with the same goal in mind: placing dogs into GREAT forever homes, have to put each other down, spit on each other, and turn rescue into a a wrestling ring complete with mud bath. Heck, they'd make a lot more money if they just duked it out in a pool full of pudding for an audience. I'm not sure about other places in the world, but locally, very few rescues could be housed in the same room and be civilized.

At first this made me angry, but after awhile, it just makes me sad. Sad at all the lost opportunities. Rescue shouldn't be a competition of egos, but a lot of the time, that's what it is. I'm in Creative Writing at the Master's level, and the level of nastiness in rescue far, far outweighs the nastiness in a workshop. And in workshop, we ARE actually competiting.

Enough about writing though. We all make mistakes along the line, but it shouldn't be the mistake that defines us, but how we choose to learn from it, fix it if we can, and most importantly apply that experience to all similiar experiences to come. Instead, other rescues see a mistake as a breaking point. "Don't ever deal with this rescue, it's AWFUL." Blah blah. Now... how is that helpful??

My personal philosophy has always been to keep my nose out, sit back and listen to the kernels of information and helpfulness in a sea of insult hurling and keep my focus where it is supposed to be: the dogs in my care. If I have time to go throw some advice-cloaked insults at people,  I have time to network my dogs instead, I have time to work on some leash manners, I have time to slowly gain the trust of a shy dog, I have time to be at peace and let the fosters and my own dogs enjoy that calmness. Sometimes I find it baffling that so many people are taking time away from so many dogs just to stick their nose where it isn't needed. Excuse my language, but get off the fucking internet and go do something for the dogs in your care. And if per chance you don't have any dogs in your care, go find one you can help in another way.

I understand people who have been doing rescue for years, possibly decades, have a lot of experience in things, and to cornily quote Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibility." All this knowledge, all this wealth of information and experience, they have such great opportunity to be teachers, to show younger rescuers the way. If you don't educate the young, if you don't provide help and suggestions (in a non-condenscending manner) how do you ever expect them to live up to your 'standards', how do you ever expect them to get better? Not to think doom+gloom, but when your time in rescue has come to it's end, who will you leave behind to carry on ethically if you shut everyone down because they don't do things 'your way'. For me, it's sad to think how many spirits are broken by rescue drama, and how if the extent of the drama wasn't as cruel how many other lives could have been saved instead.

Why is it that we preach love for animals, but we don't have enough integrity to love (not necessarily like!) each other and our collective efforts. I might not like every rescue I've come across, indeed, there are a lot that I personally would never get involved in, but still, I am thankful for the lives they have saved. One rescue can not do the work alone. We're not going to join hands and sing kum-ba-yah or anything, but an ounce of compassion would go a long way.

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The above isn't really meant about anything in my personal rescue circle lately, just a lot of posts I keep seeing on different threads. I am a young, sometimes hot-headed, sometimes silly, and definitely on a steep learning curve sometimes foster mum. I've hit some snags, and I'm sure until I'm wrinkled I'll hit more of them. I have almost quit fostering at a few points for different reasons, but NEVER because of the dogs. I try my best to put myself in someone else's shoes, and I know, things are never perfect, but that shouldn't be a reason to give up.

I am lucky that my heart rescue (TG) is a great teacher, a non-judger. Are they perfect: no. Do they make mistakes: rescue wouldn't be rescue without it's glitches. Are they the holy grail of rescue: most definitely not, but if they thought they were I would have been long gone by now.

It's not the dogs that will break you in rescue; it's the drama.
So please, ask for help when you need it and don't be afraid.
Give help, advice and constructive criticism when you can, but check your ego at the door.
Be willing to teach and guide, as well as being taught and guided.
For those experienced, please note that younger rescuers are trying to be like you. Take it as a compliment! How you view them is up to you, but I would rather see a garden with the possibility to bloom than weeds to hack away.
Become a little bit more like a dog. Live in the moment -and try to make each one the best that it can be.
Find something to compliment. People, just like dogs, will wither with solely negative training.