Although there is a significant rescue scene in Blood to Fire, and there are thematic elements about rescuing abused individuals throughout the Red Slaves series, they all constitute spoilers. So I’m going to talk about a different kind of rescue near and dear to my heart: Animal rescue.
We rescued our second and third Siberian Huskies. We knew Kyra (the first one we’d gotten) needed her Husky-buddies, after we moved away from the two playmates she’d had in Charlottesville, and I joked from early on that she was a therapy dog for dogs, but that was never more clear than when we saw the listing in the Arizona Husky Rescue for a neglected girl they’d named Chloe. We were supposed to meet her and her foster mom in Tuscon, but ended up driving all the way to Phoenix to see her. She was underweight and her nose was all lumpy in the way that dogs that survive attacks get. She bonded immediately with my husband, and then we had the almost-5-hour drive to get back home.
She thrived in her new home, but needed a name that fit her “enforcer” personality. With the help of an animal communicator, she let us know she’d answer to Wolfee. Even though she was larger than Kyra, and Kyra is not the classic dominant dog, she was happy to be Kyra’s second-in-command.
Then we saw an ad in the monthly Silver City free newspaper from the local humane society listing the animals running out of time. My husband said we couldn’t let them euthanize a beautiful Husky girl, so even though she was the same age and sex as the two we already had (and had been returned to the shelter once already for having killed the cat in her prospective home), we took a visit to the High Desert Humane Society. We took a trial walk with all three, and on the way back, Sasha hopped into the back of our car as if to say “OF COURSE I’m coming home with you.”
While Sasha would have preferred to have been an only dog, and did what she could to get the other two in trouble, she was also so sweet, she won us over despite the trouble.
We had our group of three until the dark year of 2010, when first Wolfee (in March) and then Sasha (in September) crossed the rainbow bridge. Kyra, the oldest of the three, mourned as hard as we did, missing her friends and sisters. We debated getting another rescue, but had learned through both earlier experiences that the adjustment period can be physically rough. Since Kyra had lost weight she could ill afford to lose as part of her mourning, and she was already 12, we decided to get another puppy. But we continue to support rescue organizations, including the one whose graphic graces this post: Best Friends Animal Society out in Kanab, Utah, where their aim is for no more homeless pets–and certainly nothing as barbarian as euthanizing the older, harder-to-home kinds of dogs who enriched our lives so significantly.
My daughter is allergic to dogs and cats so we never adopted either of those. Instead we adopted and rescued several rats. I have 4 rescued rats right now. I think looking at shelters and rescue sites for a new pet are the way to go.
Dark Thoughts Blog
We would be lost without our Gracie!! Gracie completes our family. Great post!
Connie
A to Z-ing to the end
Peanut Butter and Whine
I’m happiest living with allergies and dogs rather than without either, but I’m TOTALLY with you on the visiting the shelters. I have a friend who volunteers at the local humane society, and I can’t imagine NOT becoming an animal hoarder in those circumstances. So I stay away. 😉
I would love to have a dog, but my apartment is too small right now. I’d get a rescue too if I could. Although, I wouldn’t want to go to the shelter because I will want to take them all home and feel really guilty for the ones I can’t.