As long as it's not me...

I'm big into animal rescue.  Anyone who knows me knows this about me.  In fact, this is probably what comes to their mind if they were asked to describe me... and I'm glad about that.  If "she always loved animals" is a statement heard at my funeral, I will consider my life well lived.

But that's probably not the only thing you'll hear at my funeral.  You will also hear the words "boy, was she ever a hot-head" and "she wasn't a chick you wanted to cross" and "she sure didn't waver from her convictions".  All those words could (& probably will) have somethng to do with a conversation about me & my passion for animals rights & animal rescue too.

Very recently I've had two people contact me, on Facebook, regarding animals they wanted rescued... cats to be exact.  One of the women actually came out & said "I have a cat rescue for you!" so at least she was being honest... she put the rescue squarely in MY lap & not hers.  But both women were playing on my emotions & using the fact that I love animals in order to get the cats in their yards rescued, without having to lift a finger themselves.  Or at least they thought that's what was going to happen.  It did not.

I've had so many people (aka: "friends") do this to me before.  In not too distant years past, all it would take would be for someone to say there was a stray cat living under their porch & off I would go, humane cat trap in tow, and do the rescue myself.  The person who notified me wouldn't so much as offer a dime towards the rescue, of course, but their consciences were clear because they got the cat removed from their property & into good hands.  Case closed... for them.

I have a network of animal rescue workers (aka: SAINTS) whom I know I can call if I have an animal, domestic or wild, that needs help.  If it's a cat, I have a specific person who does that.  She will take the cat from me & see to it that the cat is vetted: spayed or neutered, blood tested, vaccinated, wormed, flea treated.  Then the cat will go into one of her vast network of foster homes until a good inside home can be found.  In other words, the cat will never ever have to worry again about a safe night's sleep or a decent meal.  It will be loved & cared for, for the rest of its life.

How many of you reading this thinks that type of care is free?  No money involved whatsoever?  None of you, I'm assuming.  Not the majority of folks that contact me for rescues, however.  They think this type of rescue is free... to them anyway!!  Let someone else pick up the cost of the vet bill.

Yeah... sure.  :-(

I have never ever dropped off a rescued animal to anyone in my rescue network without giving money along with the animal.  Ever!  I've made my family eat hot dogs for endless days in a row, after paying for a couple rescued cats, while the folks who called me about the rescue ended up leaving on vacation the same day I picked up the cats under their porch.  I've had to tell my youngest daughter that no, we couldn't go to the fair that weekend, after paying for three rescued cats from under the back deck of a local (& very popular... aka: takes in a boat load of money) restaurant... without so much as even getting a coupon for a free small pizza in the process.  Our Christmas one year was suddently slashed in half after paying for two rescued cats along with a dog, that a "friend" was going to give them away to anyone who would take them (& she had NO idea who the people were or what was going to happen to the animals), knowing full well I wasn't about to let that happen.  This same "friend" was angry as a cornered rattlesnake when I outed her on a public forum, 3 months later, when she actually had the nerve to do an adoption inquiry about a pet someone was trying to get rid of.

The stories are endless, from people contacting me regarding cats & dogs.  Their compassion comes out in spades, that they supposedly have for these starving homeless animals:


~ The poor mama cat looks pregnant.  I feel so sorry for her.


~ These woods are not friendly for a poor cat wandering around... our raccoons & possums are nasty!


~ Winter is coming soon.  I sure would hate to see this poor little thing out in the cold.


~ The dog's ribs are showing & she looks so tired.  I'm sure she's been beaten.


~ Almost every night I hear this cat fighting.  Its fur looked bloody this morning.


My response, now that I'm older & mentally-physically-psychologically-emotionally-financially exhausted from years of rescue, is always the same:


"I have humane traps you can use.  Just come by the house & get them any time.  I'll show you how to bait & set them.  Once you get the animal you wish to rescue, just call me & bring the cage back with the animal inside.  Give me a donation for my rescue team & I will then make the run myself, to take the animal to one of the team members' houses.  I can assure you that you will have done a good GOOD thing in rescuing this poor animal & it will be given A-1 care... a lifetime of love & safety indoors."


That's when the conversation goes silent.  When I suggest that the person actually has to DO something for the rescue, that's where their compassion ends.  Then a whole other set of stories come out, where others existed before:


~ OK.  Well... I'll let you know.


~ You know, I'm starting now to think that maybe she belongs to somebody & is just passing through.


~ If I see the dog again, I'll be sure to do that.


~ My husband (boyfriend, dad, whoever) won't let me spend any money on a stray animal.


~ Ohhhhhhh.... (the most standard response!!)


I usually don't hear from the "friend" again, about the issue.  Either that or they post on Facebook about the animal in their status, trying to play me once again, thinking maybe my bleeding heart will get to the point of bursting & I'll just go ahead & do the rescue myself.  I don't... but I do end up shedding many tears over their situation.  What a cruel thing to do to somebody, isn't it?  With friends like that, I don't need enemies.

They feel so sorry for a stray abandoned animal & wish for it to be rescued... as long as they have to do nothing in the process.  And if they are required to do something for the rescue to happen?  They turn their backs on the animal as if it didn't exist... and go along their merry way.

That's the most cruel thing of all.  I'd like to think there's a special place in hell for people like this.  A little bit less hot than for those who actually dumped the animal to begin with. 

Hoosier Homemakers Through the Years

 Hoosier Homemakers Through the Years... an oral history project of The Indiana Extension Homemakers Association Eleanor Arnold, Editor and Project Director  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  The Indiana Extension Homemakers Association's oral history project began in 1979, in view of the upcoming 75th anniversary of the organization in 1988. Since many of the pioneer members were living, the state board felt that a study of the history of the group should begin then, and Eleanor was asked to chair the history committee.  IEHA is the largest group of organized women in the state of Indiana, with a membership of approximately 45,000 women. There are many local clubs in every county, meeting typically in members' homes once a month and featuring educational material on home, family and community at each meeting. The initial charge to the IEHA history committee was to compile and publish a history book. The committee decided to use oral history (tape-recorded interviews) as the research method, mainly due to the advanced age of many of the pioneer members. Soon the decision was made to broaden the scope of the committee's inquiries to include a study of woman's role as a homemaker.   The interviews were done almost entirely by dedicated volunteers and a list of topics were given to each, as those subjects which were to be emphasized: interviewee's experience with IEHA, her chronological history, including life as a girl, courtship and marriage, childbearing and childrearing, memories of the influences of outside events such as wars on her life, typical daily housekeeping routines in various stages of her life, comparison of her life with that of her mother and of her daughter, effect of technology on homemaking chores, as well as her judgements and values on various issues of modern life, significant accomplishments and failures as a homemaker, and her opinions on aspects of husband-wife and parent-child relationships.  Of those on which age data was available, there were 17 interviewees older than 90, 115 between ages 70-89, 75 between ages 60-69, and 29 younger than 49. The oldest interviewee was 100 and the youngest 25. All interviews occurred between September 23, 1980, and February 24, 1983.  This book is the first in the series. Here are some quotes I think you will find interesting and thought-provoking. Enjoy! :-)   We ate a lot of pie and the men folks -- we had a hired hand -- and I tell you, they could eat more pie than you could shake a stick at. Custard pie, I'd just cut it in half because I didn't like custard pie, and they each ate half. ~Hazel Williams, 79, Franklin County  To get to school on time, we got up at four o'clock in the mornings. We children helped Mother prepare breakfast which was a huge meal consisting of meat, gravy, oats, apple butter, biscuits, milk and coffee. My sister and I washed the dishes while Mother prepared our lunches, which we carried to school in small buckets. ~Violet David, 79, Brown County  Our whole neighborhood would get together at butchering time. We always said our prayers over the plentiful things we had to eat. Sometimes we would stretch up five or six hogs. We would give some to the preacher and to the neighbors. We were always generous, because they were generous to us. ~Clara Nichols, 81, Wabash County  Then after the threshing was done, they always had a threshing meeting at night at somebody's house, and everybody brought their ice cream freezers and made ice cream and cake. The whole neighborhood went and it was a great big party. It was really a lot of fun. I think the kids nowadays really miss some of that. Even the hard work didn't hurt us any, I guess. ~Dorothy Hoffman, 60, Adams County  We lived at Buck Creek and my parents lived at Otterbein. I had never driven until I had a lot of cabbage and I wanted my mother to help me make sauerkraut. I had watched Albert drive, and so I started out with my oldest son, who was about one year old at the time. I drove through Battleground so I wouldn't have to be out on any big highways. And I herded that old Model T and I got there. Sometimes I had to stop and think what I was supposed to do. My dad cranked it for me when I started to come back home, but I stayed two days and we made sauerkraut. After that I made my own -- I knew how to do it then. ~Pearl Meharry Sollars, 70, Tippecanoe County  And I remember once hearing my mother say I was so good to help with the dishes, but she was always afraid to go away and leave me, because I was so little and so slow she was afraid I would go to sleep and fall in the dish pan. ~Pearl Garrison, 92, Carroll County  My parents gave us a cow when we were married. ~Hazel Williams, 79, Franklin County  When my father was living, he killed a beef every year. And he would hang it out in the smokehouse, and just hang it up. I don't know how in the world it ever kept, but I remember it hangin' out there. But we had, I think, longer cooler winters than we do now. It always kept good. ~Irene Redington, 80, Decatur County  Of course it was the woman's place to keep the garden, and I'll have to admit that mine usually raised a great crop of weeds, but we did have vegetables. We'd put about half the garden in potatoes and the rest of it in various other vegetables. ~Erma Agnew, 88, Decatur County  The kids would all grab a tin cup from the kitchen and come running into the barn. They would want you to milk a tin cup full of milk. They would drink this warm milk with foam all over the top. Just seemed to dearly love it. Once in a while we'd squirt the cat, and the cat would open his mouth and get some milk. We had fun sometimes when we milked. ~Beulah Grinstead, 68, Hamilton County