A story of starfish...

I know, I know, I missed the first Wingin’-It Wednesday.  The easiest day of the week, and I dropped the potato.  But can you blame me?  It was hot.  Seriously, though, fell asleep with the kids while trying to convince them to fall asleep.  I honestly don’t know which of us fell asleep first.  My life is so exciting, I know you can hardly contain yourself.  Try though, because otherwise you make a mess.  And no one likes a mess (okay, some people like a mess, but those people are on a special show called Hoarders).

Anyway, I’ll make it up to you today, dear reader.  I’ll post the Wednesday blog (the one you’re currently reading) AND the Thursday blog before midnight tonight.  I tried to get them done during the daylight hours, but you know how life goes.

For the first Wednesday blog, I decided to share a story with you, dear reader, that animal rescuers have to tell ourselves over and over again.  I was inspired to share this by those stupid ASPCA commercials with Sarah MacLaughlin in them that always leave me in tears.  I usually change the channel or leave the room, but I couldn’t find the remote last night and then both kids were transfixed by the “sad animals”, as E calls them.  She told me last night that they were sad “because they don’t have a mommy”.  If that doesn’t pull on your heartstrings, you probably don’t have a heart.

So here goes (mind you, this is my adaptation, everyone tells it just a little differently).

A woman was walking along the beach when she noticed a man walking her direction farther down the sands.  The man would walk a few steps, stop, bend over and pick something up, then throw it out into the water.  The woman was curious, so she walked towards the man.

As she got closer, she realized the man was picking up starfish from the sand, and tossing them back into the ocean.  The woman approached the man, who stopped walking when got close enough to speak to him.

“Excuse me, sir, but what are you doing?” the woman asked the man.

“The tide has gone out, and these starfish are stuck on the beach,” he responded.  “If I don’t throw them back into the ocean, they’ll die.”

The woman was stunned.  “But there must be hundreds of starfish on this beach alone, not to mention all the starfish on the thousands of beaches all over the world.  How can you possibly expect to make a difference?”

The man reached down, picked up a starfish, and tossed it into the salty water.

“It made a difference to that one,” he said.

This is based on “The Star Thrower”, by Loren Eiseley, and it tells the real reason why so many people get involved with rescues and charities, and why people become social workers and volunteers.  If you worry that you can’t make a difference, you never will.  You have to stop yourself from looking at the whole picture, and focus on the one detail you can change.  If you make a difference in just one animal’s life, or one child’s life, then you’ve changed the world.

We don’t have a lot of extra money these days, so we’re very limited on what we can do to help.  But I’ve learned that there’s always something you can do.  We share our home with 3 beautiful rescue dogs, and one semi-psychotic rescued cat.  Allow me to introduce you.

This is Copper:

Copper was found with his mother and 6 littermates abandoned in the backyard of a house in Austin after the owners moved out.  Yep, that’s right, they moved away and left their dog and her puppies because they didn't want them.  Luckily, a neighbor saw the dogs and called a rescue group who came and picked them up.  Copper, his mom, and his siblings lived with a foster family until the pups were weaned and ready to be adopted.  The rescue group found homes for all of the puppies and their mom.  Copper came to live with us.

This is Charlie:

Charlie was dumped in front of our house in McQueeney when she was just about 8 weeks old.  We never found out where she came from, so she stayed with us.  Charlie has her issues, but she’s a sweet, loving dog.

This is Marla:

Marla was picked up in the street in Austin when she was a little pup.  She was all alone, with no collar or tags, so she was taken to Town Lake Animal Shelter.  We saw her pic online, and fell in love.  We went to Austin, filled out our adoption paperwork, and after the customary checks, took Marla home.  No matter what people may tell you about pit bulls, they’re actually really great dogs, and Marla takes more abuse from the kiddos than either of the other two, and she loves it.  E drags her around the house by her collar, and Marla goes along for the ride.

And this is Kodi:

We found Kodi when she was about 5 weeks old.  She was all alone in the yard at a storage facility, and crying loudly.  I couldn’t help but pick her up and take her home.  She was a bottle-baby, and we weaned her onto canned kitten food.  We were supposed to find a home for her, because the hubby “doesn’t like cats”, but after a few weeks it was obvious she was a part of the family.  She’s a little nuts sometimes, and doesn’t like a whole lot of people, but when she wants to be she’s very affectionate.

So those are my personal rescue stories.  I also help out with home visits for rescues, and with transports.  It’s amazing how hard people will work to get a dog or cat into a good home.  I’ve picked up dogs from San Antonio that were headed to Michigan and Florida and Ohio.  I’ve also been on routes with dogs coming from rescues out of state to be adopted here in central Texas.  It’s a wonderful thing to be a part of.  And all it costs you is a few hours and a couple gallons of gas.  If anyone is interested in becoming part of a rescue/transport group, please let me know.  I would love to pass your name on to some of the groups I volunteer for.  We’re always looking for people in new areas, to make the transport runs easier and to be able to transport to new places.

So there you have it, my first official Wingin’-It Wednesday post.  I’d like to point out that I didn’t actually intend for it to be this long, but apparently I had a lot more to say on the subject than originally anticipated (and I cut myself short, to be honest; I could talk about rescue for hours).

Don’t worry, dear reader, I’ll make sure the Thursday post isn’t quite so long (1200 words, are you kidding me?!), and I’ll keep it more uplifting (ok, at least not quite so serious).

Preview for next week…maybe the first chapter of one of my novels?

Stay tuned!  Theatrical Thursday is comin’ atcha!