Rescue Tail/If they can, we can!

In 2020, life as we knew it disappeared.  People across the globe were impacted. Everything we depended upon in our day to day lives was either severely limited or gone altogether. Our daily routines were up-ended and our friends and family were no longer accessible to us. Movement was restricted and for so many, days were no longer mapped out for us by work schedules. For some of us, work stopped altogether or the nature of it changed drastically. All sense of safety and predictability went away as we faced the effects of this pandemic. Frustration, anxiety, and flat-out fear dominated our emotional landscape. 

Yet, to us who work in animal welfare, there was something familiar about all of this. Although most of us had never experienced anything like this before in OUR lives, so many animals experience it every day when they enter shelters. The life they knew and everything familiar is suddenly gone. Everyone they knew and depended on for support is no longer accessible to them. Their movements are restricted; their known routines are gone.  Any sense of safety, security, and predictability has disappeared, and there is NOTHING they can do to change it.  Like us, they experience frustration, anxiety, and fear because of the situation they find themselves in.

In Chinese, the symbol for crisis is danger + opportunity. For so many of us, this pandemic is a crisis. We are faced with threats to our health and our well-being. But as we find ways to adapt to our new environment, we can develop new courage and resiliency. We can find new ways to connect with others, new ways to stay enriched and entertained, and learn new skills to adapt to our changed world. Our lives can be positively transformed, in spite of all the hardship. Shelter animals have been doing this every day of every year!

Toffee the cat and his four sisters came to the shelter after being born and raised in the same home for almost a year. When they came in to us, we were greeted with  a group of hissing , spitting,  four-legged furry sword-wielding  machines. Initially, we couldn’t handle them. They were traumatized, and all they had left of their former life was each other. Toffee was the more confident member of the family and may have served as a role model for the others. Little by little, each in their own way and at their own speed, all five cats began to make the transition to their new temporary world. They learned to accept being handled and formed new friendships with both other cats and our staff and volunteers. Toffee and Mia have left us and are both now in pemanent homes.  We are confident their sisters soon will be, too.

We have witnessed these transformations over and over again, year after year. Senior dogs, so lost and sad when they enter our doors, eventually regain a sparkle in their eyes and a spring in their step as they realize life can be good again. Fearful dogs who trust no one but eventually gain the courage to make one human friend, and then another and another until they have a whole new circle of support. Animals adapt; animals learn; and animals change. 

So, as we turn our backs on this historically awful 2020 that’s changed our lives and we enter the new year ahead, let’s take inspiration from shelter animals who are heroic in their acceptance, courage and resiliency. They can be our role models and best teachers. If they can find their way back to a good life, so can we!  We wish you all a very safe, happy, and much better year in 2021!