Introduction

I would like to preface the writings in this blog as being my own thoughts, feelings, and attitudes - not necessarily the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of the animal organizations that I am affiliated with. Though some views are certainly shared among my counterparts, I am merely speaking for me - not them. I don't intend this blog to be controversial nor demeaning to those who oppose my viewpoints on the welfare and treatment of companion animals. The intent is to provide a deeper look into the facts and fictions of today's animal societies combined with a honest and candid viewpoint from someone who has seen a lot - both good and bad - of what can happen in our society when you are a four (or maybe even three) legged furry friend without a voice of your own. My background isn't graced with years working for an animal shelter, sitting on a Board of Directors for a local humane society, or really anything involving a paycheck and helping animals. I am a animal rescuer and advocate - bound and determined to end the senseless killing of the millions of companion animals disposed of annually. I live and breathe the motto "killing is not the answer". Death by lethal injection, suffocation in a gas chamber, or being shot in a back alley was not the answer to animal control yesterday, is not the answer today, and will not be the answer tomorrow. But this topic is well deserving of its own blog and will have to wait for another day. As for today, my credentials surely do not strike any chords with the upper echelon of society - but I do know in time they will. I am part of a movement that is great - the movement to end the killing of companion animals in our shelters. When I look around at the numerous (and I mean numerous) animals that I have rescued, rehabilitated, and adopted into loving homes, I am disheartened and ashamed that our society would have killed them without a second glance or thought had they entered our shelter system. I reach down to pet Ginger, a beautiful, but very deformed older calico cat, and I know she wouldn't have stood a chance. Our shelters don't keep cats with broken legs, no teeth, and that come in pregnant - they are "damaged goods" and the most humane thing (humane to whom I always wonder?) to do is to kill them. But I think if we asked Ginger if she is enjoying life or if she would be better off dead , she would happily roll over so I can pet her belly and say I love my life. Sometimes you have to look beyond the physical misfortunes to see what beauty lies within. I do operate a feline rescue organization, where our mission is to rescue and rehabilitate felines who would be sentenced to death in the shelter system. It is in the eyes of the cats who are scared, traumatized, physically and emotionally battered that we can see the inner spirit and will to survive. Like all of us, these cats and dogs want to live, not die in the arms of shelter workers then tossed in a local landfill or sent to the rendering plant to be placed in some of the foods we feed our own animals. I hold true that all of us, humans and animals alike, should be given the same right to life - for in the end, we all want the same thing - love, compassion, and the chance to live until its time to go on our own devices. Please make a lifelong commitment to your pets - don't let them become a statistic.