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| Bugle ,the one and only |
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The Rescuer's Prayer
Hear our prayer;
Lord have mercy;
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on us and the whole world;
Lord have mercy.
Look down upon this little dog, Your creation,
and show him mercy and peace.
Spare him further lonliness and pain;
soften the hearts of those who hold him now;
spare this humble dog from destruction
and give him a loving home.
He has not done any act except that
which was taught by the evil hearts of unkind men.
We ask for a happy, healthy, long and
productive life for him.
We ask that this dog would learn to trust and love
what honorable hands that would rescue him.
Father, give us comfort for our troubled hearts and saddened eyes;
especially for Your servant
who shows great kindness to all Your creation.
As in all things, Father, if it be Your will that he not be placed in those hands,
then we trust in Your wisdom and mercy
that he will pass into Your loving arms
as You have intended for all Your creation.
We are reminded of Your promises -
"In whose hand is the soul of every living thing"
Job 12:10
and
"Because the creature itself also shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into
the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now"
Romans 8:21-22
Through Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
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A DOGS PRAYER
"Treat me kindly, my beloved master, for no heart in all the world is more grateful than the loving heart of me.
Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I should lick your hand between blows, your patience and understanding will more quickly teach me the thing you would have me learn.
Speak to me often, for your voice is the world's sweetest music, as you must know by the fierce wagging of my tail when your footstep falls on my waiting ears.
Please take me inside when it is cold and wet, for I am a domesticated animal, no longer used to bitter elements, and ask no greater glory than the privilage of sitting at your feet beside the hearth.
Keep my pan filled with water, for I cannot tell you when I suffer thirst.
Feed me clean food, that I may stay well to romp and play and do your bidding; to walk by your side and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life should your life be in danger.
And master, when I am old, if the Great Master sees fit to deprive me of my health and sight, do not turn me away from you. Rather see that my trusting life is taken gently, and I shall leave you knowing that with the last breath I drew my fate was always safest in your hands."
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This is the same for Beagles and all rescues!
This was written by the woman who founded PyrAngels, the Great Pyrenees rescue .She was a huge resource, a source of inspiration for many, and a very tough act to follow.
I Want to Quit (This Is What Animal Rescue Is Like)
By Joan C. Fremo
I want to quit! My health is bad. There are days I feel so terrible that I can barely move. My phone bills are outrageous, and I could have replaced my van with the funds I have spent these last 3 years---on animals that were not my own.
I want to quit! I spend hours and hours emailing about dogs. There may be 500 messages when I start---and at 4 AM, when I finally shut down the computer, there are still 500 emails to be read.
I want to quit! Gosh, I haven't the time left to email my friends. I can't remember the last book I read, and I gave up my subscription to my local newspaper---I used to enjoy reading it, cover to cover, but now it often ends up in the bottom of the squirrel's cage---unread.
I want to quit! I've spent days emailing what seems like everyone---trying to find a foster home, help for a dog languishing in a shelter---but his time has run out, and the shelter has had to euthanize to make room for the next sad soul.
I want to quit! I swear, I walk away from my computer to stretch my legs---let the dogs out---and come back to find another dog in desperate need. There are times I really dread checking my email. How will I find the funds, the help, to save yet another dog?
I want to quit! I save one dog, and two more take its place. Now an owner who doesn't want his dog---it won't stay in his unfenced yard. An intact male wanders... This bitch got pregnant by a stray... This 3-month-old pup killed baby chicks... The dog got too big... This person's moving and needs to give up his pet. I ask you, friends---what town, what city, what state doesn't allow you to own a pet?
I want to quit! I just received another picture, another sad soul with tormented eyes that peer out of a malnourished body. I hear whimpering in my sleep, have nightmares for days...
I want to quit! Many of the "Breed People" don't seem to want to hear about these dogs. Breeders either don't realize, or just don't care, how many dogs of their breed are dying in shelters.
I want to quit! I just got off the phone. "Are you Pyr Rescue? We want to adopt a male to breed to our female." How many times do I have to explain? I have tried to explain about genetics, about health and pedigrees. I explain that rescue NEUTERS! I usually end up sobbing, as I explain about the vast numbers of animals dying in shelters across the country, as I describe the condition many of these animals are found in. I wonder if they really heard me...
I want to quit! It is not like I don't have enough rescues of my own to worry about---but others have placed dogs improperly and aren't there to advise the new owners.
I want to quit! There ARE some unscrupulous rescues out there---hoarders, collectors, and folks who will short change the care of the animals to make a dollar. The save them all, regardless of temperament, putting fellow rescuer's and adopters at risk but not being truthful.
I want to quit! I have trusted the wrong people--- had faith and heart broken...
I want to quit! AND THEN... My dog, Magnus, lays his head in my lap, he comforts me with his gentle presence---and the thought of his cousins suffering stirs my heart.
I want to quit! AND THEN... One of those 500 emails is from an adopter. They are thanking me for the most wonderful dog on earth---they cannot imagine life with out their friend---their life is changed, and they are so grateful.
I want to quit! AND THEN... One of my adopted Rescues has visited a nursing home. A patient that has spent the last few years unable to communicate, not connecting---Lifts his hand to pat the huge head in his lap, softly speaks his first words in ages--- to this gentle furchild.
I want to quit! AND THEN... A Good Samaritan has found and vetted a lost baby, "I can't keep him, but I'll take care of him until you find his forever home."
I want to quit! AND THEN... "Jamie took his first steps holding on to our Pyr." "Joan, you should see this dog nursing this hurt kitten!" "I was so sick, Joan, and he never left my side..."
I want to quit! AND THEN... I get an email from a fellow rescuer, "Haven't heard from you in a while---you OK? You know I think of you..."
I want to quit! AND THEN... A dozen rescuers step up to help, to transport, to pull, and to offer encouragement. I have friends I have never seen, but we share tears, joys, and everything in between. I am not alone I am blest with family of the heart, my fellow Rescuers. Just days ago it was a friend who shared her wit and wisdom, whose late night email lifted my heart. Sometimes it is friends who only have time to forward you a smile. Often, it is my friends who forward me the notices of dogs in need. There are Rescuers who see a flailing transport and do everything they can do find folks to pull it together for you. Rescuers who'll overnight or foster your Dog while you seek transport. There are Rescuers not used to or comfortable with your breed, but who put aside their discomfort to help. There are Rescuers whose words play the music of our hearts. Foster homes that love your Rescue, and help to make them whole again---body and spirit. Foster homes that fit your >baby in, though it may not be their breed. Rescuers whose talents and determination give us tools to help us. Rescuers we call on for help in a thousand ways, who answer us, who hear our pleas. Rescuers who are our family, our strength, our comrades in battle. I know I cannot save every Pyr in need. I know my efforts are a mere drop in a sea. I know that if I take on just one more---those I have will suffer.
I want to quit! But I won't. When I feel overwhelmed, I'll stroke my Magnus's head while reading my fellow Rescuers emails. I'll cry with them, I'll laugh with them---and they will help me find the strength to go on.
I want to quit! But not today. There's another email, another dog needing Rescue.
This piece is dedicated, with love and gratitude, to all my fellow Rescuers.
Joan
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Grow Old With Dogs
When I am old...
I will wear soft gray sweatshirts...
and a bandana over my silver hair.....
and I will spend my social security checks on wine and my dogs.
I will sit in my house on my well-worn chair and listen to my dogs' breathing.
I will sneak out in the middle of a warm summer night and take my dogs for a run, if my old bones will allow...
When people come to call,
I will smile and nod as I show them my dogs...
and talk of them and about them...
....the ones so beloved of the past and the ones so beloved of today....
I will still work hard cleaning after them, mopping and feeding them and whispering their names in a soft loving way.
I will wear the gleaming sweat on my throat, like a jewel and I will be an embarrassment to all...
especially my family...
who have not yet found the peace in being free to have dogs as your best friends....
These friends who always wait, at any hour, for your footfall...
and eagerly jump to their feet out of a sound sleep, to greet you as if you are a God.
With warm eyes full of adoring love and hope that you will always stay,
I'll hug their big strong necks...
I'll kiss their dear sweet heads...
and whisper in their very special company....
I look in the Mirror...
and see I am getting old....
this is the kind of person I am...
and have always been.
Loving dogs is easy,
they are part of me.
Please accept me for who I am.
My dogs appreciate my presence in their lives...
they love my presence in their lives......
When I am old this will be important to me...
you will understand when you are old....
if you have dogs to love too.
Author Unknown |
When you bring a pet into your life, you begin a journey. A journey that will bring you more love and devotion than you have ever known, yet will also test your strength and courage. If you allow, the journey will teach you many things, about life, about yourself, and most of all, about love. You will come away changed forever, for one soul cannot touch another without leaving its mark.
Along the way, you will learn much about savoring life's simple pleasures -- jumping in leaves, snoozing in the sun, the joys of puddles, and even the satisfaction of a good scratch behind the ears. If you spend much time outside, you will be taught how to truly experience every element, for no rock, leaf, or log will go unexamined, no rustling bush will be overlooked, and even the very air will be inhaled, pondered, and noted as being full of valuable information.
Your pace may be slower, except when heading home to the food dish, but you will become a better naturalist, having been taught by an expert in the field. Too many times we hike on automatic pilot, our goal being to complete the trail rather than enjoy the journey. We miss the details: the colorful mushrooms on the rotting log, the honeycomb in the old maple snag, the hawk feather caught on a twig.
Once we walk as a dog does, we discover a whole new world. We stop; we browse the landscape, we kick over leaves, peek in tree holes, look up, down, all around. And we learn what any dog knows that nature has created a marvelously complex world that is full of surprises, that each cycle of the seasons bring ever changing wonders, each day an essence all its own, each day a gift from God.
Even from indoors you will find yourself more attuned to the world around you. You will find yourself watching: summer insects collecting on a screen; how bizarre they are; how many kinds there are or noting the flick and flash of fireflies through the dark. You will stop to observe the swirling dance of windblown leaves, or sniff the air after a rain. It does not matter that there is no objective in this; the point is in the doing, in not letting life's most important details slip by.
You will find yourself doing silly things that your pet-less friends might not understand: spending thirty minutes in the grocery aisle looking for the cat food brand your feline must have, buying dog birthday treats, or driving around the block an extra time because your pet enjoys the ride. You will roll in the snow, wrestle with chewier toys, bounce little rubber balls till your eyes cross, and even run around the house trailing your bathrobe tie with a cat in hot pursuit, all in the name of love.
Your house will become muddier and hairier. You will wear less dark clothing and buy more lint rollers. You may find dog biscuits in your pocket or purse, and feel the need to explain that an old plastic shopping bag adorns your living room rug because your cat loves the crinkly sound. You will learn the true measure of love. The steadfast, undying kind that says, "It doesn't matter where we are or what we do, or how life treats us as long as we are together."
Respect this always. It is the most precious gift any living soul can give another. You will not find it often among the human race. And you will learn humility. The look in my dog's eyes often made me feel ashamed. Such joy and love at my presence. She saw not some flawed human who could be cross and stubborn, moody or rude, but only her wonderful companion. Or maybe she saw those things and dismissed them as mere human foibles, not worth considering, and so chose to love me anyway.
If you pay attention and learn well, when the journey is done, you will be not just a better person, but the person your pet always knew you to be. The one they were proud to call beloved friend.
I must caution you that this journey is not without pain. Like all paths of true love, the pain is part of loving. For as surely as the sun sets, one day your dear animal companion will follow a trail you cannot yet go down. And you will have to find the strength and love to let them go.
A pet's time on earth is far too short, especially for those that love them. We borrow them, really, just for a while, and during these brief years they are generous enough to give us all their love, every inch of their spirit and heart, until one day there is nothing left. The cat that only yesterday was a kitten is all too soon old and frail and sleeping in the sun. The young pup of boundless energy now wakes up stiff and lame, the muzzle gone to gray.
Deep down we somehow always knew that this journey would end. We knew that if we gave our hearts they would be broken. But give them we must for it is all they ask in return. When the time comes, and the road curves ahead to a place we cannot see, we give one final gift and let them run on ahead, young and whole once more. "God speed, good friend," we say, until our journey comes full circle and our paths cross again.
And bless their souls for sharing their lives with us... and adding so much to our very existence. |
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