Tails: A Garbage Find

Yesterday a friend of mine told me a story that warmed my heart. I am so darn cynical of the world when it comes to animal welfare and these types of stories give me hope.

My friend works at a nearby country club and apparently, there was a cat who always hung around – looking for attention and always begging for food.

Often, they would find the cat fighting in the garbage dump with the raccoons for food.

The club employees treated her as a member and did small things to help her out.

One day at a dentist convention, my friend noticed one of the male dentists sitting out on a stoop petting the cat. He was there for over 20 minutes.

The next thing she knew – the man took a picture of the cat with his phone and sent it to his wife. Immediately they both agreed the cat should come home with him.

After the cat got to her new home, the couple was diligent and brought her to the vet for shots, spaying and grooming. But, they also found at the vet that the cat was microchipped – she had a home – or at least she used to.

The microchip revealed the previous owner’s information and amazingly enough the family was still there and had lost the cat a year ago and assumed the worst: she had died.

The cat’s companion was a little girl who had been heartbroken when her cat ran away. I can only imagine her surprise when her cat came back home.

While perhaps a bit disappointed that the cat wouldn’t be theirs to keep, the couple was thrilled to have brought the cat and her family back together again.

The story reads like a Hallmark movie, doesn’t it… But, it is a real story and that renews my faith in people helping animals.

Speaking of Hallmark movies… If you didn’t have a chance to see the one last Sunday, “A Dog Named Christmas,” an adaptation of the book by Greg Kincaid, it had an endearing message: foster a dog for Christmas.

This is a relatively new concept but local shelters and rescues are allowing people to take home dogs for the holidays so that they can enjoy Christmas, too.

There are a number of reasons for this besides giving the dog a Merry Christmas… Many people are overwhelmed by the thought of getting a dog and while they might want one they are unsure if they can handle the responsibility. This program offers them the opportunity with no strings attached.

And, of course, the second reason is the hope that the foster home will fall in love with the dogs and want to adopt him or her.

I believe the last objective is highly likely seeing that out of the number of fosters I have done – I ended up adopting most of them!

I also think this project gives people a chance to see what a rescue dog is like. People often assume the worse about these dogs – that they have a lot of baggage or aren’t well behaved. All of which is usually untrue.

Sure there are dogs in need of adoption who are plagued by their past – but those types of dogs end up in homes like mine and other crazy people who are always trying to save the ones with the most problems.

After working in a shelter, I can honestly say that so many of the dogs are darn good dogs for any family. Some of them are even purebreds who either ran away and were never found – or were given up by their families for a number of reasons.

Lastly, there are always so many older dogs in need… so even if its just for the holidays – and older dog would thoroughly enjoy a few calm days in a home, away from the noise and concrete floors. Sure older dogs come with the baggage of their near mortality – but in whatever years they have left – they offer nothing but unconditional love and endless kisses.

By the way… black dogs and black cats are the least likely to ever get adopted… Please keep that in mind if and when you go to adopt.

So, at three weeks left to Christmas Eve – please keep fostering (or adopting) a dog for the holidays in your heart…

Like the dentist and the garbage cat – you never know when you will be part of a miracle.