Dump Your Animals Here!

Where is it?  Where is the sign in my yard that screams for passers by to throw out their unwanted pets into my vicinity?  I want to remove it and never have to deal with this heartbreaking series of events again.  I have two cats of my own.  One came from Wal-Mart, the garden center actually.  The other, well, from a farm where his siblings and mother who were “barn cats” were mauled by a coyote and he was left for dead.  This is where the sign comes in.  That lingering sign over my head that says, “Ask her!  She’ll take it off your hands.”

Many, many times in the five plus years that I’ve lived in rural Georgia, I’ve come home from work to find cats, kittens, puppies, dogs and god knows what else on my porch or under my house.  I then have to do one of three things: keep them, find homes for them or worst of all, call the animal shelter to pick them up.  I mean really, I’m sure it would have been easier for their original owners to call the animal shelter than it was to herd up this flock of feral animals, then haul them to my place, make sure no one is looking and toss them out like yesterday’s newspaper.

Lesson learned.  Why am I complaining?  It could be much worse.  Once these animals look into my eyes and I see their soul, I know I’m now responsible for their wellbeing and I do just that.  They are scared and hungry and I can at least offer them a meal and some comfort until their final destination is determined.  I can’t afford to save every one, but I do try.  My friends now see me coming and scurry like field mice.

I spread the gospel to spay and neuter and to love your animals.