I video and record Animal Rescuers, Fosterers and Adopters who have welcomed in animals in need. These good folks speak of how and why they do what they do.
Certainly, each animal cared for well honors all animals not cared for. This understanding becomes living prayer for animals worldwide (perhaps next door) still at risk.
to celebrate animal rescuers - fosterers - adopters
to inspire animal rescue - fostering - adoption
on a broader scale
to reduce the numbers of shelter surrenders and returns
to help establish stronger animal-fostering networks
to honor all that animals teach us
when we see them deeply
to promote reverence for all life
The conversations, whether videoed or simply recorded, take place face-to-face or long distance, In Depth or On the Spot. The voices themselves tell stories, laced as they are with true emotion.
Some folks are glad to be videoed or recorded. Others choose to tell their stories anonymously — no photos or video, no name or location mentioned. In whichever form, with their permission, I post their conversations from my smartphone to the world.
Fosterers and adopters may differ as to daily routines and philosophy and practice of care. Some have plenty of money to spend on their animal companions' well being. Others have little.
And some have plenty of time. Their dogs get walked frequently, for example. Others – especially those who work two or three jobs or who are ill or very old or who have young children to care for, maybe some with special needs – make do with runs or fenced-in yards.
That said, you will recognize the common thread of dedication. Caregivers spay and neuter their cats and dogs and feed them and shelter them and stick by them (as well as stick by their birds and rabbits and goats and sheep and horses and . . .) You will “as they say” feel the love.
I urge you not to watch or listen on the basis of calling yourself a dog person or a cat person and the like. In fact, watching/listening you will hear folks speak of having switched preferences — cat lovers become bird lovers, dog lovers become cat lovers. Walls fall down.
"At this point I am creating a digital quilt of stories,
not a documentary.
Though I have spent much time sound editing,
consistent with my intention to present the conversations well,
I now view the occasional hisses and highway noises,
chain saw din, folks chatting in the background,
dog collars jingling, birds sounding loudly,
as "accompaniment" to the rescuers' - fosterers' - adopters' clearly-spoken words."
The OPEN WIDE THE DOOR video and audio conversations feature compassion live. They celebrate the lengths to which human beings will go for the sake of animals in need, even in (especially in) extreme and tender times.
because every life matters,
maggie (davis)
207.266.7673
Late summer 2012, a friend called to say that a pregnant, two-year-old pug/minpin/chihuahua mix had been found abandoned on a chain, no food or water. The call came a few weeks before my six-year-old greyhound companion, Muse, and I were to move from a small summer rental in Stonington, Maine, to my winter rental in that town.
An animal control officer had kept the little dog a couple of days, but she couldn’t stay with him, he said. And there was a question of her being able to whelp her pups successfully. I believed she was at risk of being euthanized.
Adopting another dog
—
especially a pregnant, unsocialized one —
seemed far from a good idea.
But now I knew about Molly,
and I couldn’t unknow her.
Setting common sense aside, I welcomed her in.
At first she barked and lunged at everything and everyone new she saw, including leaves looping by her in a breeze. When she and Muse and I went walking (Muse, easygoing — Molly, loving and intelligent but far from easygoing) — we were not a pretty sight.
I reminded myself how I might feel if suddenly I had been transplanted from an isolated life. I’d have barked and lunged, too, most likely, until gentle touch and positive training, plus plenty of reassuring sniffs, could help me feel more secure.
Dogs far too often are returned to shelters when
they lunge and bark at other dogs.
Or they are labeled as Dogs Who Don’t Like Other Dogs
when, in fact — as with Molly — often they simply
are either very excited to see other dogs,
or are afraid of them.
Cats are returned as well, or worse.
A cat who recently had lost the person
she’d been with for ten years
peed on her adopter’s bed the first night in her new home
and was euthanized the next day.
Thankfully, many give their dogs and cats and horses and . . . .
a chance to settle in.
These folks call up times they, themselves,
have been most frightened
and, remembering,
offer compassion to their new companions.
A woman adopting two goats who cried almost ceaselessly
sensed their terror
and comforted them with her presence
until they felt more at home.
Two veterinarians confirmed my concern that Molly would be delivering several large puppies. (It turned out she had been impregnated by a pit bull.) I added her story to several online prayer circles for pets. In the past, posting prayers for the sake of both humans and animals has worked very well (too many coincidences to be coincidences?). In any case, a week later, far-from-easygoing Molly serenely whelped seven hefty puppies on my couch, a caring friend and I “attending.”
No respite. In a few days, a call came in that a beautiful female Staffordshire mix had been found running free along one of our island’s main roads.
A woman had reported the young dog missing and searched, without success, for her person. She’d let the dog stay in her barn, and fed and walked her. The sweet pup had to be moved right away, however, and — so far — no one had offered to take her in.
Refresh page to reload this video.
Click the play button, above, on Mercy’s video.
See why Mercy moved me so...and later moved a family to adopt her.
I was able to locate a second temporary fosterer in a housing project in town. If no one claimed the Staffordshire mix, I intended to film her then post a video of her online to help her be adopted to a loving home.
Then someone at the housing project failed to see the beauty in her and reported her to the project manager who banned her instantly. This the manager did despite this dog’s lovely ways. This he did without meeting her. According to her current fosterer, I had half an hour to scoop her up before the police arrived.
Scoop her up, I did. At once, I saw the good in her. I wished mercy for her and named her Mercy. Before we drove away, I filmed her meeting a new friend.
| for a better viewing experience | |
| 1) | buffer completely before watching |
| 2) | play full screen |
| 3) | turn up volume |
| 4) | choose HD setting (click on the little settings wheel) |
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What a difference this makes for the animals!
Do read each conversation's YouTube description.
