Briefly How and Why I became involved with Shelter Pet Rescue

Here is the problem: We all think that the U.S., a very civilized country, would not treat the dogs and cats in our lives with disrespect and disregard. But here is the thing-Millions and millions of people abandon their sweet and loyal family pets to shelters all over the country for these most common reasons: "No Time" or "New Baby" or "This cute little puppy grew up and now I have to care for it" and so the shelters cannot house all of these animals and are forced to euthanize all of these nice dogs and cats. It's not their fault, no one wants to kill animals-it's the public's fault. And then the breeders and pet stores churn out puppies and kittens whilst the dogs and cats and puppies and kittens in the shelter are being euthanized. How many are euthanized? At least 4 million in one year. Rescue Groups are their only hope as well as the few kind people who walk into the shelters and adopt on the spot. Rescue Groups are usually a one or two person deal who work out of their own homes and spend their own savings in order to pull a death row dog or cat and place them in a foster home while that dog or cat is advertised on www.
petfinder.com. There are too few rescue groups and too many pets in need that a very small percentage of animals are saved in time. Every day at one shelter in NYC, 40 cats and 40 dogs are put down due to lack of space in the shelter and lack of people adopting. It is really really disturbing, and those are the pre-recession numbers. I had no idea myself-I grew up in suburbia and everyone bought their dogs and cats from breeders/pet stores....I thought that all of the homeless animals were cared for. That is very far from the truth.
And so that leads to how I became informed and involved:
Maybe about two years ago I was checking out gossip blog www.cityrag.com and the author would post pictures of Buddy, their doggy that they rescued from a group called New Yorkers For Companion Animals. One day they posted about how that rescue group needed help, so I contacted a lady by the name of Patty to volunteer to walk her dogs. She said to me that she needed foster people desperately more than anything, so I was hesitant but I wanted to contribute and do something for someone else. Styling shoots here and there had left me feeling stale and I needed to do something significant for someone else and give back. That phrase "giving is better than receiving" is all too true in this case.

The moment I agreed to take Ali, a battered female pit bull into my house, I thought "What the hell am I doing?" But it became immediately clear that A) pitbulls are very sweet dogs if they are treated well-the media and idiots like Michael Vick ruin their reputation) and B) Sometimes you have to take a step out of your comfort zone and not overthink things and just go for it. You will never gain anything worthwhile in life with out taking a chance.

I could go on and on but I wanted to post about the most important points and so forth. In coming days I will show you the doggies that I fostered and their little stories-these were the lucky ones. And they knew it too.
Thanks for reading,
Rachel