“I’m Not Mad, I’m Just Disappointed…”

by John Flores

Yesterday, Elisha and I went to the pound to pull some dogs (11 to be exact) to give them a 2^nd chance at life. While that feeling in itself is a feeling so good I cannot describe today’s post is not about that. Today’s post is about the close to 100 other dogs and cats we couldn’t save. I don’t mean to bring you all down but this is the reality of it.

It’s one thing to go to the pound with a mission to pull a certain dog. You can look past the other kennels and not have to make eye contact with the other dogs. You get a kennel number and you go straight there. They take the dog to the play yard and you get to evaluate the dog. More times than not they pass, you load the dog up in the van and you’re on your way. Today was different. We spent about 3 hours at the pound picking dogs that would fit in best at the rescue. Dogs that would not put our teenage volunteers in danger and dogs who we thought could get adopted fast so we could come back and rescue more.

I think we touched and made eye contact with just about every dog. You walk up and down the halls and all their eyes have a story to tell but you just don’t know what it is. You look at them and some are scared, some are growling at you but for the most part, they walk up to their kennel with their face pressed up against these cold bars trying to get as close to you as possible. It’s at that moment; you’re almost relieved they can’t speak. You don’t want to hear their story. You don’t want to hear how they were loved at one point and then dumped at this pound. You don’t want to hear how they were born and just never wanted in the first place. You don’t want to hear how their family just didn’t try hard enough to find a place that would take them in. You don’t want to hear how they got too old and basically traded in for a younger dog. It gets to the point where you almost don’t want to pet them because the feeling of giving a helpless animal that little piece of hope of leaving this place is probably not going to happen. But we are there to save animals and we have the power to save a dog’s life but we also have the power to possibly end one. We cannot save them all. We realize that going into the situation and you try to stay positive but every time you leave the pound you realize you have left dogs there to die.

And when I get home, my pack smells all the dogs on me. Again, I’m relieved they can’t talk because I don’t know that I have the heart to explain to them why I left so many of their brothers and sisters behind. I stare at my dogs and wonder how they got so lucky. What made them so special to escape this life?

The truth is, if you surrender your dog to the pound, they’re not going to get adopted. They are probably going to get euthanized. Nobody is going to think your dog is as great as you once did. And why should they? You dropped them off there. And while you may shed some tears it’s nothing compared to knowing your dog is in a cold lonely cell surrounded by a bunch of other dogs howling and barking 24 hours a day waiting for you to come back. Maybe if they’re lucky, a rescue like Priceless Pets will have room for a dog like them and give them a 2^nd chance but it’s probably not going to happen. Your dog is going to die. This is not a post about how we should pat our backs because we saved 11 dogs. This is a post about how we have failed as human beings. Society, as a whole, is not treating “man’s best friend” with any respect. Rescue is not easy. If it was, everyone would do it. But if everyone did it, I wouldn’t need to be writing this.

Today, Elisha and I will head out to another pound. We will go through this same thing again but this is our life. We have chosen to do this because saving one is better than none. Both our hearts will break but we probably won’t talk about it when we leave because some things hurt so much that talking about it out loud makes it worse. But as we drive back we will look back at the dogs we did get to save and we can promise them that there is a family out there for them. And we will go home to our dogs and once again be happy that they cannot talk and ask questions but even if they could, they would understand. They will continue to love us unconditionally without asking for anything but love in return because that’s what we have made “man’s best friend” to be. Our dogs will have that luxury but the dog you dumped at the pound probably never will and I can promise that if the roles were reversed they would never put us in that situation.

Like my mom always used to tell me when I really upset her, “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.” I’m way past mad… I’m pretty disappointed in us, as humans, as a whole.

John Flores

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