Operation Rescue

Sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry,

but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

~Author Unknown

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Today was a lazy morning. Warren got up earlier than usual to go to work so I turned off my alarm clock so I wouldn't have to hit snooze over and over. Then I asked Warren to call me at 6:45 to be sure I got up. When he left, I comfortably rolled over and cuddled up with Tahoe. Huckleberry was spooning with me on the other side and Bettis decided he wanted in on the action and layed his 100lbs of Labness right on top of me. There we laid, sleeping lightly, only to awake and peer with love at one another. Every now and then I'd get a lick on the cheek or hear the thumping of a tail when they thought maybe, just maybe, I was going to get out of bed. I'm quite sure I had a silly grin on my face as I looked at these three labbies dog piling all around me.

Suddenly, the love session was abruptly ended as a piercing high pitched yelping filled up and took over the morning silence. I jumped up faster than I'm sure I ever have moved in the morning and looked out the window. The dogs also went directly into stance and the hair stood up on their backs. Tahoe gave a small whimper. The crying scream came again, longer this time. It sounded like a sound I had heard a few times before yet had dismissed for a cat probably hunting a sea gull. I crept out back to take a peek at the yard. Nothing. Not a sound or site anywhere. Unsure of what it had been, I went back inside to start my morning. As I was pouring fountain of life into a mug and just about to take my first sip. the doorbell rang and the dogs sprung to action once again. Barking and barking, telling me that, "momma momma, there's someone at the door, oh my god, there's someone at the door!!!!"

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I answered the door to find my neighbor frantically asking me if I had heard that sound just a few minutes earlier. I affirmed and she proceeded to tell me that sound was actually a small little dog in the yard behind ours being kicked and beaten. Her husband had been brushing his teeth upstairs when he heard the yelping and he ran to his bedroom window just in time to see a small white dog flying through the air. He witnessed the person pour a bucket of water on it and kick it some more. Mind you, he wasn't fully dressed yet and said it took him a moment to gain his lucidity back just in time to stop himself from jumping out the second story window half naked to go kick the living patooty out of this guy.

So I hear all this and my mind starts racing. Ok, I have contacts in the dog world. I make up my mind that I am not leaving for work or proceeding with anything today until I know that dog is rescued from that situation. My experience has been that despite their best intentions the police insist their hands are tied in most instances, especially if the dog 'looks fine'. I feared for the worst and was on the phone to all my animal people. Luckily, this time, the police who responded to the situation (someone else, too, had heard it this morning and called it in) were genuinely invested in the incident. It was incredible. When the officer approached the dog, it went stiff and cowered in a corner. The abuse was obvious and the dog looked hurt. One by one the inhabitants of the house were brought out for our neighbor to identify. None of them was the attacker. No matter, the dog was taken from the home and was on it's way to a vet and then to a shelter.

No sooner after had the dog been freed from it's abusive situation, than my phone began to ring and ring and ring. My animal friends were calling me back one after another. There is nothing quite like the network of friends with a common cause. That's why I love Warren, he feels the same unbridled passion for the rights of dogs. Every one of us is a dog lover to the degree that we spend a portion of our lives trying our best to save them all. Armed with all the information I could ever want, I set into action the events that should ensure this dog will never go back there. I filled out animal abuse complaint forms, filed a police report, talked to 3 different shelters to alert them this dog may be coming in and gave them the abusers information (the little I know). The neighbors are doing the same. Because you see, even though there are now animal cruelty laws, the dog sometimes gets lost in the system.

I'm going to do everything I can to follow this little dog and be sure he gets the best care and love. The courts and the new laws will take care of the abusers. My job is not to go over there and kick some booty, because let me tell you, I had to bottle up and swallow my urge to go over there and beat the living crap outta this person. That would be a double standard and I would not be helping the dog or me and my family at all doing that. So I can play the game. I will go through the system doing things the right way yet I will push my way through by jumping the hoops and cutting the red tape as needed.

So although my lazy morning was interrupted by a tragic event, I have once again been reminded of one of my life purposes and was able to put my passion to work. Love is many things, but today, love was saving a dog's life.