What does Rescue mean to you?

With so many reasons to rescue, it's hard to always define it to someone who doesn't 'get it.' I sometimes react with a horrified look on my face when a person tells me they don't have a dog or cat or that they never had one and never will. It's like encountering a stranger in a strange land. My pit crew goes everywhere with us, and we go everywhere with them; we all deserve a life of adventure. I cannot imagine my life without animals, and that is the simplified reason why I rescue.

Having taken in dogs/cats of various ages over the years, and now foster kittens, I think a lot of it was to help fill this seemingly bottomless hole in my heart that I knew other people could not and more accurately, I would not, let them fill. I knew I had to do the work myself, even dig deeper to root out anything toxic lingering before I re-filled with the good. Growth is a hard process, not so much because of any pain; for me, it is the continual analysis of decades of dysfunction while keeping present in the fact that my life NOW deserves my 100% attention. Sometimes, it's about rescuing yourself. Enter a shelter animal. Those that have had the unfortunate, yet ironically fortunate, opportunity to end up in the system, know dysfunction. There is a common bond between hurt humans hurt animals. The only thing that can correct it [over time] is steady love. That love can come in many forms and is often individualized and private as to the reasons for it, but all the same it is seen on a rescued being's face and in their actions - animal and human alike.

So, rescue means 2 things to me: taking a chance to love yourself and giving that learned love to an animal in need. Love always comes back in new forms.

What does rescue mean to you? #whatdoesrescuemeantoyou