The Jail Break

My friend, Carol, and I embarked on an early morning adventure today. Carol is a morning person, so she was quite perky, plus she had lots of caffeine in her. Don't ask how I looked!

Carol is a dog rescuer. The shelters call her when a dog is going to be put to sleep. There are various reasons for the dogs' death sentence. Owner surrenders usually get put down immediately. If the dog is old or the least bit sick, they are doomed. If the dogs shows any signs of fear aggression, they have no chance. Carol and her rescue have taken on the responsibility of taking the dogs that no one wants. Her rescue is called Dogs on Death Row. www.dodr.org

Today I rode shot-gun to help Carol with six dogs who were going to be put to sleep this afternoon. Two of the dogs had grown up at the shelter. They had been dumped by their owners as puppies and now they were over a year old. I was thrilled to get to name them. Here is Chopin. He rode on my lap the whole way to the vet. He's such a sweet boy.

Seeing all the dogs that we left in the shelter was really hard. There are over 400 dogs at this shelter!

Cages upon cages.

Each one begging for some love, just a little pet, just a moment of our time. The whole thing was so overwhelming. I felt like running away, and not even looking at their sweet faces. After all, what difference can we really make?

But we did save six today. Like Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things, just small things with great love."

Here is sad little Myer (he is a Dachshund, so we named him after an Oscar Meyer weiner). He only had a few more hours left to live.

Here are the two puppies (Chopin and Mozart), the ones who have lived their whole life in a cage. This is their first time to run free and play outside.

I stepped in poop trying to get their leashes on. I have never heard Carol laugh quite that much before.

What if everyone did one small thing everyday for someone, whether it be to help an animal, a child, a person who is lonely, or just to smile at someone who is having a bad day. Then maybe, there wouldn't be 400 dogs at the shelter. There wouldn't be thousands of orphans.

I have to hope that maybe we can all change the world, one little step at a time. Victoria thinks so!