Urgent – My Baby
I wanted to share a case with all of you, that really touched my heart on many levels. It all started when I read an email entitled “Urgent – My Baby”. As you can imagine, I receive a lot of urgent email pleas, usually from people trying to re-home their dog, or asking DDR to rescue a particular shelter dog. As a form of self-care, I limit the amount of messages and the types of messages that I will read. This one appeared to be something different. Jennifer, Baby’s “mom” was desperately reaching out to anyone and everyone who could help her redeem her Chihuahua named Baby. The fees totaled $385, and every day that Baby remained in the shelter, the fees increased by $50. I immediately thought about what this dog owner was going through, as someone who did not have the money to get her dog back. Then, I checked myself, thinking, this dog is Orange County, I have to set boundaries, and just because someone is homeless and loves their dog doesn’t always mean the dog is better off going back to the owner. I had nothing but this email to prove to me that Baby’s case was different.
Even though I was going on a hike, more self care, and I told myself that I was going to be one of several that would donate, I replied back to Jennifer, asking her how much money she had raised, where in Orange County was Baby impounded, and to please send me her phone number so that we could talk. Within minutes, I received a reply. We talked, and within a few minutes, I knew from a lot of experience that the fees were accumulating faster than she could raise funds. With a very limited income, some recent health problems, which was the cause of Baby going to the shelter, she did not have any money raised. From what I could hear, her network of friends were in similar situations to her current situation. She went on to tell me she applied to other dog rescues and programs, and I was the first one that had gotten back to her. I have to admit, I had a tinge of regret for getting involved as soon as we hung up. I knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy case.
I cut my hike short so that I could speak to someone at the Orange County shelter about what it would really take to get Baby back with his mom. After being on hold for 20 minutes, it was now 1:30, the shelter closed at 5:00 which meant Jennifer had to get over there now. When I called Jennifer, telling her to go to the shelter and that DDR would pay all the fees, as long as she agreed to use her free spay voucher, she was ecstatic, and very grateful. However, she wasn’t […]