Making A Small Difference

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated…I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by [people] from the cruelty of [human kind]”—Mahatma Gandhi

  

I love my husband for so many reasons.  He is good to me.  He makes me feel safe.  He is a wonderful stepfather etc.  When I married him, I was well aware of all these admirable qualities, but what came as a pleasant surprise to me much later was his unrelenting compassion and love for animals.  You would not expect this trait to be so pronounced but it is…..He is not like a typical person who just cares about animals; there is an even more caring soft spot.
 
I’ve always been an animal lover.  I love all animals (minus rodents), and it hurts me deeply when I hear of the cruelty that exists in today’s world.  If I was wealthy, I would purchase a huge ranch and turn it into a sanctuary for abandoned and abused animals.  When I retire, I intend on becoming a foster mom for rescue dogs.  Dogs have given me such happiness.  I had my first dog at the age of 8, but we were stationed in Korea, and my mom gave him away when we returned to the states.  I did not have any dogs until I became an adult.  There is an undeniable, unbreakable bond between a dog and its owner/parent.  If you really are able to have this gift, you are truly blessed.
 
It was my decision to get Bella and Buddy.  I don’t think Lance realized how attached he would be to these dogs.  They were intended to be my dogs, but both formed a profound attachment to Lance.  In return, he became attached to them.  I know people look at the relationship Lance has with these dogs, and they may find it ridiculously amusing, but to me, it is one more reason why I fall more in love with him.
 

Bella Baby Wade

Bella Baby Wade

Buddy Yellow Pants Wade

Our Babies

When you are in our house, the dogs are FAMILY.  They are treated like our children.  This is their house.  They occupy the entire couch. 

Bella once consumed a couple of pounds of fundraiser chocolates, and Lance took her to the emergency room where the estimated treatment equaled $1700.  Without reservation, Lance paid it.  I know many men would not even consider the option.  Moreover, Lance has risked his own safety on multiple occasions to jump into the riverbed with the strong current to rescue Buddy.  He also jumped into a filthy pond in his work clothes to once again rescue Buddy.
 
Lance and I decided to donate to charity to the benefit of animal rescue.  We are donating $10 a month to Hope for Paws, which is a local based rescue group.  Their rescue videos have spread through the Internet.  This organization films rescues from the moment they get the animal whether it be behind a trash dump or in an alley to their transformation weeks later.

Additionally, Lance found a beautiful story about a bear, tiger, and lion who live together like brothers.  Because of recent new regulations, the sanctuary risks separating these animals.  They were separated in the past and became severely depressed.  Lance and I are now sponsors of Baloo, the bear and Zuri, the tiger.
 
Baloo:  As a cub, Baloo (along with a tiger and lion cub) was discovered in a drug dealer’s basement in Atlanta, Georgia. After being confiscated and placed at Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary, Baloo and his tiger and lion friends were nursed back to health and were kept in the same enclosure as they had become extremely bonded after their frightening ordeal in the basement. To this day at 11 years old, Baloo the bear, Leo the Lion, and Shere Kahn the tiger still live together in harmony. Baloo is a big bear, weighing in around 600 pounds.

Baloo

Baloo with his brothers.  Baloo is the big brother.

Zuri:  Zuri is a white Bengal tiger who faces many of the health concerns most inbred animals do. White tigers are not pure bred, they are inbred, and for every 1 perfect looking, beautiful white tiger you see, at least 100 were euthanized because they were born with some type of deformity. Although Zuri was born normal looking on the outside, she has an incredibly weak immune system and was near death when she came to live at Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary. At her original home, she was hidden from the eyes of the visiting public as she was missing almost all of the hair on her body. Her owners had called their vet in multiple times, but had decided Zuri was a hopeless case and was ready to euthanize her. With plenty of TLC (and expensive medication, numerous diet changes and around the clock care), Zuri is now healthy and a spunky, playful side has come out of her!

Zuri

We may not be doing much, but we are doing something and it is better to do something than nothing.