Paw & Order has been operating now for 7 1/2 years and throughout it all we have stayed true to one main principle; Take care of these family pets as though they are our very own. How WE would want OUR pets cared for when we aren't with them. Time. Love. Kindness.
As we have grown over the years, people have told me that I should start a "blog" and I still find myself saying something to the effect of, "It's just me." Who would be interested in anything that I have to say?" Well apparently people are in fact interested! So, here we are at my first attempt at blogging.
I've always said that the best part of doing what we do everyday happens to also be the most difficult. Actually CARING for the animals. It brings me immense joy, peace and sincere happiness. I love caring for them and I love caring about them - each and every single one. The downside is that when you actually CARE, in your soul, it can also bring gut wrenching pain and sorrow when things don't go just right. If someone gets hurt or sick or when you find out that one of our furry clients has passed away it is crushing. When we opened our doors years ago, I was well aware that we would experience grief over the loss of our furry clients but I had vastly underestimated the degree of grief to which we would feel the loss. I knew that of the, let's say, 100 furry clients we had at the time we would lose them all in 10 - 15 years. Yes, we cry when we find out. Sob? Yup. Mourn? So much. However, in the end, that client came to us at some point in their lives needing love and kindness, time, compassion, reassurance and guidance and when you give all of that to them you can't help but feel the loss when they feel sick or are hurting or cross the rainbow bridge.
So you might be asking yourself why do we do this if it's so difficult? Simple answer... because we love them. Period. Isn't that enough of a reason? The days, weeks and years of having their splendid little furry personalities surrounding us with joy and happiness outweigh the pain in that moment that we get bad news. We do what we do so we can change lives. We have our daycamp operating because, in many cases, it's what keeps these dogs in their already loving home instead of going to a shelter just because they have too much energy. We care for them overnight so they have a place to lie their little heads at night where it's warm, safe and cozy. We train dogs and their humans so that they can see within each other what I get to see in all of them every day. All of these things combined keep our doors open for those awful days when we inevitably get the call that a dog out there is suffering, or lost and needs our help. We rescue, foster, re-home and educate. Why? Because we love them.
So if you want a little bit of insight about what it's like to work with animals, keep your eyes on our blog. Sometimes it will be funny. Sometimes it will be sad. Sometimes we will talk about training techniques and education. But it will always be real. Sometimes our team members get together and talk about our stories and experiences and in the end we have determined that you really just CAN'T make this stuff up.
Until next time.... TAIL WAGS!
Posted on April 12, 2017 by Stephanie Shipley.
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