GOOD NEWZ REHAB, NOT JUST FOR DOGS

As you can see in the picture, Angel is tuckered out from playing and she snuggles with her new toy. Ok Ok, I slipped her new CHEF toy between her paws when I caught her in the middle of the floor having a nap, but she was really playing with it earlier, I swear. HaHa.

Well moments like these while volunteering at the Good Newz Rehab just make me smile and proud that I have the chance to be part of this incredible effort. There is more to come, I can feel it in my bones, I see a great future for hundreds of dogs at Good Newz in time. I get chills just thinking about the excitement of the project.

For me, driving out to Surry County every Tuesday and Thursday and more if  I at all possibly can, has been the biggest blessing I've had in a very long time. The quiet country air and visions of horses and country living, calms my spirit every morning I drive out to DDB. More than once, John Denver (RIP) comes with me either by CD or me singing Country Roads Take Me Home, with the windshield being my only audience. (Well there was one man who was staring at me wildly at a stop light one morning lol) . My spirit gets a lift every time the dogs come to greet me at the door and give me oodles of dog hugs, licks and whines and barks. Even Polly who is having a tough time with strangers has to look at me and bark, though she wishes I'd go away I'm sure at times. Polly likes her foster mother Elaine and Tami and other dogs, but little else in the world. NOT YET anyway.

Washing the dogs often is a time to let past hurts and pain run down the drain. I think of my life as a kid and the day I came home to see the bat standing  next to the front door. Nobody had to tell me. The bat was never put there. It was out for a reason. I went into the house with my heart pounding and dread filled my body. I found out that my father had killed my best friend, Flipper (a beagle) with the bat. Even now looking at it, if that did occur, why would you tell a child that? The fact that I was told that immediately upon entering the door was as bad as the act itself. I wasn't allowed to cry. It would upset my father. ????? It was at that moment I believe, I changed inside forever. It was that day when I completely lost trust in both of my parents.  Flipper was everything to me. He waited for me at my busstop as I was getting home from school everyday, he played house with me, romped the meadows with me and I spent a huge part of my world with him in the stable where he lived. He wasn't allowed in our house so I would do everything I could to make his life in the barn comfortable. Old coats blankets and pillows were piled for his bedding. With sub below temperatures in Canada I never felt he would be warm enough. I remember cutting down a little xmas tree and decorating it with homemade decorations one xmas and when my father got angry and took it away, I found a little tree in the meadow to decorate instead and told Flipper it was his tree no matter what. I wrapped old meat bones and toys in newspaper and put them under the tree so xmas morning we could run to the meadow as soon as we could to open his presents together. He truly was a best friend and I loved him so much.

I sometimes wish I could go back to that day and try to change it somehow. I felt responsible for many years, but now I see the burden of abuse was at the hands of my father. I believe he was not an awful man but a sick man who didn't get the help he needed. Despite the culture in rural community in Canada over 40 years ago, I feel that situation could have been handled differently. I don't think my best friend had to die, but he did. I was traumatized but noone knew that. I didn't know that til I hit my twenties and that experience and many other childhood horrors started controlling my life. I have healed so much over the years but there are and always will be,deeper layers to the onion.

My work with the dogs at Good Newz has deepened my committment to my rescue work that I was about to give up. It has deepened my knowledge of animal abuse and it has deepened my spirit of peace and contentment and where I find my happiness. As a child I had no control over my surroundings. I still don't sometimes but I can do what I can to help heal some of the world's injustices. Animals can't speak, though they do in many ways. They don't have to, their spirit speaks for itself, if we listen. I have listened and I hope I never stop listening not until I take my last breath. This is my purpose, strong and true and no matter what direction animal rescue and rehab takes me, I will continue to do my small part in this plight. PEACE