Excerpt

Pasha, From Animal Shelter to A Sheltered Life

All Creatures Great and Small

Four small Chihuahua puppies, found abandoned during a frosty night, were adopted out within the week of their arrival at the shelter.

That left us wondering what would happen to one of our great creatures, Selina, a surrendered pure-bred Great Dane. Only eighteen months old, her ebony coat was offset by a dash of chest-white. While she appeared regal, what she really wanted was to jump into someone’s lap for some cuddle-time. After being dipped free of pesky ticks, she was taken for long romps. Having been chained for most of her short life—much too long for her—she must have felt that she had arrived in doggie-heaven, and her joy and exuberance showed it. She was truly one of those wonderful great creatures. Big, too.

Turning to those of smaller stature but with equally big hearts, two hound-mix puppies ravenously licked their dishes clean, clamoring for more as hunger had been their constant companion during most of their young lives. Faith and Hope stayed with the shelter for a while as did Marty and her pups, until they were old enough to be adopted out. Chrissy and Sweety kept patient top-dog Leon company.

Great or small, we knew that they all would rather have had their own human to play with.

It was heartening how well black lab Portia's injured hind leg had healed, despite being whipped about with happy tail-wagging.

Lost, injured and half-starved, this dainty black lab was found by a couple of our town’s Good Samaritans who took her to one of the regular shelter vets. Diagnosis: a broken hip. Without hesitation, this soft-hearted couple footed the bill and named her Portia. Not being able to keep her themselves, they brought her to the shelter, and for the longest time, one of their family members sent treat-packages to her and all her buddies until she was adopted.

It was a rare time when the cat motel had a lot of vacancies thanks to several adoptions. Still waiting for their big break were Turk, so bright of fur and heart, and Lizzy, blue of eye and truly beautiful. We quickly found that Josie and Frisky were wise; and Mimi so wonderful—if only she would show it more readily.

However animals might appear to a visitor, cooped up in cages most of the time, they are seldom quite themselves.

When people come to the shelter to look at them, to choose one over the other, they (the people) need to be lenient during those first encounters.

If more people would recite to themselves what the renown British veterinarian and beloved author James Herriott stated in his delightful book All Creatures Great and Small, I think there might be a lot less animal cruelty:

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.