The BEST mail ever!

Palisades Animal Rescue is now an official 501(c)3 approved rescue! That means we are legally a non profit with the IRS! We received our determination letter in the mail today and I must say it is the best mail I have ever received! I can't wait to see what wonderful things this will do for the rescue!

Letting go...

Its been a very difficult week for my family and our pets. For the last month we have been fighting to save our dog Zoe Elizabeth Marie and our cat Joy. One to liver disease and the other to what we believe is FIP. I feel the need to write and get it off my chest. Feel free to read their stories or skip down to the bottom.

Both are 500 miles away from me. We got Zoe when she was only 3 months old and I was 14. When I moved away to college and eventually started the rescue Zoe stayed home with my mother. She was a wonderful girl. Very short, shuffled her feet when she walked, drank out of the pool on the first step instead of her water bowl, rearranged the living room furniture after her swims and brought us her toys when we got home she was so excited. It was hard not living with her anymore but I went home often and still considered her one of mine. She fought liver disease for the past 2 1/2 years and fought hard through surgeries, meds and dark days. She gave up this past month. We lost her yesterday, 9 days after her 12th birthday.

Why am I writing now? Because I'm about to fall apart for the second time in less than 24 hours and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I just have to wait for my phone to ring. Its a horrible feeling waiting for your baby to die and not being there. Two years ago I moved home to help with my grandfather who was ill. When I did all of my pets went with me, including Joyful. After he passed I came back to NC but some of my pets stayed behind with my mother. Its an odd situation but they were going to slowly come back to NC. Joy lost a bunch of weight about a month ago and was diagnosed with FIP which is fatal. We fought the diagnosis and had hope for another disease that mimics it. Joy and her sister Jones are two we have always joked about. The girls have always been less than coordinated, were terrible laser pointer chasers, would let a bug walk right over them. Our joke was that they would be the first ones picked off if they weren't living the life being pampered but had to live in the wild. Lovable and goofy. Not stealth and cunning. I flew home for a week before Thanksgiving to visit her and she was doing wonderful. Eating on her own, playing, being social. 3 days ago that changed and she crashed. I got a call this morning that she was unresponsive and my heart shattered even more. The vet will be there soon and my mother is with her. I know she is feeling loved but I'm not there. She is only 3 years old and should be sunning in a nice warm spot or playing. Not leaving us.

I know I have gone on but I know other pet families understand. Letting them go and saying goodbye are the worst part of having pets in our families and of letting them steal our hearts. Is the pain of losing them worth it? I think it is in the end. Its hard to feel that way when you are in so much pain and your heart feels like it will never mend. I know mine feels that way but then Gladys, my kitten, comes to help me type and gives me a kiss. My foster Sam is giving me leg butts and tossing himself on the floor belly up to cheer me. Claire plants herself in my lap to comfort me. All of the snuggles, kisses, laughs, frustrations, broken dishes, muddy paw prints are worth it in the end. They make our lives whole and more special than if they had never been there. It will take time to heal. To forget the hurt and the bad days but the happy memories will win out.

I guess I wrote this so you will know you aren't alone. You aren't alone in loving your little ones. Be they cat, dog, turtle, mouse or anything in between. And you aren't alone in your heartache when you lost them. There are many of us out here. One place that may help is www.petloss.com They have a weekly candle ceremony, message boards, etc. There are also FIP support groups and many others out there with people who understand and are ready to be there to support you when it feels like the days are impossible. If you just need someone to listen you can email me any time. We also have a memorial page at the rescue where you can say goodbye. I hope your little ones are filled with joy and life this week and that you cherish every second of it.

Today was 9/11 and I spent 10 hours of it in the car.

I spent the day driving along I-40 towards Waynesville, NC. Now this is far from the sought after destination but there was a purpose for the drive and it does connect to 9/11. So I'm going to share with you a different aspect of the terrorist attacks and those that are affected by it but rarely thought about.

I met a woman a few months ago from Tennessee through a group I am part of. She was serving in Iraq and had recently found out that her pet sitter was no longer caring for her pets. Many of our military members are forced to give up their pets when they deploy for the simple reason of not having someone to take care of them while they are gone. What a heart breaking decision to make. To lose your friend and family for the noble cause of fighting for our country and its freedom. This woman however had done everything right and found someone to care for her pets while she was deployed. Unfortunately it turned out to be the wrong person and her pets were being neglected until her family stepped in to make things happen. This is where Palisades came into place. We were able to meet her family this afternoon and provide foster care for her 11 year old Springer Spaniel mix and 6 year old sassy but wonderful feline until she can return home.

Few realize how many animals lose their families due to military services. Many also do not know about the many groups who provide on going foster care and support for military pets across our country. Foster homes that provide a safe and loving family for military pets until their families can come home and they can be reunited. While it may not be the most world changing aspect of 9/11 providing support for our military members and their pets is one way rescues can make a small difference.

Below are a few of the military foster programs which you may be interested in reading about and sharing with others both in and out of the military. We would also love to talk to you about fostering military pets for Palisades. I hope you will consider opening your home to a military pet in need and bringing peace of mind to their families while they are deployed.

Operation Noble Foster
http://www.operationnoblefoster.org/

Guardian Angels for Soldier's Pets
http://www.guardianangelsforsoldierspet.org/MilitaryPersonnel.htm

Net Pets- Military Pets Foster Project
https://www.netpets.org/militarypet/foster.php

The Pet Foster Network will include requests in their newsletters
http://www.petfoster.org/faq27.html

Pet Foster Care for Military Personnel
http://www.alphataxservices.com/military/classifieds/petfostercare.asp

I don't have pets. I have a herd.

Cats, dogs, turtles, wild mice and of course my little white city mice. I'm not sure exactly when it happened. I just woke up one day and knew it was true, i had a herd. and it suits them too.

the last additions to the herd were four little girl mice. let me tell you, they were a long time coming. when i was 6 years old one of my favorite things to do was visit the pet store at our mall and watch the mice, hamsters and all of their babies. they were amazingly adorable and i could watch them for hours. bless my momma's heart she never told me many were meant to be food for other critters. i honestly don't think she knew either. it would have broken my young heart. little did she know that twenty some years later she would have grandmice!! the wild mice actually came first but that is a story for another time.

the girls (azalea, cypress, honeybee and dragonfly) found themselves at animal control one day and then at another rescue that works with rodents. there are indeed rescues set up just to work with small animals like mice, rats, hamsters, etc. somehow i became their foster mom and soon after realized they were family. i was a mouse mom. i know, i know. someone who does cat rescue having pet mice is a bit different but it works!

the girls were meant to be someone's food but not in our household. one of our family rules is "we do not eat our brothers and sisters". this applies to the mice members also. they are off limits to all of their kitty siblings. its an odd assortment and often hard to tell who enjoys it more... the cats watching their potential snacks run around playing or the little mouse girls taunting their larger siblings.

its a wonderful group of little ones. wonderfully sweet, loving and always ready for their next adventure. i hope you'll enjoy getting to know them and will fall in love with the many animals that come through the rescue. i know they have all stolen my heart....