Once upon a time, I ran across a post on Facebook from a lady who was doing the usual dog rescue stuff. She was trying to get a “freedom ride” for a rescue to make it from Louisiana to…somewhere else. I don’t quite remember where. I’m a sucker for a pooch in need and I had nothing going on that weekend, so I offered to drive a six-hour leg and meet the next participant in the transport chain near the border of South Carolina. She was thrilled with the offer of help and friended me so that we could stay in contact, maybe make this a semi-regular thing. I was happy to oblige.
Later that week, I posted a picture of a Scottie puppy (Roland if we’re being specific), mentioning that his buyer had fallen through and that he’d come available. Within minutes, this individual was blowing up my phone.
“You’re a breeder?! How can you possibly do rescue work and breed at the same time?!”
Then, before I could even reply, she blocked me.
I get the same reaction when I talk to my breeder friends about my rescue efforts, although they’re far less extreme about it. My dear friend who breeds Pembroke Welsh Corgis once asked if I was afraid of bringing in diseases (I am). Another Scottie breeder once politely attempted to set me straight in a good-natured way. I’d been staying up all night syringe feeding an ailing 8 day old rescue puppy and she’d seen my posts about it.
“He’ll never make it, Meg. You have no idea what happened to them health-wise before they got to you.”
She wasn’t wrong. He passed three days later. And I had nothing to show for it besides a positively unholy sleep deficit and a $300 vet bill, which I paid out of my own pocket rather than asking the rescue to cover.
We humans are really, really great at pattern recognition and grouping things together by similar characteristics. But, we don’t really fit into either group neatly. Nobody seems to know what category to file us in. We exist on both sides of a chasm so wide that the two extremes tend to view each other as mortal enemies.
It confuses both my puppy buyers and rescue dog adopters, too.
Recently, I pulled a little Westie mix from the local shelter. Two of my closest friends helped watch him. Shauna with Curated Canines donated a grooming session to get him spiffed up, and he very quickly found a perfect home.
When I delivered him to his new owner, she seemed a bit confused.
“So…you’re not a rescue really.”
I’m not. I mean…I’d pulled him under Brindlee Mountain Animal Rescue just to circumvent having to pay the fee to spring him out of doggie jail, but his care, costs, and adoption process were totally on me. They asked me how often I do this sort of thing. I replied that I do it whenever the need arises. That answer didn’t seem to be quite what they were expecting, but it’s the truth. They couldn’t accept not paying an adoption fee, so they made a generous and very appreciated donation to BMAR instead.
As an aside: Rhonda, the owner/operator of BMAR, is the only person I’ve ever run across who’s never balked. When I called her out of the blue and offered to pull Juniper from the kill shelter in Marshall county and raise her litter, I was a little nervous to spill the beans.
“Just so you know, I’m also a breeder of Scottish Terriers. It’s been a problem when I try to volunteer my time to rescue organizations in the past.”
Her response was immediate, indignant, and hilarious.
“I don’t give a damn what you are so long as you’re willing to help.”
That struck a chord with me for sure.
I don’t view working to save my favorite breed as any different than working to save rescue dogs. Scotties are becoming scarcer and sicker by the year. Why wouldn’t I help breed exceptionally diverse Scotties to try and address this? Nobody else is breeding specifically with genetic variability in mind so far as I’ve found. And why wouldn’t I try to help that little eight day old lost cause? His chances were low, but not zero. He deserved somebody willing to help him fight, even if he ultimately lost in the end.
We don’t fit into any one specific mold. At the end of the day, we’re just…willing to help. Rhonda really nailed that from the jump. It doesn’t have to be any deeper than that, and we don’t particularly care if that confuses people.
So, this is your reminder to be an outlier. Do weird stuff. Break the mold. The world needs more people who go against the grain, and Lord knows there’s not enough help to go around.
Dupplin Scotties 