Blog the Change

After an initiative at a conference last spring, pet bloggers everywhere gather together four times a year to try and elicit a change for animals.  We are trying to build awareness of the many situations and factors that negatively impact the animals in our lives.  It's the old theory that even the longest journey begins with one step.  If we all take just a single step out into trying to even start making a change, all of those steps will combine and be a giant step!  Today is another Blog the Change for Animals day.  Please take a few minutes to read just a few of the blogs and I know you will find something that inspires you.

We have been on a new journey at our house with a rescued mama beagle and her puppies.  It has truly been a labor of love.  To recap quickly, mama was found, already pregnant, wandering in a parking lot.  It was determined she was too far along to do anything except wait for the puppies to be born.  We agreed to foster both mama and the puppies.  Mama had a litter of 10 puppies on October 20, 2010.  We have spent the time ever since taking care of the great big brood of beagle mix puppies.  We currently still have nine of the puppies at our house.  Mama has gone to another foster home where hopefully, she is getting the love and attention she deserves (with all the puppies, it was so hard to find time for her) and she is looking for a forever home.  One lucky puppy has been adopted and he is living the good life with his new forever family.  Another puppy has been adopted, but she will be with us until Easter, when we will deliver her to her new forever home. Another puppy has been adopted by our oldest daughter and we are adding one to our family.  Six more pups are waiting for their perfect forever families.

How does this all change anything?  Hopefully it changed the lives of these 10 puppies and their mama.  Hopefully it will change the lives of the families who adopt them.  Hopefully it will change other lives that the situation has touched.  But the change I truly want to share is to do something now.  Don't wait.  Don't put it off thinking there will be a better time, a better place.  If you have always wanted to be a foster family, just do it.  If you have always wanted to volunteer at a local shelter, just do it.  If you have always wanted to positively affect the lives of animals, just do it.  The time is now.  Putting it off only puts it off.

I don't know about anyone else, but we have very often said we would do something when -- insert excuse -- the kids are older, we have more time/money/energy/etc., we have a different job, we have less work to do, and so on and so on and so on.  If we waited for everything to be perfect, we would never do anything.

We had no plan of going down this road with mama and her puppies.  We certainly had no intention of keeping any of the puppies.  We never planned to put our lives on hold and take care of 10 puppies and their people and attention loving mama.  But we did it because it was what we knew we needed to do regardless of all the reasons why we should not do it.

So, don't wait to Be the Change.  Do it now.  Find a cause, rescue an animal, support an initiative.  Do it whether it makes sense or not.  Do it because you have a passion for it.  Do it because you want nothing more than to make a change that makes just one animal's life better.

For our puppies, we are working with the Society for the Protection of Animals in Fremont, Ohio.  If you are interested in knowing more about them, supporting them, or adopting one of their animals, their website is www.spaohio.org.  They always take donations and they would love your support!  They are currently trying to offset the enormous cost of raising our foster puppies (vet care, food, heartworm preventative, etc.) in addition to their other financial needs.

And if you do get out there and do something as a result of Blog the Change for Animals, please let me know!  I would love to hear how you are Being the Change for Animals!!!