For the love of a dog

EDITOR – Dr Noel Fitzpatrick from Surrey in England is a highly decorated vet.

He does the most amazing work on animals with horrendous injuries and illnesses.

He said the following: “The love we feel for our pets is incredibly special but, after two decades working with animals, I believed that it pales in comparison to the love they have for us. If we could learn from them, the world would be a happier place. For as humans, we know what unconditional love is, but we’re not capable of it.”

How true this is, and being in animal rescue we see this everyday. People love the little puppy when it’s small and cuddly. It is kissed and treated like gold, but then when it’s grown and no longer able to sit on your lap, it is discarded like an old rag. I have spoken about this before, people in our own communities who give their dogs away to the first person walking past the gate. I see the dogs, some with a pedigree, some not. They come to the feeding stations, unsure of what has happened in their lives. Fearful and apprehensive, sometimes it takes months for us to win their trust and every day we have to leave that animal behind, with it watching the car as we go. This is what your love does.

I’m not saying we all do this, but the numbers are rising and the total desolation these animals feel is palpable and so painful for those of us who feed them.

If you can’t keep your dog for whatever reason, don’t just abandon or give it away to people you don’t know. Rather sign it over to the SPCA where it will at least have the chance of a good home.

Out here where we feed is not the place for your animal who has given you only the unconditional love Dr Fitzpatrick talks about.

Animals are not judgmental or vindictive. Don’t break their trust. Abandonment hurts.

Lots of wet kisses from the pooches.

NICKY KOEKEMOER

4 Paws and a Tale Rescue

084-626-5508