Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Wow.  My respect for animal rescue people just went through the roof and I'm still feeling pretty lousy.  Last night, we found a dog running along a street on the Northside.  She jumped right into the car and has proven to be a real sweetie.  She's very very unhappy at being left in a crate in our basement, but we cannot introduce her to our other dogs.  We were happy to feed her and so forth, but then ???

Believe me I tried.  I posted her on telephone.org which is the universal lost/found service for all the local shelters.  I called all of the shelters only to discover that they don't open on Mondays until 11 AM!  I tried to contact rescue groups.  Eventually, we crated her in the basement overnight and she was relatively calm. 

This morning is a different story altogether.  She refuses to eat and she's hysterical in the crate.  I had to put her bodily into it and now she's flipping out.  Plus, I have this thing called work.  Ledcat is going to stay home until I can home from my meeting to run her up to the Humane Society at lunch.  I tried to call everyone this morning at 8:30 when they open, but just more voice mail. 

You know what's sad?  That if you find a dog after 5 PM on Sunday evening, there is literally no one to help you until 11 AM on Monday.  I get that the shelters do the best they can with the resources they have, but what are you supposed to do?  Leave her roaming the streets seems to be the only option.  Even Animal Control closes up shop at 5 PM and doesn't open until 7 AM.  I hate to call them this morning because she's a sweet dog and could either be someone's pet or find a home. 

The sad thing is that no matter how hard they try, a cadre of volunteer individuals cannot make up for the damage society inflicts on the world when they don't take care of their pets and public services that don't fund these services adequately.  We'll figure something out this morning, but it does make me realize that the next time I see a dog running on the street and it isn't during the daytime, I might be better off letting it keep running which I know is ridiculous.  What a horrible position.  For the poor dogs of the world running down the street looking for help.

God Bless the rescues who at least try to help.