I Inadvertently Ran An Unofficial Dog Rescue For Years

This is Wendy

I only remember this puppy’s name because it was on the Flickr album title where I found the picture. You see, Wendy was one of probably a dozen or more dogs that we had while my daughters were young and their mom and I were still actively trying to be married.

In the beginning, the dogs we had were intentional choices.

She already had Tink when I first met her in Hawaii, she stayed with us for years, even making the move to Texas.

But Texas is where the real fun with multiple dogs thing started.

Not all of the Texas dogs were strays; a few came from the animal shelter.

Quick aside: When I was still active duty and would come home in my uniform I quickly deduced that many/most of the shelter dogs must have been abused by someone in uniform, as they would cower and hide as soon as I walked in the door … even though I’d never been anything but nice to them.

Anyhow, I soon noticed a trend developing …

Almost none of these dogs lived with us for longer than 6 months.

But before you get your hackles up and accuse us of abandoning these poor dogs, here’s what actually happened almost every time:

• Dog arrives at our house (in one way or another)

• Dog is taken to the vet for vaccinations and spay/neuter

• Dog plays with kids/other dogs and is taken for daily walks

• Dog is given away to a much better home than ours

• Dog (I assume) lives a long happy life

Caveat: I only have anecdotal evidence to support that last point, but it’s what I choose to believe happened most/all of the time.

As for point number four, I had very little (okay almost no) input into those decisions. Actually, now that I think about it, I didn’t have a lot of influence when the dogs first arrived either. It would just be announced on a random afternoon:

“Oh, by the way, I found Puddin a home.”

It really wasn’t until years later when I left for Arizona the first time that I realize how much what we’d been doing looked like an inadvertent dog rescue.

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Ironically (or maybe not), once I left, the dog situation in Texas became much more stable, with just the occasional “found pup”. But this time it was always a given that they would just be temporary guest, since the house already had three long-term residents.

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Penny (the pitbull) a few years back. I had actually said my goodbyes on a visit to Texas a few months earlier.

She was a part of the family for over a decade. Started out as a rescue herself, but definitely wasn’t going to any other home … better than ours or not.

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Have you ever looked back and realized you’ve had far more pets than you ever intended? Leave a comment below and let me know your accidental pet stories!

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Every photo tells a story, and stories are better with company. If you enjoyed this post, please pass it along to a fellow explorer. Thank you!

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p.s. I’m reticent to promise any sort of a schedule or new series. But I am kind of playing with the idea of this as an example of a “Throwback Thursday” theme where once a week I look through my older archives, pick a picture, then write a story about it … if I feel so inspired.