“Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.” John Muir, Scottish-American Naturalist
I grew up in a pet-loving household with parents that bred a lesser-known dog breed, the Besenji, and we kids would tag along to dog shows each summer. My rescue experience then was taking in stray cats that would show up in our yard and at our back door looking for food handouts.
While I wouldn’t have put it into words then, as a child I learned that cats and dogs share with us their unconditional love. I benefited from their companionship and they lessened my childhood loneliness. I learned responsibility and gained purpose caring for their needs. They motivated me to walk away from the TV and run around outside and explore, with backyard investigations with the cats and long neighborhood walks with the dogs.
As an adult, many years later, I found myself pulled into animal rescue and again it was with cats. The wooded space behind my home was a place that stray and ferals were drawn to and I worked with a neighbor and rescue groups to trap, tame and forever home the cats we discovered. Today my three kitties are all black and all rescues and as companions, they are a joy.
I was close to 50 when I gained the first dog of my own. Looking back, I wonder why I waited so long (although I knew they required much more of my time than the cats). With my children nearing adulthood, the time felt right and, only somewhat consciously, I felt a void to fill. I connected with a local rescue group and adopted a very sweet, boisterous and shy dog that needed a home. I’m so glad I did! She was my first and I now live with my second dog. I have someone who is thrilled at my return home, tags along by my side whenever he can and I have a wonderful walking companion. And yes, the bumper sticker, “WHO RESCUED WHO?” is on the back of my car.
If you want-and can-adopt a pet, please consider your local pet rescue groups. (I have a rescued guinea pig too!) Every animal that is adopted from a rescue makes room for another to find their forever home.
1) ASPCA pet finder:
Find a Shelter | Adopt or Foster a Pet l Local Shelter l ASPCA
2) The Shelter Pet Project, a collaborative effort between the humane society, Maddie’s Fund and the Ad Council:
https://theshelterpetproject.org/
There are some wonderful, feel-good books in the Mercer County Library System collection about people and their rescued pets, and people who have been “rescued” by their adopted pets. Below are a few that I’d recommend.
Dogtripping: 25 Rescues, 11 Volunteers, and 3 RVs on Our Canine Cross-country Adventure by David Rosenfelt
I grew up in a pet-loving household with parents that bred a lesser-known dog breed, the Besenji, and we kids would tag along to dog shows each summer. My rescue experience then was taking in stray cats that would show up in our yard and at our back door looking for food handouts.
While I wouldn’t have put it into words then, as a child I learned that cats and dogs share with us their unconditional love. I benefited from their companionship and they lessened my childhood loneliness. I learned responsibility and gained purpose caring for their needs. They motivated me to walk away from the TV and run around outside and explore, with backyard investigations with the cats and long neighborhood walks with the dogs.
As an adult, many years later, I found myself pulled into animal rescue and again it was with cats. The wooded space behind my home was a place that stray and ferals were drawn to and I worked with a neighbor and rescue groups to trap, tame and forever home the cats we discovered. Today my three kitties are all black and all rescues and as companions, they are a joy.
If you want-and can-adopt a pet, please consider your local pet rescue groups. (I have a rescued guinea pig too!) Every animal that is adopted from a rescue makes room for another to find their forever home.
1) ASPCA pet finder:
Find a Shelter | Adopt or Foster a Pet l Local Shelter l ASPCA
2) The Shelter Pet Project, a collaborative effort between the humane society, Maddie’s Fund and the Ad Council:
https://theshelterpetproject.org/
There are some wonderful, feel-good books in the Mercer County Library System collection about people and their rescued pets, and people who have been “rescued” by their adopted pets. Below are a few that I’d recommend.
S Marine Rob Kugler not only gave a year of his life in service to his country, but he had also lost a brother in the fighting. Lost in grief, Rob found solace and relief in the one thing that never failed to put a smile on his face: his chocolate lab Bella. When Bella developed cancer, the prognosis wasn't good. Instead of waiting at home for the cancer to spread after amputating the cancer-riddled leg, Rob and Bella packed their bags and hit the road. As they criss-crossed the country Rob and Bella met people quick to make friends with this incredible three-legged dog, and shared hope, love, tears, and laughs.
Julie Klam was thirty, single, and working as a part-time clerk in an insurance company, wondering if she would ever meet the man she could spend the rest of her life with. And then it happened. She met the irresistible Otto.
David Rosenfelt's "Dogtripping" is moving and funny account of a cross-country move from California to Maine, and the beginnings of a dog rescue foundation.
This is a book about dogs: the love we have for them, and the way that love helps us understand the people we have been.
It's in the love of dogs, and my love for them, that I can best now take the measure of the child I once was, and the bottomless, unfathomable desires that once haunted me.
The author describes her life with her misbehaved dog, a pet that saw her through many changes in life over the course of fifteen years.
A Street Cat Named Bob: And How He Saved My Life by James Bowen
Each Monday morning you’ll find a classic poem on the MCLS Facebook page. Here is the beginning of Elizabeth Bennett Browning’s poem dedicated to her own pet dog, Flush.
“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.” John Grogan, American Author
James is a street musician struggling to make ends meet.
Bob is a stray cat looking for somewhere warm to sleep.
When James and Bob meet, they forge a never-to-be-forgotten friendship that has been charming readers from Thailand to Turkey.
A Street Cat Named Bob is an international sensation, landing on the bestseller list in England for 52 consecutive weeks and selling in 26 countries around the world. Now, James and Bob are ready to share their true story with the U.S. in this tale unlike any you've ever read of a cat who possesses some kind of magic.
Each Monday morning you’ll find a classic poem on the MCLS Facebook page. Here is the beginning of Elizabeth Bennett Browning’s poem dedicated to her own pet dog, Flush.
Loving friend, the gift of one,
Who, her own true faith, hath run,
Through thy lower nature;
Be my benediction said
With my hand upon thy head,
Gentle fellow-creature!
Excerpt from, “To Flush, My Dog” by Elizabeth Bennett Browning (1806-1861)
“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.” John Grogan, American Author
- by Kim Luke, Hightstown Library
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Pets