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| When you think you've done enough or you think you
just can't take in one more animal, I'd like you to think
about Dianne. Dianne lives where the winters are very
harsh, with ice and snow. Five months out the year it
is a tourist area bustling with people and their pets. But as tourist season ends, the bustling of people
ends, the people go home and leave the cast off pets to
Dianne.
At one time Dianne owned some land, about 40 acres of it, with a Barn. Slowly over the years, she had to sell her land to take care of herself and the animals she takes in. She now lives in that barn with her 20 dogs and 50 cats. A barn that until recently had only plastic sheets in the windows to block the cold, not even glass. She has no heat. She has a wood burning stove but can't use it because one of her animals might jump up onto it and get burned. A kind friend provides straw for the animals to keep them warm. Her clothes are donated to her from kind strangers. She lives on a little over $400 a month. That's $400 a month to feed her animals and herself. So mostly she does not eat so she can feed her furry friends. Do you think you could do it? Mostly she cannot afford vet care so she has learned to care for them as best she can by herself, or has to rely on help from kind and generous friends. All animals have been neutered: some with the help of a cat action team, some with the help of friends. During the tourist season she goes out to work, which she has to do in order to get social assistance when for there is no work in the winter. While she works, Dianne starts her day at 4am, feeding and caring for her animals. She has built little shelters from cast off pieces of wood so the dogs can stay outside during the day. This is especially important in the summer because she has no air conditioning. Her day ends around 11pm when she has settled all her animals down. She turns no animal away. One freezing winter day someone brought her a frozen cat on a shovel. She had scraped it up off the road and brought it to Dianne. Dianne saw a spark of life, something the other woman didn't see. She took the cat in, provided warmth and safety, and most of all she provided love. The story does not have a happy ending, the cat lived only for a few days, but it lived in love and peace probably for the first time in it's life. That's what's important to Dianne. Dianne may look thin and frail and she is. She only eats once a day so she can feed her animals. You may think that's crazy? Too extreme for sure, you say! Why doesn't she ask for help from the government, you might ask. She is afraid. She is afraid that the government will come and take her friends away. She's afraid the government will decide it is better to put them down than to have love and companionship in a barn. Governments think like that. She will not take that chance. So the next time you pass a starving animal on the road and you think: "I can't do anymore" think about Dianne. Maybe there is room for just one more. |
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