am the Assistant manager at the Sabine Humane Society Animal Shelter. Working at the shelter is a great blessing for me, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It is never a dull moment, and always so many funny things that happen, but there are a lot of sad stories also. On a sad note, there are so many unwanted and neglected animals in this world, and we see it everyday. For the most part, the animals that come in have a great chance to find a good home, and be loved the way they deserve to be, but then there are those we can’t save. It’s never easy to be the one that has to end a life because there is no hope, or no home for the animal. It’s the hardest part of my job, but it has to be done.
So many of the animals that we have had to put down have really touched my heart. Just to name one of many, there was a female lab mix named “Dixie”. When I first started, I was a volunteer, and I went everyday, 8hrs a day, I had recently lost my Mother to cancer, and I was having a really hard time. The female lab mix came in with two brothers, and all of them would bite, including Dixie. So one day I came to work, and when I walked in the shelter, I broke down and started crying, everyone asked what was wrong, I told them I was missing my Mom. So I went on back to the kennel area, and I stood at the gate of Dixie, and I said to her, now I feel the same way as you, so I need you, and you need me. So I went into her cage knowing she would probably bite me, and I slipped a leash around her neck, I was still crying. She did act like she was gonna bite me, so I was very careful. I led her out to the outside and sat on the ground, and she pulled away from me as far as the leash would stretch. I put my head on my knees, and I started just crying so hard. After about 20 minutes, Dixie had inched her way over to me and was leaning up against my side. I stopped crying and looked at her, and she looked at me, and I slipped my arm around her, and from that moment on Dixie never tried to bite again. She knew I was hurting just like she was, and from then on, she trusted me. That just goes to show you that dogs are mans Best Friend. They are the most loyal creation that God made. They will love you no matter how you treat them.
Dixie is just one of the many stories I have, I consider myself very lucky, cause I get to be a part of so many animals lives, it doesn’t always have a happy ending, but we can’t save them all, It’s sad but true. We will always save Those We Can! Still to this day it breaks my heart, because Dixie was one that we couldn’t save, I tried so hard to find her a home, but turns out, she didn’t like children and that made her a hard placement, I tried her with my grand kids so I could adopt her, but she didn’t like the kids around me. I’ll never forget the day we had to put her down. I held her in my arms until her heart stopped, and I cried like a baby, so did everyone in the room. It took me awhile to get to the point I could accept what we had to do, but it never gets easy!
