How I Saved Bueller

You’ve run into them at least a few times in your social media life: videos of dogs being rescued from junkyards, channels, abusive homes, desolate streets, etc. If you’re like me, you’ve watched quite a few of these videos and hoped that if there ever was a dog in need, you’d be there and able to help it. According to the ASPCA, approximately 3.9 million dogs enter animal shelters nationwide every year, and of those, approximately 1.2 million are euthanized. This doesn’t even cover how many are left abandoned on the streets of our hometowns and cities.

This is the story of Bueller, how I helped him, and how it changed me.

This is Bueller, or was, since this was the first picture I ever took of him. He crossed paths with me one quiet and dark morning in Downey. It was 5:30 AM and I had just walked out to my car to start my commute when I noticed a small form cross the street in my direction. The little thing came around the front of my car and peeked his little head out to look at me. It was pretty dark still as the sun had not yet risen, but even in the darkness I could tell his fur was overgrown, matted and dirty. My reaction was instinctual; I kneeled down and told him it was ok, and after a little coaxing, the little creature all but gunned it for me, tail wagging and all. I sighed because I knew I was now going to be late for work, but the fact that I was going to find him a safe place was just as much a fact.

So, I opened my passenger side door and with no coaxing at all, the little matted creature jumped in and sat down. So began my search for the right place to give him to. I knew I could have tried to drop him off at the Downey shelter, but I had recently heard some http://www.thedowneypatriot.com/articles/petition-calls-for-downey-animal-shelter-to-clean-up-its-actbad things regarding how they had been keeping and treating the animals they were receiving, so my first thought was against going there. Next, I started checking sites I followed on Facebook like http://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/ars/homeThe Animal Rescue Site, Best Friends Animal Society and http://www.hopeforpaws.orgHope For Paws for information on places I could drop him that weren’t shelters; I felt that I could always just drop him at a shelter, but I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to make sure he would find a home. Unfortunately, none of the places I called were open, so after a little more searching and calling, a very tired tired woman from http://lhasahappyhomes.orgLhasa Happy Homes Rescue finally answered my call. At this point it was 6:30 in the morning and I had clearly woken this poor woman up, so I carefully explained the situation, all while his little highness was aggressively trying to hop onto my lap. She proceeded to inform me that she would love to take him, but only after he was scanned for a microchip.

And so my journey continued. As predicted, I was late to work and ended up park my car in the parking lot (I was the supervisor of a restaurant in a hotel at the time, and we were not supposed to park inside the premises) so that I could keep an eye on the little guy until the nearest veterinary clinic opened at 7:30AM. I almost immediately received a verbal warning for bringing a dog onto the grounds that could have been a problem or disturbance of the peace.

“Trust me, I fully understand wanting to help this dog, I’m a dog lover too, but you have to think about your job and the repercussions of your decisions, as noble as they are.” I replied that I understood and accepted the verbal warning, but inside, I admit that I was furious and a little lost; I hadn’t meant to get into trouble with work, but what I was basically being told (the way I understood it) was that I should have left the dog, come to work and let the whole thing go. Looking at it from a global point of view, I could understand why she said that to me, but I did not agree.

In the grand scheme of things, you don’t find stray dogs on the streets every day and bring them to work, that definitely was not the case for me. But on one random day within 365 that you do, however, I believe it is your duty to help. Our lives are busy, I know, we have kids, jobs, debts and problems; the thing is, when we stop paying attentions to all of the little details around us, our world becomes a little less ours and a little more foreign.

Our jobs are important, they are our livelihoods, but our principals are just as important, and while I did not eventually choose to quit my job at the restaurant because of this incident, it was a part of the mental pie chart I would eventually create

The Veterinary clinic close to my work was nice enough to hold Bueller for the day, even gave him shots for free so that his future foster mom wouldn’t have to. He was not microchipped, was estimated to have been on his own for approximately 2 years and was malnourished and underweight. Right after work, I picked up Bueller and we drove together to Lhasa Happy Homes Rescue where they specialized in small dog rescues. My final moments with him were bittersweet, to say the least, because if I were able to, I would have kept him all for myself. Since it wasn’t in the cards for me right then, I knew I had at least done everything I could to get him on the right track to a good home, where every animal is supposed to be.

Bueller, cleaned, groomed, loved and happy :)

We make choices every day, so many that we don’t even realize it when we make them; they are what make us who we are. I knew sitting in that office while my manager said those words to me that day that if I had not made the choice to do the best I could to save Bueller, I wouldn’t like myself, or my choice. Do the best you can, make the choices you want to, just make sure they’re the ones you know you believe in.

If you ever find yourself in a situation like mine, I hope this http://theshelterpetproject.org/searchwebsite will help you find the right place to go, just like it did me.