Can't save them all...

Had to say that to myself over and over again last Thursday morning. I was on my way to work - it had been pouring rain just a few minutes before. As I turned on to a side street off a VERY busy main street, I thought I saw a dog laying in the grass, not three feet from the busy road. "Couldn't be," I said to myself. And, of course, quickly said, "What could I do anyway?" But of course I turned around. I'm in the "new" car - the one with the ivory-colored leather seats....sigh. Sure enough, there's this big dog just laying in the rain. He looked at me, and I put out my hand, and he came right to me. Smoke colored with liquid brown eyes. What now? I opened the back seat door and he climbed right in the car, but immediately broke my heart as I could tell he had arthritis. I keep a blanket in the back seat for dog-transporting events, and he sat right down on it. Calm, sweet, old.

As he was male - and I'm pretty sure I heard him cough a couple of times - I had no choice but to take him to the animal shelter. I couldn't risk exposing the girls to whatever. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. The guy there asked me to fill out paperwork, and I started crying. I think he thought it was my dog, that I was abandoning him, and he told me that I didn't have to complete it if I didn't want to. That solid stainless steel door clanging shut. Ugh.

I placed an ad in the paper, and on PetFinders. Called all the veterinarian offices in the vicinity. Drove the entire neighborhood Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Made sure his picture was listed on the animal shelter's website. But I haven't had the heart to go back and see if somebody claimed him.

If only I COULD save them all. Or better yet if they didn't NEED saving at all.