Finally, I want to say something very personal.  I am sustained by so
many of you who tell me you think I'm great and that I'm doing such a
wonderful thing - your words REALLY do matter to me.  I don't see
rescuing as extraordinary for me though.  I feel that it is what I was
created for - this type of service has been my core, my personality,
forever.  I've done this since I was a child; clumisly at first, but
always well meaning... overtime I've simply grown into my own as I've
matured.
 
But there is a group of people out there to whom I bow my head... they do
something that I can't do; I'm just not able.  What they do would drive
me more insane that I may already be.  So to me THEY are the true Angels
of Mercy.  I GIVE HEART- FELT THANKS TO EVERY PERSON WHO PERFORMS A
HOSPICE ACT FOR AN ANIMAL, especially those who run a HOSPICE.  You see
I take the body and soul of a ferret and let a vet - a doctor - make
them well.  I try to make them more sociable and serene or at least feel
secure, then YOU adopt them from me and make them WHOLE as they are
claimed into a family...
 
but a person who performs a hospice act takes frightened or suffering
bodies and souls and provides comfort and medication and wound treatment
and gives security, rocks them, comforts them, LOVES them warts and all.
Now you might say this is what a rescue does... but no... they are above
and beyond that ... they do these things for the animals who are dying -
over and over and over - their charges NEVER recover and still they give
and give and give.  God seems to have given them an unending strength and
a fountain of love and patience that never fails.
 
They may want to quit in their minds, but there is something in THEIR
SOULS that keeps them going like EverReady batteries for the ones whose
time to leave is near.  These bodies may smell horribly, have dastardly
wounds to treat that will never heal; yet these Angels are there through
vomitting (YES FERRETS DO VOMIT), diarreah, shivers, shakes, and seizures
to treat and to clean and to comfort and make right -- well at least
they try to take away the fear and give comfort.  They medicate, gently
hand-feed, wash poopy bottoms, treat oozing wounds -- they do it all.
I'm not talking about a rescue that sometimes has oldsters or terminally
ill ferrets and they help these babies to the end - we all do that.  This
is all day EVERY DAY for hospice directors.
 
Now here's the trick..  what makes them magical to me - they do it all
knowing that that baby will be gone - dead - in a few hours or a few
days, some in a few months.  I'm talking about those who only take in
terminal patients - knowing that they are the lost stop for these guys
here on Earth.  But what they do is sacrifice their sensitivity -- they
take emotional hits over and over as each life ebbs to find another plane
of existance -- to allow that innocent soul to know love and that he or
she is not alone in the final time he or she has left.  Have no doubt --
these people feel the pain and they cry as hard as any of us do when we
loose one of ours, but they are guardians who take this pain on every
single day for more times than we can imagine.  I hear so many people
say give to the rescues, give to the rescues..  and I am SO GRATEFUL for
every penny, every hammock and toy and every second of help I get... but
is there some way we could identify how many Hospices are a member of
this list and maybe help them too.  THANK YOU ALL WHO RUN HOSPICES, from
the very heart of me and every cell of my body!
 
Vicki Montgomery
Tricks and Treats Rescue
[Posted in FML issue 5098]