Ahhh, the chilly, wet month of November. The busiest month of all for Big On Beagles Rescue! The fur is flying right now as we prepare for our biggest fundraising event of the year – the Beagle Bash For Cash. The event is always great although it’s a blur of excitement that goes by way too fast. It’s worth it – we do it for the love of the beagles we’re here to save.
Loving a beagle may not be for everyone, but the act of loving is something we all share. A year ago we thought we had a huge following on our Facebook page with a mere 750 ‘likes’. That was before a hip new beagle-loving friend with a handle on social media joined our board. Now we have over 5,000 fans thanks to Kelly (BOB’s newly appointed social media coordinator)! How did she do it? She just tapped into more love!
Specifically, Kelly tapped into the love of a famous little beagle across the border. At six-months old, Daniel survived a gas chamber at a dog pound in Alabama. At first he was known as the ‘miracle dog’ but the shelter volunteers quickly gave him a real name, Daniel, after the biblical figure who survived the lion’s den.
Daniel recently celebrated his three-year anniversary with his beloved adopter and motivational speaker Joe Dwyer. Together they attend rallies and fundraisers supporting legislative efforts to end the use of gas chambers in animal shelter facilities. Their hard work is paying off. Over 30 states have initiated laws to protect animals against inhumane euthanasia. Love can move mountains. Daniel has over 285,000 mountain-moving fans and he’s sharing them with us.
And then there are acts of love that happen behind the scenes. Not long ago, I learned about a young man working at an animal shelter somewhere in Brazil. This young man is responsible for operating his shelter’s gas chamber. Until the laws change there, he has no choice. But there is one thing he can control and that’s the love those abandoned pets receive before they leave this world. The young man doesn’t have a lot of money but he has enough to buy fast food burgers for every dog on death row. Call it the last supper for fur-clad angels. I will likely never meet this hero from far away but he has my heart nonetheless, and my promise to keep on plugging.
Just like the song Pennies from Heaven, there must be showers if we want the things we love. But enough showers. It’s time to trade them in for a package of sunshine, flowers, and pink plastic flamingos like the one that hung out in Angel’s backyard.
Angel was a little beagle we rescued more than three years ago. She’d wound up in a shelter after her elderly owner passed away. No spring chicken herself, Angel was deeply mourning the loss. A volunteer working at the shelter brought Angel to my attention. She and her partner also offered to foster her for us. So for the last three years until her recent passing, Angel enjoyed a little heaven on earth with a couple who couldn’t have loved her more. There’s that hard-to-explain word again.
The day Angel met the anti-social pink flamingo in the backyard was a day that will forever be shared with the world thanks to social media. Try as she might, she couldn’t get that bird to play with her. It was just another cute video of a silly dog doing a silly thing. But anybody tuning in to that cute little video, no matter how bad the day, no matter how hard the rain has fallen, they will forget all the bad stuff the world throws at them for a few precious moments while they laugh at a silly dog doing a silly thing.
Sure, we mend hearts and return tails to their former wagging glory and spend lots of money doing it, but there’s a little something in it for us too. Even on the worst days, they have a magical way of turning raindrops into heavenly pennies. Our lives are richer because of them.
A car magnet in the shape of a paw sums it up best. I spotted it on the highway recently. Three silly yet perfect words … “Who rescued who?”
This article is dedicated to Angel, all the other beagles that have rescued us over the years, and those yet to come! Join the Love-in at the ninth Annual Beagle Bash For Cash hosted by Big On Beagles Rescue on Nov. 23 at PawsWay from 1 to 3 p.m. For more details visit and to check out Angel’s flamingo video, visit us on Facebook, and don’t forget to ‘like’ us!
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