Ellerbee Animal Rescue?

Do as I say, not as I do?
Not here at Ellerbeeville. In every single day, I try to think of how I can be a role model for my kids. How can I teach them what is important? How can I help mold them into the people I want them to become? What traits are important to us? I know too often, they catch me saying something that is not that said in the loving attitude I want them to have. They catch me all the time... not taking the time to do the right thing.

Last week, we were driving through a busy intersection when we saw a little beagle puppy wandering around in the middle of the street. Typically, I don't stop to pick up stray animals. I am, as you all probably know, ALWAYS late and ALWAYS running from one event to another. The kids didn't even see the little dog about to meet his maker at the corner of Kansas and Walnut. But for some reason, I pulled into a driveway, threw the car in reverse and went back to the intersection. I stopped traffic, got out of the car and ran around the intersection chasing the poor little, scared puppy. My kids were all cheering for me from the car. People were honking, several people were waving at me, with a funny hand gesture... but I just kept blocking traffic, and finally got little "Lucy" to come with me to the car.

I called the number of Lucy's collar. I got an answering machine. I started to panic, thinking that I might end up with another dog... I call Jordan to google the address on the collar so that I can at least drop little Lucy off at her house.

My phone rings. It's Lucy's owner. I bet she's so happy I saved her dog... right?

She goes on to tell me that they live right by there and the dog just likes to go to the intersection to "look" at the cars. I explained that she was about to be looking at the cars from underneath a couple of tires... She never once said thank you... or I'm so glad you saved my dog. Just that I wasted my time and that the dog was just fine in the middle of the busy intersection. "She just likes to play down there..." I explained that her dog was playing alright... playing chicken with the oncoming traffic.

All this time, I have my phone on speaker phone because, well quite honestly, I have a new phone and don't know how to take it off speaker phone. Can be quite awkward at times, but came in handy for the kids to hear what Lucy's owner was saying.

We head towards Lucy's house and Justine, who keeps calling the dog a bagel, bursts into tears. "Why didn't you tell her that Lucy jumped out the window of the car and ran away? Then we could take her home." Yeah right!

The kids questioned again and again why a pet owner wouldn't care where her dog was or care that it could be hurt. I wasn't sure what to say. We took Lucy back to the bad pet owner. You can learn a lot from the conversations coming from the backseat. Hopefully, they also learned about thinking of others, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, as well as taking the time to do the right thing, even when you don't have the time.

The next day, Jordan came home with this little, itty, bitty baby kitty. It was the smallest thing I had ever seen. I doubt this kitty was even weaned yet. We fed it milk from a baby medicine dropper. It's eyes were all matted shut and it looked very sick. Jordan took care of the little thing for days until she found (was forced to find) it another home. The kids all cried when she took the poor little thing to its new home.

And so that is our week at the Ellerbee Animal Rescue. Now if someone would just come rescue the pets I already have.

"Free to a Good Home".... dog that barks and yips at all hours of the day and night. Dog who loves to dig in the dirt and ruins my yard at every opportunity?
Maybe I should make it:
"Free to a Mediocre Home"?
Or:
"I will pay you to take my dog..."