Cherishing a Cairn

Sandy, one of our longtime and very dedicated volunteers, recently reported that a wonderful little guy recently went to the Rainbow Bridge:

Bingo was adopted exactly six years ago today, 10-08-02. I received word today that he was helped to the Rainbow Bridge due to liver failure, though I'm not sure exactly when that happened (recently). I think Bingo was one of the first "real" cairns that I was able to help rescue from a local Houston TX shelter. I named him; Anke W pulled him since I had to work that day. I handed him off to a wonderful couple that transported him to Barb, a foster home near Austin.

He was a great cairn, and was very much loved by his family. I am sure Bingo is at the Bridge, running and playing to his heart's content. And I know his forever family here in Texas is very sad. Please hold them in your hearts as they grieve for the loss of their beloved little boy.

Sandy, then wrote this beautiful tribute to Bingo and all of our rescued cairns:

You know, even tho I didn't foster Bingo, I feel such a loss. We really want every dog that CP has saved to have a wonderful life, and to live forever.... Unfortunately that just doesn't happen.

I've had fosters that have passed in their adoptive homes and it just hurts so much, knowing their families didn't have a life-long time to spend with their babies. There have been many cairns that I've only picked up and taken to a vet or handed off to a transport, yet I've looked into their eyes and felt a connection, felt a life worth saving, a life worth making better. CP saves so many cairns, and we are all blessed to have known them personally or from afar.

Every cairn we save is like a soul that we know, always one worth making an extra effort to make their life better. My heart goes out to those cairns with such fears that even normal life isn't normal for them, at least not until they can have a safe and secure place to feel comforted, to be able to find room in their mind and heart to start to trust humans.

That first place to learn to trust is with the foster homes. Owner surrenders and many shelter strays are used to humans and can adapt easily to a new home. But the mill dogs need an extra safe and soft place to fall, a home with kindness and understanding and lots of patience.

Why would anyone take in a mill dog and not give it comfort, security, patience, love, and all the time in the world to come out of its fears? Who cannot feel that mill dog's fear and not understand it, knowing the abusive nature of some humans? Who can look into the eyes of a mill dog and not offer it all the comfort it needs?

Mill dogs are not "normal" and cannot act normal, not until they learn to trust humans. But when they do learn to trust you, they will love, they will learn there is no need to cower, they will learn to snuggle, they will learn to act normal.

Every cairn we come into contact with is a soul that needs to be loved, saved, cherished, and protected – they deserve that at the very least, especially after they have been rescued from a life of sheer hell. I have loved all the cairns that I have helped to rescue, whether or not I have fostered them. And they all deserve to be loved, whether or not I personally helped to rescue them.

Everyone who supports Col. Potter Cairn Rescue Network, regardless of your contribution, is a person who has helped to rescue all of the cairns we save. You are all responsible for saving their lives and each of these cairns owe their lives to you.

The foster homes owe the cairns they foster every member's love, and owe them all the time, patience, security, love and care we can offer. A foster home's duty is to show that cairn that not all humans are bad, that there is love and patience, that we can provide a better life for them now, today, this very second. Fostering is such a HUGELY rewarding expericence. I'm sure most every foster home will tell you exactly that if asked.
-- Sandy A, Houston TX, fostering Servus aka Sammy