"I am a dog person."

This is the first in a series of posts from our Board members about what inspires them to volunteer for Safe Place for Pets.

I am a dog person. I think I was born that way. I can still remember my first dog Maverick, a wired hair Fox Terrier, better than I can some childhood friends. And I hope to have a dog in my life until I die, which implies that I will be leaving a pet behind.

That is why an organization like Safe Place for Pets is so vital. It allows people to have the companionship they need and the animals to have the security of a forever home they deserve. In sickness and in health……..that is true of pets and their bond with us and in our devotion and promise to them.

As we age, as our world narrows, shrinks from going on walks in the park or around the neighborhood to simply walking to the kitchen or the bathroom, our companion animals adjust and remain by our sides. If throwing a ball or a Frisbee becomes more than we can manage they don’t complain. They remain. Our appreciation, our kindness, our continuing devotion is enough.

So what can we leave behind for those who have given us so much, who have provided a presence “ a heart beat at my feet,” in the words of Edith Wharton? We can give them hope for the future, a future in which we do not exist. The promise of a new forever home is such a simple thing to provide for the creature who is the reassuring bulk against our legs during the night, the unfailingly cheerful greeter of the day every morning and the best welcoming committee ever. No ticker tape parade has ever been sweeter than the one my dog Diva gives me every time I come home, no matter how long I have been gone.

Safe Place for Pets exists for people like the elderly woman who called to tell me she lies awake at night worrying about what will happen to her Cocker Spaniel when she dies. She had planned for her son to take him but her son died and now what? Safe Place for Pets exists for people like me and you who want to have an animal companion until we die. And our duty is to provide them, in turn, with a forever home when that happens.