#More #Stuff To #Remember ;-)

Hey Everyone!! :-)

Today's excerpt from An Animal Rescuer's Guide To Staying (Relatively) Sane is pretty short, but it might be the most important part to remember.  It's really easy to get disillusioned with humanity when you do animal rescue, but it's vital to remember that you can't do it alone.  You need other people to help you.

When I find myself starting to forget this, I try to think about the two kitties in the picture above.  They were both incredibly sweet kitties, but they didn't like each other very much at first.  In fact, they refused to stay in the same room with each other until something happened that made the friends.  

At one point, I had a plastic cat treat caddy to store cat treats so they would stay fresh.  It was perfect because, unlike kitchen cabinets, it was impenetrable to kitty paws...or so I thought.  I walked into the kitchen one day to see the two sneak-thieves above working together to pry the lid of the caddy up high enough to scoop some treats out.  Neither one could do it alone, but working together one of them held the lid up while the other scooped out the treats.  Then they shared the loot.  Don't ever tell me that cats aren't clever! ;-)

The point of this story is that by working together, the two of them accomplished a goal that would have been impossible for either one on their own.  In addition, while they were collaborating on this endeavor, they also became good friends and snuggle buddies.  It's no different with people, we can do more together than we can separately and sometimes others will surprise you in good ways. :-)

Some Things You Need To Come To Terms With And/Or Remember:

3. Humans are the problem. But humans are also the solution. If you want to be effective at causing change you will need to be able to work with people. That means you will have to refine your people skills and, sometimes, bite your tongue. If you can’t work with and communicate effectively with other people, you will not be able to accomplish a whole lot. The problem is just too big for a single person to solve. I’m still working on this, but that doesn’t make it any less important.