How Do You Sleep At Night?

I had someone say that to me today.  To me it was a verbal slap in the face.  Animal sheltering is a difficult job.  There are too many animals and not enough homes.  Shelters around us are going 'no kill'.  While that is an admirable goal, it creates a problem for us.  People from those counties want to bring their animals to us.  We quickly become full and we need to find homes for our existing animals before we can take in more.  Then what about the animals waiting to come in?  Do we leave them to their own devices or do we euthanize an animal to make space?  As awful as that sounds, that is a reality for our shelter.  Fortunately, we don't have that problem for the dogs.  All adoptable dogs stay at the shelter until they find a new home.  We are not that fortunate for the cats because we get so many and we are the only open admission shelter in a nine county area.

So how do I sleep at night?  I know that I do my very best to help animals find homes.  I know that I do not like seeing animals on the street trying to fend for themselves and be subject to accidents, poisoning, or injury by people who do not like animals.  So before you ask me 'How do you sleep at night?', ask yourself, "What can I do to help the animals?"