Happy National Dog Day

It’s National Dog Day and what better way to celebrate the occasion than by showing you some of our past & present.

Before you, you see some of the faces that have come through ARTBAR because their life did not go as expected but more importantly these are the faces of hope.

Some of these graced us only for a short while and some were long term, but all were and still are important to us. Each dog you see here taught me a lesson, growing ARTBAR into what it is today.

When I look back at these faces, I can remember what their fur felt like, holding their face in the palm of my hand, late nights on the floor hand feeding or doing wound care, setting in the floor of a vets office saying goodbye or having to walk away after sending them on to their future.
Their stories are my stories and it’s been both a blessing and a curse to tell them.

We’ve saved dogs I never thought we could. We’ve lost dogs I didn’t expect. I’ve felt my heart grow with joy when a dog hit by a car has regained bladder control, when a paralyzed dog started feeling his legs again, when I’ve been able to unchain a dog chained for his entire life.

But I’ve also lost pieces of my heart along the way when I’ve came too late, when no amount of money or love could fix broken bodies, and when the only thing I could do is to let them go with my voice in their ear.

I’ve been beyond angry when others have driven by a dying dog in the road, when they’ve dumped off blind seniors on mining roads, and when we’ve been left to clean up problems we didn’t make.

I’ve had to remind myself when I’m so stressed that I just want to walk away… that it’s the animals that will suffer not the people if I do, that doing the best I can will not always give me the outcome that I want, and that sometimes giving an easy transition out is my only purpose in coming into a dog’s life.

Happy National Dog Day to those dogs that crossed through our doors. ❤️

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