(This week's guest blog is from Stephanie Ladeira, our VP of Development)
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| Mousey after a bout with the pooch left him nose-less. |
I hated dolls when I was a child. I wanted animals and more animals. I loved animals more an anything. It’s why I work in animal welfare today. I can’t stand to see an animal neglected, abandoned or unloved. Animals bring comfort, joy, unconditional love – the stuff of life.
Now that I’ve graduated to helping and loving real animals (and working at Humane
Society Silicon Valley) my stuffed animals are packed away. Mousey, my favorite stuffed animal, lives
on a high shelf in my closet.
My husband and I were watching Toy Story 3 recently. The
plot focuses on the toys Woody,
Buzz Lightyear,
and their friends
dealing with an uncertain future as their owner, Andy, prepares to leave for
college. The story is just heartbreaking
– the animals tossed aside, potentially being donated to some horrible daycare
center where children who don’t love or care for them will wipe snot on them
and chew on them, accidentally ripping off their arms, carelessly leaving them
in the rain…
I paused the movie to fetch Mousey from
the dark closet. He needed some cuddling and I needed to reconnect with the comfort and unconditional love I felt from him
my entire childhood. I remembered that
when my mom would tell me I could sleep with only ONE stuffed animal Mousey was my first choice almost
100% of the time. He was my go-to, my
snuggle buddy, the cloth that absorbed my tears, he-who-was-squeezed during
happy times.
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| Mousey gets a bath during his rehab. |
I held Mousey, absorbing his comfort
for the rest of the movie. Afterwards my
husband Paul and I went upstairs to bed with our real animals –
three dogs and one cat – all rescued from shelters and rescue groups across
California. I slept soundly, comforted
by my evening with a loving husband, four live furry animals and a reconnection
with one of the best parts of my childhood.
The next morning the crew and I got up before Paul.
As I wandered into the living room with my coffee I was devastated
to see that someone had ravaged
Mousey during the night. His nose and snout had been
destroyed and his insides were strewn across the living room. I felt terrible for not protecting him. I cleaned up the living room and put Mousey back in the dark of my closet. For days I was ravaged by guilt. His nose was never found. Not even in a poop in the backyard days
later.
Fast forward a bit: at an HSSV event, I met Beth, a woman
whose purpose is to rejuvenate dolls and stuffed animals so they can continue
to be played with and loved. Her
patients have been mauled by pets and loved nearly to death by children and
adults. They come from all over the globe, sent in by the people that love them to be rehabilitated. All return to their families ready to be loved
and played with for many years to come.
She does amazing work. See for yourself. I made arrangements for
Mousey to travel to Beth for some treatment.
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| His 'heart' - made from original stuffing. |
It then occurred to me that what Beth does with stuffed toys is what we do at HSSV with real animals: Over 76% of the animals we rescue each year need care in
order to be ready to be loved by someone new. Be it a dental cleaning, behavioral rehabilitation or major medical help, they all need a little TLC (and occasionally even some stitching up) to be made whole again. These animals should not be thrown away – they
have so much love left to give. And we, too,
approach each of these animals as an individual in need of specialized care.
Beth at Realms of Gold took an injured
Mousey, lovingly repaired his physical ailment, restored his heart, provided
him with a restorative “spa treatment” and made sure he had a home (my home) to love and
protect him for the rest of his days.
It’s exactly what we do at HSSV.
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| A restored, happy Mousey back with Stephanie. |
