Angel's Gate

Sorry about the serious and deep posts lately! It's the pregnancy hormones!! I need to losen up ffs! But today I wish to do a post on a subject that is very serious to me, and that is my love for animals!!!

I must admit that I am a coward when it comes to hearing about or seeing documentaries of animals in suffering, cruelty and torture. I often turn my head, change the channel or shut people down when they speak of heartbreaking stories concerning animals.

My heart aches for animal's, I love them more than humans themselves, animals are my heart and my passion. But it pains me so much to hear of any kind of story of animals in suffering that I selfishly often ignore it, and would choose to turn a blind eye because I didn't want to face the truth.

But in doing so, my dream of helping and giving my support on the issue to the best of my ability was disabled. I would sit back and ignore it without trying my hardest to do what I could to support these animals in suffering when really it's all my heart has ever desired. I always wanted to be a vet to play a role in helping animals in need, but I chickened out because I didn't want to deal with the heartbreak of not being able to save all of them. So instead I chose to save none at all, and I really hate that about myself.

I've spent far too long putting my own feelings above the help needed for these animals, and have wasted so much of my life that could have been spent, doing something to help.

But one day, many months ago I was watching an episode of the Oprah show and it was about 'Oprahs's most memorable stories' at the time I thought that it would be pretty safe as it didn't seem like there were going to be any heartbreaking stories about animals that I couldn't handle seeing. But all of a sudden, unexpectedly a heartbreaking story came up.

At first when they showed clips of animals that had been in suffering, my heart immediately broke and tears swelled in my eyes uncontrollably. I couldn't get to the TV quick enough to switch it off because I didn't want to face it.

I remember specifically seeing an image of this beautiful little dog who had been cruelly abused, violently shaken by it's careless owner and paralysed as a result. It was in that moment that I reached for the switch because I did not want to see any more.

But just before I pushed the button, I was extremely overwhelmed to learn that there was a lady that would take animals like these under her wing and had devoted her entire life to do every thing she could to give a better life to these unfortunate precious little lives.

She uses her own HOME, a residential, non-profit, home, for special needs animals. Here, animals many of whom are terminally and / or critically ill or physically challenged, go to live out their days in peace, dignity and love. Her focus is on wellness and quality of life. She and her family provides for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of each animal and takes a holistic approach in animal care, giving all needed supportive services including hospice care.

Currently, at her home they care for some 200 individuals of many species. These include dogs, cats, parrots, ponies, ducks, swan, pigeons, geese, chickens and rabbits. Dogs and cats receive a raw food natural diet (B.A.R.F. diet) specially prepared by a local butcher.

These animals are her pets. Most are free to roam their home and/or the spacious back yard. Dogs and cats are not crated. Only the parrots are caged. The water fowl, chickens and pigeons are penned at night for their protection.

There is never a fee when she adopts an animal with special needs. They depend solely on supporter contributions which come to her from all over the United States. They even have supporters from as far away as Canada, France, Germany ,The Netherlands, Africa and many from Japan.

This lady is everything that I wish I was as a person, a selfless angel with a heart of gold and I idolise her more than any other person in this world. I had absolutely no idea that there were people like her out there, because I never took the time to allow myself to listen long enough to hear if there ever was a happy ending to heartbreaking stories such as these. Sure I know of animal shelters and the RSPCA, but I've never heard of any one that has put so much heart into it the way she does.

The thing that touched me the most, was that I was able to suddenly see past the disabled animals in their walkers, bandages and heartbreaking wounds, instead the biggest thing that stood out to me was the joy in their eyes and the big happy smiles on their gorgeous little faces.

These animals are clearly loved and cherished in the way that they deserve to be, and seeing that turned my tears of sadness into tears of joy. It truly was a dream come true, one that I never even thought was possible.

It was after seeing this that I realised that it was time to face my fears and get to doing what ever I could to finally help in any way possible. It was such an overwhelming feeling to know that there is hope for these unfortunate animals and one of the main ingredients is cleary love.

Unfortunately, not long after seeing this episode, I had forgotten to take note of the name of this organisation. I couldn't for the life of me remember the name and I searched for months and months on the internet trying to find it again, but I wasn't having much luck at all.

But 2 DAYS AGO... the most amazing thing happened.

I was doing my daily blog reading when I headed to read Nitebyrds recent post. She mentioned in it about an organisation called 'Angels Gate.' I immediately had chills as it rang a bell to me and I realised that it was the name that I had been searching for all this time!! She even linked the site to it, so after many months of searching for this organisation, suddenly with one click of the button it was staring me right in the face! (THANKS AGAIN NITE! xx)

The name of this lady that I speak of is Susan Marino, the founder of Angel's Gate... my Idol!

Now that I have finally found Angel's Gate, I have no idea where to start. I'm just taking it all in at the moment because it has touched me so very deeply in ways that I can't even describe.

Of course when I get a chance to discuss things with hubby, I'd like to look into giving a donation of some kind. Although we are really struggling financially at the moment, with hubby not getting much work due to a bad back, me having no job and being pregnant, expecting our first child in January, this is not going to stop me from contributing in some way.

In fact, a donation alone just doesn't seem like enough to me, I wish to do something far greater to support Angel's Gate! I have no idea what I'm going to do at this stage but I vow to dedicate my support to Angel's Gate in any way that I can.

I intend to go to tremendous lengths to help in any way that I can, whether it be a fundraiser or something even bigger if possible! I will research into it and see what I can come up with, because this means the world to me.

But in the meantime, I wanted to start by doing a post about this amazing act of selflessness, kindness and dedication to these animals in need.

And I ask that if you too are an animal supporter and are just as touched by Susans dedication as I am, please check out their website and maybe even offer a small donation if you can afford to.

You can even sponser an animal if you want to... they are all so adorable! I wish I could sponser them all!!!

But I've got my eye on this this angel...

ABBY: Only recently adopted, this sweet little Chihuahua has had a lot of medical attention and the best they can hope for, they are told, is that she will survive and remain paralyzed permanently. They have already spent $1600 for her and soon there will be bills for neurological consults; re-splinting; pain meds and the purchase of a dog cart.

It can be hard to believe that animals in such critical conditions as these could possibly live happy lives. But I assure you, if you could only see the love and support and attention Susan offers to each and every one of these animals in need, you will be very surprised and thrilled by just how happy spirited these little guys are!

If there is ever a case where an animal is unhappy and is in consistant suffering with their conditions, and she has tried her hardest at doing what ever she can in her power to bring them joy in their life, but it is in their best interest to be put down... she will do so.

No animal suffers in her care.

xx