Ellwood Thompson’s Blog

People ask how I can foster puppies for the SPCA – “how can you give them up after having them for so long”. My answer is usually something sarcastic like “I am embracing my fear of commitment.” Honestly I am not sure how I do it, I just do. I think it is important to take care of the young, I want to give back to my community and I think puppies are easier than big dogs. Fostering puppies is for a set amount of time and I do my best to get them ready for their new forever families. I pride myself on my puppies being crate trained, paper trained and plump. I have fostered about 6 sets of puppies – they have come and gone. My last set, however, left a mark and a puppy.

There were 11 puppies, 2 weeks old, dropped off at the Chesterfield pound with no mom. The SPCA took 4 and named them Enie, Meanie, Minnie and Moe. I got Minnie and Moe. Both were very underweight and unhealthy. Moe only weighed 8 oz. and tried pretty hard to die. Fortunately with the incredible support of the SPCA staff – most specifically Kate – he lived. Bottle feeding him was very difficult and caring for him got emotional along the way. In the end I could not let Moe go.

As it turns out Moe is an incredible companion to me and my other dog Etta. He is happy and smiles and his entire body shakes when his tale wags. He is love – unconditional, pure and simple. Somehow he has transformed our house into more of a home. Moe has rounded out our little family. I don’t want to imagine life without him. I thought I had saved Moe but in reality Moe has done amazing things for me.

I was thinking the other day about the all things in my life, like Moe, that I thought I was sacrificing for when actually they gave me back much more than I had given. Not all of the things I get back are tangible but they are palpable.

Let’s take shopping locally for example;

First, the classic sacrifice – it costs more. This may seem true but I am buying more carefully and thoughtfully and I am proud of myself for that because I am throwing less away. Go figure - it seems when I put more thought into it I don’t buy as much – so it has worked out financially. Also let me note here that I don’t have a lot of money so when I say this I am not being cavalier.

Then there is also the “sacrifice” of having fewer options and/or less location. I found this to be true on some level but when I really brainstormed with people I found some very cool places that I never noticed before. It has also been my experience that the service is better and the depth of product knowledge is deeper. It is also a bonus that the same couple of employees’ at my local pet store cut my dogs nails – my dogs are even getting to know them……I like that. I don’t have to hope the person working at Petsmart is having a good day.

Like with my puppies I thought I was making a sacrifice by trying to buy only locally but as it turns I feel like my quality of life has increased. I also get the added benefit of contributing to the health of my community. I never realized just how important it is to support locally owned and operated businesses. According to the American Independent Business Alliance, a locally owned independent business returns approximately 80% of each dollar spent back into the community. They also talk about a “multiplier effect” and how each dollar spent at a locally owned and operated business can return that 5x over. This assistance to the community is seen through the purchase of materials and supplies from other locally owned businesses as well as taxes, employees’ wages and in many instances contributions to local non-profit agencies.

My puppies have helped me realize that when you sacrifice for what you believe in it just does not seem to be a sacrifice. For this reason I have decided to no longer limit myself to what is possible. I am going to work harder at identifying lifestyle choices that are truly important to me and just do them. These things are the diamonds in my life and I must learn to mine them more.