When someone encounters a stray animal, they will usually view it in one of two ways. They will either want to take it in and nourish it back to health or they will leave it to fend for itself. Those who feel the animal should fend for itself may have the idea the animal’s natural instinct will kick in and survive or perhaps someone else will find and take care of the animal. In not wanting to help, they try to convince themselves they have too much going on so can’t take on any more responsibility. Once convinced of that, they do not feel bad anymore.
It’s easy for people to just look regionmesterskapsb the other way. Because if they really confronted it, they would likely have to DO something about the animal’s condition.
Pretty much the same thing happens when there is a person involved. And there may be as many “stray” people as there are stray animals. The stray people need just as much help as the animals even though some might view a human being puts them self in that position as opposed to the animal who did not.
There were approximately 7.6 animal companions who entered a shelter last year. 3.9 million dogs and 3.4 million cats. 2.7 million were euthanized (1.2 million dogs and 1.4 million cats). There are approximately 643,067 homeless people in this US. 38% of them are alcoholics and 26% of them are addicts. There are approximately 23.5 million addicts and alcoholics in the US.
I think the majority of people have a nurturing instinct that makes them reach out to care for sick or feral animals. Fortunately those same caring people are the ones who help the people in their lives or whom they know who struggle with addiction. Those individuals save lives. They work at rehabs, animal shelters, homeless shelters, hospitals and treatment centers.
I can honestly say I am grateful to all of them. Because I was a stray for many years. I was an addict and went through life wanting to be disassociated from everything and everyone even though I thought I was a survivor.
In reality I was slowly killing not only myself, but those closest to me. It wasn’t until I was taken in, nourished, guided and learned how to do truly survive that my life began to take a survival path. I now see what love, compassion, patience and encouragement can do for a stray. I live my life now to help other strays that were like me.
Because of the compassion I was shown, I will never lose hope in others.
By Daniel Humphreys
