From the Director: The Long Haul

puppies

This week SHUG had two events planned. We cancelled one and are going ahead with the other. As the director, the final call was mine.

The event still happening on Saturday is our Indianapolis Meet & Greet. This is the event's third anniversary and the volunteers who run it have it down to a science. All interactions are socially distanced and our volunteers are vaccinated.

Perhaps even more importantly, the volunteers who run that event and the members of the public who come to see the dogs are all local and members of the community. The same people tend to come month after month. Our volunteers recognize them and have confidence that they know (and will abide by) the rules in place to keep everyone safe. If you're in Indy, come out and say hi!

The second event scheduled for today and tomorrow is Greyhounds in Gettysburg. GIG was cancelled last year and like many sighthound people, I was really excited to finally get to see everyone. I was also scheduled to be one of the speakers tomorrow.

The decision not to attend GIG was a personal one for me. I have a young daughter who would have been traveling with me and at the end of the day, that was the deciding factor. For those of you who are attending, I hope everyone has a great time! You can buy the SHUG 2022 Calendar at the booth for the Senior Sighthound Sanctuary.

It's been a weird couple of years and we've had to make a lot of these decisions. The bottom line is that SHUG is a volunteer organization and the volunteers have the final call. Today I'm sitting at home while a lot of my friends are having a blast. I miss you guys! But we'll see you next year.

Because at SHUG, we're here for the long haul.

This week a potential adopter withdrew their application because they thought that flights were "on hold indefinitely". Dogs flew last month. Dogs flew last week. Dogs will fly next month.

We cancel events that are fun and exciting, but the real work--finding homes for dogs--has never stopped. When COVID first hit and the tracks started closing, SHUG's volunteers braved eerily empty roads to move 30 Greyhounds in a day. During the course of COVID we've fostered four--or is it five now?--litters of puppies. Dogs are getting spays, neuters, vaccinations, surgeries for broken legs. Dogs are going to foster homes and dogs are going to forever homes.

SHUG doesn't stop.

We make the hard decisions--and hope they're the right ones--because we're in it to win it. The dogs depend on us, so we have to make sure that we're making good decisions not just for this weekend and this event, but for the dogs who will need SHUG to be there for them five years from now.

This month is SHUG's official 9 year anniversary. As we approach our 900th dog, we've learned a thing or two. The last two years have been weird, but we're still kicking.

So no matter what you chose to do tomorrow, please be safe. We're sticking around and we hope you do too.

Similar Posts