Today is my birthday.
I am officially "old."
What are the advantages of getting old?
Well, there are a few -- like only paying $10.00 a year now ("Senior Membership") at the city recreation center where I swim.
One is also supposed to get "wiser" with age.
Well, I don't know about that one -- unless one equates crankiness and impatience with "wisdom."
Perhaps that is due to us old folks realizing we don't have that much time to right the world.
Idealism of course, dissipates with age.
We tend not to see the world the way we would like it to be, but rather what it is.
In fact, one of my favorite lines to people calling to "put my pet up for adoption" but also saying they don't want their dog or cat "put to sleep" is, "The world doesn't revolve around what you want, Ma'am, it revolves around what IS."
Definitely a line from an old, cranky curmudgeon.
Sometimes I think I am getting too old for animal rescue work.
Yesterday, I was in Petco with one of my foster people, (Sarah) showing Foxy, our sweet little Pom mix for adoption. We had been invited to bring the dog by Gisella of "Zany's Furry Pets" who runs adoptions there on Sundays.
I used to run adoptions at the Upper East Side store during the late 90's. We were in fact at Petco 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. A grueling schedule to be sure and one where one tends to "burn out" after a few years.
Yesterday's brief experience felt like "de-ja vu" to me -- especially when Gisella said to a passerby, "All these cats were on the euth list of the city shelter and we rescued them. They all need homes now."
How many times did I say the same exact thing to customers wandering in and out of the store 8 to 12 years ago?
Thousands of times.
When hearing it again yesterday, I could only think to myself:
"Ten years later and only the names of the players have changed. But, the situation is still the same."
Sarah and I didn't stay too long at the store. Foxy was a bit stressed with all the activity around him and for me it was, "Been here, done that."
Perhaps I would have felt the same had it been a trip back to Xenon's, China Club, Visage or Studio54.
Only it wouldn't have been quite so depressing.
There is a saying that "One can never go home again."
There is a reason I haven't hankered to get back to store adoptions.
Ten years later and nothing has changed.
Will it ever change?
Will there ever come a time when we don't have to say:
"We rescued these animals off the Euth list?"
Not in my lifetime -- but hopefully for those who are younger.
Perhaps its that realization that makes so many of us "senior folks" old and cranky. -- PCA
********
I am officially "old."
What are the advantages of getting old?
Well, there are a few -- like only paying $10.00 a year now ("Senior Membership") at the city recreation center where I swim.
One is also supposed to get "wiser" with age.
Well, I don't know about that one -- unless one equates crankiness and impatience with "wisdom."
Perhaps that is due to us old folks realizing we don't have that much time to right the world.
Idealism of course, dissipates with age.
We tend not to see the world the way we would like it to be, but rather what it is.
In fact, one of my favorite lines to people calling to "put my pet up for adoption" but also saying they don't want their dog or cat "put to sleep" is, "The world doesn't revolve around what you want, Ma'am, it revolves around what IS."
Definitely a line from an old, cranky curmudgeon.
Sometimes I think I am getting too old for animal rescue work.
Yesterday, I was in Petco with one of my foster people, (Sarah) showing Foxy, our sweet little Pom mix for adoption. We had been invited to bring the dog by Gisella of "Zany's Furry Pets" who runs adoptions there on Sundays.
I used to run adoptions at the Upper East Side store during the late 90's. We were in fact at Petco 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. A grueling schedule to be sure and one where one tends to "burn out" after a few years.
Yesterday's brief experience felt like "de-ja vu" to me -- especially when Gisella said to a passerby, "All these cats were on the euth list of the city shelter and we rescued them. They all need homes now."
How many times did I say the same exact thing to customers wandering in and out of the store 8 to 12 years ago?
Thousands of times.
When hearing it again yesterday, I could only think to myself:
"Ten years later and only the names of the players have changed. But, the situation is still the same."
Sarah and I didn't stay too long at the store. Foxy was a bit stressed with all the activity around him and for me it was, "Been here, done that."
Perhaps I would have felt the same had it been a trip back to Xenon's, China Club, Visage or Studio54.
Only it wouldn't have been quite so depressing.
There is a saying that "One can never go home again."
There is a reason I haven't hankered to get back to store adoptions.
Ten years later and nothing has changed.
Will it ever change?
Will there ever come a time when we don't have to say:
"We rescued these animals off the Euth list?"
Not in my lifetime -- but hopefully for those who are younger.
Perhaps its that realization that makes so many of us "senior folks" old and cranky. -- PCA
********
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