Posted July 30, 2000

Pocahontas was completely out of time at a New Jersey shelter, and an eleventh hour plea came across to me on her behalf. She was only five years old, turned in by owners who could not care for her any longer. The shelter was full, and she had to go -- one way or another. I offered to take her in Maryland, but in the meantime, I posted her on our website as and urgent case, and fortunately for her, a nice family -- who had actually applied for one of our rescue dogs came forward to take her in.

Pocahontas was spared the fate of Marne, another dog who had come in to the same shelter around the same time. I had also posted this dog as urgent, but because Marne developed an upper respiratory infection -- more commonly known as kennel cough -- they euthanized her before I could make arrangements to take her in. I had know about her need less than one day, and she was dead before I could act on her behalf. It made me completely sick.

If the shelter had not been full, if Marne had not been ill, if there had been some place where she could have gone for treatment, if someone had come forward to take her in, or someone had gotten her to a vet, even for a day -- if any of these things had happened -- she would be alive and happily placed in a loving home just like Pocahontas. There but for the grace of God would she have gone, too.

Pocahontas was lucky she did not get sick. Even though kennel cough is treatable, and dogs make full recoveries, Marne had no chance in a place like that. It really makes you stop and think -- about chance and fate and the state of our world in general. I am pleased to celebrate Pocahontas' life, but I will never be able to think of her without deep regret over Marne, who is memorialized on our website. Her misfortune is one shared by far too many others.