by Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
How many times have you seen a meme, video, or a snarky comment about the fact that someone has to rehome an animal? It is true that there are some people who are heartless. They get an animal on a whim and then they are too lazy to care for it. Maybe the animal broke their favorite vase so they want to get rid of it. Maybe they don’t like the fact that there’s dog hair everywhere. Maybe they bought the pet for their small children and they want to punish their kids for not taking care of it like an adult would.
It’s heartbreaking for an animal to lose its home no matter what the reason. What nobody talks about is an ugly truth. No animal ever benefited from staying with somebody who could not or would not take care of it. Read that as many times as you need to until you understand it. What happens when an animal goes to the home of somebody else instead of staying someplace where it’s not taken care of is it gets a chance at a better life. It might be upsetting to see pictures or videos of animals and shelters waiting for someone to take them home but you don’t know what situation the animal was in before.
It is true that some people will surrender an animal because they cannot afford its medical care. This is done in hopes that somebody who can afford it will adopt the animal and take care of it. It is true that some people surrender an animal because they have to move and they cannot take the animal with them. The alternative to surrendering it to a rescue or shelter is to just release the animal or leave it behind without place to get in somebody’s care and that’s not good. It is true that some people surrender their elderly family member’s pet when that elderly family member dies because nobody in the family can take care of the animal and it is also true that some people surrender an animal “just because.”
All of these are scenarios that do not benefit any animal to stay in. Putting people down for surrendering animals or trying to find a new home for them is not going to deter them. Not everybody is cut out to take care of an animal for life and even if they are, sometimes something horrible happens and they can’t do it even if they want to.
If magic is moving energy, we can use our words, our intentions, and our deeds to make great things happen. Rather than doing an organized public shaming of people who rehome animals with friends who don’t believe in rehoming, it would be far better to use magic for the animal’s benefit. There are some things that you can do that are easy and some of them won’t cost you very much time or any money at all.
1) Share information about the animal that’s going to be rehomed. Talk to your friends about it, share pictures of it online, and try to find a new home for the animal. Whatever you do, make sure not to reach out to the individual that’s rehoming them and yell or complain to them. It is not helpful.
2) Donate money or supplies to the individual that has taken custody of the animal temporarily. Not all of us can adopt every animal that we’d like to unfortunately – believe me I’ve tried – but a lot of us can share resources.
3) Adopt an animal that’s being rehomed if you can. Maybe the person that’s rehoming them was only meant to have them temporarily until the animal comes to you permanently.
4) If you know someone is rehoming an animal because they do not have the time or resources to take care of it, you can always offer to contribute financially or pitch in to help so they can keep their pet.
There comes a time to speak out against injustice and then sometimes when we are saying that we are calling people out, we’re just being vicious. Our words are magical. They create the reality that we operate within. If the reality that we create turns us into people who condemn people for things that we don’t understand, then we are not using our magic for good. If you really care about animals that are being rehomed, instead of bashing the people that are doing it with your words, thus magically creating a hostile environment, use your words to help to find a new home for the animals. The animals will thank you for it.
So, does rehoming work? Do animals get passed around from person to person once they’ve been rehomed once? I don’t think so. Eight years ago, a friend of mine had 30 days to move and she could only take two animals with her. She had five dogs and I was lucky enough to adopt one of them. The dog I adopted is now a 10-year-old and living her best life. She and our cat who was rehomed to us are the queens of our hearts. She is my first dog that I got at age 40 and now I wonder why it took me 40 years to start adopting dogs. Rehoming works and deserves our support. It’s good magic.
Blessed Be.
Lady Saoirse has studied magic and lore for most of her life but started walking her own magical path after being spiritually reborn in the desert. Today she is a High Priestess for The Temple of the Goddess, she is a psychic advisor and spiritual counselor, she is a member of the spiritual family at the Magical Druid in Ohio, and she shares her gifts as a Psychic and Content Writer for Spiritual Blossom. She has written for Mysticsense and PaganPages.Org emag.