“No.”

My daughter wanted to bring home a puppy that had followed her and her middle school cross country teammates back from their run last Friday.

“Come on, mom. We’ll take it to G.A.I.N. tomorrow.”

“I said no. Just leave it here.”

She got into the back of the van with the little black thing with its swollen, worm-filled belly and its little tail wagging away. It looked like a cross between a pit bull and a boonie dog. I gave an exasperated sigh.

“Bel, we cannot save every animal we come in contact with!”

Earlier this year, it was a kitten my other two daughters had rescued as it crawled across Route 4. Several visits to the vet and over $100 later, we found out the kitten had some incurable feline disease and had to be put down.

“Mom, we’re doing a good deed. If we take her to G.A.I.N., she might be a good friend to someone.”

I knew exactly what the puppy would turn into at G.A.I.N., but I couldn’t tell her that. According to the Guam Animals In Need web site, in 2007, nearly 5,000 dogs, cats, puppies or kittens were turned into G.A.I.N. Only 756 of them were adopted. You do the math.

“This is such a hassle. We cannot keep rescuing animals like this.”

 “Mom, think outside the box here. Would you rather me be a serial killer?”

 “WHAT??!!! Where did THAT come from?”

Apparently, some years back, I had mentioned to the girls that they should stay away from kids who are mean to animals, because there have been cases where sometimes those people grow up to be abusers and serial killers. I cannot remember what I had for lunch yesterday, and my daughter remembers this conversation we had probably five or six years ago.

“Okay, okay. We’ll take the puppy to G.A.I.N. I’m glad you won’t grow up to be a serial killer.”

Thus is the life of a mother of animal lovers. Our dog, Lily, who is over 10 years old now, is the product of such a rescue. She was the runt of our neighbor’s dog’s zillionth litter, and I remember the day my eldest, who was eight years old at the time, brought her home. She was so excited. She gave Lily a bath, and I ran to the store to get some puppy food. Little did I know that adopting this tiny ball of fur would lead to us adopting two cats, and making countless trips to Guam Animals In Need to turn in other puppies and kittens that the girls rescued but that they could not keep because my husband and I decided that one dog and two cats was the family’s pet limit.

Our dog and our two cats (who are both now in cat heaven) taught the girls a little bit about motherhood and a lot about responsibility. Both kittens were found abandoned when they were not yet weaned, and we had to dropper-feed them, and wipe their little butts with a cloth, as if the mother was licking them, so they would learn to pee after they ate (we looked this up on the internet). This ritual had to be performed before school in the morning, after school in the afternoon, several times in the evening, and before they went to bed.

All of our animals were spayed or neutered. Best money I ever spent, as far as I’m concerned (especially since our dog does not do well tied up). Unfortunately, not everyone is able to fork out the money to keep their pet from over-populating the island, and G.A.I.N’s free spay-neuter clinic happens only once a year. I wish someone would invent a pill that you could give to dogs and cats to spay or neuter them. (Come to think of it, I know a few humans that could use such a pill.)

Until then, in the interest of having children who will grow up not to be serial killers, I guess we’ll just have to keep rescuing these puppies and kittens whenever one of the poor little things crosses our path.  

Sigh.

P.S. This particular puppy found a home with one of my husband’s co-workers.