Lenore is the Light.

  July 31, 2009 – As many of you know, I have rehomed a number of animals in my experience, including dogs, cows, goats, sheep, and donkeys. It has always bothered some people, and prompted others to think about their perspectives on animals, especially animals like dogs.
  Some of my dogs will never be rehomed – Izzy, Rose, Lenore, certainly. I just gave the sheep and the two remaining donkeys to a farmer friend in Vermont. A few people are troubled by my willingness to part with animals, and have written me – very thoughtfully and respectfully – so I thought I ought to talk about my ideas a bit.
  First off, millions of animals are rehomed every year. There are rescue dogs and cats rehomed by the millions, the Katrina dogs, many of whom I know. Some people wondered how I could part with my donkeys and sheep. Wouldn’t it traumatize them? Wouldn’t they suffer?
  I have seen the donkeys and sheep that have been rehomed. They are content, eating, attaching to their new humans, well cared for. I have rehomed several dogs I have loved – Homer, Pearl, Clementine. They are all doing well, better in many ways than when they lived with me. None have or are pining for me, or mourning my loss. They love their new families dearly, have adapted well, and are in environments better suited to them than the ones I could provide.
  In the case of my donkeys and sheep, I found my life was changing. I am working hard on new things – a relationship, fiction, photography, children’s books. I was spending little time with them
 In their new home, the farm family wants to work with them, take them to 4-H Fairs, has kids who want to groom and train and love them.
  They deserve a better shot than I was giving them.
  To keep them as show animals in a pasture when they could live active and busy lives with people who really want them would not be human. Quite the opposite.
  All of the animals I have rehomed are living better lives than I could provide them, and that is my obligation and responsibility. To sacrifice their interests so I can feel good is not in their interest, it’s in mine.
   Like them,  I deserve to live my life. Animal are not children. They are not people. They are adaptable. Thank God we are willing to rehome animals, otherwise tens of millions would have to be killed or put in shelters. To my knowledge, few of the Katrina dogs have withered and pined. They do what animals and other dogs do. They adapt, and if they are well and thoughtfully treated, they are content, as healthy and well-cared for animals tend to be.They learn to love what they know, and what provides for them.
  The personification of animals like dogs – the emotionalizing of them, the new view of them as adorable child surrogates – is not good for them. It is good for us. It is not loving. It is selfish.
 There is a big difference between what is good for animals, and what makes us feel good.
  It might make people feel good if animals were never rehomed, but it would not in any respect be good for millions and millions of them. It would be a death sentence for many.