66 Dogs

A couple of years ago animal control officers were called to a house in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.  In this one home they found 66 greyhounds, starving, neglected, mostly in cages. The officer interviewed on the news stated that they were not bringing charges against the couple.  They were apparently well-meaning folks who adopted the animals to rescue them. Somewhere along the way they just got overwhelmed.  They couldn't take care of the dogs they had, but they kept taking more in.

I was relating this story to my book club and we asked the question, "How many dogs is too many?"  We didn't come up with a firm answer but agreed that somewhere between 3 and 66 there is a line which should not be crossed by one couple or family.  But then, we reflected, "Isn't life just like that?"  We add one little dog, and then another, and then one more.  Pretty soon we have too many dogs!  How many of you can relate to this?  The kids play soccer, we say we'll be the PTA treasurer, bake bread for our church welcome center, be in charge of the fall fling.....you get the picture.  We can wake up one day with 66 "dogs" in our house!

My book club named ourselves 66 Dogs, and we often rebuke one another when we're taking on too many "dogs" or we'll comment, "Now that's a Really Big Dog!"

I've often thought that running a home and family is a constant striving for balance.  A continual evaluation of how we budget our time, energy, money, and other resources. Figuring out if we're about to, or have already, added one to many dogs to the mix.  So as I put my toe into the blogging world the name that kept coming to mind was 66 Dogs. I'm just hoping this blog doesn't become dog #67.....