What does Christmas mean to you?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year and most of us would be looking forward to be surrounded by our loved ones, family and friends while we feast, make merry and excitedly open our Christmas presents. Commercialization of this festive holiday over the past years have inadvertently created an indulgence syndrome where people usually spoil themselves and their family and friends with plenty of good food and gifts.
However as lifted from Wikipedia, the true meaning of Christmas is described as “to give up one’s very self – to think only of others – how to bring the greatest happiness to others.”
2021 had been a challenging year for most of us; battling the pandemic, job losses, and some of our lives have been impacted beyond measure. As we draw closer to the end of the year, we would like to take a moment to be grateful, to reflect on how we could be a better version of ourselves, how we could spread more love and joy to people around us and to embrace the true meaning of Christmas in our daily lives.
The past year had been fraught with our 4-legged friends that we have lost and did not manage to save. Every single rescue was given a fighting chance and unfortunately, not all of them make it. Chance was a heartbreaking case, but we are comforted that he left in dignity, surrounded by his regular feeders who loved him. On the flip side, we have also successfully rehabilitated quite a number of rescues and have them adopted to good homes. We received pictures and updates of our rescued dogs periodically and nothing else warms our hearts even more than seeing those doggy grins with their newfound families loving them to bits!
All of our rescues could not have happened without the love and support of all of you out there, who helped shared our appeal, contributed funds and food for us to continue our rescue work. We would also like to express our gratitude and appreciation to the tireless angels behind the scenes – our volunteers. Hope Dog Rescue operates on a very lean scale - there are only a handful of us and each of our volunteer holds full-time jobs and have their own families to take care of, on top of volunteering their time with us. That is why sometimes they are affectionately referred to as HDR’s slaves. :P
Slave benefits are aplenty and intrinsic in nature though! Seeing a rescue case miraculously transformed from a woebegone creature to a one chubby furry radiating happiness is enough reward for most of them. One of which is an unforgettable rescue, Button, an abandoned and unkempt looking Schnauzer when she was found, and later on trained to become Singapore’s first and only Hokkien Therapy dog, providing comfort to end-of-life patients in Assisi Hospice. All of us at HDR were so proud of this little minx! Button had left for the rainbow bridge in 2018 and have left an indelible paw print in the hearts of those who knew her.
Hope Dog Rescue is all about second chances for the dogs we have saved, a chance for them to experience love, shelter and having basic needs like adequate food in their bellies. Yet they have touched our lives deeply as well, showing us how to live in the present with unbridled contentment and asking for nothing more. These 4-legged angels are truly sent on earth to keep us humans grounded.
May all of you experience the true meaning of Christmas and have peace and joy in your lives. Merry Christmas from all of us at Hope Dog Rescue 😊
Written by : Jamie
