07/24/2026
This is a very long post that needs to be said. Feel free not to read it. This is what is going on inside my head today. I questioned whether I should post it and might regret it immediately. But here goes…
Since Bandit escaped again yesterday, I’ve been reminded of something that has absolutely nothing to do with dogs… difficult situations have a way of showing you people’s character.
Let me be very clear.
You do not have to agree with everything we do at Faiths Haven. You don’t have to agree with me or even like me. But you don’t get to send me or other volunteers unkind messages. The days of that being tolerated are over.
You can question a decision. You can have a different opinion. But if you come onto our page simply to be sarcastic, insulting or to take pleasure in something going wrong, you will be banned. If you send me or another volunteer a nasty private message, the same applies. Simple as that. And this goes beyond Bandit or these past few days.
And really, if you dislike me or Faiths Haven so much, I have to wonder why you spend your time following our page.
I’ll happily show you the way out.
The last time Bandit was missing, the support we received was incredible. People gave up hours of their days. People drove around searching. People opened their properties to us. People watched through the night. People shared posts and sent sightings. There were approximately 30 people working together at different points trying to get this dog home safely.
Yet somehow I was accused of having an “ego” because apparently I wanted to be the one to catch him myself. 😂
That one still makes me laugh.
If I wanted all the glory, inviting 30 plus people to help would have been a pretty terrible strategy.
I don’t need anyone to pat me on the back. I don’t need recognition. I don’t need my name attached to anything.
I need the animal safe. That’s it.
Some of the people who have had the most to say about me had absolutely no problem contacting me when their animal needed help in the past. Funny how that is.
Yesterday, our shelter was devastated to learn that Bandit escaped again. We didn’t need people making us feel worse.
Mistakes and accidents happen.
Nobody involved needed someone standing on the sidelines pointing fingers while other people were actually trying to solve the problem. Thank goodness these people are the minority.
For every nasty message, there are countless messages saying, “How can we help?”
For every person criticizing from behind a screen, there are many more actually helping.
For every person hoping to see you fail, there are many more hoping and praying that Bandit gets home safely.
Those are our people.
Faiths Haven has never claimed to be perfect. I certainly have never claimed to be perfect. Animal rescue is messy. Sometimes things go wrong despite everyone’s best efforts. We learn, we adjust, and we keep going.
But one thing will be different going forward: Our kindness will no longer be mistaken for permission to disrespect us.
If you’re here because you love animals, welcome.
If you’re here because you want to help, thank you.
If you’re here because you support our mission, we appreciate you more than you know.
And if you’re here simply waiting for an opportunity to tear us down…
the door is right there.
If getting Bandit home were as simple as walking up and grabbing him, don’t you think we would have done that the last time?
Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. Not even close.
Bandit was recently neutered. We wish it could have been done earlier, but that was outside of our control. Testosterone can play a significant role in roaming behaviour, and our hope is that once those hormones have had time to decrease, that urge to roam will lessen. That’s not always the case but we are hopeful.
And for anyone suggesting that Bandit simply doesn’t want to live inside or doesn’t want to be with his family… I wish you could see him with this family. I wish you could see how much he loves them and how much they love him. There is a reason Bandit needs to live inside. He does not do well in warm weather. It is for his well being.
The last time Bandit escaped, we initially asked the community to help catch him if they could safely do so.
But the longer he was gone, the more fearful and difficult to approach he became. At that point, plans had to change. And those plans involved far more than just our shelter.
We had members of the community, Wildlife, Police, the veterinary clinic and experienced trappers helping us.
In the end, it took 19 people to safely contain Bandit.
He was given as much sedation as was physically safe for him, and it STILL took 19 people using nets and temporary fencing. Even then, he dragged us into the trees.
That is the reality of what we were dealing with.
The reason we eventually asked people not to chase, corner, grab or feed him wasn’t because we didn’t appreciate the community’s help. It was because we had a large, coordinated team and a trapping strategy in place.
If someone had tried to grab Bandit and gotten hurt, we would have been criticized for allowing that to happen by the same people criticizing us now.
And if Bandit became terrified from being cornered and bit someone (something any dog is capable of doing when frightened enough) that could have had devastating consequences.
We were also criticized for allowing Bandit to go hungry. Bandit spent most of his time on the property of a wonderful family. When it was time for us to withhold food, we all worked together. Food was given at specific times during trapping. And this beautiful family was a big part of that.
That may sound harsh to someone who has never been involved in trapping a frightened animal, but food is one of the most important tools available. A dog who is being fed regularly has much less motivation to enter a trap or approach a controlled feeding location.
If people continued feeding or chasing him despite being asked not to, it could set the trapping process back because Bandit no longer needed to take the risks we needed him to take.
Nobody at Faiths Haven wanted to prolong his time outside.
By the time Bandit was finally caught, he had lost 34 pounds.
To catch him he had to be heavily sedated. And even then, he still put up one heck of a chase.
For those who think we should have simply waited until he eventually “gave up” … that wasn’t an option either. We were very concerned that the wolves would get to him before that happened.
Yes, Bandit sometimes sat and watched people come and go. He looked quite comfortable following some people around. That was the deceiving part. Because there was no way he was letting anyone grab him. We thought we could at first as well. He quickly showed us otherwise.
Unless you were there and witnessed it, it’s difficult to explain just how impossible it was to get close enough to physically secure him.
We had wonderful people from Wildlife try. We tried underground traps. Above ground traps. Drop traps. Hanging from windows. Hiding in the woods. Wire holds. Coaxing from other dogs. Dogs in heat. Dogs not in heat. Cameras. Medications. Different feeding strategies. Different locations. Different approaches. And probably a dozen other things I’m forgetting.
Every single day, we were working on another way to safely bring Bandit home.
And we did it as a TEAM.
No rescue organization running an active trapping operation wants random people interfering with a carefully planned strategy. So I’m sorry if that offends people who say they were not allowed to help. We absolutely welcomed people who contacted us, asked what they could do, and then worked WITH the team.
Many people did exactly that, and we will forever be grateful to them. Even something as simple as checking in or driving by to see how he was, meant the world to us.
To the people who seem to have all the answers, I want you to understand something about Faiths Haven.
We take dogs like Bandit because sometimes they have nowhere else to go.
What do people think happens to the difficult dogs when nobody is willing to take them?
What happens to the runners? The fearful ones? The behavioural cases? The seniors? The medical cases? There is no one beating down our door for them!🤷🏻♀️
Our shelter made the decision a time ago that we weren’t only going to take the easy ones.
Sometimes it comes at the expense of being publicly criticized and defending difficult decisions.
This escape was a mistake. Plain and simple. Nobody is pretending otherwise. But dogs get loose. Cats get out. Some animals are runners. We learn from it and do better.
This time, Bandit broke free from a very well designed, durable harness that was recommended by experienced people. It just goes to show that even good quality equipment can fail.
Bandit has been with his family longer this time around. He knows them better. He trusts them more. They have worked incredibly hard with him.
So right now, we are hoping and praying that those things work in our favour and that he comes home quickly. And when he does, we will learn from this too.
And yes, Faiths Haven could choose to take only the easy ones.
The easy to adopt animals. The ones who adjust immediately. The ones who walk nicely on a leash, settle into a home overnight and never give us a reason to lose sleep. Life would certainly be easier.
But what happens to the ones who aren’t easy?
What happens to a dog like Bandit who is terrified because everything he has ever known has suddenly changed?
What happens to the animal who needs weeks, months or even longer to understand that they are finally safe?
What happens when everyone decides that an animal is simply too much work?
Those are the animals we made a promise to.
Bandit didn’t ask for his entire world to change. He didn’t ask to suddenly be living in a house, in a different town, surrounded by unfamiliar people, sounds, routines and expectations.
He doesn’t understand that everyone is trying to give him a beautiful retirement. He only knows that everything is different.
I carry some guilt about that because it makes them unhappy and scared for a time.
But I would carry far more guilt if we looked at a dog like Bandit and decided he was too difficult to try.
Because underneath all of that fear is a beautiful dog who deserves the same chance as every other dog.
We don’t expect everyone to agree with every decision we make.
But we will continue showing up for the animals who need someone to take a chance on them.
And right now, our only concern is getting our boy safely home.
Maybe his journey to becoming a family pet won’t be perfect.
Sometimes it’s 19 people standing in the woods with nets and fencing, refusing to give up on one frightened dog.
Sometimes it’s trying something that doesn’t work, changing the plan, and trying again.
And sometimes it’s loving an animal long before that animal understands what you’re trying to give them.
If the day ever comes when Faiths Haven only has room in our hearts for the easy ones, then we will have forgotten why we started doing this in the first place.
To everyone who understands that, thank you.❤️❤️
*** To add…This is just one example of people being unkind. Although we do appreciate and respect that some folks have a fear of dogs… and trust me, we are very conscious of that. But there is a way of voicing your concern without being nasty BeautifulPineapple3379. Maybe somebody forgot to teach you that. Calling the government? Am I living in the friggen twilight zone?
