Heather OSullivan Canney

“You can’t do everything, but you can do something!” I tell my boys every morning before school to “Make a difference today. You never know how a small deed can change the world, so do something to change the world today! I wasn’t thinking of that when I saw the craiglist post late last Monday night “puppies die today”. All I could think of was their photo…all night long. I know that animals die in shelters every day, but these…these were going to die the next day at 4pm. How would I feel at 4:05 if I did nothing? I knew I just couldn’t “think about it”. Ironically, I had just told my boys the day before that sometimes “grown ups are just too smart”. Explaining that sometimes the most successful people are those that are “too dumb to know better”. We buy into the idea that we have to be an “expert” before we can do something, we have to know all of the “why’s and how’s”. We buy into all of these “made up stories” that control our every thought and move. “you need to really think long and hard about things” “you’d better know what you’re doing”, “you can’t do THAT!”, “that’s impossible”, etc. I said “where would we be if Einstein or Edison, or Bill Gates or the countless others that have changed our world “bought into what everyone thinks”. Sometimes to be truly “smart” you need to be dumb! Dumb enough to convince your husband to grab a cardboard box, check your kids out of school and drive to Lumberton in search of the (very well hidden!) animal shelter to save 7 puppies! With a middle ear infection (aka. Major car sickness!), with no idea who would adopt them, with no thought about how much I didn’t need to be spending the money, and with a grandma in ICU that could “take a turn for the worse” at any moment. I just knew that there are enough awesome people in this area, that it couldn’t be that hard to find them homes! What I didn’t know was how the 12 emails that I sent to my friends would be forwarded to dozens more who would send it to even more. I had never heard of “Marleys Cat Tails Rescue Group” when my phone started ringing off the hook, and emails pinging left and right. My email had gone to Carol at Marleys, who sent it to her AMAZING network of people. I had no idea how my life would literally be transformed by dozens of people that I didn’t even know, offering help, or just saying “thank you!”. One person even wrote “…I’ve often thought that most people shouldn’t have kids. I’m so glad that you did.” WOW! There are no words to describe it… I didn’t know that late that evening my 9yr old would look at me with the biggest grin you have ever seen and say “you know what the best part is mom? We made a HUGE difference today!” Talk about priceless! You can’t do everything. But you can do something! DO SOMETHING! You have no idea what a gift it will be… (Check out my cute boys on the news!)http://apex.mync.com/site/apex/news/story/7308/apex-family-saves-puppies