Viktor and Ali

Here is a myth:

If you work very hard,
With enough determination and persistence,
You can become anything you want.

Here is another myth:

No matter how hard you work,
No matter how much you persist,
You’ll never become what you want.

At some point, we all choose the myth to believe in.

Ever since I was a kid, I felt there was a special connection between me and animals. This connection went beyond the simple childhood wish of having a dog to play with. I felt the need to protect them.

I spent the next three decades rescuing animals, one at a time.

One day I had a simple idea: creating my own animal rescue network.

A network to find people who shared my passion. So that we, together, could achieve more than I alone could ever do.

Today is the day when most people make their New Year’s resolution. Some people will wish to quit smoking, others will want to loose weight. In most cases those resolutions will stay there as a simple wish because the next day, when face the difficulties and the hard road ahead, those people will do what they always do.

They will give up.

I don’t have a New Year’s resolution. I have a long list. It is my wish to share this list with you so that you can help me turn it into a reality.

1.    Let’s Adopt! will, in time,  become the largest animal rescue/educational network in the world.

2.    I will put all my efforts in building a completely decentralized organization, a group whose success is not attached to one person but where every member is the leader of his/her own community. I will spare no effort in providing you with the tools and skills to lead, to create other movements and to nurture and shape new leaders.

3.    I will strive towards creating new working groups whenever those groups may be needed.

4.    Over the coming year, 2010, Let’s Adopt! will lay the grounds for a new technology platform, spreading through social media, to support a movement of truly compassionate people.

5.    Let’s Adopt! will continue to look for exceptional volunteers and professional organizations to work with. Only through this search for excellence, we will continue achieving miracles.

6.    Let’s Adopt! will never compromise in its vision for the sake of personal comfort or expediency.

7.    We will continue focusing on the cases that seem too difficult, too out of reach or too complicated. We will continue intervening in the cases of blind and otherwise handicapped animals.

8.    Let’s Adopt! will NEVER consider geographical boundaries and will continue flying animals to their adoptant families, no matter where in the world they may be.

9.    Let’s Adopt! will continue offering its support to other networks in order to help them achieve their goals.

10.    Let’s Adopt! will always stand up for truth, fairness, compassion and logic in an animal-welfare community that, at times, seems to forget the meaning of those words.

Finally… Let’s Adopt! will continue its fight against “animal hoarding masquerading” as animal protection. We will work hard to completely eliminate the idea that keeping a dog in chains for years is a much better option than re-homing him in a warm and loving home.

Do you want to help us achieve all this? Then please join us, share this message and start working TODAY!!!

It’s been a pleasure working with you during this exceptional year. I’m glad to have you amongst us.

Viktor Larkhill