One starfish at a time

Compassion is sometimes a bad thing.

Like when it's misdirected. Or when it overwhelms good sense. Or when it isn't paired up with assiduous responsibility.

Such may be the case for a Belvedere, S.C., woman who, perhaps out of sheer love, simply had too many dogs.

When that happens -- and the dogs become a nuisance and aren't cared-for properly -- one can come off more like "Ma Barker" than Mother Teresa.

There's no evidence that Shirley Barnes meant anything but good with her self-styled animal rescue operation. But it had indeed become a nuisance to her neighbors, and Tuesday she was sentenced for eight inoculation violations and a nuisance charge.

She will temporarily have to turn her compassion toward other causes: Her sentence includes a whopping 33 eight-hour days of community service.

The Belvedere home though, where she had 24 dogs seized, wasn't her only operation. She had a house in Augusta where a handful of other dogs were kept -- which last week mauled a 2-year-old boy who somehow made it over a chain link fence onto the otherwise uninhabited property.

Again, it appears she just took on too much.

We understand her passion for animals. Companion animals don't ask for much: food, water, shelter, a little comfort and as much love as possible. But they give so much in return. They fill lonely lives. They cuddle up to you on chilly nights. They wait for you at the door every single time you come home, with absolutely no regard for how you might have treated them at any time in the past. They are unconditionally loving, accepting, forgiving and passionate.

But it does no one any good, least of all them, to overpromise and underperform. To gather them in crowded, impossible situations and in any way neglect them or their health.

No one can save the world. We have to be realistic about what we can accomplish.

This isn't to say we shouldn't try. It's like the famous story of the person throwing beached starfish into the ocean; when pressed about not being able to make a difference to all the beached star fish, the person throws another in and says, "I just made a difference to that one."

Make a difference. But make sure it's a positive one.

Keep an eye on the world that might be, but keep both feet in the world that is.