I was going to title this: A day in the life of rescue, thinking that people don't realize what happens to animals every day in the United States. I decided i would title it "a week in a rescuers life", because I can't really document a day unless I do it consciously as the day is happening. It is always too much too fast in the rescue world . Hardly a moment to think about a triumph before getting down to the next urgent dog whose very life is at stake for one's immediacy.
This week I was working in China. Not as a rescuer in title this week, rather a seminar leader, but my sole purpose these days in taking jobs all over the world is to save more dogs. A week in 16 hour a day seminars doesn't mean time off from rescuing dogs, though admittedly I am scantly visible to my rescue partners from all over the united states- best friends in a way, who I have never met. (Some of my most trusted rescue partners even live in other countries: Singapore, England,, Amsterdam).
This week, while hardly on Facebook, our main means of connecting, finding dogs and networking to save them, I personally rescued two dogs into my own rescue, which is already full (as are all of ours who are passionate about this mission). A senior, named Jerome, saved from a shelter in California- Devore, where I rescued my very first dog solo (meaning that I took him into my rescue, not networked him to another) Tennyson- now in a happy, forever home. (See success stories on my website: Samadhilegacy.org). I was able to rescue Jerome due to pledges from people that i will never meet and the help of a fellow rescuer that I have known almost from the beginning of my rescue journey, Tara. I once drove a dog cross-country that Tara saved from a shelter and found a home for in Georgia. A wonderful woman named Reese, met my boyfriend and I in Florida to pick up the dog, who she named Jobe. Jobe is the light of her life and he is a very lucky dog to have such a loving angel of a mom. This week Tara got me a foster for Jerome for two months so that I could get some of my other dogs adopted out before bringing Jerome to Las Vegas where I live. This act of someone opening their home for such a relatively short term means that a dog can make it out of the place he was, statistically speaking, likely to die.
I saved another dog from Devore because when Tara was there she took pictures of many dogs who were on the last days of their potential death row exit. One of them, a beautiful, shy boy pittie had no other hope and while I was in Hong Kong, debriefing a training I had just completed in Malaysia, Tara texted me telling me that this boy was going to die. I asked if she could get a foster for him- "he needs to be out by 10 a.m. or he will die,' she replied. "Get him, " i said. "and please see if you can find a foster." She promised to and meanwhile, half a world a way with my, in some ways, anonymous rescue partners, I arranged transport to a veterinarian and temporary boarding for the boy who almost didn't make it. Were it not for Tara, he would now be in a pile of unluckier dogs, in a freezer in only one of countless shelters where the same thing goes on every day in every part of the world. Us rescuers wonder why they call them shelters, misleading as the name is. They are death camps for dogs (and other animals), where dogs and cats are sometimes brutalized, sometimes neglected and often killed even when there is space to spare them or even a rescue on the way.
Other things needed to be handled this week between my workshop hours: a dog that I adopted out who was guarding his new companion a little too well and growling at strangers, a dog who needed to get spayed, a dog that needs to be transported to his foster in Northern California, a dog whose spay certificate needed to be sent to the person who physically pulled him from the shelter to prove to the shelter that we are being responsible (no person in rescue who is a real rescuer would ever miss this step of spay/neuter- it is because of irresponsible owners who don't do this that we end up with 4 million dogs and cats being put down in the United States every year. Perfect, healthy, innocent beings that pay for our laziness, greed, or righteousness with their very lives.) Many of us say that being in rescue makes you hate humans. At least what some of us are capable of, as we see the results of it every day- dogs with bite wounds that have been used as bait dogs because there are human beings despicable enough to pay to see dogs chew each other to death and they need passive innocent dogs to teach these dogs to kill. Dogs abandoned in the desert, literally with practically no hope for survival, save the happening by of a good samaritan and later a rescue to give them true shelter. Dogs left in the snow because they aren't getting along with another dog in the house, dogs starved to death, dogs overbred, dogs with broken bones who aren't taken for medical care. That is just the latest series of pictures, stories and personal experiences that flash by us on Facebook or in a text from someone that knows how much we love and champion dogs, on a daily basis.
This week I was also contacted by three people who had to get dogs taken into rescue or take them to a kill shelter and only had days to arrange the one to avoid the other. Many of these people have contacted numerous rescues and have been ignored, mostly because rescuers are already overbooked, overwhelmed and overworked. I try to answer as many as I can, as I have found that sometimes very easy solutions can be found if someone feels supported (this is where my leadership training comes in handy, as I have learned the principle of 100% is possible 100% of the time. A short call or text or email won't take much time from my day and I have on a few occasions solved a "problem" in minutes, that unsolved, would likely have led to the death of a dog.) Once, I talked to a woman about a dog she had emailed me about a day or so before. "I took him to the shelter," she said, "my boyfriend told me I had to get him out of the house because he is causing trouble.' "You know they will likely kill him," I said. "They didn't tell me that," she said. "Probably within 72 hours," I told her, the sometimes length of time for a Pit Bull that has been owner surrendered. "I am going back to get him," she said and did. She said that after he got home his behavior changed. "I think he knew," she said "that I came back for him." She was committed to getting training for him and I didn't ask how she handled the boyfriend. I will tell you that it is a common comment in rescue- if a partner asks you to "get rid" of your dog, you might start looking for a new partner instead.
This weeks calls/emails: A man who had found an abandoned dog in the desert and could no longer keep the dog, who wasn't good with the Good Samaritan's small dogs. The man contacting me, who got my name from a rescue website or a Google search, didn't want to take him to the shelter, "but I will have to if he is not rescued by January 21." I will have to look up the day he called me, but i had only days to find a Pit Bull, an already hard to place dog because of misleading beliefs about them and refusals for many insurances, homeowners associations and apartment complexes to let you have one, a place to go rather than the Bullhead City Animal Shelter, a shelter I had never even heard of in Az. The same day, an email appeared from a woman who had found a dog abandoned in a home when the people moved out. She had kept him for a month and the dog was great with her, her children and her dogs, however, her own male dog was getting stressed and sick from another male dog living in the house. Coincidentally, her deadline was also January 21, as the next day they would be leaving for a family holiday. "I have contacted many rescues," she wrote, "and no one will return my call or email. If he is not rescued before we leave for our trip, I will have to take him to Lied (a shelter in Las Vegas where the woman lives- a shelter where the friendly and wronged pit bull would have likely died a lonely, unwarranted death).
The third contact was from a man who said that he had adopted a bull terrier mix four months before and the dog was wreaking havoc in his life. "Although I was told that this breed is good with other dogs and with people, he nips at me and my dog and chews everything. I have tried obedience training and nothing works. This dog needs more than obedience training and more than I can give him. I have to keep him crated all day so he won't wreck my house and it isn't fair to him."
He called me and wrote to me, so I emailed him and texted. In the email I asked him to reach out to Bull Terrier rescues, since his dog is pure bred. One with the capability of training might take him, since any pure bred rescue is much less common than the mostly mixed breeds my village and I spend our time with. I texted: "i sent you an email." He texted back, "I got it. Ideally, I would find a way to have it work for him to stay. Other than his bad habits, I really love him." "Well then," I wrote back, "lets find a way to make it work. Let me get you some training referrals". Mostly the common obedience class trainers, aren't really trained for bad behavioral issues. For that, you need to find someone certified to train dogs and trained in canine behavior. "Sit, stay and give me your paw," are hardly helpful when your Bull Terrier is leaving bruises on your body from his tendency to bite.
By the time I get on the plane from Hong Kong, Mack (the dog in Las Vegas) is headed to boarding on January 21 while a few of us find him a rescue. We have some big guns on this one and I am certain that he won't be in boarding for long. A Las Vegas Bully breed rescue is currently looking for a foster. Big Boy, who I shared in a group message with some of my most trusted rescue buddies, was rescued by an Arizona rescue after we raised money for specialized training with her most trusted trainer, Two of the women in my rescue family are amazing at fund raising because they are impeccable with making sure the money is used in the spirit intended. And the Bull Terrier? Well, his owner has the name of an amazing trainer with extraordinary results in just the kind of issues that he has, given to me by a rescue sister in Las Vegas.
It was a really good week. Things don't always end this way: A month ago a woman called and told me that she had to "get rid" of her pit bull by lunch time. I was, at the time, in an Arizona restaurant, where I and a friend had stopped for lunch on our cross country road-trip to bring her the dog that she had adopted from me- "Q.") I think that the woman who called me thought I had a van and went around picking up dogs that were no longer pleasing to their fickle companions and somewhere a huge warehouse in which to keep them while, with my other hours, I found them suitable homes. I asked her if she could keep her dog (which she had had for four years, if I remember correctly) for a few days while I networked him. The woman, who was an adult, not a teenager, said, "well, let me ask my mom what she thinks I should do with him," and she never called me back, nor answered my texts when I inquired about where he was. That dog, I am afraid, is no longer on planet earth.
Tomorrow, I take a dog I rescued from one of the most terrible shelters in California, SB City, to her new foster daddy, a man who is saving her life by giving her a temporary and loving home while we find her forever family (if you are interested in fostering to save a life- please contact me: Samadhilegacy.org). But most of the day, I am going to cuddle with the ones I am lucky enough to have become their forever mommy. Someday I will tell you their story. Maybe it will inspire you to save a life (and it may not be only the dogs life you save- :)).
Meanwhile, please remember, not spaying or neutering is not just lazy, it is deadly It is not "my bad," as I have heard many people say, it is irresponsible. A rescue friend recently said, "when I used to see puppies I felt all warm and fuzzy, now I feel sick thinking of that many more dogs that will die because of someone's selfish choices." I wholeheartedly agree. Also, a dog is not a fashion item that can be dumped when you are in the mood for something different. A dog (or cat, or other dependent , adoptable animal) is a lifelong commitment. (You would be appalled, if such things appall you, at the number of senior dogs dumped in a shelter after years of loyal devotion). If you aren't capable of bonding with a being, then buy something with a shelf life or something stuffed. Be vocal when you see the voiceless being abused (and there are many kinds of abuse). If you are a lover of dogs or cats, consider fostering if for some reason, you can't adopt. Of all of the things i have done in my life (and gratefully, I have done many extraordinary things) saving the life of a dog is the most humbling and rewarding. What can you do to save a life today? Small acts can make a great difference.