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Fetch Rescue - The Power of Fostering · She’s Smart

0:00
Thank you so much for being here. I was so happy you reached out.
0:04
You were one of three people who have ever reached out to be on the podcast.
0:07
I was so excited because I'm like, this is so fun. People actually want to come
0:11
on and hang out. This is amazing. I walked into Pet Choice in Westport.
0:15
There was a fetch sign and they were doing donations. We had just connected
0:20
and I'm like, this is when the universe.
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This is the universe that does the things. It literally has been doing this
0:26
a lot lately with all the people coming on here.
0:29
I love it. And I'm glad that you joined us. I would love to know how the two
0:32
of you got connected and then started Fetch Rescue.
0:37
I moved to Westport from Brooklyn just before COVID in 2020.
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Literally the week before COVID.
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And when we moved in, I was looking for something to do.
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I have just been passionate about animals and rescue forever and started to
0:53
look up shelters or ways that I could help in that world and stumbled across
0:59
an organization called Little Black Dog Rescue. Yes.
1:02
I reached out to them and put in a volunteer application and she wrote me back.
1:06
Back we connected right away because she actually grew
1:08
up in the house beside mine the one that
1:11
you're currently in yeah oh get out that's so funny i used
1:14
to you know the people who lived in your house i grew up with so there was a
1:17
connection which was great and then that's how i started to work with jen i
1:21
had started with them fostering because i had thought oh i want to get maybe
1:25
get a second dog i went to an event that amy who ran little black dog was having
1:30
at Earth Animal in Westport, their old location.
1:33
And I started fostering. And eventually, I foster failed and did keep one of my Molly now.
1:39
Does that mean for a foster to fail?
1:41
Foster failing is when you wind up adopting the dog.
1:45
Oh, like you failed at foster success. We're going to rebrand.
1:49
I think it's a good rebrand if you change the name.
1:52
Fail flows better, but yeah. But it happens quite often. Then I stayed involved.
1:57
I started doing more administrative stuff, adoption contracts,
2:01
finances, and things like that.
2:02
Two years ago, Amy decided to slow down intake, which means she stopped bringing
2:08
dogs from the South to the North.
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She's based in South Carolina, and she was going to focus on some other stuff.
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That's really where our passion lies, is being able to bring the dogs up and
2:19
to find their forever home.
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So Jen and I chatted and decided it was time to start our own.
2:23
And with Amy's blessing, We launched Fetch.
2:26
Do you find dogs here too? Or is it mostly dogs from the South that you bring
2:30
up? And how do you actually bring them up here?
2:32
Yeah. So we do both. Our focus is primarily on bringing dogs from the South.
2:37
When I say the South, I mean Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama.
2:41
The Carolinas, Tennessee, sometimes Texas.
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Those dogs are either strays, abandoned, abused, neglected, or we also pull
2:49
from high kill shelters in the area, which...
2:52
Are overflowing constantly with dogs. The euthanasia rates are through the roof.
2:57
We try to help as much as we can by pulling dogs from there.
3:01
When we say bring them up, they come on transport.
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When you pull a dog from a shelter, they have to go into a foster home down south.
3:08
They have to be properly vetted and receive proper medical care.
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They have to have certain vaccinations before they can come into Connecticut,
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before we're legally allowed to bring them into Connecticut.
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So they go through that process. We also at the same time vet them to make sure
3:22
they're dog-friendly, cat-friendly, kid-friendly, because most of the people
3:25
that we're adopting to here have kids and other dogs, and we need to make sure that that all works.
3:31
So they come up on transport, and transport is basically a panel van that is
3:36
driven by these incredible women who come between Louisiana,
3:40
Mississippi, all the way up the East Coast into Vermont.
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They come up every two weeks, and they have 60 dogs in the van, maybe.
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And they're all properly taken care of. They're in crates. They are,
3:53
you know, harnessed in. Everything is super safe.
3:55
Multiple stops and out and walk and feed. It's a huge.
4:00
And how do you choose the dogs that are brought up?
4:04
It's really hard. We have wonderful partners that we work with.
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We work with an incredible man named Jerry from Roadside Rescue. Jerry's famous.
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He is really great at kind of knowing which dogs will work for us.
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And we'll reach out when he gets dogs in and say, I have this dog,
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you know, what do you think?
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I would say we are inundated with requests to take dogs from different shelters
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and from partners and networks down south as well that are reaching out,
4:31
asking us constantly to take in dogs.
4:34
So how many dogs do you usually have?
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Right now, we're pretty full again. We try to slow down around holidays or school
4:44
vacation periods because people travel and stuff, but it varies. I mean, we probably have.
4:49
20 right now in the pipeline. It varies either in foster, about to be adopted
4:55
on trial or down south that we know.
4:58
So when you get the dogs, if I was to go in and be like, okay,
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I want to bring another dog into my house, do I foster him or do I adopt him
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or is there a combination of both?
5:07
How does that work? Yeah. So we do a couple of things.
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We are foster based. So we are dependent on our fosters and that's something
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we're always looking to expand.
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When we bring the dogs up from the South, we don't have a facility.
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So they go straight into foster home. If you're interested in a dog,
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you would fill out an application on our website.
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One of us would do the vetting process for that application where we call references.
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We do a virtual home visit is what we call it. We started doing virtually during COVID.
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So we do it over FaceTime and chat through, you know, what your schedule is,
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who's in the house, other dogs, how we introduce them, what your current dogs
5:43
are, vetting, and all of that kind of stuff.
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And then if we think that you would make a good match we would
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set up a meet for you with the dog just the humans
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humans first and you'd go to the foster home and
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meet the dog and if it's a good match then we
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do a foster to adopt so it's done with the intent that the adoption is going
6:02
to move forward so you would bring them home and you have like five days to
6:05
see what it's like in the real world you know sometimes people get really excited
6:08
when they meet a puppy and they're like i need you to get and then you take
6:11
them home and you're like oh my god this is actually a lot of work yeah so you
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would take them home and do the trial.
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And if it moves forward, then you would adopt.
6:19
That's very fun. Don't worry, Benjamin, husband. Don't worry.
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The wheels are turning, but don't worry. It's so funny because that comes up
6:26
all the time. It's probably your most common,
6:29
thing is have to check with the husband.
6:34
When natural disasters happen, I've been following California. I'm from there.
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My family's up north, but I have friends who lost their houses and things like that.
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I watched The Dogist go to get all the dogs from a... They were talking about
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this network that started after Katrina and how they moved them around.
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Have you been a part of that or seen how that works in a natural disaster with
6:57
shuffling animals around?
6:58
Yeah, a lot of that. So there's some big organizations that deal with stuff
7:02
like that. Yeah. The Bissell Foundation is a big one. Kathy Bissell.
7:06
Okay. Like the vacuum. Yeah.
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Get out. She runs a massive pet foundation, a dog rescue foundation,
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maybe cats too. I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not sure.
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They raise a significant amount of money and they partner with another organization
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whose name, I can't remember, but they do all of the flights.
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So they get planes from that and put those to make sure that those planes go
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into specific locations so they can move large quantities of dogs.
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In most cases, there's like 250 to 300 dogs on those flights.
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They would land somewhere in the Northeast and split them amongst different shelters.
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Most of them go into rescues that have facilities or partner with shelters.
7:45
How many dogs do you think? I worked at a veterinary hospital when I was in college.
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It was awesome. I never wanted to be a veterinarian. And I saw one rat be put down.
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And I was like, yeah, that's never going to happen. And you're a rat.
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So no, not for me. I love being around them.
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I can tell you every dog breed. I'm that crazy person who's like,
8:02
look at Bichon. Which is bizarre. So good.
8:05
But when I was in college, I'm going to date myself back in like, you know, early 2000s.
8:10
99, 2000s, there were like 4 million dogs in the shelters.
8:16
Is that about right now? Could there be that many? It's probably more now.
8:21
Get out. Yeah. There's so many issues.
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COVID was a big one. During COVID, you couldn't get a dog. You couldn't adopt a dog.
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There was a shortage because everybody was at home and everybody wanted dogs.
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When COVID sort of became more of a normal, manageable thing.
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And people had to go back to work and stuff.
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We started to see. Personally, thankfully, we didn't see too many returns at
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Little Black Dog at that time.
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But I think people did return.
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And dropped off at shelters. Dropped off at shelters.
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And said, yeah, this doesn't really work now with my life.
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So that increased capacity at shelters. And it's a nightmare down south.
9:05
Do you ever take in the dogs from the puppy mills?
9:07
We have. We have taken a few. Freaky situation. Some rescues refuse to work
9:12
with puppy mills. We're open to it.
9:15
Yeah. I'm sure it depends on the situation. It does. For sure.
9:18
It's also hard to work with puppy mills. In this area, it's so secretive.
9:23
Like Amish country, for example. Yeah. Where a lot of them are located.
9:27
Pennsylvania. You can't find contacts.
9:30
Right. To just rescue them. You can't. And take them out. Yeah.
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It's done kind of like undercover, secretively. Somebody will reach out to somebody
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and say, I have four dogs. Meet me at this place.
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You don't know who the dogs are, what type they are. You don't know anything
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about their background or their medical.
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There was a rescue recently that I heard. Who was that? Remember with the Cavaliers?
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I can't remember.
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I don't know how big, I'm sure there are big operations in the Amish country.
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But what I think I've seen or we've heard about more is, you know,
10:02
small family breeders doing it. Do you ever, have you ever or seen...
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Them be like raided or like shut down and then those dogs are sent to rescues.
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There's a big one that's happening right now in Mississippi,
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a golden doodle breeder who, I mean, the pictures are horrific.
10:23
Oh, God. No, I've seen things. And this is like such a big part of what we wanted
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to do when we launched Vetch is to educate people about breeders and to make
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sure people are doing their homework.
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We're never going to be able to change everybody's mind about buying from a breeder.
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But there are so many people, especially in the area, who will buy dogs from
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breeders and they won't even see where the dog has come from.
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They want to go to the house to meet the breeder or see the conditions that
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the puppies have been raised in. And that's a massive red flag.
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You have to do your homework if you're going to work with a breeder.
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You have to see how they've been raised, what they've been exposed to,
11:00
how they've been socialized.
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Obviously, the medical is such a huge part of that.
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And to make sure that the parents are being taken care of. Because in a lot
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of cases, they're kept in cages and they are not roaming around.
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They're not family pets.
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They're just used to make money. And it's awful. And they're really kept in
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deplorable conditions.
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Oh, my in-laws rescued their dog.
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They rescued this darling.
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Darling, her name's Allie. They didn't know what she was. She was just a long-haired
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black dog, right? Big black dog. Yeah.
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She had had at least five litters, but she was probably not even four years old.
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She wouldn't go near anyone. except for Grammy.
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Grammy's her person. And then she's been, my mother-in-law's just been working
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with someone to get her out of her shell.
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And then Ollie, our dog, who's like this bouncy Australian Shepherd,
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they connected immediately, the two of them.
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And so she kind of came out of her shell with him and me, mostly because I'm
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the one in the kitchen with Grammy all the time, like the women are together.
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And it took her a really long time. Now they've trained her to be a support
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dog because my father-in-law has Parkinson's.
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So she goes on the plane with them now and she is,
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like the perfect dog for that situation
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and they literally saved her yeah that's amazing that
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i'm able to make her do such a turnaround yeah and she's still very shy she
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still hides under the table but she goes on the plane from florida to rhode
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island good for her she's she's she's so sweet and she sees ollie and is starts
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bouncing that's when she first she didn't know how to play.
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That's the one thing about these dogs they literally don't know how to be a
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dog so let's say you get a call and you're like, I've got this great dog.
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We want you to start moving through the foster system.
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It goes to the one person in the South and they start to foster it before it comes to you guys.
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What kind of background do you get on that dog?
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It depends. Sometimes we get very little. We don't know much at all.
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It may have just been a stray that someone came across.
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You know, we don't think about it up here. We don't see dogs just randomly on
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the side of the And if we did, it would be posted on 17 Facebook pages and someone
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would take it in and feed it.
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I haven't been there to experience that yet. We were actually thinking about
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going to visit some of our partners there.
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But sometimes we do get more information. Sometimes it's an owner surrender
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or the shelter was able to get some information about where it was found and
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what they thought the mother and father might be in the case of puppies.
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A lot of times we don't really know too much about them. We make educated guesses
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as to breed, things like that. Google helps in AI. AI.
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So what do you do with AI? Do you drop their picture in or something?
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Yeah. And it can sort of tell us other things. Out.
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It's cool. I wonder how accurate is that? Probably not that accurate.
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People always ask about the DNA testing too.
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I think it's getting better. More dogs get into these systems.
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We just had so many DNA tests.
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And it came back, I think, 18 breeds in this dog.
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And we're just like oh my god like the ultimate mutt yeah that's exactly what
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it said yeah we move out here i was begging for a dog then like everyone else
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in covid we were home and my husband,
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ended up not being in the city every single day anymore so someone could be
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there and that's when we got our restaurant shepherd but i knew i had to wait
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like i couldn't get one until yeah the time was right because i just felt like
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it was so unfair to them and i was working so much when i lived in the city. It was crazy.
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So that's kind of one of the things that we, when people fill out the applications too.
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It's, you know, it's a case by case basis, but we do have some general things,
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you know, going to be renovating your house in the next couple of months or
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have a big trip planned in the next month or two.
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Those are kind of things where we might say, maybe wait and come back because
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those are all disruptive to any new dog that might come in.
15:03
That's kind of some of this stuff lifestyle wise working wise we need to make
15:07
sure that you're available to help,
15:09
take care of it yeah yeah well especially if you get a puppy right yeah
15:12
yeah are the i'm guessing the questions are
15:15
a little bit different for when you get a puppy versus when you get an older dog sure
15:18
yeah puppies we don't like them left
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more than maybe three hours at the most without any interaction so there's a
15:28
huge misconception about foster dogs about being damaged or things like that
15:34
so how do you reach people so that they understand that so many of these dogs are sweet loving?
15:40
Well, I think as a rescuer, we don't take on really severe cases in terms of
15:48
dogs that have fighting history or abuse history or aggression.
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But every dog is different.
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The thing that amazes me all the time is we can go on a Friday night,
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pick them up off the transport, and they most of the time are so loving and calm.
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And it's almost like they know they're in a safe place now.
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We also have cases where they're very nervous. So this past weekend,
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we had two wonderful dogs come up and my mom helps us out a lot.
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But they were super nervous, probably two of the most nervous ones we've had come off transport.
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We had to carry his name is Chip out of the car,
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carry him in the house not really used to
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leashes things like that and he pretty much stayed
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in the one like found himself a corner in my mom's house
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and stayed there for pretty much the first night so
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you have to know there's a three three three rule of three days for them to
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decompress three weeks they might start coming out of their shell a little bit
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and it can take them three months to really reclaim their some dogs right away
16:56
yeah they're home we gave his foster that that we had arranged to come get him.
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He's doing amazing now in just two days.
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Yeah, he's been amazing to watch that transformation.
17:07
When it comes to trying to change the stigma around what a rescue dog means.
17:12
Just having people come and meet the dogs is really important and sharing stories.
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We work with amazing vet, our vet partners, we spoke veterinarian.
17:20
I know Jess. She's a friend. She's, I mean, they're amazing.
17:24
And I, you know, every time we go there, they're like, you guys bring up the
17:27
best dogs. These are the best dogs. They all have amazing personalities.
17:31
They're so good with their fosters. They're good with their kids.
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I think with us, what's different is that we do make sure that we get a bit
17:38
of a read on their personality before they come up. Yeah, yeah.
17:40
Because we really want to make sure that they are good with kids and dogs and
17:44
cats and, you know, people.
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And so we also are very specific about who we match them with.
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So when you fill out an application for one dog, we might not think that you're
17:54
the right match for that dog. But there's another dog that would be perfect for you.
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We do a bit of that matchmaking.
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And that, I think, is a little bit different than some other rescues.
18:04
So that's really important to us that the personalities match and align.
18:07
We want everybody to feel comfortable in their homes and we want everybody to
18:11
find their forever puppies and babies and the dogs to find their forever family.
18:16
So that's a really important process, too. Puppies is a little easier because
18:20
they're kind of a blank slate.
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And as long as you know what's involved in a puppy and are committed to that,
18:26
that's kind of an easier match sometimes.
18:29
I think once people realize that, like Jen said, when they come off of transport,
18:35
they know that they're here, they're safe.
18:37
And it's an incredible thing to see when you match a dog, let's say an older
18:43
dog with a family, like even Chip's a great example.
18:45
It's one of the most beautiful things. I messaged with his foster to adopt today
18:50
and she said, he's doing incredible.
18:53
He's walking on a leash and he's coming out of his shell and he's interacting
18:56
with my dog. He's interacting with my kids.
18:59
And you see those things and it's just like, this is one of the most beautiful things.
19:03
Transformations to watch they're gonna be his
19:07
safety forever and he will feel that and they
19:10
already love him so much and they're so patient with him and it really feels
19:14
like you get back what you get i really think that rescues know that you have
19:19
rescued them and they're with you like they are just you know they're like ride
19:24
or die what are the most important things that you need right now? Fosters.
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Fosters. Fosters is number one. We can't survive without fosters.
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We can't move dogs without fosters. And it is such a cycle.
19:38
When we are able to move a dog out of a shelter, they go into a foster down south.
19:43
When we bring them up here, that foster down south is free to take another dog
19:47
from a shelter. You are actually saving a life by fostering.
19:50
You are also providing a dog who may need some time to decompress or who just
19:56
wants to experience living in a house with kids and a family,
19:59
you're giving them that opportunity.
20:01
And it's really fun for families. Like recently, we've had a couple of new foster
20:05
families step up that have little kids that are dipping their toes into the idea of getting a dog.
20:10
Usually we ask for a two-week commitment for fostering. So it's not a long time.
20:14
These families only fostered for three or four days.
20:17
They got adopted very quickly. But they were like, this is a perfect opportunity.
20:21
The kids got to be exposed to dogs.
20:23
They now know that it's some work, all fun, but they also loved cuddling with
20:28
the puppies and had so much fun.
20:30
Now they feel comfortable to maybe move forward and do the next step,
20:33
which would be a foster to adopt when they're ready.
20:35
People always say they'll come up to our table or come to an event.
20:39
I could never do it. I could never give them back.
20:41
And we always say we all had that.
20:44
Feeling initially. But if you keep doing it, it gets a little bit easier each time to know
20:50
that they're going to, you know, we take a lot of pride in where we send these
20:54
dogs and we're never going to put them in a situation we didn't think was the best for them.
20:59
And people, you know, we have some fosters who are just repeat fosters.
21:03
They usually have their own dogs too. It's nice for the foster families to get
21:06
to meet the adoptive families.
21:08
They will come and pick up the dog from their house. And so like Jen was saying,
21:11
they get to see, oh, wow, this is amazing. And they're going to an incredible
21:14
family. And I know they're going to be so loved.
21:16
And that family is so excited to come and pick up the dog.
21:18
So that's really cool, too. It's also a great opportunity for kids to give back
21:22
and to say, I'm volunteering.
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And I'm helping something. I'm saving a life. And I'm putting that back out
21:27
into the community. And I think that that's really cool for kids to learn.
21:31
And we provide everything that you need.
21:34
We have an inventory of crates we can lend out to you.
21:37
Food is all covered. we really just ask
21:40
that you be available if we are having an
21:43
event or something to bring the dog okay there
21:46
and to vet appointment you know
21:49
if they so what we didn't mention is that once they get here we also have to
21:53
have them examined by Connecticut yeah so we bring them to Jess and Allison
21:58
and that gets recorded with the state as well because you have to do everything
22:02
through the state too right the department of agriculture yeah yeah well I kind
22:05
of love it you get to be like the best auntie.
22:07
You get the dog for a certain amount of time. You get to be the best auntie in the world.
22:11
And then they go to their first home unless you successfully keep them.
22:17
And they match so perfectly that you just become a mom and not just an auntie.
22:21
You find the fosters like to post about the fact that they're fostering and
22:24
they take them out to kids' sporting events or to school events and show them
22:29
off. And that's really cool too.
22:30
That helps grow our network as well. And word of mouth is so fun.
22:34
A lot of dogs get adopted that way. We have some great Fosters who are...
22:38
Great writers and photographers so it helps us
22:41
social media influencers exactly you
22:44
need that because that's like the only advertising we have now what events
22:47
do you do what are those like do you
22:50
pop up into farmer's market or something exactly so kind of when we have a bunch
22:55
usually it's easier puppies are a great opportunity to do pop-up events where
23:00
we can keep them all together and people come visit with them earth animal farmer's
23:05
market we've done sometimes Westport Farmer's Market.
23:08
Then there's the Westport Dog Festival, which is a big one. Yeah.
23:11
I love. That's so successful.
23:13
Always successful, yeah. Those events are great. We just did the coolest event
23:16
ever, which we're going to go back and do in May.
23:18
We were so thrilled to be invited to. It's in Rhode Island, and it's called
23:21
the Super Adoption Event.
23:22
It's one of the coolest experiences. They have over 600 people that come,
23:28
and there's maybe five or six rescues.
23:31
Rhode Island has a few really large rescues.
23:34
They put on this event and you buy tickets ahead of time.
23:37
The first 200 people are golden ticket holders and they get to come in and get
23:41
the first view of the dog. So they get first picked.
23:44
There was, I think, 1,500 dogs there and maybe more than half got adopted.
23:51
It was so cool. It was so cool. There was like everybody coming in looking to adopt a dog.
23:56
And so those are, you know, awesome events because the success rate is so high.
24:01
So now we're like going back and i'm like how many dogs are we going to bring i'm ready
24:04
to bring up and they invited us even though we're from connecticut they
24:07
invited us i think we'll be invited back i do
24:10
it in connecticut you would have so many companies wanting to jump on that and
24:16
be a part of it my wheels are already turning for you yeah how can we make this
24:19
happen i'm sure there were organizations that would want to do that we want
24:23
to really cool get some of the puppy stores we I'm going to get them a little
24:27
closed down if we can. Yeah, exactly.
24:30
We got that one shut down. It's open again. Shut the front door.
24:34
Yes. It's open further down.
24:36
I went in because I was told that it was open and I did a little investigating
24:40
and I called the Department of Agriculture.
24:43
I called the state. I called like five people because...
24:48
Well, so many reasons. It's so unethical. There's also two husky puppies and
24:53
two golden retriever puppies that were five months old and maybe a four by four
24:56
tiny little kennel pacing back and forth.
25:00
They're selling them for $5,000, I think.
25:05
It's just, it's so awful. It makes me crazy. I was like in tears leaving,
25:09
talking to the girl saying, you know, what do we do here?
25:12
It's basically a pet store you walk in and there's every pet supply and then
25:16
a wall of glass crates will the state go after them not at connecticut it's
25:23
not fully illegal yet they just shut down the sale of.
25:27
Live animals large small breed medium breed dogs and cats in new york in jersey
25:33
so those pet stores were shut down that took 20 years because i remember seeing
25:37
them every time i'd walk through the west village and they were all in the window
25:40
and like all the shredded newspaper and all this So is there a way for us to, I don't know,
25:45
start pushing legislation in Connecticut?
25:48
100%. I don't know how the first one was shut down.
25:52
Disgusting conditions and that the dogs weren't taken care of when I called
25:55
the Department of Agriculture.
25:58
I don't know how it works in terms of licensing and how they get around it.
26:02
Yes, things need to be changed.
26:04
The sale of dogs at pet stores is disgusting. It's one of the most...
26:09
Horrific things to witness because these dogs grow up there.
26:13
They're not socialized. They're not taken care of. I don't know the medical
26:17
care that they're receiving. It's a nightmare.
26:18
And it's just so inhumane. These dogs are so beautiful and they're kept in tiny
26:22
enclosures, similar to puppy mills.
26:25
There's another awesome rescue that I chat with from time to time.
26:28
They are in Connecticut as well. And she's gung ho with me to shut these places down.
26:34
I asked the guy there where he gets his dog. He knew that I ran a rescue.
26:39
I said, I do not agree with anything that's happening here. I run a rescue.
26:42
This is unacceptable. He told me that he doesn't deal with the purchase of the
26:47
dogs, but his friend meets somebody in Pennsylvania.
26:51
And that's how we get the dog. And I said, what about the golden retriever who's
26:54
six months old in this tiny enclosure?
26:56
And he doesn't sell. Somebody's going to come in and buy a $6,000 or $5,500
27:00
golden retriever that's six months old.
27:02
He said, well, we'll talk to the people that we got them from and eventually
27:06
maybe lower the price a little bit or send him back.
27:08
What's the thing happens when he gets just gonna kill him it's unbelievable
27:12
they'll often have supposed registration numbers
27:16
that are linked to breeders but there's ways to look online and you'll find
27:22
just some random location like ohio or pennsylvania that are most likely puppy
27:27
mills and who knows if it's a full-blooded retriever you're right you can see
27:32
issues in the dogs too yeah it's sad all All right. Well, start it.
27:36
You tell me when and where and what I need to sign. Stay tuned.
27:39
Where do you see Fetch in the next five years?
27:43
Well, our dream is to at some point have a facility. We need a lot of donations to get there.
27:51
We would love to get some grants. That's a good one. If there's any grant writers
27:55
that you know about us. I think there are some who are listening to the podcast. Call us.
28:00
The facility is really the dream, the ultimate. Somewhere that we can have the
28:03
dogs come up, then we can bring up more. We can move more. People can come in and meet them.
28:08
There's a few rescues that have facilities and just makes things a lot easier.
28:12
It changes the game a little bit. Sometimes if someone gets sick the night of
28:16
transport or can't pick up the dog or we need to switch fosters quick and we don't have someone.
28:21
If we had an actual location where they could safely stay, it would definitely
28:27
give us more. It doesn't have to be big either.
28:29
I think for us, it would be small, you know, maybe house 10 to 20 dogs max,
28:33
but just somewhere that gives us an out in the sense that I don't have to rely
28:37
on fosters so that we could bring more dogs up and move more dogs. Yeah. Okay.
28:42
Let's make that happen too. We're manifesting that one. Oh, it's coming. Yeah.
28:47
You guys are amazing and doing the coolest thing. It's the best.
28:50
It is. It's the feelings you get when, you know, especially some of the tougher dogs.
28:57
You know, sometimes they come and they go quick. We don't really get to know
29:00
them that much. But others stay with us a while before they move on.
29:05
We have some amazing dogs now, too. We have a big pity who I call Mama Hope.
29:09
She came from the South. She was in a high-kill shelter. She had three babies. Her babies got adopted.
29:14
She's here now. And she is just like the biggest love. She is amazing.
29:18
Pitbulls get such a bad rap and she is
29:21
just everything she is so sweet she just wants
29:24
to cuddle with you all day she's so gentle she's so
29:27
loving she's amazing she's house trained you know
29:30
she sleeps through the night she's crate trained she's like the perfect dog
29:33
she's great my mom who's 78 but and i never would have thought you know to give
29:40
her like a 60 something pound yeah hope needs to drop a few pounds like yeah
29:46
yeah yeah she put her into weight so gentle and yeah she's so gentle,
29:52
and my mom had that sort of you know oh i don't know you know she's too strong
29:58
for me she misses her still yeah she's the best companion dog yeah it's amazing
30:02
and these two other dogs that we just brought up chip and dale strippers our
30:07
partner down south is hilarious he made some Chippendale dogs,
30:10
Chippendale, because they came in, they were found as strays,
30:13
and they had mange, so they had no hair on their body.
30:15
They called them the ugly puppies, and then upgraded them to Chippendale because
30:19
they were basically naked.
30:22
One of them's in a foster child, the other one's available. But yeah.
30:26
Yeah, there's a lot of cool dogs. A lot of puppies.
30:31
Yeah. All right, good. We'll have puppies in eight weeks or so.
30:36
So we pulled our first pregnant dog from a shelter. She was going to be euthanized.
30:42
With puppies in her? Oh, they're the first.
30:44
Pregnant dogs, puppies, and seniors are the first to be euthanized.
30:49
And black dogs. Yeah, we didn't even talk about that. I know why.
30:51
Black dogs are the ones that are euthanized. She was black and pregnant. Yeah, black.
30:55
It's called black dog syndrome. A
30:57
little black dog rescue that Amy Scarala founded that we both worked for.
31:02
Our focus was primarily black dogs. We took others. There's still superstition. Black cats, black dogs.
31:09
And they bring about evil. Fear, aggression, that type of thing.
31:13
We don't think of it up here in the Northeast. We both have black dogs.
31:17
Yeah, but it's a thing. Yeah, it's a real thing.
31:21
They're also the first to go in the shelters. We pulled this mama,
31:25
and there's an incredible foster we're working with in the South.
31:28
She's in Louisiana. And the mom gave birth to eight puppies two weeks ago.
31:32
And she has them in her house. And she sends us pictures every day.
31:35
And when we first pulled her, we didn't know how many puppies.
31:38
I was thinking, OK, like three or four puppies, probably she was huge.
31:41
And so we sent her to the vet right away to make sure she's medical.
31:44
You know, all of her medical is covered. And they did an ultrasound.
31:47
And the vet calls me and says, so there's eight puppies. I'm like,
31:51
oh, my God, eight puppies.
31:52
I'm just like, oh, so expensive.
31:55
There's a lot I mean there's a lot of vetting that has
31:58
to be done before they can travel yeah a lot of
32:01
vaccinations deworming I mean everything so
32:04
those are big expenses but it's so
32:07
cool to have this experience and she's like texting us when each one was born
32:12
yes first baby's out and I'm like oh my god so I feel like I'm having a baby
32:16
I'm like texting my husband like we got a baby it's like oh my god you're crazy
32:20
so how are you funded it's done we're donation and our adoption fee.
32:25
Yeah. Okay. Yes, we have an adoption fee. But the adoption fee is minimal.
32:29
How much is the adoption fee? Currently 700.
32:31
And that covers transport costs, which are very expensive. All of the medical
32:35
and vetting that's done down south and up here.
32:37
And also all of the supplies, food, crates, toys, leashes and collars.
32:41
With our adoption fee, we barely put any money into the bank after that.
32:46
The donations help us keep at least some kind of push
32:49
in for situations that do arise yeah
32:53
we're a 501c3 so we're a registered non-profit and
32:56
recognized so and all donations are you know tax benefits
32:59
and stuff so yeah well the 700 doesn't make
33:02
sense i walk into the vet and every time i leave that place at least four
33:05
or five hundred bucks that's right it's very expensive we
33:08
need donations we're gonna link everything down below so if anyone wants to
33:10
make donations or partner yeah or help create
33:13
the first connecticut yes day of adoption super adoption yes that's gonna happen
33:19
it's a great thing so cool i want to be a part of that just tell me what to
33:22
do you guys are the best thank you for being here this is the most fun i want
33:27
more people to know next time we'll bring puppies next time we should just have
33:31
puppies all over us right.