Jenessa is great, and she will do wonderfully.  I know she has to be nervous right now.  Westchester is a massive facility. Two to three times the size of Pets Alive Middletown in capacity for animals and staff and budget. It’s a lot to take on and I know that Jen has to be nervous about this.  I know I would be.  :)  But at least for Jen a lot of the most difficult work there has been done.

Let me tell you a little story. When we first took over the Elmsford Animal Shelter I will admit - I was against it.  Believe it or not I was the only board member that voted NO to taking it over. Hey look, we all have our moments of weakness.  Right off the heels of rebuilding Pets Alive Middletown, knowing how hard it was, how much work it was, how much stress and pain and emotion – I was gun shy at believing we could do it again.  And with Pets Alive Middletown we had Best Friends to help us.  They brought trained staff, lots of money, tons of support, they had all the answers, they knew what they were doing.

We only had three years under our belt.  Could we really take over an organization that had no programs in place, a staff that had not been well trained, no money at ALL in their coffers, 1100 animals, many in horrible, terrible conditions, and the monthly outlay was $125,000??  Yes.  Seriously.  You heard me right.  They were spending $125,000 a MONTH and had no money at all.  They were three months away from shutting down, that was all the money there was.  They had no email list, no mailing list for donors, no donation program, no fund raising, no offsite events, no adoption program…..NOTHING.  And just three months of money, At Pets Alive Middletown we only had about $85,000 in the bank.  I thought we had to be crazy to take this on.  CRAZY.  Especially if I was the one to have to do most of the work!!!  (Yeah, I know but hey, remember I already had a full time job running Middletown, so cut me some slack, will ya? I couldn’t imagine finding any more hours in my day).  But the board thought we could do it and so we did. Crazy?  Yes.  Risky?  Very. Frightening? Terrifying.

So we threw ourselves into it. I remember talking to Nathan Winograd once about taking over a previously existing shelter and he said that in most cases you wind up firing 1/3 of the staff because they can’t get with the new program.  They are too ensconced in the old ways and can’t change, or won’t change, and they become major obstacles to your success.  This was true.  Within weeks we had to let go of about 1/3 of the staff for the sheer negativity and the constant hurdles they threw at us, the outright refusal to do things a new way or the fact that they simply had no ethics when it came to animals. Nathan went on to say that 1/3 of the staff would leave on their own and 1/3 would rise and shine! Again he was right on.  We fired 1/3 of the staff and another 1/3 within the next couple of months left on their own.  They disagreed with us, they didn’t like the re-org, they didn’t believe in no-kill – whatever their reasons they left.  And the last 1/3 is still with us.  Shining.  They picked up the ball and they ran with it.  They blew through obstacles, they held our hands and walked us through getting to know all the animals, they worked long hours, they dealt with stress and frustration and difficulty.  And they shined. They are still shining.  We are grateful to them every single day. Without them, we may not have succeeded. (Special thanks especially to Mara and Christian).

So after months of stuttering stops and starts, Joy and I had a discussion.  Joy was already on our board of directors.  She knew Pets Alive inside and out. She loved us. We loved her.  Every task she had ever undertaken for Pets Alive was done well and far exceeded our expectations.  Would she, could she, might she, consider taking over Pets Alive Westchester as the Executive Director?

Joy already had a good job, making a great salary.  We enticed her in by offering her about half that salary. See?  We know how to bargain!  We said, hey we can’t really pay you anything at all, and you’ll be working twice as many hours as you did in your other job, and you’ll have a long commute, and emotionally you’ll go home crying every night, but it will get better and hey look over here – PUPPY BREATH!  And so that was it, she accepted.  Who could blame her. (OK, at that point I did start to wonder about her intelligence, but then again I did the same thing.  Took this job for about a third of my previous salary and I didn’t think I was an idiot.  Maybe Joy wasn’t either! ). And so Joy became the Executive Director.  And life at Pets Alive Westchester did a 180.  The staff got much needed training and organization. The animals started receiving medical care and attention.  All the animals came out of cages and into healthier and stimulating environments. Offsite events and volunteer coordination got off the ground.  Fund raising was started. Supporters were approached and asked for help. The paperwork was organized and the bills got paid.  Joy got the monthly expenses to a more manageable level. She brought Ken in as the facility and adoption manager.  Ken took adoptions from 1-5 animals a week to soaring over 15-30 a week in a snap. Senior animals were flying out the door.  Donations were up.  Volunteers were coming in droves. Wow. Could this thing really work?  Could we really save the Elmsford Shelter? Yes. Joy did that. Joy did ALL of that. Yes she had a staff, yes she had volunteers, yes, she had Ken who was instrumental in putting everything on the right track, but Joy was the force behind it all. Making tough choices and difficult decisions every single day.  Going home crying and hurt and wounded, yet still getting up again the next day and coming back in and doing it all again.

In the past year Joy and I have become very good friends. Everyone has someone in their life that THEY look to for support or for help or as a mentor or idol.  Even though Joy came “after” me into Pets Alive, she is the person I look up to.  She is the person that I talk to when I’m unsure of a decision.  When I’m anxious, stressed, nervous, or scared. Yes I get scared.  Hey, a lot of animals depend on us.  We can’t screw up.  We have to make the right decisions.  Sometimes it can be overwhelming.  Joy is always the voice of reason.  The steadying hand.  The calming factor.  She makes me laugh when there isn’t anything to laugh about.  She holds me up when I feel like I’m faltering. She is such a force in the world of animal welfare, love, commitment and care.  I learn something from her every day.  She is brilliant and personable.  She is tough and stubborn.  She is efficient and organized. She is humble and self deprecating. She never gives up, she never gives in, she never doesn’t believe.  She always KNOWS we can do it.  She always just “does it”.

Is everything perfect now at Westchester? No. We are still deep in the red.  We still need more financial support.  We still need more of the “legacy animals” placed (animals still there from the “old” days, some which were born there and are still there ten years later), we still need more medical care for the animals, we still need facility improvements.  This is where Jen will come in, and shine.  She takes over a well oiled machine now.  A machine that still needs an engineer and a mechanic, but that now runs again.

And as to Joy and Ken?  Who better to go into the unknown?  Into Puerto Rico with all the challenges there, and start a fresh new world of life saving?  Who better than these two amazing people to work more miracles and work more magic.  I just can’t wait to see what they do with Puerto Rico.  I can’t wait to see them shine there. But I will miss Joy very much.  I will miss our light hearted banter.  I will miss her warm hugs when the world seems to be falling down.  I will miss her easy laughter and quick come backs.  I will miss my friend. Thank you Joy for saving Pets Alive Westchester and making it what it is today.  Thank you for lifting me up when I needed a friend.  Thank you for all the love you have given to Pets Alive and to your staff.  And thank you for taking on Pets Alive Puerto Rico.  There isn’t anyone else in the world I think could succeed like you two will there. I can’t wait to see the deprived, starved, abused and beaten animals of Puerto Rico fall into your loving and caring arms, and to watch their transformation.  I am so sad for us to be saying goodbye to you, and so happy for them that they get to have you.

Good luck my friend.
You leave with all our admiration and love and hopes for the future.
Go git em.
I’ll miss you.

Most of you know him.
Our Cam.

If you don’t know the story of Cam you can read my blogs about him here:

1st blog:  http://network.bestfriends.org/blogs/kerryclair11159/archive/2007/05/05/90226.aspx
2nd blog:  http://network.bestfriends.org/blogs/kerryclair11159/archive/2007/06/01/90211.aspx
3rd blog:   http://network.bestfriends.org/blogs/kerryclair11159/archive/2007/09/08/90218.aspx

We talk about him a lot and he is really special to the staff here and to the volunteers. He has been a catalyst for many changes here and many policies and he is just an all around great guy. I love him. If he hadn’t bitten my husband, he’d be living at my house now. Sigh. Oh well.

Anyway, as you know Cam is definitely one of our favorites. Staff love to dress him up for …well…I was going to say for Halloween, but then, that’s not true. They dress him up for any occasion, or any non occasion and they paint his toenails, and he gets boxes in the mail specifically for him (he LOVES to play with basketballs and they will show up now and again in the mail for him). So it wasn’t really a surprise to see a letter come in addressed to him…but ah…the contents. The contents were. I was going to summarize it but I think it might be best to let you read it yourself.

———————————————
Dear Cam,

Woof! |
My name is Jake.
I’m a 1½ year old border collie.

You don’t know me, but you helped save my life, and I want to tell you about how you did that and send you something to say thank you.

After my forever family adopted me in April they quickly realized that I was really, really scared of like, everything. Somebody in my past did bad things to me and I was especially terrified of strangers and people I didn’t trust… but instead of running away I would try to protect myself… humans call it fear aggression, I called it self defense in a world that hurt me too many times.

One night my family was crying so hard because they had been given the option to bring me back to the shelter, where I would have been put to sleep. They loved me so much but people said that keeping me meant lots of scary risks and no guarantees. That night, one of my humans found your profile on the Pets Alive website. She started crying again when she read about you, because you were just like me and your story really touched her. Knowing that your friends at Pets Alive were able to save you and win over your trust made her believe that maybe I could be saved too. She told the rest of our family about you, and Cam, you were a glimmer of hope on the darkest night of our lives.

You made them believe in me!! I guess it’s kind of obvious what they decided to do, since you know, I am typing this… well, sort of… I’m helping.  They promised me that success was the only solution and that they were going to learn how to help me become unbroken, no matter what.

My family says that I have completely changed their lives- that I’ve taught them how to love more than they ever thought was possible… that I’ve made them stronger and taught them so many things about life and love and never giving up. It’s been a lot of hard work for all of us, and we still have lots of work left to do, but I have learned how to trust my family completely and I’ve made so many new friends. And oh my goodness I LOVE life! I’m so happy now and I let my friends pet me and hug me and play with me and I’m so full of love that sometimes I give kisses! I even let them dress me up (shhhh don’t tell anybody, but I totally love it- I hear you like dressing up too! ). And I LOVE playing with basketballs, just like you! Basketballs are THE BEST TOYS EVER! The best.

Cam, you helped save my life and now I get to experience all of these wonderful things! I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so brave and not giving up. You are one of my heroes. I’m so glad that you have such wonderful friends in your life and I hope that one day you’ll find the perfect forever home! Dogs like us are really special and have so much love to give to the people who understand us, and we have so many things to teach the world. We help make the world a better place through the lives we touch and ultimately change. You changed my life from miles and miles away without even knowing it- that’s pretty special!

You and your family at Pets Alive inspired my family to never give up on me and I hope you all have a very merry Christmas/ happy holiday. I wanted to send you some treats but I didn’t know if they’d make it over the border (I hear there’s dogs with good noses that work there), and I was gonna send you a Kong, but they’re kinda hard to mail. So instead I’m sending you a Petsmart gift card, and the next time one of your friends is at Petsmart, they can use it to buy you a Kong (or something else super fun) and some of your favourite treats as a Christmas and a thank you present from me and my family- because you totally deserve it!!

Sending you happy tail wags and kisses!
And my family sends you lots of love!
Your friend,
Jakey

Oreo’s Law is a huge topic of conversation here, and we’ve learned a lot from it. “The Movement.” I didn’t realize I was part of the movement until Paul Berry used those words at Pets Alive in 2007, which seems so far in the past when I look at it now.

It’s never really been a “movement” to me. I’ve always seen it as a simple recognition of our moral responsibility toward companion animals. We have a moral obligation to each and every one, and we should not allow anything to get in the way of that. Pets Alive has been successful because that is the overriding tenet that controls everything we do.

There were four people speaking here today that really connected with me personally. Really touched me deeply and really helped me to understand that this is truly a movement in the purest sense. It’s a shift in ideas, in foundations, in manners of thinking and acting. And that’s what we’re witnessing.

We don’t have to kill adoptable animals. That is something that all of us respect, understand, and appreciate. Even the ASPCA, which has put itself out there as the kill shelter poster organization because of their words and actions, pays lip service to the idea that killing should be a last resort.

We all believe this. It is part of our core and flows logically from the stuff inside of us we call our morality. There can be no moral equivalence for death, which is a nice way of saying we don’t throw around the phrases “fate worse than death” or “better off dead.”

1. Rich Avanzino

Kerry was reluctant to go to a seminar today called Using the Law to Save Animals, because she thought it would be too dry. Boy was she wrong! It was given by a guy named Rich Avanzino, now the President of Maddie’s Fund. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Maddie’s Fund, it is the largest funding source for no-kill in the history of no-kill. It was set up by the couple who started PeopleSoft, an HR software system designed to get Human Resource people off of mainframes and on to PCs. Great idea. Very profitable idea. Maddie was their beloved rescue dog, and Maddie’s Fund was set up to help make the USA no-kill.

Rich has an impressive resume that includes being President of the San Francisco SPCA. His list of accomplishments is truly amazing, and it starts with the story of Sido, the little Collie mix that started the no-kill movement. And Rich has been called the father of no-kill, a title he has truly earned.

To make a long story short, Sido’s caretaker, Mary Murphy, committed suicide in 1979. As part of her will, Mary specified that Sido be killed. The SPCA and Rich were not about to let that happen.

“The law says a pet can be destroyed like a piece of furniture,” he told the Anchorage Daily News. “We’re saying that’s wrong.”

WRONG. Not illegal. WRONG. Morally reprehensible. They saved Sido and she lived with Rich and his family until she died on her 16th birthday.

What absolutely blew me away beyond words was his reaction to talking about Sido. Let’s remember this happened three decades ago. I was sitting in the last row and I could see the pain on his face and hear his voice crack as he talked about it. This is someone who has been in animal rescue and animal welfare his entire life, is an attorney that has argued and directed animal law cases, is someone with a true presence, and is the financial lifeline to the no-kill movement, making him a very powerful man.

And he was still pained by the death of this dog that he saved and loved.

Kerry and I and the rest of us at Pets Alive talk often about how anyone could kill animals — how they could kill animals like Oreo who could have lived. It happens hundreds and thousands of times per day. And it came to me in that instant that they are incapable of the compassion and empathy displayed by people like Rich and you and me every day.

One of the board members in the Brick shelter asked me why I would care about the FIV cats. Why was I making such a big stink about 6 cats? Would that person ever get up before a group and still feel the tremendous loss of an animal they saved thirty years ago? Do they ever go to bed and wonder about the animals that went home, grin ear-to-ear and kiss their own animals on the top of their heads?

Are they ever haunted by the animals that didn’t get saved? The endless parade of pictures and emails and people begging to save the animals they are morally responsible for? Do they ever shed their own tears, feel their own voices crack, feel the debilitating wave of sadness for that one soul that was snuffed out that didn’t have to be?

No. I would argue that they have to be incapable of all of that or they simply couldn’t kill an innocent animal, or even be an accessory to killing an innocent animal.

Ironically enough, Rich ushered in what should have been a golden age for San Francisco and its animals — a no-kill community. His successor destroyed both the organization and no-kill. That would be, of course, Ed Sayres of the ASPCA, Oreo’s killer.

Sayres inherited an SPCA with a strong infrastructure, departments that had become the envy of the growing No Kill movement, and a fundraising apparatus that had amassed an endowment of over forty million dollars.

When he got through he had squandered money on stuff like trying to figure out how to contact dead animals and they were now losing $3,000,000 a year. And he demolished no-kill in San Francisco.

Wonder how he sleeps?

2. Micah Kellner

Micah is an anachronism — a politician with a moral compass. That’s why he, like the rest of us, got rolled by the ASPCA (without help from other organizations who will remain nameless) when it comes to the law he authored — Oreo’s Law.

I had the same a-ha moment I had with Rich when Micah was giving his speech today at the conference. I lived the story but I was captivated by what was being said. I kept glancing over at Nathan Winograd who was even more involved than me, and he was rapt as well.

Micah is a foster home for cats. He heard about Oreo from one of the organizations he works with. Later on when Jane Hoffman of the Mayor’s Alliance wanted to club people who supported Oreo’s Law she spent a lot of time seeking out Micah’s friend to ostensibly try to put them out of business. I include that to illustrate that with the dirty tricks they are trying to play on his friends, imagine what kind of stuff they’re trying to stab him with?

Did I mention that the ASPCA is in Micah’s district? That’s a lot of money and a lot of power up against you. And Micah didn’t cave. Why? Because he was doing the right thing. Because someone had to do it and he was that someone. Period.

We lost. But in January we’re coming back and we’re taking no prisoners.

How do you think Micah sleeps at night? I wondered at lunch today if Jane Hoffman climbs into bed with the thoughts of the thousands of animals SLAUGHTERED at the CACC every day because she is more interested in keeping her power than doing the right thing. Again, not the legal thing. The right thing. She can’t possibly be capable of the empathy and compassion necessary because if she did she wouldn’t be able to handle the abdication of moral responsibility for those souls whose blood is on her hands. She couldn’t lie to our faces and then bring those lies into the New York Assembly to kill Oreo’s Law and 25,000 animals a year with it.

We hold the moral high ground here by a huge, incontrovertible margin.

Even Micah’s legislative pals made fun of him because while they were trying to come up with a budget for New York he was reading Nathan Winograd books and as they said, “playing with animals.” I smiled today thinking that he managed to get Oreo’s Law written and into committee and they still don’t have a budget.

Go Micah. I am honored to know you.

If you live in his district, vote for him. If not, find some other way to support him because we need more people with moral clarity in government, especially in New York.

3. Nathan Winograd

I totally identify with Nathan — people say the same things about him they say about me. They call us obnoxious, say we go too far, they “agree with what we’re saying but not the way we’re saying it.” When the naked, unvarnished truth is a monster unleashed by one of us and slowly gnawing a hole through your torso you tend to try to distract everyone from the monster by complaining that he needs a haircut. That’s what crap like those sentences mean to me.

I think Nathan is a genius. I think he has worked tirelessly, pounding away at person after person, organization after organization, leaving them no choice but to think about the monster instead of the haircut. That’s something I’ve always been able to do as well.

No one ever notices the fifty things you try to do before you go after someone. No one ever says “it’s a real shame Nathan had to bludgeon Ed Sayres, but Ed probably should have listened when Nathan gave him one hundred opportunities to get on the bus before it ran him over.”

Again, I’ve been there. Every time someone confides to me that they would love to work with us but are afraid to deal with Nathan I burst out laughing and shrug. He’s the team, babe. Get on the bus or get under it. Those are your choices.

I met his lovely wife Jennifer today. Very sweet woman. She told me that when they all turned on him he was really upset. Yeah, that’s another one of my faults. It hurts when you put all your passion into something, and you pour out your heart and soul to try to get across the feeling that makes Rich’s voice crack when he looks at Sido’s picture in his own presentation, or makes Micah grin from ear to ear when he mentions the cats he fosters, or when Nathan actually giggles about the slide in his presentation that shows his own animals.

Can any of us picture Ed Sayres feeling that feeling, let alone conveying it? If so, how could he possibly kill the animals that bestow the unconditional love to us that makes that feeling possible? How could anyone who in any way grasps that passion and that feeling allow any companion animal to suffer when they could be in a great home?

I know exactly how Nathan feels. It hurts me deeply when I make a cogent, brilliantly thought out argument and someone tells me back that he’s surprised I can see past my Big Mac. Shrug. People suck. They don’t understand that you can’t fight the truth forever. It swallows you up.

Nathan, my friend, we always have your back. We are doing the right thing, and you are fueling the machine. Thank you so much for all that you do.

4. Michael Mountain

I saved Michael for last because he’s a standout in this group of amazing people. He saved something so precious to me I can’t express it in words without being overcome with emotion. He is largely responsible for Pets Alive’s doors being open today. His ideas and his principles are the ideas and principles that have rebuilt Pets Alive. Kerry and I owe Michael a debt of gratitude that we can barely express, let alone hope to repay.

Michael Mountain is an icon of the no-kill movement. He, like Rich, was one of the engineers of the no-kill movement, and his successes have saved an incredible number of animals and made it possible for all of us to do what we do, while paving the way for no-kill’s next level.

Imagine how difficult it would be to leave the labor of love that you worked tirelessly on for decades. I’ll tell you — I am not the man Michael Mountain is. Michael Mountain is a man of tremendous integrity, unwavering passion and principle toward animals and the no-kill movement, and the humility to always put the cause before himself, something I am not sure I could do.

Person after person came up to Michael today while I was standing with him chatting. Many of them (mostly young women oddly enough) expressed to him that he was their hero. They asked if he was still with Best Friends. He answered with a “No” that left no doubt that he had nothing else to say about the matter. That’ s it. It’s over and it’s no longer important.

I can’t tell you how many people told me that Oreo’s Law would have passed this year if Michael were still President of Best Friends. That is one hundred percent true.

Best Friends is an organization that we love like a big brother. It hurts us tremendously to watch them turn into just another big humane organization…watch their soul being torn from them. I cannot imagine how Michael must feel.

Michael, if it helps at all you will always be the father of the child Pets Alive has become. Standing on its own legs, awkward and unsure. We know we always have the principles, the passion and the moral clarity that made your Best Friends our inspiration, and made you the New York Yankees of the no-kill movement.

And at the risk of making a very poor analogy, you’ve fathered many children that are all trying to make you proud.

Thank you for all you’ve done for the no-kill movement. Thank you for everything you’ve done for Pets Alive and for always being there for us.

Those are four heroes. I’d also like to mention Sido and Oreo who helped these heroes change the world.

This is simply about understanding in your heart, feeling in your soul that the killing is wrong. It’s not about sitting behind your desk and ordering your own staff who is begging you not to kill Oreo to “shut up and do your job.” It’s not about attorneys, officers of the court with a code of conduct and a code of ethics, lying to the public and state legislators to protect your own power, knowing that you are signing the death warrants for 25,000 animals.

It’s about understanding on a metaphysical level that the death of these beings, these sentient creatures that are aware that you have killed them, is morally reprehensible and wrong.

It’s about loving these creatures and accepting responsibility for their safety and their souls. These heroes have sacrificed and led and saved millions of innocent lives.

What will you do to honor them?

No more excuses.
No more compromises.
No more killing.
No-Kill now.

I am, of course, working.

There are still fifteen things on my to-do list, and I am finishing up the first one.  Sigh.

Some days are tough.  Lately it seems we’ve had a string of some days though.  We don’t talk much about the emails we get and the tribulations we go through, but I’d like to give you a taste.  Some days are very difficult.  The emails never stop.  Story after story about dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, turtles, roosters — any animal you can think of pretty much.  They are all innocent of course, and we start every day knowing we can’t save all of them and knowing that means death for some of them.

So while our heads are spinning from this (I try not to look at the pictures), self-centered, arrogant, egotistical and yes, stupid people crash into our lives and cause more static that we don’t need.  What do I mean?  Here….

Let’s start with the lady who adopts one of our famously cranky dogs.  She knows the dog is cranky.  We TELL her the dog is cranky.  We sit with her and explain it to her.  I was there.  She takes the dog home and he acts cranky.  Duh.  So she brings him back.   She demands her money back.   We say no.  She calls her lawyer.  We say no to her lawyer.  She finally agrees.  Then she reports us to the better business bureau.

Another person offers to transport a dog for us.  We don’t answer her in 24 hours.  Sometimes I don’t read my email for 24 hours.  She gets indignant and tells us that she was warned about Pets Alive. She’s tried to volunteer here and has been unable.  What a terrible organization we are.  She will tell everyone we know how bad we are.  Sigh.  Yeah.  You do that.

Then there’s the nasty emails about how much we suck because we won’t take people’s 14 year old aggressive dog that they need to “get rid of” in the next few days.  Of course it is our responsibility to clean up after these irresponsible people and it’s our fault that we won”t relieve them of their moral responsibility.

Meanwhile, three other rescues who are struggling ask for our help.  So we’re spending time trying to get them back on their feet.  And one of them decides its time to negotiate the terms of our help.

I could go on and on.  I could read you more of our hate mail.   But I won’t.  Let me tell you about Oreo.

Oreo is a black and white female Pit Bull.  Here’s how she was introduced to Pets Alive:

Marcos’ wife was in labor, and he was taking her to the hospital.  As he passed the front gate of Pets Alive he saw Oreo there.  She had been dropped off at Pets Alive by some uncaring, irresponsible people.  He stopped.  There’s an example of the dedication of our staff.

Marcos ran and got Juan, and headed off to the hospital.  Juan and others coaxed her to the kennel with M&Ms.  They called her M&M, I immediately decided her name was Oreo.  Both stuck.  Oreo is a sweet, gentle, friendly dog who loves everyone.  She isn’t crazy about other dogs, and didn’t do well at all in the kennel.  Surprisingly, she lived well with Mufasa, the evil chihuahua in the Kennel office.

She’s a hugger, and she’s a talker.  She thinks she’s a lap dog.  She became a staff and volunteer favorite, and many times I would walk into the office and Oreo would be in someone’s lap or stretching on her hind legs to lick someone on the face.  Her tail always wagged and she always ran to me when I came in the room.  Many times when I was in the office fixing something or working on something I would scratch her behind the ears or just entertain her as she flitted about.

She’s a black (strike 1) pit bull (strike 2).  She has some hip problems, and she’s not exactly young (strike 3).  We expected that she would be around a long time, and we did the best we could to keep her happy.  She was walked often, handled and loved on by the volunteers and staff, and we made sure she lived outside the kennel environment where she was happy.  And she was happy.  We did well to make her comfortable, but we all wished she could find a home.

Well guess what?  Kerry informed me excitedly last week that there was an application approved for Oreo!  We had all been through this before, but this one felt good.  When they came to see her I made sure to pop in.  When I walked into the kennel I saw Oreo on the couch with her front legs on the arm, stretching to lick the man of the house in the face.  Her tail was wagging furiously and he was laughing.  A child watched from nearby, smiling and looking a little overwhelmed.  So far so good.

THEY WERE GOING TO TAKE HER HOME!  Oreo, the dog that had been abandoned at Pets Alive close to seven months earlier, was going home!  They were picking her up the next day.

Word traveled fast among the staff and volunteers, and Oreo got quite a sendoff the next day.  Gil and Maria stopped by to send her off, and the driveway was littered with the cars of well-wishers.  She was kissed, stroked, and loved into the car of her new family, and her tail was wagging as she drove into the sunset.  Jenessa said she had never seen anything like it at Pets Alive.

It was a victory of sorts — another soul saved.  Another sweet, innocent animal who can lie by the fire, run with kids who love her and be part of a family.

Her family called us when they got home to let us know that Oreo made a bee line for the bed when she got home, and that’s where she’s been ever since.

A few hours later we got another of those emails I was telling you about.  Kerry annotated it and sent it around.  The last words of her comments were Some Days.

Yep.  Some days are better than others.

I was going to call this brief blog The Power of Pets Alive. but it really isn’t about us –  it’s about you.  We have a certain number of spots set aside here for “lifers” — those dogs that will take a long time to be adopted.  For whatever reason, be it breed, or temperament or just the fact that they are black dogs (black dogs take the longest to get adopted).

When we take in a dog we have to be very conscious about whether the dog is a potential lifer.  We are delighted when we’re wrong.

First there’s Bernie — Bernie came from Los Angeles.   Our friends at Best Friends asked us to take Bernie, hoping he’d have a better chance here than there.  He was two and a half when he got to us.  He was stuck in the shelter out there for two years — since he was a six month old puppy — and he had no prospects of getting adopted. Bernie was a staff favorite. Kerry and I loved him, as did everyone who worked with him.  Sweet, gentle, wonderful.  He’s a Rottie/Golden mix, and what a great dog!

He is very, very dog aggressive.  Juan and Marcos worked with him and took the edge off (he is able to live with a dog in the next run now), but there’s still work to be done.  We were sure he would be around for quite a while.  We were wrong!

Now he has his forever home.  His adopter came to look at Panda, but fell in love with Bernie when he saw him.  Just like the rest of us.

Now Bernie’s doing great.

Then there’s Moet.  Moet, at 12 years old, was dumped in a kill shelter in Jersey City.  This shelter, like many, refuses to adopt out “pit bulls,” so the only chance Moet ever had was to be saved by a rescue.  Two Pets Alive volunteers saw Moet and fell in love with him.  They called and begged us to take him.  We thought long and hard about him, thinking that he would be a lifer.  We were wrong, delightfully.

So I’m sitting at my computer typing away, and I hear Kerry say “Oh….my….God.”  Now this could mean many things, but in this case it was absolutely amazing.  Look below:

Usually I place words next to the pictures on this blog. This is one of those rare times where the picture speaks the words in all of our hearts. Just look at Moet, safe and happy, living out the twilight of his life being loved and cared for rather than buried in a mass grave because his caretakers abdicated their responsibility. That’s you. That’s what you do.

We can’t stop looking at that picture. It’s amazing. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your support. Thank you for adopting dogs like Moet and Bernie.

Moet and Bernie and the rest of the thousands of animals you’ve saved thank you too.

More than a thousand dogs pass through our ramshackle little slice of heaven every year.  Every single one is special.  We have found that there are degrees of special.  I love every dog I meet here.  But some stand out.  Some of the dogs we meet stay with us, leaving their indelible mark on our hearts.  It is an intensely personal thing.

We pull them from other shelters.  We gently take them from their crates and get them into their temporary homes, either in the kennel or in the warm weather outside in the dog area.  We examine them carefully and lovingly.  We pet them.  We wash them.  We brush them.  We kiss them and tell them we love them and they’re safe now.  Then, when we’re just getting used to them, playing with them, noting their eccentricities and likes and dislikes and pouring out our hearts with love so they feel comfortable, happy and cared for, as they return that love with their own affection, they leave us to go to their forever homes.  Every single one leaves a mark on our hearts.  Some leave much, much more.

We all know the Baked Alaska of feeling we get when one of our very special dogs leaves to go home.  On the outside we smile and enthusiastically congratulate the new family while inside our hearts are breaking.  Sometimes we hold back tears.  The pain is absolutely amazing sometimes.  A little piece of our heart goes with that dog and we are never the same. I find though that no matter how much it hurts I am always grateful that that little soul has touched my life for just a little while.  And I am thankful that I could touch him or her back.

This is Mason.  He came from Tennessee on July 12th.  He is one of those long, stretch limousine type of dogs, probably a Basset Hound mix I’m guessing.  He is between one and two years old and he’s very cute and affectionate.  When there is a high euthanasia rate at the shelter, usually any dog that expresses any aggression whatsoever is immediately euthanized.  Sigh.  So we get only the best dogs by the time they get here, by virtue of the fact that the nicer dogs are the only ones that live.  There’s a terrific thought to have with your morning coffee.

This is a rough business.  Each dog touches our hearts.  But some take them.  Like Mason.  We noticed almost immediately that Mason walked funny.  Janet was on it like a rash and consulted with Dr. Furman on what it could be.  Seems that Mason had either a birth defect or a bad older injury that never healed right in one of his hips, most specifically the back right.  Mason seemed like he was in a lot of pain, so he was given Tramadol, an analgesic that is also given to humans.

Mason is a very sweet dog.  He is very affectionate, very loving, very sweet.  And he captured a lot of hearts.  This is Chris.  She is one of our overworked, underpaid Dog Caretakers.  She is also a dog trainer.  Chris and I are on the opposite spectrum on politics, but I admire Chris’ generosity, her dedication, and her sense of morality.  When I bitch about the generation behind me and what a mess it is Chris is definitely the exception.

She makes next to nothing working here.  She has nothing.  One day she got an envelope in the mail that I brought down to her at the kennel.  She reached in and pulled out a bracelet.  I had to ask.  She said “I saw this segment on TV last night about these poor kids who were forced into prostitution, and they make these as a way to raise money to get out.  So I bought some.”  Did I mention that Chris has no money?  I know because I see her paycheck.  That’s Chris.  Yep.  “Sucker” is tattooed on her forehead.  Just like the rest of us.

When Eddie came to stay with us Kerry twittered that “some of the staff” took Eddie to Wal*Mart and bought him some clothes and other stuff to get him settled.  Guess who?  Yep, she’s very special.

I also have to mention that Chris is a fantastic cook.  She brings us pasta and lasagna and desserts and all kinds of amazing food.  One of the best sentences you can hear over the walkie-talkie starts with “I made lunch today.”

There are two dogs in Chris’ and her roommate’s household.  Pancho, a three legged black lab from Pets Alive,  and Anna, a Dogo also from Pets Alive.  For a while she also took home Peanut, a dog with separation anxiety so bad he had leapt through three plate glass windows.  “I just couldn’t stand the thought of him being stuck in the kennel.  He just looked so sad.”  Am I painting a picture here?

Chris lives very close to Pets Alive.  She often takes dogs home with her overnight to help calm them and get them a respite from the kennel environment.

She started taking Mason home and caring for him.  She noticed that he seemed like he was in a lot of pain.  He was given a dose of Tramadol that would have worked for me.  Those of you who know me know I weigh close to ten times what our boy Mason weighs.  And it didn’t help.  That was quite alarming.

Chris was debating whether she should take Mason home.  We’ve all done it.  I have Roscoe and Tyson, Kerry has Tommy/Scrumpy and Jake, Janet has Kylie, George and takes Houma every night,  Juan has Teak,  Marcos has Paulie, Renee has Orlando,  Alex has Dylan, Dale has Norman,  Kerri has Cupid.   Those were the dogs we found to be the most special.  And other dogs touch each of us on a regular basis to the point where we consider taking on yet another dog.  Happens all the time.  I know in mine and Kerry’s household it’s very simple.  How do you spell another dog?  D-I-V-O-R-C-E.  Our spouses are very understanding, but they have their limits.  Thanks Tommy and Ingrid.  In the end Chris decided not to take Mason home.

This is the Monschauer family.  They are a really nice group of people.  I get an immediate vibe from people when I meet them.  Both Kerry and I have stopped adoptions based on that vibe.

These people were friendly, they were loving, and they adored Mason.  He adored them too.  There was a complication though.  Janet had taken me aside that morning and given me some bad news.

“It looks like they’re going to have to amputate that leg,” she said.  Sigh.  I hate this part of my job.  This sucks the most.  Mason won’t know he only has three legs, and he’ll adapt just fine, but it still breaks my heart.  He’ll be hopping around on three legs for the rest of his life, but he won’t be unhappy or bitter like I would be.  He won’t curse his life or his luck.  Dogs are amazing.  They are tough and strong and Mason was no exception.  It was as if Janet read my mind.  “Yeah, I worry about him too.  He’s got a long frame and there’s going to be a big learning curve for the poor guy.”  Sigh.  It just sucks.

What about the Monschauer family?  Not phased at all.  They wanted Mason no matter what his leg count was.  So there we were in the volunteer lounge.  Mason had sidled over to me and was lying at my feet.  I was absentmindedly scratching behind his ears while the paperwork was being filled out.  Once in a while he would stretch and twist his head at me and give me a loving look.  Or lick me.  Mason was going home.

I stared at his leg, my heart breaking for this poor boy.  He was in pain and he was going to lose this leg.  Sigh.  It didn’t look any different than any of his other legs.  It was shaved for one of his many examinations, but it looked the same.  A few weeks from now it would be cut from his body and thrown away.  It really sucked.  But at least he would no longer be in pain.

The paperwork was almost finished.  “Did anyone call Chris?”  I asked.  It was time for Chris to say goodbye.

A few minutes later Chris’ little Econobox that probably couldn’t fit my leg comfortably comes down the driveway and she gets out.

When she opens the door everyone else is looking at Mason.  Kerry and I are looking at Chris.   We’ve both been in this spot before.  To her credit Chris is perfect.  She’s got the same smile pasted on her face that we’ve had when we were in the same spot.

As she comes through the door and sees Mason for the first time the facade cracks and we see the pain in her eyes.  We feel it too.  Kerry looks at me with the same sadness and I suddenly remember some of my favorites and how much it hurt.

She recovers quickly and pastes the same smile back on her face.  We love them all you know.  Every single one of them.  It’s so easy to understand how people become hoarders.  We always joke that we are all one step away from being hoarders but there’s some truth to that.  You do love them with all your heart.  You do want the best possible home for them.  The next step is thinking that you are the only home that will care for the animal the right way.  So I guess we are just one step away (ahem….spoken by a man with 6 dogs).

Kerry shoots me a knowing glance and we turn our attention to Chris, who has Mason in her arms and is saying goodbye.  It’s absolutely heartbreaking.  Even the family notices.  “We live pretty close by.  You can come visit him anytime.”  But we can’t.  It would just hurt too much.  Besides, dogs move on quickly.  Read that in a study somewhere.  Mason, three-legged Mason, will adapt to his new home almost immediately and be happy.

I know they remember us.  I’ve run into dogs years after I’ve help get them adopted and they still remember me.  “Wow!  He never does that with someone he doesn’t know!”  Yep.  That’s true. Chris will never forget Mason.  That’s for sure.  As she holds back the tears I continue to remember some of my favorites, most recently Mindy, the dog from the CACC that almost died.  I cried when she left, though I was joyful that after her difficult life she had found a couple that would adore her the way she deserved to be adored.  I saw her at the reunion and she was really loving me up.  I love this job sometimes.

We say goodbye to them all the time.  It is both gratifying and heartbreaking.  I watch Chris being torn apart inside for just a few more minutes and decide to go outside to get some air.  Biggie Smalls beckons me and I go over and start petting him.  Just what the doctor ordered.

I remember Kerry and Scrumpy, then called Tommy.  She agonized over taking that dog.  He was adopted by a couple that lives in the next town from me here in Connecticut.  She liked them. I told her I could check on him anytime.  I saw the same anguish and heartbreak in her as I see in Chris now, though Kerry is even better at hiding it.

They brought Scrumpy back during the next few days, making up some story about why they couldn’t keep him.  Kerry didn’t care.  He was hers now, and he’s been part of her family ever since.

There is one dog I regret not taking.  I will never forget Fritz.  This is a tough business.

Chris hugs the family members and heads out the door.  She’ll go home, pour herself a glass of wine and think about Mason.  And probably cry.  Eventually the joy will beat the sadness to death and the happiness she feels for Mason having a home will be the feeling she reaches for when she thinks of him.  I know this from experience.

It’s funny.  The feeling of sadness you get when one of your most special dogs leaves isn’t something you can easily share, even with the people the closest to you.  It’s very personal and very deep.  And it hurts.  A lot.  But it’s short lived. In the end you feel a pride mixed with that sadness. The realization that you had a part in saving Mason’s life. That you made a difference. That a soul is still on this earth directly because of your actions. And you tuck that feeling and that dog safely in the place in your mind where it doesn’t hurt anymore but you can still remember when you need to. Then you close the door and get ready for the next shipment of animals. It never stops.

So Mason goes home. That night over my own glass of wine I think about the day. I feel anguished over Mason losing his leg. I wonder how Chris is doing. I think of text messaging her but I know Kerry already has and she’s much better at that mushy crap than I am.

I think about the Monschauer family and how excited they must be. Mason is probably playing with the kids or perching himself on the couch (he’s a big couch dog). He’s getting the love and attention that he deserves. Finally. We saved another one. I smile despite the pain I’m feeling.

I hear Kerry’s text message tone on my phone.

“You ok?” she asks.
“Shrug. You?” I answer.
“Shrug.”
“Chris ok?”
“She seems ok. A little sad though.”
“Sigh.”
“He’s a good dog.”
“Yep. I’m really sad about his leg.”
“He won’t know he only has three legs.”
“We do good work Kerry.”
“Yes we do.”

One last thing. Janet told me a few days later that it looks like Mason wouldn’t be having his leg amputated. They would try to control the pain with medication and the specialist was confident that they could.

So we got a happy ending all around.

Mason is a very special dog.
Chris is a very special person.
The Monschauer family are the most special for saving Mason.

Another day at Pets Alive.

This is such a touching story and so many special people reached out to try to help this poor assiduous soul. I wanted to share her story with you and to introduce you to a very special rescue person named Anita.  Anita is the one writing almost all the below.  She takes very badly damaged dogs into her home and works with them before sending them on to rescue.  We have taken many dogs from her in the past.  Unlike many rescue people, Anita is still so kind and so courteous and so very compassionate.  She isn’t pushy and she doesn’t play the “guilt card”.  She never lies to you about a dog.  She is brutally honest about all their issues and what she has done to try to help them.  Many rescue people are NOT like that.  I am not beating up on rescue folk.  God knows that their hearts and souls are so damaged and so wounded that all they can often think about is how to save that next dog and if someone would just give this dog a chance…and it consumes them and it keeps them awake at night.  So I am NOT beating up on them, but most have been doing it for so many years that they become jaded and weary and willing to do anything to save the animal.  I do not sit in judgment of them. I applaud all their efforts and I grieve with them over their failures.  Yet once in a while you meet someone different.  Someone that has not become bitter and someone who can still tell you about a dog with feeling and emotion and passion and deep love and understanding.  My hat is off to this very special woman.  Anita …..thank you for what you do and for who you are.  We look very forward to meeting Precious and finding her a person to love her  and give her a chance.  Thanks for loving her and caring for her and seeing past her wounds and her damage.

The first email was from Colleen.   She is the senior animal transport coordinator for Petsmart Rescue “waggin”.
This was her email that was sent to me by Anita:

Precious the dog’s rescue has fallen through!!! She escaped a cruelty case, the shelter, recovered in a foster home, has been fully vetted, and no has NOWHERE TO GO!!! She may end up back at the shelter to be euthanized. PLEASE don’t let her go through all this just to die in a shelter! Pics are attached. She is a  cruelty/neglect case who was too weak to stand when taken to the pound. Pleas contact Colleen if you can help this sweet baby!!!!

Please note she is now FULLY VETTED and STABLE!!! She has made a lot of progress since going to a foster home. She had a rescue lined up, but it fell through. Here is her story, written by a caring shelter worker:

We have a dog here that I am trying to work rescue on and am wondering if you or anyone you know could help.

We got a call for an investigate neglect.  We went out and gave the owners a chance to correct the situation.  They never fixed the issues, so instead of being cited, they decided to turn both dogs in to us.  One was a year and a half old, the other is almost ten.  The young one we already got adopted out but the older one is still here.  Her name is Precious, and she is just that.  The first day she was here she was so weak she couldn’t even stand.  I had to carry her from receiving to quarantine.  She’s a chow/shepherd mix who was starved almost to death.  She is a skeleton underneath all her hair.  I really can feel every single bone on her body.  I’ve kind of taken her under my wing & have been feeding her 4-5 small meals a day.  As starved as she is she still has no food aggression what so ever.  In fact, what little food they were being fed, Precious was letting her sister eat.

I’ve kind of gotten attached to her as you may have picked up on.  I just want to give her a good life for the years that she does have left.  As much time as I’ve spent with her, she still cowers every time I hold my hand out.  Every time she hears a loud noise, or even just a noise, she freaks out.  She is very timid around people, and I can tell that she’s had a very rough life.  She’s now able to walk, and we do walk around a couple of times a day, but she is still using the bathroom in her cage.  I think it still just takes too much strength.  She can now get down off her bed to poop, and sometimes she is able to get down to pee now.  But she is still at times having to just relieve herself on her bed.  I’ve been changing out bedsheets a lot less frequently now though.  Also, it took a few days to get her to even walk outside, so I’m not sure what kind of trauma she’s been through, but I think just being outside brings up issues for her.

She went to a temporary foster home because she was too weak to be spayed and her rescue was in WI. The shelter wouldn’t let her leave the state until she was spayed, so the foster home kept her until she could be vetted. Now, the rescue has backed out, and she is going to have to go back to the shelter if no one will take her. I am not sure what she is. She is scared of men, but likes women.

Anyway, I feel like I’m rambling right now and it’s getting really late, so I’m going to go ahead and send this.  If you need any further details or have any suggestions where to go from here please let me know!!
Thanks so much for all you do!  Sorry I wrote such a long email!!

So then I get the following simple words from Anita in an email:
Kerry,
Please see below.  Any interest in this girl?  If so, I can work with her and get her transported to you.  She is fully vetted according to this, and I can work through any other vetting that she may not have that you would require.  Time is of the essence on this girl.

————————————

I wrote back:

Yes.
Get her to us please.

————————————

Thank you Kerry.  I will start working on this one right away.  I hated to see her go down after all she has been through.  She is a very pretty girl.  I will get her to me and start working with her.

————————————

Kerry,
Precious came to me on Saturday.  We have already been working.  She is fearful upon meeting new people, men and women, but does warm up after a bit with both.  She does prefer women.  She tends to avoid meeting up with other dogs.  She needs to gain a little more weight, and that is no problem. She did well on the transport and went in and out of cars.  She learned to walk on a leash on her collar yesterday, and spent time at our local park exposed to lots of different things.   She seemed to enjoy a leisurely walk.

We will continue to work and I will update you when it feels that is close to time for her to come to Pets Alive.

Again, thank you for taking her.  She is very sweet and deserves a chance to live out the rest of her life in peace.
Anita

——————————————————–

Then this came tonight:

Hi Kerry,
I am writing to see if Pets Alive will be ready for Precious to come this coming weekend on the 23 or 24th.  I have received an offer for transport that will be great for Precious.  A transport coordinator that I regularly drive for is coming North and can bring her all the way to Harrisburg, PA.  This will only leave four short legs to fill to Middletown.

Precious has now been with me for a week.  In that time she has made wonderful progress.  I have attached a photo of her made today.  Her face and eyes have already become softer and more trusting.

Precious is a very sweet dog who has a lot of love to give. Once she learns that she can trust you she bonds very quickly, and although there are good signs her confidence is coming back, she does depend on her trusted human for reassurance a great deal.  She really, really likes to be with you, in the same room with you, by your side.  She responds well to a reassuring voice, and likes to be spoken to.  She is still a bit fearful of strangers and will hide behind you until she feels assured that all is well, but is doing much better with this.  Precious is becoming attached to me more each day as her primary care giver. I think it is important to her well being to get her into her forever home soon so that she can begin this bonding process with her new human.

Precious is house trained, and has had no accidents since she has been here.  She prefers to be free of the leash to do her business, but will eliminate if leashed.  She is presently being taken out 4 times daily.  Once when she wakes, mid-day, late afternoon, and before bedtime.  Precious also has good dog manners.  She doesn’t chew her toys or her bed and seems to understand what is expected of her if relayed in a calm even tone.  She is such a good dog, that I don’t understand what she could ever have done that merited her abuse.  I will NEVER understand some people.

She has done very well with her male fear, even approaching some men on her own.  However, there are still some men that bring retreat and that look of terror back onto her face.  As there is no physical resemblance in these men, I believe it must be voice resemblance.

She is excited to see me in the morning.  Wagging her tail, which curls up at the very end, and visibly “brightening”.  She gives kisses now, and is liberal with them!!  She is still unsure of hugs, standing very still, but she does not refuse them.  You can touch her anywhere, and give her kisses on her head and nose.  She is uncomfortable with you behind her, watching diligently to see what you are up to, and she does not like to be picked up.  However, she has not shown any human aggression of any kind.

She seems to be fine with older calm dogs that approach her slowly, but she tends not to like younger more exuberant dogs that want to play or chase her.  She will avoid them, and if pushed by them will lift her lip and continue her attempt to avoid them. We have not tested her with a cat as we do not have one, and the neighbor’s cat will not stand for this, as she is not good with dogs!

Precious enjoys outdoor exercise and is now accustomed to her leash.  She enjoys being on it, and enjoys her daily stroll in the park.  She is up to a leisurely 3/4 mile walk, then is ready for a nap.

She is still fearful of stick shaped objects in your hands and you must slowly show her what you have.  A sudden move with a wooden spoon, hairbrush or curling iron sends her cowering to the floor. Sudden raised or urgent voices also bring a cowering reaction.

She did great at a softball game and a violin concert in the park where she was able to sit by me, but was quickly ready to leave our downtown festival with lots of noise and people milling about in an uncontrolled way.  She enjoys PetSmart on days when it is not crowded and there aren’t many dogs there.

Precious will do best in a quiet home with calm, middle aged to older adults.  She prefers being indoors as opposed to outdoors, and did try to escape our outdoor fence by pushing under the gate.  She is fine getting into and out of cars and likes riding in one.  She loves to ride shotgun and watch the world go by.

Her dying fur has mostly fallen out is and being replaced with soft, shiny fur.  I am having her professionally groomed this Wednesday.  Precious has a very pretty face, and with the grooming will be a very pretty dog.  She is about knee high and weighs 51 pounds. She seems to be in good overall health except that her bottom front teeth are worn down. She has one ear that stands up and one that folds over!!  Very CUTE!!

Precious is heartworm negative, spayed and has had her rabies vaccine.  I have e-mailed Janet to see what else I will need to have done for her before she come to Pets Alive.

Kerry, thank you for seeing in Precious what I saw in her in her urgent post, a sweet, sweet dog that deserves a quiet, loving home where she can spend the rest of her days in peace, and for giving her that opportunity at Pets Alive.

Many thanks,
Anita

————————————

Goodness.  No Anita.

Thank YOU.
Thank you for doing all you have done to help this wonderful girl find love for once in her life.
We will be sure to not let her down.

So now I turn to all of you.
Come and meet Precious.
I am sure that if you open your heart to her, she will give back to you twice as much.

Have I ever mentioned to all of you that we get hate mail?

Whenever I start a new business there is always someone who thinks they are doing me a favor by pointing out to me where I’m going to fail.  I’ve been tremendously successful, and they have been -well- wrong.  But that doesn’t stop them from trying.  I used to be tremendously offended by these people, but now I basically just laugh.  There is something very close here in the rescue business.

Our latest poison pen letter comes from someone who calls herself K~.   I believe she is a she by the way she writes, but who knows.  By the way…this little squiggle is called a tilde ~, which is used in scientific notation to mean “sort of.”  So this means our friend is sort of a K.  I actually thought she was sort of something else, but I’ll save that for a few paragraphs until you agree with me.

After the story about the dogs that were flown in by our generous pilots appeared in the online media we got a flood of emails and phone calls, which is typical.  Our donations also spike up, which always helps us.

Let me just take a moment here to tell you all how much I love you.  I am just floored by your generosity and support.  I am reading in all of our industry publications how far down donations are, how people are not as responsive with their time and money as they used to be.  That’s just not true here.  If anything it’s the opposite.  All of you open your hearts and your wallets on a regular basis and words cannot express how grateful and amazed I am.  We asked you to help us transport these dogs from the airport.  It was our usual half-@ssed, poorly organized last minute appeal.  15 of you showed up.  Incredible.  Whatever success we have here is due entirely to all of you.  It’s an honor and a privilege to work with all of you.

K~ sent the following email in response to our email newsletter:

Why keep going out of state when dogs needs saving in your backyard?

Normally I would hit the delete button and move on to the next email or crisis or lunch or dry martini or anti-snore aids for Scrumpy or whatever.  This just galled me though.

I responded and actually held back.  Those of you who really know me will appreciate the sarcasm of my response, and will see what I was REALLY saying:

Dear K~,

About a third of the dogs at Pets Alive come from the immediate area.   The media does not consider this eventful.  All of the dogs that come to Pets Alive have been slated for euthanasia somewhere else.  They certainly don’t care from where.  We do our best to try to make a difference everywhere.  Each life is precious regardless of its location.

Thank you for taking the time to email us.  You should consider volunteering or making a donation to help us save more animals from death.  The animals in this particular rescue would have gone to the gas chamber where 300 dogs are gassed each week.

Regards,
Matt DeAngelis

Bite me is what I really wanted to say but it didn’t really convey the depth and breadth of my feelings.

Lets put this to rest once and for all, okay?  We take dogs from all over.   When they are names on a list it’s easy to intellectualize this whole thing and start putting hard and fast rules on everything.  We aren’t choosing distributors from whom we buy our fruits and vegetables.   These are innocent lives over which we have a moral obligation of stewardship.  By my estimation (we don’t even TRACK where we get the animals from as it doesn’t matter), between a third and half of our animals come from this general area, by which I mean a two hour radius.  If you draw a big circle around an area bounded by about Waterbury Connecticut to New York City to mid-Jersey and a bit into Pennsylvania you get the general idea.

We stopped between 350 and 500 animals within that circle from dying last year.  That’s impressive, and puts us near the top of the list of the 100 or so shelters in that circle.  I am so unbelievably proud of this.  I consider it one of the best accomplishments in a life that has had its share of accomplishments.

We also saved the same to a somewhat more than that number from outside the circle.  They would be just as dead as those in the circle would have been.  Just like death, we don’t discriminate.

Here’s my aside within an aside.  We were visited by a couple from one of the boroughs of New York last week.  They were looking for a place to leave their beautiful brown dog that they had found tied to a tree in a park near their home.  They ended up at Pets Alive because they had tried many, many other places that were NOT no-kill (meaning they kill dogs if they don’t get adopted in a certain amount of time), and even tried some of the biggest names in the animal rescue business where they were told those organizations no longer TAKE owner turned in dogs.  I was absolutely appalled that one particular organization, supposedly one of the leaders with about $30 million in donations a year, doesn’t take local dogs AT ALL.   Made me very sad.

Here we are, ramshackle, tired and broke, and we’ve reached out to ALL of our local kill shelters and told them to send US their dogs instead of killing them.  We get hundreds of emails each week begging us to take animals, and we agonize over EVERY SINGLE ONE.  If we can’t take the animals we sit there and try to figure out who can.  We seem to be the only one that does this, even among the organizations for which our entire yearly budget is a rounding error.

Okay…so here’s her brilliant response:

Matt

 I am very familiar with that shelter and the gassing they do in the south.

 This issue of animals from the Southern states being brought up North en masse, as seems to be happening with more and more regularity, is something I have given some serious thought to. Like everyone else who loves animals, I would love to be able to save each and every animal that needs a home and I have absolutely nothing against any animal down South, out West, or wherever they might be. They all deserve a home and a happy ending. Unfortunately, that is not at this moment, a realistic possibility. As we all know, there are way more animals than there are available homes or at least homes willing to adopt them, especially when it comes to certain populations. Although we might have a few dozen homes to pick from for that young, healthy, small purebred doggie (preferably a female, preferably one that doesn’t shed), old dogs, sick dogs, large breeds, mixed breeds, special needs dogs, and especially the pit bulls and pit bull mixes are entirely too numerous for the few homes that are willing to give them a chance. We can all debate whether or not there are enough of those more “desirable” dogs up North to meet the “demand” but what is unquestionable is that thousands upon thousands of the less desirable dogs are killed each and every year in shelters throughout the North. For every dog that is brought up from the South, a dog in a Northern shelter dies because that home was just taken by the Southern dog. So, while you may be saving the Southern dogs, you are at the same time sacrificing the Northern dogs. Is that a fair trade? If we take the perspective that every dog and every life is just as deserving as the next, then one would think that trading one life for another isn’t exactly what our goal should be.

This is very similar to the argument against no-kill.  Basically what K~ is saying is that we are sacrificing northern dogs to save southern dogs.  We are somehow sacrificing the lives of northern dogs by not saving them exclusively.  There are more holes in this argument than swiss cheese.  The irony here is that she is basically saying that every dog has the same right to live, then telling me to let the dogs in the south die, effectively denying them that right.

If there are concrete rules for taking dogs (which we have, although they are more like guidelines), hypothetically every dog has the same chance to live or die, regardless of where they come from.  Even the argument that the southern dogs are occupying a space that the northern dogs would is kind of stupid in this case, as the average dog stays at Pets Alive about two weeks before he or she ends up in their forever home.

As far as her contention that female dogs that don’t shed are the most popular, that’ s just rubbish.  At Pets Alive, an overwhelming majority of the dogs that come to us get adopted, regardless of their size, color, gender, or whatever.  One of my favorite anecdotes is the week we read that black dogs are the most difficult to adopt, and hounds take the longest to adopt here in the North.  Shortly after that we ended up with a ridiculous number of black hound dogs.  We joked that we were going to change our name to “Black Hounds Alive.”  Based on those doomsday statistics they should all still be here.  They were, of course, adopted (all but Elvis, who is one of the sweetest dogs we’ve ever had).

We’d love to take some kind of credit for this success, but I think it’s just simply that the people who adopt from us are generous, intelligent, and judge our critters by their personalities rather than their color or what kind of fur they have, which is more than I can say for our friend kinda K.

Anyway, more pearls of wisdom drop (they are certainly droppings):

We must also ask ourselves whether the significant resources being spent transporting so many animals up North could be put to better use? And what exactly are we accomplishing by bringing up all those animals from the South? Are we doing anything to address the animal problem in the Southern states? Or are we perpetuating the problem by taking their pet overpopulation off their hands? What incentive or urgency is there for these Southern states to do something to address their issues if we continuously take all their puppies up North? If we want to really help the South and more importantly their animals, then we should be spending all this money and effort we are now spending on shipping all those puppies up north on helping them figure out how to STOP breeding so many puppies to begin with. Wouldn’t that make a whole lot more sense? Or are we more interested in having a plentiful supply of cheap puppies to satisfy the North’s demands than we are in ending the misery the animals must go through? Is the South just a different kind of “puppy mill?”

Ah.  Some more of my favorite arguments.  She is basically telling me how to spend my money.  I mean that literally because I am the biggest single donor to Pets Alive.  We aren’t teaching these people a lesson in the south by taking their dogs.  Letting those dogs die will prove the point that we -uh- I’m not really sure.  What is the point that this will prove?  If no one cares about the dogs they will die.  Yeah.  That makes sense.

Are WE doing anything to address the problem?  WE?  Does K~ have an office here that I don’t know about?  I know I am.  I know that I am asked my advice regularly by people in the south who WANT to change hearts instead of putting a bandaid on a sucking chest wound like they’re doing right now.  And again…these are not statistics or incentives or columns of numbers in spreadsheets.  THESE ARE LIVES.

What are we doing to address the problem of too many animals dying?  Uh…we are saving their lives.  Did you miss that blog?  And yes, of course, we want to help them change hearts.  We do wherever we can, and we have big plans to facilitate that.

But here’s where we get to the root of the argument…a thinly veiled accusation that Pets Alive is EXPLOITING these animals by bringing them up here and finding homes for them.  That we are somehow more interested in making a profit than saving animals.  I love this one.

Genius…take a moment to consider this.  We charge an average of $200 for a dog.  Dogs down south are seldom vetted ($50), wormed and heartworm tested ($50), and more than likely not spayed or neutered ($100 – $150).  Many, many of them have heartworm (one batch of ten yielded EIGHT heartworm positive dogs at $500 each for us to cure).  We also microchip them and start them on heartworm preventative ($50).  On the average we LOSE over $100 per dog.  But we make it up in volume (one of my favorite jokes).  So give it a rest.  We’re not a profit center.

As long as thousands upon thousands of animals in the North are being killed because homes cannot be found, I cannot understand how anyone can ethically defend the practice of bringing so many animals into this area so that even more end up losing their lives. Does no one care about the fate of the animals in the North? Wait, I think I know the answer to that question. Since the vast majority of the animals losing their lives up this way happen to be pit bulls and pit bull mixes and large mixed breeds and other “undesirables,” my guess is that very few truly do

Here we go.  The pit bull argument.  Sorry…doesn’t work on me.  I own two pit bulls.  And we adopted out 12 of them last month.  Good try.   And as far as the “undesirable” breed crap goes, we really don’t have any undesirable breeds.  We can adopt any of them.  And I love the broad generalizations in this letter.  Where’s the evidence?  Where are the statistics to back up this garbage?   This is where I start to laugh and wonder why I waste my time.

 Save in your own backyard first Matt and then I will consider a donation.

When the ALL the NY state shelters are empty then go out of state.

K~

Ah…now here’s the order.  This is someone who has made no effort to help us, but she will “consider” a donation when I save in my own backyard.  When ALL of the NY state shelters are empty she will consider a donation.

I DO save in my own back yard.  Every single day.  We take dogs from municipal shelters nearby, work with the county north of us (Sullivan County), the county to the east of us (Putnam County), Pennsylvania (which is about 15 minutes from us), and even Connecticut where I live and have been active in animal rescue for decades.

Local vets call us when ignorant people bring their dogs to them to have them executed -sorry- euthanized and they just can’t bring themselves to kill an innocent animal.  We take them.   We take FIV cats that no one else will take.  We take in dogs whose owners die (or even dogs like Meeko, who lost two different owners).  The story is always the same…we are the only organization that stepped up to help.

And we will continue to help.

K~, you are ignorant.  Get off your butt and go volunteer at a shelter.  Go see the reality of the behind the misinformed statistics that you spout.  And you can keep your money.

So…this blog entry is called TWO emails.  I want to show you the other side of this.  There’s a very special person who sends us emails from time to time.  Her name is Irene, and her nickname is Doc.  She is a Fire Lieutenant and also has a PhD and MBA.  So she really is a doctor.  She works with one of the shelters that K~ complains about down south.  She is paddling against the current, and she and her group have done amazingly well.  Kerry and I have provided our advice, and offered to fly down there and talk to anyone who would listen.

They are improving conditions for the animals that are in their care, and they are making it easier for other organizations to adopt from them by vetting the dogs and spaying and neutering, which is the key to the fixing the problem down there.

I’d like to share with you the email that came in from her today and had both Kerry and I in tears.

I had surgery on Friday so haven’t been able to send out something for Tiffany.  My best friend, Mikki, got a Kong for Christmas.  Since he died two weeks after Christmas, he barely had a chance to use it.  I’m actually not too sure he actually knew what to do with it!!!  I would like to send Tiffany his Kong in his memory – I know that he would want a homeless gal to have something that was bought with a ton of love behind it…. Would it be okay to send a slightly used Christmas gift to her?

 I also made a donation to Pets Alive and I would like for you to take the small amount that I could afford at this time to find Tiffany a forever home (last month I spent over $4000 on surgeries and medical care for Mikki’s bloat surgery, treatment and eventual cremation, Martha’s hospital stay for pancreatitis- from eating BRATWURST! –  and Denver’s rectal tumor surgery and then of course, the coolant line and the #3 cylinder on my car went out at the same time so all this is on credit!!!).  I can’t believe the poor gal, along with Bindi and Cam, still haven’t found a home….. It breaks my heart.

 Thanks and have a great day!!!

Doc

I seriously thought of sending HER a check.  The perfect example of what keeps us going here at Pets Alive. We love you Doc.  Tremendously.  Thank you for your kindness and everything you do for people and for animals.

Pets Alive will continue to do what we think is right, with your help.  And if the K~’s of the world don’t like it they can get out their checkbooks and start their own sanctuaries and save whomever they wish.  We would support them 100% and not cast aspersions.

We’re supposed to all be in this together, and it’s about saving the animals.   Thanks everyone for being with us.

By the way…Doc’s email signature is  Omnis Cedo Domus – “Everyone Goes Home.”

We were visited several months ago by a group of Aileen’s friends. They wanted to organize a walk in honor of Aileen with the proceeds going to Pets Alive. A lot of people come in and out of our office in any given week, and they are all special. But I sensed something extra special with this group.

I got to know many of them over the next few months as the event took shape and they came to Pets Alive to lend a hand. They were organized, effective, and friendly. They tackled a bunch of stuff that had needed to be done for a long time, and did some things I still can’t believe got done, like moving a shed across the street and down the driveway. From what I hear it was an interesting experience.

They were a presence at Pets Alive, and they were here to honor Aileen.

And her friends are just nice, friendly, caring people. Alieen’s friends Tootie and Mac even adopted a puppy from us.

Duane and Maggie are a great couple too. We can’t wait for Duane to retire. Have a feeling we’ll see a lot more of him. Jack, Pat, Ray, Arthur, Jill, Sharon …they’ve all helped us and touched us in a lot of ways. They’ve all made a difference to the animals here.

There was a poster in the kennel for the walk. There’s a button with Aileen’s picture on it hanging on the cork board in our office. On the button she’s got some funny sunglasses on and she’s laughing. I got to know Aileen through her friends and her husband, and she laughed a lot.

It’s amazing how many lives one life touches, how many lives are changed through our presence and even our absence.

The first annual Aileen Hurley Memorial Walk took place this past Sunday. The weather was beautiful, and the crowd was impressive. Kerry and Jasper were there. I was there. All of Aileen’s closest friends were there, many wearing Pets Alive T-shirts.

The start and finish were at pubs owned by Leslie Potter (and Julie Williams), another of Aileen’s friends. I was deeply touched by the posters on the walls of Pets Alive, a sort of journal of Aileen’s friends’ experiences.

I munched a hot dog and looked through a collage of pictures of Aileen. You can learn a lot about someone and how they were viewed by others by the pictures people choose for such a collage, and Aileen’s chronicled a life full of close friends and fun times.

I talked to a lot of her friends that afternoon, and I spent a lot of time listening to other people talk about Aileen and remember her fondly.  I wish I had a chance to really meet Aileen Hurley, though she touched my life deeply after she was gone.

As you probably know, we’re going broke. In fact, we are counting on the Furry Tail Evening Fund Raiser to get us through the next several months. Even with that fund raiser we’re two weeks short in funds, meaning we would have run out of money about two weeks before the event. Aileen raised $16,000 for us, an absolutely amazing amount of money for a first year fundraiser, and an amount that covers about two weeks of our expenses.

Thanks Aileen, for loving animals and sending us your friends to help us out. They’ve honored you and I hope these words in some small way honor you too. We’re leaving the button with your picture on it on the cork board, though with friends like yours there’s no chance we’ll ever forget you.

See you next year at the walk.

Pets Alive is all about life — the lives of animals who are always innocent — and about death, ever-present in the emails and calls we get asking us to save those innocent lives. Sometimes the juxtiposition of life and death is so amazing as to drop the meaning of life into your lap, which was my birthday present today.

We said goodbye to Maureen today. I really liked Maureen. She was a sweet, friendly horse with a great personality.

She had cancer, and the vets said she wasn’t going to survive the winter last year, but she made it through. We thought many times that she was not going to make it, but she always seemed to pull through until the very end when we all knew she was failing.

Our first glimpse into the meaning of life. It’s a cliche, but every single day is valuable. I desperately wanted another day for Maureen, and was heartbroken that she died on my birthday. I was reminded of all the things I’ve been putting off for another day for one reason or another — as the cliche says…life is just too short.

Yesterday I went over into her paddock and looked for Maureen. I found her in the shed at the back of the paddock, sandwiched between Moon Ray and Kingfish. It took me a few minutes and several crabapples to get me to Maureen, who seemed weaker and was breathing oddly.

Here’s where I got my second insight of the day. Life is about being with the people you love. The people who accept you despite your ailments and shortcomings, and like Moon and Kingfish extend your life and add meaning just by being there.

And really, what is life without having someone to care for, protect and extend the life of? Rest in peace Maureen. You will be missed.

This week the New York State Police seized 17 horses from the Black River Stables in Cherry Plain. Among them were the mare and foal you see here (named Kerry and Baxter) that are our latest additions. Baxter’s young life was off to a rocky start, as he was malnourished and his normal growth was stunted because of it.

You can see Baxter’s paddock from Maureen’s, and most of the Pets Alive staff and the veterinarians walked over to visit. I couldn’t do it, but I spent some time with Kerry and Baxter today. They are very sweet.

Each of us is fortunate to have a couple of very special animals in our lifetime. While we love all of our animals, there are a few that we absolutely cherish. One of those for me was Emma. Emma was a German Shepherd, the smallest of her litter at 60 pounds, and she was motivated by fear. Her fear made her unpredictable, and she scared many people away.

She was definitely not approachable, but she adored me. And I absolutely adored her. We were pretty much inseparable when I was home. She died last year and it broke my heart. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss her. More on the meaning of life. It’s about making those connections and remembering that you’re not going to be here forever, and making every day count. We all say we’re going to do it, but we never seem to.  We even shared a birthday.  Today.  Happy Birthday Emma.

A few weeks ago I picked up a little dog in Danbury, CT as part of a transport. His name is Tyson, and he looks like a miniature black lab. He’s about 30 pounds soaking wet. What struck me almost immediately is that he has the same kind of tentativeness as Emma did. He was here in the outdoor runs for about three hours, cowering in the corner. We decided to take him into the office for the day, and I decided that he was coming home with me.

We connected in a very similar way as Emma and I did, and now he’s right there wagging his tail when I get home and Roscoe tries to bite my shoes off me.

So what was my birthday all about this year? It was about life and death, love and loss, the passing of time and the fragility of life. It was about holding close what is the most important and understanding that while some things must be released they need never be forgotten.

So what of the meaning of life? How the heck do I know? This afternoon I went and scratched behind Baxter’s ears, talking softly to him and feeding him and his mother treats. Then I took Jasper and Jake for a hot dog. I’m getting closer to finding the answer. I have a feeling it’s right under my nose.

So grab your wife, fiance or girlfriend and go sit together listening to the rain on your front porch while your dog’s tail thumps gently against your feet.

Something tells me it will come to you.