A Week in the life of Carlos....

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It is the owner... not the breed...

As the end of 2013 rolls around and the new year begins, I want to remind people again that it is not the breed that kills, but the owners... Our county still has an incredible amount of Pitties that die each week at the shelter... Litters bred without any forethought as to where the puppies will end up at, nor a pregnant momma...  Male dogs are left intact because of some mistaken belief a male with testicles is somehow a better, "tough" dog...  Instead, the males end up earlier with testicular cancer and aggression that is misdirected and not channeled... Children are bitten needlessly and there is no logical reason for we humans to keep breeding dogs and having puppies that either have no home to go to or are killed because of a glut of them on the market... 

It is the owner that allows the dogs to stay intact and breed... Not the dogs themselves... 

This week TLC adopted the second (pregnant) momma Pitty we saved in 2013... It was NOT an easy adoption despite having trainers come in and work with her... It was not the breed, it was the original owner that allowed Snow to have no canine manners or training early in life... It was the owner that kept her intact, allowed her to come into heat and become impregnated... I am positive Snow did not sign onto 'Match.com' and go out looking for a mate... All of the conscious choices made along the way were made by humans and Snow (and her 7 puppies) almost paid the price by her life...

We have another Boxer/Pitty in the rescue - her name is "Momma" and I adopted her in May of this year... After her 9 puppies were all adopted, she and I began an intense course of training and work to insure she had a job and was a viable member of the TLC team...  Shortly afterwards I had her certified for therapy and then the CGC (Canine Good Citizen program done by the AKC)... Momma has a job - her job is to be a good ambassador of these two breeds, and as a rescued dog, show to the general public just how great these big, powerful dogs can be if the owner shows due diligence and trains them properly... 

Momma comes with me to the shop and at night, she comes home with me... In fact, she sleeps in my bed!... Momma has been trained to get along well with my other dogs (3 pound Chihuahuas), but even so, I am always on vigilance to insure she doesn't hurt the little ones and each day, I re-enforce the training I have put into her... It is not a 'lick and whistle' kind of commitment - it is an every day commitment that is organic, changing and evolving as the need arises... 

One of Momma's jobs is to show young children that Pitties can be nice, calm and responsive dogs instead of something to be afraid of... Once someone has asked our permission to pet Momma (the proper way to do it for any dog you do not know), she willing sits and allows herself to be petted over and over again by strangers... 

Momma weighs 65 pounds and if she wanted to, she could easily hurt one of the little dogs we rescue through sheer weight alone... While I would not leave her and another Pitty alone, I can leave her walk around the back of the rescue shop with any of the dogs once they have been properly introduced...   And although she looks small in these photos, there is a TREMENDOUS amount of power in those jaws and in the body once she starts moving... 

We could have let her die along with her daughter and those 9 puppies in her belly when we found her in a shelter, but we chose not to... When we took Momma on as a rescue, we knew we were getting into a TON of commitment... One that began with her and continued onto how ever many puppies she produced... While we had nothing to do with her being intact or getting pregnant, it was our responsibility as humane citizens to see our responsibility through until her natural death - not one because of her breed or that a shelter had filled up, running out of space... 

While Momma's story has a happy ending, few Pitty stories end well... If they arrive in a shelter, they usually go out paws facing the sky in a rendering company's steel drums...

Am I looking for shame and guilt here?  You bet I am... Even if you yourself are not breeding Pittys, or allowing them to stay intact and get pregnant, any time you have a neighbor with one that has not been spayed and neutered, you are harming the dog indirectly... Should circumstances change tomorrow, that dog may be homeless and with little chance of living a long, natural life... If we as human beings don't speak up and make the effort to get these dogs spayed or neutered, we ourselves might as well be the ones pulling the trigger (or in this case, injecting the needle)... 

Remember, it is not the breed, but the owners causing this huge overpopulation of unwanted pets in our nation's shelters!

Anything is possible....

I've lived my life with the mindset of "Anything is possible if only you believe it is"... And our Barkley is a prime example of this mindset...

We found Barkley like this in a shelter on April 27th... One of the TLC volunteers had spotted this Pitty mix and was determined that he was not going to die on her watch... Kathryn not only went to the shelter to pull him out, she came in every three days for his bathing with special medicated shampoos...  Kathryn took him to the vets for all of this appointments and she also came to the rescue shop and went through the training we had done with a trainer...

And on a personal note?  Barkley was a handful... correction... dumptruck-full to lift up and into our grooming sink at the rescue shop for these baths... He weighed almost a hundred pounds and while he never fought the lifting, that is a LOT of weight for us women to lift up 3' off the ground and then into the grooming sink!

Barkley was with us for three and a half months... His demodex was a bugger to get rid of!... Because we are set up for small dogs, rescuing Barkley tested our abilities to function 'out of the box' as a rescue shop as well!  But because something seems impossible when it arrives on your doorstep is not a reason to say it can't be done!...

And when we had the photos done for the 2014 TLC Pitty calendar, Barkley was the choice to be our Santa shot... Isn't he gorgeous??!!!

Yep, anything is possible if only you believe!  Yes, Charlie Brown, there is a Santa!

As Always,
Linda

P.S.  If you believe you are too busy, too tired, too old or anything just too-something to be a part of the change in Ventura County for No-Kill, Kathryn just turned 69 years old, she has an active social life with the Red Hat Society and her children, grandchildren, donating time and energy to TLC... She is also our Special Events Coordinator and has put together several fundraising events this past year that helped to keep our doors opened and the electricity on.

P.P.S.  You can read Barkley's journey with TLC HERE.

No-kill's newest poster child - ARABELLA!

A very big part of the No-Kill movement is the mindset that every animal deserves a chance to live...

Allow me to introduce you to Arabella, a recent save of TLC's who should be the poster child for what the No-Kill movement is all about... 

I will be the first one to tell you I still have a bit of an issue with the term "no kill" because it is not quite that...

There will always be a few animals whose pain and illness are so severe that it is really inhumane to keep them alive... Or some that are so viciously aggressive they are a threat to the general public's safety no matter how much time and rehabilitation efforts you put into them... So unpredictable because they have been taught by humans to be aggressive that any child or some other trigger can generate a vicious and unexpected attack... 

But the biggest part (for me) of No-Kill is that no animal should die who is healthy and adoptable... It is also inhumane (to me) to warehouse animals to the point they end up 'shelter-crazy' as well... For No-Kill to work, it requires many things, and one of them is that people stop buying puppies, but go into the shelters and rescues to adopt, adopt with their brains and minds -- but not their eyes or 'Aunt Martha has an XYZ dog and that's the one I want'... All dogs are different, regardless of their breed... 

Arabella came out of Camarillo from Ventura County Animal Services (VCAS) at the end of October... Our dear vet there (Dr. Heather as we affectionately call her) took the time (unlike the previous regime) to do some investigative testing in an effort to uncover why she had lost all of her hair and was so God-awful ugly on the outsides...

Arabella had no hair down her back and the skin was black and deadened... Cushings was ruled out and a few other reasons, thanks to Dr. Heather's efforts... 

And then, almost as if to say, "Hey wait... Don't put me on a kill list... I'm a mom!" Arabella popped out two little pups on Friday, October 25th!...

TLC had no room at the rescue shop, and I had no room at my house either, as a matter of a fact - I can take only so many litters at a time!... Arabella and her pups spent their first night at my house in a kennel, but the door opened, in my bathtub!... It was a quiet, confined place that bought her time until I could find a foster or figure out something else!

We get jammed up on laundry at TLC, doing 14+ loads a day, and periodically we have to take the backlog to the laundromat and do a massive 'catch-up'... My laundromat partner is Kathryn, one of the TLC volunteers...

The next morning she and I had a laundromat run (translation? the back of my truck is completely filled with dirty laundry!) and as we're talking about things in general, I asked Kathryn if she was up yet to another foster... She'd just gotten back from a trip and has been a steady foster mom with TLC, but I was not sure if she could take on another foster... Never hurts to ask though, ya know?

Kathryn immediately agreed and after the laundromat run, we back-tracked to my home... I think Kathryn might have thought I was joking about having Arabella in my bathtub!  But in rescue, you do what you gotta do to save a life, ya know?...

The bathroom was quiet, no other dog could come in there and Arabella was still in the mindset of 'anyone that comes within 6' feet of my babies is going to feel the wrath of momma grizzly bear here!'... So the bathtub in the bathroom was a perfect place for her to feel secure and take care of her babies... 

Eight weeks later under Kathryn's loving care, this is what Arabella's back now looks like:

Amazing, huh?  But beyond the outward appearances, Kathryn tells us Arabella's tail is nonstop... It wags from morning to night... Arabella is a GREAT dog, has no bad habits, is not a barker, gets along with Kathryn's other dogs and deeply loves Kathryn!

If anyone had seen Arabella at the shelter, they would have immediately passed her on by... She'd have stayed un-adopted until once again the shelter ran out of room and would have probably been killed to make space for more 'adoptable' dogs... 

No one at the shelter (or in a rescue) wants to kill animals - but until the general public stops dumping their animals or starts adopting, we will continue to have great dogs like Arabella die (sometimes on a daily basis!)... 

For every person that has chosen to buy a puppy from a backyard breeder or off the Internet, an Arabella has died in our county... For every person that has walked away from adopting a dog because they just 'have to have a puppy', an Arabella has died for their misconceptions of what they feel they have to have... 

We have pulled SO many dogs out of shelters that we have never interacted with... We have no idea what their personalities are like nor their issues when they arrive at TLC... I can't begin to tell you how many dogs I've rescued in 32 years, but I have had to euthanize only three dogs in the thousands we have given a second chance to...
All the rest (at least 1500 since 6/09) have gone on to have great lives with responsible humans who love them BECAUSE they are adopted, rescue dogs...Our criteria has been size because of the way the rescue shop is set up, but we've pulled our share of larger dogs along the way as well...

We don't turn away from saving "less than perfect" dogs because we KNOW most of these dogs ended up in a shelter due to a human's stupidity and decisions - not because they are bad dogs or dogs not worth investing in to save their life!

Oh, and should I mention that if Arabella had not been given a second chance - first by VCAS and Dr. Heather, these two precious little ones would not be alive today - Bijou and her brother, Laddie...

Just goes to show you how differently one decision, followed by another good decision and another can change the course of life or death for these little ones who can't speak up to save their lives, huh?

If I haven't convinced you yet to get your butts into a shelter or rescue to adopt your next dog, maybe you should watch the video below and realize what perfection exists inside each and every dog waiting at a shelter to get their second chance...  Notice Arabella keeps a watchful eye out for her two babies and when she decides they've had enough play time, she goes and fetches them... What a great dog and mom she is - and almost had to die two months ago!



P.S.  Just in time for Christmas, Arabella won her own furever home and mom... she's been adopted!

DC - Really?????

In the 32 years I have been doing rescue, I never ever think I have 'heard it all'... Because just when you think you have, something comes along that makes you scratch your head and wonder (once again) is it a full moon and/or what in the heck goes on in peoples' minds!

Yesterday at the shop, we had someone come in and browse through our dogs and puppies up for adoption... The questions started like routine... 

"How does this process work to adopt one of your dogs?".... (and explained that we do a meet & greet if you are adopting an adult dog and you already have one to insure the energy levels are the same... that the dogs will get along with each other...)

So far, pretty normal huh?

And then the next question....

"Would you adopt to someone who had a mountain lion hanging out in their backyard?"...

HUH???  Double "HUH???" in fact... 

I'm not sure what our volunteer answered and at first, we all thought he was joking when he reported the conversation... But when I heard about it, I wasn't so sure...

Apparently this woman lives on Yosemite Avenue here in Simi Valley and there is a mountain lion who likes to hang out around her backyard... She went on to explain her second dog went missing recently and she has not been able to find it (or a carcass), so she was looking to adopt a second dog...

WTH?... We are not 'Mountain-Lion-Food-R-Us' here...

So, in answer to the lady's question - "No, we do not adopt our little ones to people who have mountain lions hanging out in their backyards".

It must be a full moon!

As Always,
Linda, Director

Our 'beach buddies' update....

I wanted to post a short update on our 'Beach Buddies' crew and chart their progress somewhat... Ringworm is not a 'fast fix' kind of thing, but more of a 'baby steps' kind of care that we do as volunteers and rescuers... 
We have split up these five puppies into two different litters... Three of the pups are about the same size (Pismo, Avalon and Waikiki) and we believe they are siblings...

Because the medication (EXPENSIVE - $60 a bottle - Oh my!) is administered by weight, it makes more sense to do it this way... 

Pismo's face is already showing signs of improvement... As you can see on the comparison from the 8th and now, the peach fuzz has begun to start growing in... The skin is not so dry and scaley-like...

As you can see from this picture to the left, her muzzle is not so nearly 'crater'd' as it was 10 days ago...

I just cannot imagine the pain these pups have gone through the entire duration of their very short, short life!  Even their little feet are not nearly as swollen and painful looking as they were when they arrived at TLC!... Baby steps, ya know?... Baby steps...

Avalon is the worst of the five and she's also the most outspoken of the crew... I think she was telling me what she thought of these medicated baths twice a week, but what do I know?...

It must feel itchy, then wet, then somewhat comforting to have a bit of a relief... Maybe she does not like the smell or the fragrance?... Dunno, but she certainly didn't care for the bath, huh?...

Or maybe she was unhappy about communal bathing with her other two sisters?... Sisters can be such witches to each other at times, and anyone who has a sibling can remember what it was like growing up with them, huh?... (smile)....

But even their little bellies are not as inflamed and loaded with postulates from the ringworm... Certainly they are feeling better, but this has not slowed them down any!... They play and rough house with each other like there is no tomorrow!

I can just imagine her thoughts here.. "Really?  Did you have to show off my tummy like this?"...

The two bigger sisters (Miami and Ventura) are just as active and playful...  They are a hoot as well...

After all, how can you possibly resist this look?... "GET ME OUT OF HERE~!!" Ventura seems to be saying!...

So we carry on... Day by day, happy to be able to save these 5 precious lives and know that we will overcome this health issue...

A special thank-you goes out to the TLC volunteers who take care of these wee ones, get the meds and baths done along with just making a difference in the life of these five!

Their still swollen paw in ours... Together we will win this fight!

For the complete story on the Beach Buddies, always check HERE

1500!

For those business-minded individuals, you will already know what a 'KPI' is, but for those not familiar with the acronym, it translates to 'Key Performance Indicator'...  So, why would I be writing about KPI today on a TLC blog?

Primarily because we keep an eye on our KPIs... 

And because we are a non-profit (and don't make much if any profit), unlike most businesses, the financial aspect is not a primary KPI for TLC... We track other things as our primary KPIs... Like how many dog lives we have saved since TLC as an entity was born... 

Allow me to introduce Boffo and Beaucoup:

And why are they important to us?  Because momma (Boffo) is number 1500 for TLC, and her pup (Beaucoup) is 1501 since June, 2009... Or not quite one dog's life per day... Both mom and pup came from Ventura County Animal Services (VCAS) which has also committed itself to No-Kill 18 months ago...

We as a rescue did not commit ourselves so heavily to taking dogs and puppies from VCAS at one time... And we fought hard for VCAS to commit to No-Kill, but now that we are both headed in the same direction, we do our absolute best to help our county achieve No-Kill by 2017... And how do you do that?... By one or two dogs at a time... 

VCAS vet techs, Dr. H and Linda Nelson with Boffo and Beaucoup

TLC reached this amazing number with volunteers, no government funding or corporate sponsorship... We do this through sheer willpower and a conscience determination to do what is right towards these small dogs dumped into shelters by irresponsible dog owners...  And yes, there are some months we barely can cover the electric bill at the rescue shop, but the level of the care these dogs receive from TLC is better than many pet owners give their dogs...

And there are some very kind and generous folks who make monthly donations to help us over that hurdle of 'too many dogs to save, not enough money to do it' set of circumstances... Others bring in items on our wish list (we do 14-16 loads of laundry a day - OMG! - so are always running out of bleach, detergent and softener, etc.)... Then others spread the word of what we are doing at the rescue shop among their friends and associates, advising folks that 'adoption is the ONLY way to go' when thinking about adding a new furbaby to their life and lifestyle... 

Just like it takes a community to raise a child, it takes all of a county's residents for a county to go No-Kill... Buy puppies off the Internet, from pet shops or from backyard breeders and you contribute to the 800,000 animals this state kills every year in our shelter systems...

Another KPI for us in TLC is that for every four saves we do, we will do one 'hard case'... And we save the number one breed dying the shelters, day in and day out... We also save one Pitty per month, despite not being set up for the bigger dogs...

This year I fostered a momma Pitty/Boxer and she had 9 puppies in our home in January 2013... Her pups grew up, were spayed/neutered and went onto furever homes... But the momma dog?... She adopted us as a family and we put her to work being an ambassador of this breed... Momma has now been certified for therapy and received her CGC certification in May of 2013... Every day she comes to the rescue shop that I do, she goes home with me at night... She loves traveling in the truck and behaves exceptionally well with our other dogs (two being under 4 pounds and Chihuahuas)... In fact, Momma posed for next year's calendar done by TLC:

There are three things about KPIs that are so crucial to every business, set of life decisions you make and even to the overall lifespan you spend on this planet.... And I believe, we at TLC, do pretty well at establishing good KPIs and staying on task towards our goals:

1. They must be the heart of it all... They must be as closely linked to your top goals - be it in life, business or in a non-profit...
   
2. They must be quantifiable to some degree or point... Granted, how can you measure the quality of a dog's life easily?... But you start with life and move onto quality, health and long, natural life spans filled with love and care...
   
3. They must be something you have within your control... Something you can focus on and improve, use as motivation to do better at... Something you can look at and say, "Yes, we can do better if...."
   

So, please join us in the celebration of saving lives #1500 and #1501 - Boffo and Beaucoup - as we march onwards and upwards towards No-Kill in Ventura County!

P.S.  "Boffo" means extremely successful and "Beaucoup" means many or much... Beaucoup Boffo - many extremely successful saving of dog and puppy lives!

MAJOR KUDOS to all of the TLC volunteers, supporters and TLC alumni who chose to adopt and not shop!

New feature - Notes from the Director's Chair...

We are going to add a new feature to our blog - "Notes from the Director's Chair" or "DC" for short... (we are big on acronyms in TLC!)... Nothing earth-shattering, but just 'down-home', 'back stage' kind of stories from our side of doing rescue... We hope you enjoy this new feature and start following our blog... It might help you to see what we go through to save dogs' lives!

One of the neatest things in rescue is to take a dog you know is going to die and then bring them up to 'adoptable' speed... Once they are at the rescue shop and waiting for their furever home person to come along, they can do the wackiest of things and we all grin and giggle when we see them...

Take for example - Rooney... Every time I see Rooney laying out like this, I gotta laugh... He lays with his back legs spread eagle and flat... Doesn't that hurt?... It must be his Poodle side that allows him to do this... 

He sorta/kinda reminds of my Bearded Dragon, Gerard, who is built like this and Mother Nature... But it still makes me wince when I look too hard at his hips!

And then you have the sad parts of doing rescue... The dogs that are so ill, you take weeks and weeks to get them healthy... We don't win all of the battles we face, but it is not for the lack of trying...

Right now we are battling the good fight with two young pups, KathyLea and TessaLea... You'd be amazed at how EXCITED you can get over a dog's solid poop, they're having the ability to stand up on their own or even eat on their own!... This is the energy-sapping part of rescue that wears us out... (and depletes our financial resources too!)...

But what do you do?... Give up?... No, that is not what we rescue folks are all about... You dig in, you find the time, money and strength to keep on saving lives... So that is today's glimpse into today's 'backstage view' of TLC!

As Always,
Linda, Director

Just whose side are you on?.....

With this blog, we hope to educate (those who don't know) and straighten out misconceptions that float around in the general public...

I don't believe anyone deeply entrenched in the rescue community would say it was easy to work with VCAR (now VCAS) in the past years until Ms. Nolan resigned and Donna Gillesby took over in the summer of 2012... In fact, it was next to impossible for TLC to have a decent working relationship with VCAS while Ms. Nolan was directing the county shelter...

We slowed down in pulling small dogs out of Camarillo in 2010 and by the end of 2011, we just simply stopped... As a rescue, we hold pull privileges at 7 other shelters, and there was never a time when there was a shortage of small dogs needing to be rescue... (sigh)...

For us, it is all about the dogs... But you can only 'scale Mt. Everest' so many times, trying to do a good thing as a volunteer or as a rescue organization when you realize the effort is depleting your resources and is outweighing the good you can do, ya know?... 

Too many of the dogs we were pulling out of Camarillo were very sick and/or broke with kennel cough once we saved them... We also felt that VCAS was not truly dedicated to No-Kill... And there was an overall high level of frustration dealing with the department and the staff in 2011...

On a personal note, prior to the birth of TLC, I volunteered with two other rescues in the area for almost 10 years... Neither rescue wanted to save dogs from Camarillo because the difference was $10 less than the general public cost... While Joe Q. Citizen feels OK returning a dog back to the shelter, rescue folks do not... We knew what would happen to any sick dog we returned, and both rescues felt their limited resources could make more of an impact elsewhere with less frustration...

So, for a couple of years, I pulled the monies out of my own pocket to save dogs from Camarillo for another rescue... And then at the second rescue, I championed the idea of saving dogs from our own county, to the point that there was (for a time) sponsorship by the Heigls to allow rescues to save Ventura County dogs and puppies (this is no longer going on)...

My history in trying to change things at Camarillo goes back over 10 years now, but by the end of 2011, I had just had it... VCAS was just not making enough progress to change and I knew TLC could make more of an impact elsewhere...

To see where VCAS is today, you need to remember where they were... In 1985, almost 12,000 dogs entered their doors and almost 8,000 went out the back door dead in steel drums, carted off to the rendering plants to be make into by-products... In other words, for every 10 dogs that arrived, only 3 walked out alive... Sad, huh?

Twenty-five years later, that has been reversed... For every 10 dogs that arrived, 7 walked out alive... But in those 25 years, the mindset of the general public has changed.... More rescues had been birthed and are buying time for these pets.... People started spaying and neutering their pets... In 2010, only about 7,000 dogs were picked up or surrendered to VCAS, and that is a significant change from 12,000 per year...

But just like with a diet, the first pounds come off easily and as you get down to the goal, the pounds are harder to come off... Such is the dilemma of No-Kill... The closer you get to the goal of a 90% save rate, the harder it is to achieve it... Believe it or not, there are folks that will do just about anything to sabotage No-Kill in Ventura County --- just like a family member who will tell you, "Oh, one little piece of cake won't hurt your diet... You can start again tomorrow on your diet again..."...

Sad to say, this is not a diet... Tomorrow may not come tomorrow for some of these dogs... Twenty-five years ago, a family just wanted a dog... Today, families want THE perfect dog and anything less than perfection eliminates a dog from their adoptive selection process... If the dog is over five years, the misconceptions of the general public is that the dog is TOO old (not true with the smaller breeds)... Or they want a breed that no one else has (and end up shopping on the Internet to pay a huge price for a puppymill puppy)...

Dogs being adopted today have to make it past the hurdles of superficial adopters or they get left behind... Few folks adopt with their brain or heart - they adopt with their eyes, not thinking about whether a specific dog fits best into their lifestyle or their (honest) energy level... This is just like that woman who really wears a size 12, but squeezes into a size 11 in the juniors section!... Eventually the zipper breaks and they fault the manufacturer!

You see?.... Dogs are furever... Adopt them at mid-age and they still love you just as much at the age of 5 as they love you at age 10, 15 and beyond...

Not much in our lives are furever any more... Whether it is the family unit or a secure job... But rescue dogs have something special - they have 'an attitude for gratitude' - they know (somehow) just how bad things can be (or get), and when they find a great owner, they are grateful every day for that unconditional love they get and return to their BFF....

So why is our county still having to euthanize dogs at the shelter?... Numerous reasons, but one that the general public needs to be made aware of...

Just like the 'Made in America' movement sprung out of the realization our jobs were going overseas, the residents of Ventura County need to realize our county cannot go No-Kill without the COMBINED and CONSISTENT dedication of rescues in our county to pull the dogs in our own backyard...

In 2011 when TLC stopped pulling from Camarillo, six months later Donna Gillesby stepped up to run the facility... TLC 'came back home' to save dogs again...

In 2013, 77% of the dogs and puppies we saved came out of VCAS, along with 11% from owners who were going to surrender them to VCAS...

Oh yes, we still pull out of county on occasion - we took 29 of the over 200+ from the Yucca Valley hoarding situation because few rescues could take that many adult dogs at one time...

And we still get called and contacted with emergency cases - in 2013, 12% of our saves were the Yucca Valley dogs (6%) and emergency cases (6%) no other rescue would step up and save from outside Ventura County... Take for example, the litter of 5 ringworm puppies that rescues from 4 hours away would not take on...  But we take the "hard cases" from anywhere that other rescues pass on, be it Camarillo or otherwise... 

However, we will put our 88% of 455 total saves from Camarillo and lay them out on the table for the general public to see who is working so hard to save our own FIRST... 

We Ventura County taxpayers fought the dumping of tons of trash from the City of Los Angeles in our landfills here in Ventura County - we need to do the same thing in regards to rescues in our community savings dogs from out of our county as well... The next time you visit a rescue to adopt a dog or cat, take the time to ask where that rescued pet came from...

And if not from Ventura County, ask why not??... 

Ask them why they are pulling dogs from other counties and why they did not step up FIRST to save a Ventura County dog or cat... If we want these euthanasia numbers to continue to go downwards, it is going to take ALL of us working together!

The point between life and death....

Avalon

 

 

TLC's mission statement is that we will do whatever it takes to save a dog's life unless it is immoral or illegal.  We will save one hard case for every four. 

And this isn't easy for a rescue to do -- many will not take on hard cases because of the increased vet bills, the extensive time the dog may be with the rescue because of behavior issues or simply?  The time, talent, energy, knowledge and just overall commitment to pull a pregnant mom out of a shelter, allow her to have her babies and raise them, wean them, keep everyone healthy until mom and pups can be spayed and neutered then adopted.

Miami

Because of our propensity to take on hard cases within our county and outside, we are sought out constantly to take on these kinds of rescues - for the most part, we have to say "Sorry, no" because we are committed heavily to helping Ventura County go No-Kill by 2014.

Once in awhile, there is no other rescue who will take on these hard cases that come up... Things start getting desperate for the dog or puppy, and we do reach the point that we know if we won't, no one will (more or less)...

Such is the case with the litter of 5 puppies with ringworm... 

Ventura

Ringworm is a very hard case to take on... It is highly contagious (by contact) and transfers over to humans very readily...  Any area needs to stay in a state of quarantine so that other dogs don't catch it --- any person handling the ringworm dog or puppy needs to be very much aware of the dangers of cross contamination and strict protocols need to be followed...

Special medicated shampoos are required every 2 days, then thorough drying after the bath because ringworm is a fungus... There are prescribed oral medications as well, plus cultures run to make sure you have conquered the fungus... Did I mention pristine environments to prevent secondary infections ~~~ WHEW!

Pismo

But how do you say no when it is a litter of 5 puppies that no other rescue is willing to save? This particular group of 5 small puppies (all under the age of 6 weeks old) were 'packaged' up in a box, then deposited outside a police station in Selma, California... Over 3 hours away from us... And trust me, there are MORE than enough dogs and puppies in our own county to save!

Numerous emails from different sources later, I finally caved in and asked the TLC volunteers if they would be willing to take this hard case on... As we worked through logistics from transportation to reconfiguring the rescue shop to contain this quarantine area, I was amazed at the depth of compassion the TLC rescue organization seems to have the market on...

Waikiki

Volunteer bathers jumped to the call, filling in the schedule... Other volunteers worked diligently to make sure the area was pristine and ready for their arrival... Our transporter, Dennis, got stuck on the other side of the Grapevine when snow closed it yesterday and that delayed his arrival by an extra three hours...

All in the sake of humanity towards pups, whose owner with little compassion, dumped in a box right before the holiday season, huh?  Those of us involved in rescue see this kind of thing occur 52 weeks out of the year, so why should the holiday season be any different? 

But it SHOULD be different... Folks who carelessly allow their pets to stay intact and breed indiscriminately, then don't take care of the consequences of their irresponsibility should be, if nothing else, educated and fussed at by others... We rescue folk cannot keep stepping up when the general public fails to do the right thing, regardless of the time or season... But that's a discussion for another time and place...

At this point in time, TLC stepped up and we were there to save these 5 little "Miracles of Christmas" - to insure they get the veterinary care they need, get healthy again and eventually become adoptable after being spayed, microchipped, etc.  This is what we do... This is what TLC does... We are the point between life and death year round for those who cannot speak for themselves.

"Frankly, my dear... I don't give a damn...."

One only needs to hear that infamous line and you can immediately visualize Rhett Butler walking through that door, leaving Scarlet behind, right?... And then Miss Scarlet frets a bit, then says she'll think about it tomorrow....

I have often thought that this movie scene is so parallel to how the general public dumps their dogs in shelters for numerous reasons, then strolls out the door... Leaving behind the dog that has loved them unconditionally through good days and bad... Not understanding what happened - one minute they are laying asleep on the couch and 30 minutes later they are in a kennel run with strange dogs and strange shelter shelter staff.... As they stand and watch their best friend stroll out the door, leaving them behind...

But the worst part of all of this?... It is the vast majority of the general public's attitude toward No-Kill... Very similar to Scarlett's next words... "I can't think about this now.. I'll go crazy if I do... I'll think about it tomorrow...."

And tomorrow comes... The next day... The day after that... More dogs and cats flood into our shelters and exceed the number of those pets being adopted... Dogs and cats get pregnant by intact males - males that should have been neutered and lived longer, healthier lives, less likely to stray and less likely to bite... Puppies and kittens arrive, some get adopted, but others don't...

The shelters fill up to capacity and no matter how much that dog or cat stands and looks out the bars with hopes of seeing his best friend come back for him, they end up on a kill list and die...

You, as a member of the general public, have the ability to change the future for these animals...  You can re-write the script... Won't cost you a dime... All it will require is for you to show up and show your support for the final reading of the mandatory spay and neuter ordinance going up in front of our County's Board of Supervisors next Tuesday (December 10th) at 2PM... 

We at TLC are asking that you come to the meeting and either wear a red shirt or a red arm band (steal a ribbon from your Christmas wreath if need be!) so that when the County Supervisors look out into the audience, they see a sea of red.... Passionate people who care about the animals in our homes, our communities and in our county and support the ordinance that will help this county go No-Kill in this generation....

Be there... Don't be a Scarlet and believe you don't need to think about this today... Tuesday is the day we ask you stand up and be accounted for!  Speak for the animals who cannot, for the dogs and cats that will arrive in the shelters in the future and have to die because irresponsible owners are not spaying or neutering their animals!

Address: Hall of Administration, 800 S. Victoria Avenue, Ventura
Date: Tuesday, December 10th
Time: 2PM SHARP

Press release - 11/13/13

Looking forward to 2014...

We have LONG fought hard and diligently to go No-Kill in Ventura County.  We are convinced that until EVERYONE is headed in the same direction - shelters, rescues, county, cities and the general public - No-Kill for Ventura County will continue to be a struggle we may (or may not) achieve in my lifetime.  And at 55, I long ago thought I would have been retired from rescue and we'd have stopped killing healthy, adoptable pets.

For months, TLC has been 'percolating' over an idea - well, many...  Thanks to the generosity of the Simi Valley Town Center, TLC does not pay rent - just everything else (i.e. our average electric bill is $1,200+ monthly, etc.).  We have long ago outgrown our space of 1300 sq. ft. and to realize our dream, we would need triple the amount of space we currently have.

And what is that dream?  It is a rescue center - a facility that operates 7 days a week like TLC currently does, but with enough additional space to do:

• Community outreach and education

• Hold weekly workshops and training sessions, designed to teach folks how to retain their pets instead of surrendering them to shelters

• Have space to do low-cost microchipping and shots clinics

• Provide space for other rescues (dog, cat, bunny, etc.) to come to and showcase the pets they have saved and are looking to adopt to a good home (the only prerequisite is that the animals come from our county, are up to date on their shots and are spayed/neutered).  Other rescues retain their identities and are not merged into TLC - they operate independently - we just provide the space at no cost to them.

• Provide the space and mechanism for owners (who are forced to give up their pets) to find a good home - stopping the overflow into our county shelter system

• Provide space and grow legs to the therapy for senior citizens programs, the 'read to me' programs and other worthwhile endeavors currently limited by not having a centralized location and/or space around our communities

• Store cat cages and Xpens for other rescues throughout the week in order for their mobile adoptions to be easier to do

• Have cat traps available 7 days a week for those who wish to volunteer and be a part of the feral cat TNR program (trap, neuter and release)

• An intake area large enough to stage transports north and to the East where these little dogs are so desperately wanted and can't be found

• A nursery area that is equipped to house, care for and provide a temporary holding area until a foster family can be found instead of delivering at the shelter and/or dying because of infrastructure and lack of space

• An overflow area and/or pick-up area providing temporary housing for emergency purposes as it relates to the unwanted overpopulation of pets in our county that stays empty unless needed

Sounds pretty overwhelming, huh?  TLC has a proven track record and a solid base of volunteers, plus the experience and know-how to make this dream a reality.

What is stopping us?  First of all, Simi Valley Town Center is in the middle of remodeling and we at TLC do not know if we will even have a space once the remodeling is done, or if we might have to relocate within the mall.  If we have to relocate, we believe we need to now take that quantum leap and cause this rescue center dream to become a reality.

Naturally, we would like to stay at the Simi Valley Town Center - many people now refer to us as 'the rescue shop at the mall' and it is the first place they come to when looking to add a pet to their lifestyle and home.  A few months ago we were allowed to use a vacant store for a fundraiser and as we walked the area, were were able to visually see just how much space the Rescue Center would need to function well... just about 5,000 sq ft, in fact.

We took the floor plan of that particular store and drew out the Rescue Center with minimal build-out and costs to fulfill every point of our dream:

Should the Simi Valley Town Center find it worthwhile to donate that size of space to us, the additional electric per month and relocation expenses would be approximately $20K for the first year.  We submitted the following idea to Simi Valley Town Center, but as of yet, nothing has been decided.

In the meantime, we continue to move forward, applying for grants and looking at commercial space in Simi Valley that might fit our needs with as little relocation and build-out cost as possible.  For us, it is all about the animals and the less we have to spend to make the Rescue Center a reality, the more we have to save animals from dying in Ventura County.

It is our hope with the efforts to form a rescue coalition within Ventura County, working closely with the Ventura County Animal Services, combined with the mandatory spay/neuter in the unincorporated areas of the county, we as a county will achieve No-Kill by the end of 2014.  We know we can do this, and now we need the community and general public to step into the No-Kill boat and start rowing as hard as we are at TLC.

We are open to ideas, thoughts and suggestions - feel free to email me directly with them at tinylovingcanine@aol.com  I would love to be as proud of our humane community's efforts as we Simi Valley folks are proud of our town, the Regan Museum and all the things that make our community so great!

~~~ Sincerely,
Linda Nelson, Director, TLC

Anything is possible if only you believe!

Fox 11 - Paladin!

Our cute Paladin appeared today on Fox 11's Pet Place... too cute!

UT OH... 'Owner Surrendered'....

Ah, those ill-fated words... "Owner surrendered"... Immediately the majority of the general public believe a dog must have been surrendered to a shelter because somehow it is defective... 

As humans, our parents taught us to always try and think the best of other folks... In rescue (and especially after many years doing rescue), most rescue folks have seen the absolute worst of the human species and generally have a hard time doing this, regardless of the teachings our parents gave us... Such is the case with the dogs that are surrendered by their owners... 

There is a stigma attached to the term 'owner surrender' that somehow infers a dog is 'damaged goods'... If that is the end of your thinking, then please allow me to share some of my experience from 30+ years...

Folks adopt or buy dogs and puppies with their eyes and not their heads... Oh, that puppy looked so cute when you first saw them... Your boyfriend and you were SO in love and while not ready to conceive a baby, you felt getting a puppy together would cement your relationship...

Now you have broken up with your boyfriend and every time you look at this now grown adult dog, you are reminded of what a putz your ex-boyfriend was... Into the trash went his photos (if not burned first), the romantic gifts he gave you, mementos of your 'firsts' created together... And the dog?... Cute as a puppy, this dog now reminds you of failure and a broken heart - off to the shelter he goes if you can't give the dog away... FAIR? No, of course not, but this is how that dog ended up in a shelter...

Our parents have somehow learned to adapt and compromise their lifestyle around their cherished pet... Dad or mom get old and pass away... While Dad would put down a pitty pad at night because dear old Spot couldn't hold his bladder through the night, you have a brand new house and aren't going to make accommodations for Spot and your carpets... Besides that, you are mourning Dad and you can't emotionally cope with a new dog in your life... Off to the shelter this dog goes...  FAIR? No, of course not, but this is how that dog ended up in a shelter...

Your friend has a dog they can no longer keep and as a friend, you agree to take the dog... Oh my goodness!  This is a great dog and she never potties in the house, doesn't bark and wouldn't it be nice to have a companion in your life?... And you will be doing a favor to your friend (relative, associate, etc.)... Used to coming and going as you like, now you have to go home after work and let the dog out or they will mess all over your house, be destructive because they are left alone too long or get into some kind of mischief... Is it their fault?... No, but now you realize you don't have the kind of commitment needed to have a dog as a pet - you'd have done better getting a guinea pig or fish... Now what?.. Everything the dog does (or doesn't do) is magnified into larger proportions until you come to the realization, "I don't have enough time for a dog"... Or?  "No wonder Becky gave you up - you are a bad dog!"  FAIR? No, of course not, but this is how that dog ended up in a shelter...

What about the owners that don't believe in spaying or neutering their pets?... Or can't afford it?... Or don't have the time to get the dog into the vets to have it done?... Or simply think they'll let the dog have one litter so the kids can experience 'the wonder of life' and then you realize what a HUGE job having a mom with 7 puppies is going to be!  You wrongly think that everyone loves puppies and they'll get adopted... Oh, how wrong you are... In California, if a puppy cannot be spayed or neutered, they cannot be adopted by a shelter or rescue and because we are always so full, most shelters cannot provide 8 weeks of care and space required for those puppies to grow and mature... FAIR? No, of course not, but this is how that dog ended up in a shelter...

People lose their jobs and/or their homes in today's economy...  Many times through circumstances not of their own making... Something has gotta go and usually the pets are the first thing.... FAIR? No, of course not, but this is how that dog ended up in a shelter...

And finally?  As much good as we have in the human species, we have as much bad... Some owners are simply neglectful of their pets and others are just plain out abusive... Officials step in and decide what is best for the animals and remove pets from these types of circumstances... FAIR? No, of course not, but this is how that dog ended up in a shelter...

Do any of these reasons mean that this is a 'bad' dog?... No, but the dog might need rehabilitation, medical care or socialization and training to become the 'Lassie of your dreams'... And if you decide against a dog to adopt because it is an owner surrender, you might want to rethink your position...  It is HIGHLY possible that you might find the true love of your life in a local rescue or shelter... Rescued dogs have an 'attitude for gratitude' not found in other dogs who have had an easy going of it in life...

So next time you hear the term 'owner surrender', please remember what you have read here today and give that dog a second chance at a decent life!