This week...

From November 6th until November 12th, it is National Shelter and Rescue Appreciation Week... I know with election day tomorrow, this has probably fallen off everyone's radar but I wanted to bring this back to everyone's attention... Maybe later this week once the election is over with, you will read this blog and think about it...

I can speak for no one by myself, and not even for the TLC volunteers personally, but I know rescue for me is year round, every day, 7 days a week and 52 weeks of the year... I don't do it for an 'atta girl' or even public recognition... The TLC volunteers will tell you that I shy away from publicity, in fact... 

But should anyone ask me (or not~!!), I will always say that TLC has the BEST volunteers in Ventura County... 

They come together, work HARD and do it without any thought of a thank-you beyond a wet puppy kiss or knowing that today they saved the life of an abandoned or homeless shelter dog... 

"Big Joe" - R.I.P. 10/20/12

Some are gone now, but not forgotten and were instrumental in keeping the TLC rescue train rolling right along through thick and thin... As a rescue that has been knocked to its knees several times in seven years because of obstacles and hurdles, we brush ourselves off and get back into the race of saving canine lives...

TLC has taken on many hard cases or moms with pups or pregnant while other rescues have passed on the hard work involved in doing rescue of this nature... We see our pups all grown up at the dog park or we run into one at a local pet shop... And the 'thank-you' is seeing them healthy and happy, with a home and very much loved... 

One of the most heart-felt and emotional times I have had in the past seven plus years is someone in the general public came into the first rescue shop with an envelope of Starbucks gift certificates... They told me, "I know the dogs and puppies always need help, but I just wanted to say a personal thank-you to you and your volunteers for doing what you do...."  Almost brought me to my knees emotionally inside and I was really at a loss for words...

For as a rescue (and I am sure the shelter folks get the same thing), you can successfully place 500 dogs but the thing you will hear the most about is the one dog that did not place well or was not 'perfect'... 

For most of us in rescue (the majority is always female), we spend our days elbow-up in poop, laundry, in sinks bathing or washing something! and drag our spouses into our 'passion' whether they are wanting to be involved or not... It seems (at least to me), that the laundry never ever stops... 

Rough laundry day at TLC - real photo!

And you are forever trying to figure out how you are going to pay this vet bill or save that dog, somehow, some way... 

And for those that are not fostering, they can be just as busy behind the scenes - seldom recognized for their contribution to the saving of shelter animal lives... Be it the photographers taking 300 photos to get just one great one... The folks behind the scenes picking up supplies or keeping the paperwork parade running smooth and trouble free... Or the transporter who just put 200 miles on their vehicle this week, driving to save lives... 

These are all folks who go about their lives making a difference in their community... And at this time of the year, I wanted to personally say a BIG thank-you to the TLC volunteers, the staff of Ventura County Animal Services and to the other community residents who get behind and support those of us who do rescue as a passion and commitment!

Sincerely,
Linda Nelson
Director, TLC


P.S. Most of these TLC volunteers are still with us... Some as long as almost 7 years ago... That says a lot about their commitment to the cause of No-Kill!

Straight Outta No-Kill

It is an AMAZING feat to turn a county from "Kill" to "No-Kill"... Ventura County Animal Services committed to the movement in the summer of 2012 and achieved No-Kill status in January of 2014.  

TLC just invested our precious, few financial resources to create this 4'x6' poster we are now hanging on the side of the rescue rig each adoption Saturday...But as amazing as that is?  It is MANY MORE TIMES harder to sustain No-Kill once the goal of saving at least 90% or more of the healthy, adoptable animals is achieved.

Why is this?  Now, I am not an authority on No-Kill, and I can speak for ONLY TLC... NOT the county or the other rescues, or even the general public... 

But as someone in the trenches, fighting for this every day of my life, I have some observations that I would like to bring to the forefront of your consciousness... Some of these ideas you might not even have thought about yet, but I hope by mentioning them, you consider them and join the movement, or at least take the time to spread the word.

In 1975, our KILL rate was 75%... So basically, for every 10 dogs that went into the shelter, only two made it out alive... Pretty grim numbers, huh?

Fast forward 40 years and in 2015, the stats were reversed... For every 10 dogs that went through the shelter's doors, at least eight made it out alive... The challenge (in my mind) would have always been which one of the two had to die... And I never envied the shelter officers for the very hard decisions they had to make each and every day!  Which of the two dogs in the ten would you have chosen to die?

The concept of No-Kill is that no healthy, adoptable animal must die... You will ALWAYS have some animals that die, even in the best of circumstances... Owners will bring terminally-ill dogs to a shelter, unable to afford the high cost of euthanasia charged by vet offices... Animals will arrive as strays, too hurt to keep alive with any quality of humane life... Aggressive dogs that are a threat to the overall safety of our community... But your goal is to achieve at least a 90% save rate... 

So now that Ventura County has gotten there, why are we having such a hard time and immense struggle to maintain this?... Again, my thoughts and opinions based only upon my interaction with the general public and the comments they have made... 

• "Well, now that Ventura County is No-Kill, we need to start saving other animals in high kill counties surrounding us"... (huh?  Other counties need to commit to No-Kill and work as hard as we have - we cannot 'import' their problems or failure to commit into our community and eventually start killing our animals again!)
• "It is still a pound and I don't trust them..." (never mind that our politicians, tax payers and the general public have committed HUGE amounts of dollars and energy turning this around!)
• "The shelter only has Chihuahuas and Pit Bulls - I don't want to adopt either of those kinds of dogs"  (So because of their breed, you sentence them to die?  It is NOT the breed, but the owner on the other end of the leash that determines the kind of canine hooked to the leash!)
• "I only want a purebred (fill in the adjective) dog and the shelter never has those kinds."  (An average of 35-40% of the dogs showing up in America's shelters are actually purebreds without papers... The majority of dogs come into shelters through NO fault of their own, but because of lifestyle changes in the owner's lives... they are not 'damaged' but more victims of the circumstances in the owner's lives - losing their home, job, relationship, etc.)

I can go on with the list, but these are the majority of comments I hear... 

Allow me - indulge me here - to share that people selecting a dog to save based upon their breed is actually profiling... And we don't like that as a society when it pertains to humans... It is no different than saying that 'all fat people are lazy' or 'all ________ (fill in country of origin) are ________ (fill in adjective)'... 

You cannot paint any breed of dog with a broad paint brush like this, and sentence them to die based upon their breed, no more than you can discount overweight folks as 'lazy'....

As you can see from this photo, Momma (DNA confirmed as a "Pitty") does not fit the profile of being aggressive or vicious... I have numerous photos that I can post that show it is NOT the breed, but the owner (me) on the other end of the leash that has determined what kind of canine citizen she is... 

Yes, our shelter has a lot of Pit Bulls and Chihuahua mixes... At any given time, our rescue center could have 60+ small breeds, and it was ALWAYS the Terrier, Poodle, 'fluffy scruffy' mixes that were the 'yappy' small dogs everyone hates... Not the Chihuahua mixes that would be causing the ruckus when a new person same in to see them... 

Do you kill a dog because the previous owner did not train them properly?... Do you kill a dog because of their breed and the probable incorrect reputation that breed might have?... Or do you kill a dog because of their age?... (I'd be in trouble then because I am overweight and an old lady... I am glad this kind of mindset has not flowed over to the human species... yet...)

We as a community and society need to speak up and out, every day, against those who are not supporting No-Kill in this county... There is absolutely no reason someone would need to buy a dog or puppy off of the Internet, from a back-yard breeder or even at a pet store when we have dogs waiting patiently at our shelters to be adopted... There are numerous dogs on Craigslist every day, placed there by owners that need to surrender them, and if no help is given, the dog will end up in our shelter system... 

If you have a friend or relative that has a dog who is not spayed or neutered, ask them why they are shortening the dog's life by not doing this... Intact dogs (both female and male) have a MUCH higher rate of cancer and by not spaying and neutering, the owner is actually lowering the number of years of life with that dog... Unless you are showing a purebred dog in dog shows, there is no other reason to keep a dog intact... 

An issue not spoken about is an issue that gets forgotten... All of us need to contact our politicians and make sure that we are heard... We do NOT want to lose No-Kill in Ventura County... We do not want to go back to killing our animals in the shelter system... We want to leave the legacy of No-Kill to the next generation to carry it on and even less animals have to die... 

If we, as a county, could turn this huge 'cruise ship' around in 40 years to go from killing 8 out of 10 dogs to saving 8 out of 10 dogs, we cannot let this fail... It is VERY easy to turn a 'speed boat' around on a dime, but extremely hard to turn a 'cruise ship'... The concept, system and physicality of No-Kill is very much a 'cruise ship'... It is huge, took a LOT of hard work and sweat equity (let alone too many animals dying before it took root) to lose in one generation... 

Help me by getting word out... Talk to your politicians TODAY... They do listen if they are contacted... Tag your support with #nokillvc to show you are support of this movement... Post your favorite photo of your furbaby on your Facebook page with that hash tag... Start a conversation next time there is a pregnant pause and ask who has rescued their pet... You will be amazed at the good you can do, if you just try... 

Paws crossed for No-Kill in our county and my lifetime,
Linda
Director, TLC

Too nice to die....

I have an aversion to leaving nice dogs to die... If you are a nice dog but you are an older dog, your chances of getting adopted diminish... I have often thought to myself, "What if people treated other people the same way they treat the dogs in shelters?  Older dogs get euthanized, dogs with medical issues die, even fat dogs don't get adopted as quickly and run the chance of being killed... where would that leave me?  I'm old, I have medical issues, I am overweight...."

Well, Nasir is not overweight but he certainly has won the heart of many TLC volunteers, including mine...  We found him at the Camarillo shelter and knew going in that he had a cataract in his right eye... But that didn't stop us from pulling him...

Shortly after saving him, the cataract 'flipped' and instead of flipping inwards, it flipped outwards... 

When we came into the rescue center that morning, it looked like his entire eyeball was going to burst out of its socket... I will spare you the gruesome image and not publish that photo on this blog...

He was also not in really good health... He was underweight and apparently not been giving good nutritional food for some time... His coat was and thin in places... 

But personality-wise?  He was a love... pure sweetness wrapped up in 5 pounds of heart and affection... 

Off to the vets he went... And then we discovered he had a grade 4 heart murmur... Surgery would be dangerous for him... sigh... BIG sigh...

These are the times I HATE what I do... 

Too many times it comes down to the lack of money to save these dogs... 

An 11-year old dog with an adoption donation of $200 and now facing a $1200 surgery to remove this eye... He's really not old in dog years for this breed, but still... And I know, I know... We can't save them all, but it does not make my job any easier... 

I am usually pretty good at making decisions and I have to - every day - based upon what can we do to save and take good care of ALL of the dogs we save at TLC...  Looking at this logically, we just could not afford this new surgery, and even if we could, would he even survive it?

The hard decision had to be made... And I made it... But I tossed and turned that night... Throughout the night... And unhappy about the decision I had made to have him humanely euthanized the next morning... 

When I woke up, I realized I just could not do it... Some how, some way, I would find the money to get this surgery done... He was just TOO sweet and loving of a dog to have to die because of a medical issue that could be fixed... 

Instead of taking him that morning to be humanely euthanized, I took him in to have his surgery done... And then I nervously awaited throughout the day for news from the vet's office... 

Most of the TLC volunteers sat on pins and needles with me... Nasir had quickly become a favorite of everyone's... It was a big sigh of relief when we learned he had pulled through the surgery... 

Once this eye got taken care of, Nasir had a rough first week... But slowly he started gaining weight and his coat started filling out well... 

Because he is potty trained and oh-so-friendly, we let him wander around in the lobby at the rescue center now... He greets people (and begs to be held) when they sit down to do their adoption paperwork on some other dog or puppy... 

We keep hoping someone will see him for the jewel of a dog he is, and he will find his own furever home... He has such an endearing little almost cat-like sound he makes when he is asking to be picked up and cuddled... That little bob of a tail wiggles to beat the band and you cannot help but fall in love with him!

I think (??) he is getting some extra treats and being sneaked some extra goodies, 'cause he is starting to get a bit chunky 'round the middle... (smile)... And losing an eye has not changed one thing about his personality except to make him even more loving, if that is possible... Maybe there is some internal thing going on that he knows despite not having the money to do the surgery, we did it anyway because he truly is worth it, ya know?

Nasir's own person is out there, and will one day walk into the rescue center and fall in love... I just know it... 

Linda

I'm waiting for my furever mom and dad

2 more reasons...

No, make that three more reasons to spay or neuter your pet... Their mom (Lady Love) almost lost her life bearing these two little munchkins on Saturday (2/13/16)... 

A teeny tiny little black doll baby of a Chihuahua, Lady Love should have NEVER gotten pregnant in the first place... And whatever male she bred with was much larger than she was... In turn, she carried and then tried to give birth to puppies that were much too large for her... 

Dumped in a shelter because she was pregnant, Lady Love MUST have been someone's loved and treasured pet at one time in her life... She's 'maybe' 4 pounds when not carrying pups, and just as friendly and cute as can be... 

Not one person comes into my nursery and does not comment on her beautiful appearance and personality... She has such a winning smile and is always SO glad to see you... Friendly as can be, Lady Love is a jewel and her owner should have spayed her so she would not have had to go through this... 

She began the birthing process EARLY in the morning on Saturday and struggled, struggled... FINALLY the first pup was born, and with due diligence, she immediately broke the sack, breathed life into her and cleaned her up... When the second pup began its way down the birth canal, Lady Love struggled once again... I could clearly see that this pup was far too big for her to birthing... 

I did everything I could in my 'experience rescuer tool box' and was seconds away from rushing her to the ER for an emergency C-section (a $1200 - $1800 procedure even for a rescue)... Lodged in between, I was not sure the pup and Lady Love would have survived the 12-minute race to the facility, so I did my very best... Once born between the two of us, Lady Love did her part with the placenta and I did mouth-to-mouth without success... A little boy, he crossed the Rainbow Bridge with supreme effort by all of us to no avail... 

The third and final pup was no different... A female myself who has given birth, I was cringing inwardly as I watched Lady Love strain to give birth to this pup... 

And I pushed aside the anger I felt towards the owner for not taking better care of this lovely female Chihuahua...  Not the time nor place - the puppies' lives were at stake along with their mom's life...   The anger could come later, so here it is...  Black dogs are the last to be adopted and the first to be killed in our shelters - it is our mindset about what colors are good and which are 'evil'... If you want to know more about this phenomenon, Google "Black Dog Syndrome"... We deal with it every day in rescue and at TLC offer a discount every Friday on the adoption donation in the hopes the black dogs find furever homes faster... 

And then... 

We kill an estimated 8 million pets in this country each year because we have an epidemic of unwanted homeless pets... Simply going and spay/neutering your pet will stop countless unwanted litters that have high mortality rates and moms that suffer unwanted pregnancies and deliveries... In my 36+ years of rescue work, I have bottle-fed countless litters whose mom has died, trying to give birth... Orphans without a mom, sometimes we save a majority of them - sometimes we lose the entire litter through nights and nights of 3-hour, round the clock feedings... 

I have taken on moms with prolapsed uterus issues, giving birth in fields where the pups and mom's uterus is loaded with grass clippings and fleas... We have taken in moms and dads plus the litter when the two pets were not spayed & neutered and the inevitable occurred... An unwanted pregnancy and an unwillingness to raise the puppies... 

If you cannot do the 'right thing' in regards to your pets, you really should not have them at all... And the 'right thing' is to spay or neuter your pets unless they are show dogs and have legitimate waivers to remain intact... I doubt few reading this blog post have a $6,000+ show dog but many do have pets that are still intact... 

There are SO many low cost spay and neuter options available to all of us... And if you allow your pet to remain intact, you GREATLY increase their chance of testicular or ovarian cancer, cutting short their life... Because you could not afford the $60 to do the 'right thing'?

Are you aware that conservative estimates now state that for every 10 puppies born in this country, only 1 will live out its normal, healthy life into old age?... The other nine will die early because of illness, neglect, car accidents, lack of yearly veterinary care, etc... What gives us the right to kill like this - intentionally or accidentally?

Before you believe you are not part of the problem because you do not have a pet, please allow me to share this fact with you... If you are a taxpayer in California, 8% of what you pay in taxes goes to the care, feeding, housing and eventually killing or adoption of unwanted homeless pets... Whether or not you own a pet... And until we as voters and taxpayers say, "Enough is enough" (whether you are talking to your legislators or to your neighbor who just HAD to buy that puppymill puppy that is still intact and will produce more unwanted offspring), we are ALL a part of the problem... 

Unwanted homeless pets and their offspring is everyone's problem and until we are ALL a part of solution, it is not going to go away, folks... Whether you have an intact male who is not neutered, or a female who is not spayed... Whether you do not own a pet but are not speaking out to those pet owners who leave their pets intact... 

We cannot sustain No-Kill here in Ventura County and across the State of California unless we all get behind the efforts to stop unwanted homeless pets from entering our shelter and rescue systems...  Please think of Lady Love and the struggle she had to bring these puppies into the world... 

Past, present and the future....

This morning I talked on the phone with someone that I had worked for twice in my professional career, but had not reconnected for at least twenty years... Thanks to the Internet, I was able to track her down through an organization, they forwarded my email and she responded... After the conversation, it was a good feeling to sit back and enjoy... It is copacetic to say thank-you to someone in your past who is, in some part, responsible for the person you have become today... 

One's past is not always something you can be proud of, but it does make you either the person or the organization you are today... And with this in mind, I am announcing the formation of 'THINKvc' which stands for 'Take Heart In No Kill Ventura County'... 

It is my hope that this think-tank organization becomes the steam engine that continues to motivate the progress we as a community have made towards No-Kill...

And with the power of the Internet yet again, I believe we have even great opportunities to unite as one humane community, dedicated to the twelve principles (or 'spokes') of No-Kill...  All interested are invited to become a part of this journey - I wish I had the website (www.thinkvc.org) up and running for this announcement, but it is still in the hands of the webmaster and not yet completed... 

All aspects of what makes No-Kill successful are invited - the shelter system, the rescues, the medical community, the general public, the folks involved who make our laws and plan our future by the implementation of the laws... If you believe in No-Kill, you are invited... 

This has been a long, hard (and sometimes, very weary) journey to change mindsets, principles and personas... There were numerous times in the past 10 years I thought to myself that I should just give up and walk away... And I'd come back again, simply just not believing that we needed to kill healthy, adoptable pets surrendered to our shelter system... 

It has been a team effort to get this far and we have much more to accomplish, my friends!  Interested in becoming part of the future of Ventura County?  Email me and let's get busy saving even more animal lives!

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!

"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