Christmas Eve musings....

While much of the world is still rushing around trying to do their last bit of Christmas shopping, at the rescue shop we have been busy with last minute adoptions today...  And there is always that air of anticipation on the small children's faces 'cause they KNOW who comes tonight... The day was always the LONGEST day for me as a kid... And worrying if I'd really been as good this year as I had told Santa!

I am sure that TLC made it onto Santa's 'nice' list... As of December 24th, we adopted 29 dogs and puppies this month alone, but we went back into the shelters and saved another 24... This year, the TLC volunteers have exceeded last year's numbers by 24 lives... So it seems fitting to blog about this on the 24th day of the month... 

With that mom and her two pups saved on Sunday, TLC has now saved a total of 2,059 canine lives, plus one kitten... And we do this one day at a time, one dog at a time... 

We have had some saddest this year when we did all that we could but we could not save a shelter animal's life... Some still weigh heavily on our hearts like Marvin, LoveBug, Pixie and little Atom2... But none died unloved or cared for... 

As the end of the year winds down and we look forward to 2015, we are reminded that next year's fate of TLC hangs in limbo... 

With Simi Valley Town Center in the midst of redevelopment and remodeling, the rescue shop will be forced to relocate --- which is expensive and not something we have in our bank account to do... 

Should we be able to acquire enough funding to relocate, we have a dream of a much larger footprint - not to expand the size of TLC but to create a rescue center versus shop... Where ALL rescues saving Ventura County animals can come and showcase their saved animals... Be it a cat, a dog, a bird - just a homeless Ventura County animal... 

We envision a rescue center that allows space for owners rehoming their animals to come and meet prospective adopters in the hopes their pets don't become homeless and end up in the shelter system as well... 

We need the space to hold free workshops on pet retention, training, resocialization classes and senior citizen/canine citizen therapy sessions... Space to hold low cost shots clinics and microchipping... Space to stage multiple-rescue transports... 

And all of this will cost money... Money to buy an industrial washer and dryer second-hand, get it plumbed out and hooked up... Money to install an air purification system on the roof so we can limit the smell we battle so greatly against... Building out a new location is going to be expensive as well - just moving all of the current fixtures alone is going to be back breaking as well as costly... We anticipate the costs to be between $20K and $25K to do all of this... 

So at the end of 2014, we come to the community with proof of what we have done the past five years and ask for financial support to continue the cause of No-Kill in Ventura County - not just for TLC but for all rescues that can unite to create an even greater change... Your donations are tax deductible and will be used to create a legacy of the No-Kill movement here in Simi Valley for this generation and the next one forth!

Sense of community responsibility

All of us have suffered the past years through the economic depression this country, state and county has gone through... For each sad story I have heard from a friend who has lost their job or home, it just adds one more 'burr under my saddle' about the REAL reason our friends and family suffer --- a lack of community responsibility.

At one time in this country, you grew up, lived close to your family and friends, probably bought a home not far from where you grew up and although we did not know it at the time, created and built the building blocks of a strong economy... We did business and socialized with those we knew... We patronized local businesses... We supported local causes and if a member of the community suffered a tragedy or major set-back, there were many in the community that jumped to help out... 

And with a strong sense of community responsibility, the local business economy flourished... 

As this mindset changed, so did the strength of the local business economy... So when the economy took a major hit, so did the now-fragile local community... Mom-and-pops went out of business, replaced by larger corporate-owned businesses that had headquarters out of state...

And in the humane community?  This impacted us just as hard, if not harder... People felt no sense of betrayal to their community when they walked into a pet shop and purchased a puppy birthed in Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, etc... It didn't matter to the buyer that their hard earned dollars did not stay in the local community, but in fact, was supplying income to communities located out of state...

In particular, the Greater Los Angeles area is the third largest market of puppymill puppies... And because of the HUGE business of the puppymill industry, our hard earned (and highly taxed) dollars flood into other states while our own state suffers to make its budget each year... The puppymill industry is a multi-BILLION dollar industry... That's right - billion, not million...

Between the backyard breeders (who do NOT pay income tax on the sales of their puppies) and the puppymill puppies being sold in pet shops, we ourselves have created the drain on our own local economies, communities and businesses... So when community services are cut --- or that pothole that annoys you so much does not get repaired --- we have no one but ourselves to blame...

Same problem holds true for the shelter and rescue community... Although those cute, adorable puppies were not born here in our state, many of those puppies grow into adults who are then dumped into this state's sheltering system... Someone sent their money out of state, then dumped their adult dog into a shelter for every California tax payer to shoulder the burden of taking care of and/or eventually killing that 'cute, adorable' puppy... It is like a broken water main that gushes money, sending it to everywhere but where it should be - in our own local communities!

This morning I looked at Ventura County Animal Services' website... There are 190 dogs at our local community's shelter right now that are homeless... VCAS' capacity is 200 dogs... So, once again, they are bumping at almost-capacity...

Some of these dogs have been at VCAS since November for goodness sakes!

And for all of us that protested for years at the high-kill rates at VCAS, this is offensive to me... Now that VCAS has committed itself to No-Kill, we as a community have to 'put our money where our mouth is'... If we want this county to go No-Kill, we have to adopt locally as well as stop buying from out of county and/or out of state...

Same, same holds true for the rescues in our county... Rescues that go out of county to save 10-20 dogs or puppies are doing a disservice to their own county... If your local rescue is not saving dogs in our own community, you should be asking "Why not?"... You, as an adopter or as a buyer, have every legal right to ask where that puppy or dog came from... And if the rescue tells you Devore, Bakersfield, Kern County, San Bernadino, etc. you should be asking why they are not supporting their own local community first...

We cannot continue to save dogs from other counties when our own county's pets are dying... That makes no logical sense, and certainly no economic sense... We Ventura County residents and taxpayers have a moral obligation to adopt FIRST from within our own county and help VCAS get to a No-Kill status (90%)... Without our own personal support of the cause for No-Kill, Ventura County will never get to this goal... It takes EVERYONE'S efforts as a team to get to No-Kill status - the adopter, the rescue, the community, the county residents!

Now that you have read this far, I hope I have instilled a sense of community responsibility... Or at least made you aware of why our county is having such a hard time going No-Kill... Just as the 'Shop Simi First' program is designed to keep our own local economic community sound and thriving, we need to bring about an 'Adopt Ventura County First' grassroots movement...

I'm game... How about you?
Linda, Director, TLC

What the heck?

Next month in August I will have been involved in dog rescue for 32 years.  I began at the age of 23 and now I am older than dirt at 55.  And still, after all these years, just when you think you have 'seen everything', something else will come along to let you know most people are not much sharper than a marble when it comes to taking good care of their pets.

Rumor: "All dogs can swim"... My husband retired from the LAPD and he has always said he has pulled far too many dead dogs out of swimming pools each year while on the job.  Usually in the spring, he makes me get into the pool with each dog and we water test them for the year.  The point of this exercise is not to really see if they can swim, but if they know where the steps are to climb out.

Yesterday was Momma's test... and no --- not all dogs can swim.  While Momma can do a lot of things, and some extraordinarily well, swimming is not on her asset list.  I can absolutely command her to do some things and I would bet the mortgage payment she will respond and immediately without hesitation or question.  But swimming?  While I was thinking she'd do OK with this new experience, not only did I have to carry her into the pool, I had to sit with her on the first step and 'quiet coo' into her ear to calm her down enough to sit with me in the water.

Once I got her back into a quiet state and tried to explore going further, Momma was having nothing of this at all.  I released her and she immediately got out of the pool and stayed out!  Then barked at ME pretty heavily because I was still in the pool.  Throwing her toss toy (her FAVORITE thing to do) into the pool made no difference.  Well, at least we know she won't accidentally drown, 'cause that pool and she will never meet again no matter what!

• Pool Safety Tips
• Keep Your Dog Safe Around Pools This Summer

Rumor:  "Oh, it's not really that hot"... At least once a week, someone comes into our rescue shop and tells us about a dog sitting in a car in the mall's parking lot with the windows cracked. 

By California law, your car window can be broken to get a dog out of a hot car, but there will still be folks that are 'going to run into the store for just a second' and leave their pooches in the car to cook.  We see it happen all the time and it makes the news as well... But will any of these incidents teach people to stop doing this practice?  Nope, sorry...

When it reaches 70 degrees (and some reports say 60 degrees), it is too hot to leave your dog in a car, cracked windows or not.

• Even 60 Degrees Is Too Hot For Your Pet 
• Pets in Hot Cars 

Heartbreak of a dog turned into a shelter recently

Rumor: "I can't keep my dog because...."  This is one thing we hear all the time and as rescuers, we become quite jaded because of the huge amount of dogs being given up by people. 

I have had an adopter return a dog to me because it no longer matched the new carpeting she put in her home. 

Now, you would have thought if matching the carpet was that important, and she truly loved the little dog she had adopted from me, she would have thought this all out before she had new carpet installed, right?

And yes, I thought it was unique to me, but on the list of the most ridiculous reasons people give up pets, this mindset showed up (along with someone who gave up their dog because they thought the dog was gay - OMG!)

Companion Animal Psychology did a research project on this rumor and what I found interesting to read was an underlying cause of 'dis-connect' that was going on... And you can't really say that isolationists who usually dis-connect fall into the same category - they tend to dis-connect from humans and yet?  Some groups (i.e. the homeless society) tend to be much more connected to their pets than the average pet owner --- so much so, they will give up an opportunity for a bath or even a home so they are allowed to keep their pet!!


Now, I don't have the answer for why so many people give up their pets and flood our shelters... Even in almost 32 years, I don't have any real answers that I can say were valid for giving up a pet you have loved, fed and probably even slept with for years...

What I have done is to give time and energy towards someone keeping their pet if I sense they truly don't want to give up their furry BFF... And the majority of these folks have ended up keeping their pets simply because they now found a solution to the problem that was forcing the surrender.  There are MANY rental properties that will allow folks to keep their pets, and most behavior problems can be trained out and corrected.  But if someone is not 'connected' and suffers from a form of 'dis-connect', that is not something any of us in the humane community can fix.

A puppy might be cute and tug at your heart strings, but if you take your time, go ahead and sleep on it, BUT set your alarm for 3AM ('cause if you going to adopt a puppy, they are going to wake you up at this time to go potty), you will usually have a change of heart.  I would say just about everyone I have given this piece of advice to has called me back the next day to say they have reconsidered the idea of adopting a puppy, and the majority of them have instead adopted an older dog that is past that stage.

Bottom line is that you have to care - plan and simple.  And if you don't have compassion for young children, the sick or the elderly, you really aren't cut out for owning a pet.

• Top 10 Reasons Dogs End Up in Shelters by Cesar Milan

The little rescue that could....

One of our limitations at the rescue shop is the ability to take large groups of dogs in emergency situations, stage large transports and have a large 'transitioning' place when needed.

Ten days ago, this issue was driven home yet again when we were asked to take on a second group of the Yucca Valley Chihuahuas.  An older man who believes in the Biblical passage of 'go forth and populate' had refused to have any of his Chihuahuas spayed or neutered.  Five years ago, he had 10 dogs and now he has over 200.  And it fell upon the rescue community to step in and help out.

Unfortunately we had already taken 12 and they were in the process of moving through our system.  We have only 6 small isolation kennels, so we are limited by what we can do.  Unable to afford to purchase a large isolation unit, we put out a plea to the FaceBook community in an effort to have it funded, but in the meantime, the dogs needed help and NOW.

Luckily, one of the TLC volunteers is a CraigsList devoted fan and she happened to see that a local pet shop was going out of business.  She contacted and negotiated a price for their 8 stainless steel kennels.  While we had not raised enough money to cover this new intake area expansion, I knew we had to do this NOW if we were to help.


In the meantime, the situation at Yucca Valley went from bad to worse.  When the rescuers arrived on Wednesday (as agreed upon) to pick up the last of the these 35+ dogs, the owner became distraught, brandished a handgun and threatened to kill himself and all of his dogs.  The rescuers did what they felt was the best of a bad situation - simply take the 16 dogs he had released before the drama began.

On Thursday, 16 more of the Yucca Valley Chihuahuas arrived at TLC.  We did not have an intake area officially set up, but had temporary kennels and condos ready to receive these dogs in an ad hoc basis.  The transporter and I, along with another TLC volunteer, performed the delicate balancing act of getting each dog out of the transporter's van (without getting bit) and into the temporary kennels.

Allowing them to decompress on Friday, other TLC volunteers made the drive to Lancaster to pick up these stainless steel kennels.  That began an all-day affair to transport, clean them up upon arrival and once the rescue shop had closed down for the day, reassemble the units onto a rack and prepare them to receive new occupants.

As other volunteers named, weighed and bathed the new 16 arrivals one by one, the normal routine of closing the shop and bedding down the dogs continued on by the volunteers on shift for the day (and Saturday is our busiest day!).

A little before 11PM, the intake area began taking in clean, new occupants.  It is not what we wanted and not new, but it is functional.

We still have more to do that will cost more money - have a contractor come in and build another doorway between the back room and the new intake area, etc.  Equipment needs to be moved from the back room to the intake area so we can bring in dogs, weigh them, do the vaccines and have them go directly into the intake kennels without possibly contaminating our other rescues. 

::HUGE APPLAUSE:: to the volunteers who worked all day and into the night to make this all happen, the volunteer who found these used units on CraigsList and the volunteer bathers who continue to bring comfort to these dogs until all 28 (in total) are done... And for other rescue groups have stepped up to help finance the spay & neuter of these dogs... It takes a community to save a dog - that's for sure!

But step by step, this 'little rescue that could' continues to trudge up that mountain in an effort to arrive at a time when we no longer kill healthy, adoptable small dogs... and I can RETIRE!