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!