2014: Rescue in Review

It's New Year's Day 2015 and all I can do is get super excited to save a whole bunch more lives this year! I had a pretty fantastic time rescuing in 2014. The year started off a bit quiet with our move to California, but by March I was already in deep again. 2014 brought different types of rescue involvement for me: volunteering in our shelter's vet clinic, acting as a foster coordinator for St. Francis APS, evaluating shelter dogs for different groups, and pulling dogs for sponsoring rescue groups. All of these new experiences taught me a ton. I quickly learned that I hated foster coordinating - my heart belongs to the dogs, not people. I work best in the trenches where most people don't even like to go, not fighting customer service fires at all hours of the day and night when foster parents feel like giving up. Having said that, there was something very rewarding about evaluating a dog, networking the dog, pulling the dog, placing the dog in foster care, providing foster parent support for the dog, and then facilitating successful adoption of the dog. Foster coordinating meant that every time I pulled a dog, I was involved in 100% of that dog's journey to furever. This was fun in theory for a minute, until I had 7+ "sub-fosters" as I called them at once, each of which seemed to have an emergency at the same time. Every time I patched one leak, another sprung. My fuse is too short for that. I wouldn't do 2014 any differently; foster coordinating was an invaluable experience. Having said that, I am looking forward to simply being a foster mom again in 2015.

My favorite aspect of foster coordinating is evaluating dogs for interested rescue groups. I'll continue to do this in the New Year, not as a foster coordinator but just when needed. If a rescue group is interested in a dog that is on the rescue only list, it helps to send someone in to get better pictures of the dog than their (often terribly unflattering) intake photo and to get an idea of the dog's personality. This helps rescues decide whether the dog is a good candidate for their adoption program, which helps them determine whether they want to pull the dog out of the shelter. The shelter has behaviorists who evaluate each animal that comes through the door. Their notes are included on the needs rescue list, but with how over-burdened they are it is always helpful to send in someone for a second look. The shelter is stressful and an animal's behavior can change a lot from day 1 to day 3 in a kennel. Oftentimes the behavior notes from day 1 aren't representative of the dog's true demeanor. 

When I go to do an assessment, the first thing I do is read over the behaviorist's notes on the animal, the vet's notes, and the general intake notes to get an idea of what I'm looking at. Then I pay attention to the dog's kennel presence - whether he's friendly and soliciting my attention at the front of the kennel, whether he's cowering in the back corner, whether he's alarm barking, etc. Next I get shelter staff to help me take the dog out into the courtyard, where I can get a better feel for his personality. I spend about 15 minutes with the dog comparing how they do in the courtyard with how they presented in the kennel. Some of the things I note are how long it takes the dog to solicit attention from me, whether their body language is showing signs of fear / stress / aggression / overstim / confidence / etc., leash skills or lack thereof, signs of possible potty training, any training skills or commands they already have, and how they react when other people walk by the courtyard fence. I also note how they do with me touching their paws, looking at their teeth, checking out their ears, feeling their belly, snuggling or even picking up like a child might do, and other general handling patterns. I also usually get the shelter staff to help me do a brief dog-to-dog or at least a walk-by with another dog, so I can get an idea of how the dog does with other dogs. Then I get some decent photos and move on to the next dog. When I get home, I type up little assessments of each dog I evaluated and send on to the interested rescue group with the updated photos.

I enjoy doing evaluations so much because it is something further I can do to help dogs stand a chance at getting out of the shelter. I like challenging myself to recognize different signals dogs give, to better understand how we can communicate with dogs, and to just be quiet and listen for a change. Each dog is different and although they can't speak for themselves, I can do my best to give them voices. It's taking a second look. That's all. It's incredibly rewarding to be able to place dogs I've evaluated and then watch them get the "happy tails" they deserve. When I evaluate a dog, it works out that I'm usually the person who goes back to pull them if they are chosen for rescue. Pulling dogs out of the shelter and delivering them to their foster homes is just such an awesome experience. Although I assessed many more, I had the pleasure of pulling 18 dogs out of the San Jose shelter in 2014. Some of them became our personal foster dogs, but most were simply my "sub-fosters" as a foster coordinator. I want to give them a place in my blog, even if they didn't live with me. Their faces mean so much to my heart - they defined my year. The Chihuahua on the bottom right of the final collage with the questions marks turned out to be Mischa, my last pull of 2014. I pulled her last night, NYE 2014, at 6PM and delivered her to her foster home. One last save of the year! Each dog pictured has a different story. Some are wonderful, some are sad, some are ongoing. Regardless, I will always feel connected to them and I look forward to doing my best to help others like them in 2015. So cheers, 2014, and thank you to everyone out there who played a part in saving these lives. It takes a village! With more rescue adventures, more foster dogs, and vet tech school beginning, I know 2015 is going to be just as meaningful. Enjoy the faces of my 2014 :-)