Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
29- Can Stefanie Interest You In...Dog Rescue?
39 Plays21 days ago
For the past thirteen years, Stefanie Klatt has been all about dog rescue. She’s driven up and down the state of Colorado to transport dogs, read Shakespeare aloud to a foster, and spent her weekends at adoption events. She tells us how she went from fostering her first dog, Libby, to being on the board of My Fairy Dawg Mother.
We learn about the intensity and emotional toll that this work can have, as well as the enormous rewards. We talk about the supportive dog rescue community, foster fails, and the intricacies of dog naming (everybody wants a Pancake!). Our homework doesn't involve fostering dogs, but...you never know what we'll do for extra credit.
Charlotte and Patti’s dogs, Janine and Bosco, join us for the interview (they don’t say much, but their moral support is key).
Links:
https://hwy50freedomride.org/
https://dogrescuecolorado.org/
Logo design by Marielle Martin
Song: Upbeat Drums with Stomps and Claps by music_for_video
BlueSky: @canweinterestyouin.bsky.social
Instagram: @canweinterestyouin
Email us your interests! CanWeInterestYouIn@gmail.com
Website: canweinterestyouin.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
You know that thing you love that your friends and family don't want to hear about anymore? Tell it to us, Patty and Charlotte. We want to learn all about your weird and wild obsessions or your perfectly normal hobbies that you've taken just a little too far.
00:00:15
Speaker
We want to dabble in your curious interests. Can we interest you in today's episode?
Discovery of the Podcast and Love for Dogs
00:00:35
Speaker
Hi, Charlotte. Hi, Patti. And hi to our guest, Stephanie Klatt. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
00:00:48
Speaker
Oh, yay. Another Charlotte friend to come on to the show. Yeah. It was Friendsgiving that I think ah you learned about the podcast and were like, I have an interest, like a very...
00:01:05
Speaker
like an interest you love talking about, right? Yes, I think it was. And Brian was like, you need to have Stephanie. She knows a lot about dogs. Yay. Spoiler alert. This is going to be great. Oh, good.
00:01:22
Speaker
And the Friendsgiving that just gives you more than just yummy food and good conversation. It gives you a podcast guest. That's the best. Yes. um I do love that it's about dogs because currently my dog is cuddled up next to me on the floor. He's like, oh, we're in the office today. Okay, got it. I have to get in my work stance. like Sleep. He's ready for any conference calls that come his way. Yes, Janine is here too.
00:01:53
Speaker
And she is like routinely covered in, Janine is my dog, covered in dead leaves because she just lays in oh it's that kind of season see it snowed here i'm in st louis and it snowed here about a week ago and it's not common like it snows here but it's not usually cold enough for it to stick around and so he is having a blast that it's still snowy and The only problem is because he's a doodle, he has like long fur on his paws. And so they get caked with snow. and then he's like trying to nibble it off and everything. And, you know, it's like that's the only thing that will get him to actually want to leave the dog park ever.
00:02:40
Speaker
is that he's like, well, I'm caked. I don't know to Frozen feet. Yeah, frozen
Deep Dive into Dog Rescue Passion
00:02:45
Speaker
feet. like And he'll still try. And I'll be like, let's go into the car. I will defrost you. It's like, no.
00:02:52
Speaker
So, whatever. Yeah, we haven't had a lot of snow here. Really? You haven't? Which is weird for this time of year Colorado, right? It has not been very cold here at all. Very little snow. Yeah.
00:03:08
Speaker
Super weird. 60 degrees most days. Very strange. So, okay. Tell us then what is this interest that Brian, who we just had on as our guest for Guided by Voices, knows that you feel very strongly about and wanted you to share with us?
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah. um Well, dog rescue is probably my biggest passion. Something that pretty much has engulfed my life the last 13 years. my husband been ah And something that I'm really passionate about is finding dogs' homes.
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah, what was the inciting incident, as we like to call it? back in 2013, my husband and I were kind of
00:04:02
Speaker
We had no one we wanted to foster dogs, but the timing just wasn't quite right. And then he saw a Facebook post that was saying that there was this dog down in a shelter in La Junta, Colorado, which is in southern Colorado, kind of like south of Pueblo.
00:04:21
Speaker
And he she was at this rest at this shelter. And basically the post said, we need to get her out by Saturday or they're going to euthanize her.
00:04:32
Speaker
And so he sent me the posts and I was like, Oh, this poor dog. And we had been recently watching. Um, I don't know if you've ever seen either of these shows, hit boss and pit bulls and parolees on animal planet.
00:04:48
Speaker
No, we've been watching these shows and like, just, ah we had never had a pit bull. I have never even been around a pit bull. and But had only heard the negative stereot stereotypes and things like that. They were mean and vicious and all this stuff. And and then we started watching these shows and we're like, oh, these dogs actually seem great and they're so cute. and you know and And so we're like, maybe we should see if we could try and foster because there's obviously a huge need for that.
00:05:18
Speaker
And so this dog was a pit bull and she needed out of the shelter. And so i was like, let's do it. let's let's let's figure it out. And so he contacted the the person that was posting and got us connected to a woman named Brittany Higgins, who is an amazing human being.
00:05:37
Speaker
And basically what she does, so she had been fostering with this organization up here in Northern Colorado and had went down to Honta, Rocky Ford area and had picked up a dog for them to transport back up to Northern Colorado for her to foster. And she found out that all the dogs that come into these shelters are given one week.
00:06:03
Speaker
If they don't find a rescue or one week, if their owner doesn't come to pick them up and if and a rescue organization doesn't claim them to take to their rescue, they're euthanized.
Fostering Challenges and Experiences
00:06:15
Speaker
And she was really horrified by this. Because they do get a lot of dogs. There's a lot of stray dogs down there. There's a lot of poverty down there. And a lot of people just let their dogs roam. And then they have babies. And then the babies end up in the shelter. and And so she's like, well, we need to do something about this. So she started just on her Facebook page, started networking these dogs, saying, hey, there's these dogs in the shelter. They need out by Saturday morning.
00:06:42
Speaker
or they're going to be put down. And so she would reach out to different rescues all over the Denver metro area and say, anyone have space for these dogs? And so she just started this little grassroots networking, which eventually became Highway 50 Freedom Ride. That is the organization that she created that networks these dogs out of these shelters.
00:07:03
Speaker
And so This was way before it was even officially an organization. And she's like, yeah, let me get you connected with a rescue and we'll get this dog to you.
00:07:14
Speaker
were like, okay, sounds great. No idea. We had really not fostered. We had fostered briefly one time before, but really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. And so they transported the dog up.
00:07:28
Speaker
We picked her up in Loveland. She gets out of the car and she is this massive, massive pit bull. And I'm like, oh my God, what have we done? Huge so intimidating looking. i'm like, oh my gosh, what are we doing? And so, but she gets in our car and right away, she jumps in my lap, um in sitting in the front seat and just starts licking my face. And she's so excited and so happy.
00:07:59
Speaker
just like, okay, this I think it's going to be okay. She seems friendly, you know, my face off or anything like that. And um take her home.
00:08:10
Speaker
We did everything wrong. Like right away, we're like, okay, let's have her meet our other dogs, you know, and, and so and right away, she did not want anything to do with other dogs.
00:08:21
Speaker
Growling. No, like, don't come near me. so i like, oh, no, what are we going to do? well, we had our spare bedroom. And so we just kind of said, okay, you hang out in here in the spare bedroom, you know, hang out. And then we kind of just rotated. So we'd have her out for a while and then we put her away and let our dogs out. And we continued this for a couple of weeks.
00:08:46
Speaker
And basically over those couple of weeks, we just fell in love. She was such a sweet girl. just so And she was so well behaved. She would just lay in the bed all day you know while we were at work and come out and just be happy to see us. and so sweet. And we tried to introduce her again and she just wasn't about it And so we're like, okay, that's fine. you know We'll just keep doing this as long as we had to. And I thought, oh, we're for sure going to have her for a long time. It's probably going to be hard to get her adopted if she doesn't like other dogs and all this stuff. Well, a unicorn came around really quickly. This lady named Ryan.
00:09:25
Speaker
saw her picture on the rescue website and just fell in love and came and met her. And it was like two souls joining. was amazing.
00:09:36
Speaker
She knew right away she wanted her and that was it. Well, so we had taken, the dog was named Libby. Liberty was her name. We shortened it to Libby and we had taken her to the vet.
00:09:49
Speaker
they And what we had been told when we got her from the rescue was that she had just had babies because her nipples were rarely pronounced and things were like, okay, she had recently had a litter. So that's why.
00:10:02
Speaker
had her checked out. Everything seemed okay at the vet. But so Ryan takes her home after adopting her. and about a week or so later, she's like looking at her and is like, hmm, her belly seems to be moving.
00:10:18
Speaker
tri her and uh come to find out yeah she's pregnant she's pregnant with uh 10 puppies 10 10 puppies like and yeah and you know somebody else may have been like well I'm not prepared for this you know just gonna give her back or because going to something else. But no, Ryan was amazing. And she was like, all right, we're going to do this. We're going to have 10 puppies. And and they they they did move Libby to the rescue. on The person who directed the rescue moved her to her house because she had more space where they could isolate her and have her wean the puppies and all of that. so But she was there every day. And Libby had her puppies. And it was awesome. And and then we decided...
00:11:12
Speaker
We wanted to adopt one of the puppies. So we adopted one of the puppies. And how many dogs did you had at this point? We had two. many like We had two dogs. Yep. We had um our first dog that we got was a beagle and he, we got him from a breeder. We had no idea about, you know, going to a shelter or anything like that. We were young. We were like 22. So we had no idea what we were doing. And then we had adopted our second dog from the Boulder Humane Society And that's when we really started to realize like, oh yeah, we need to, you know, help shelter dogs and help dogs that don't have homes and things like that.
00:11:48
Speaker
And so we were like, I had always wanted a little girl. So we got a little girl puppy that she had. From Libby. Oh my gosh. I know. It was such a cool, it's such a cool story.
00:11:59
Speaker
And the funniest, so Ryan also had another dog. So even though Libby was not keen on her other dog, she still so kept Libby anyways.
00:12:12
Speaker
But it was funny, right after Libby had her puppies, she was fine with the other dogs after that. Like she was it was because she was pregnant that she didn't want any other dogs around her.
00:12:26
Speaker
So it all made sense why she didn't like our dogs and you know, everything that was going on I was like, oh, it all makes sense now. So yeah, so we adopted our dog Penny and she was just this amazing little creature. and through that is how I got plugged into being a part of this rescue, that whole
Emotional Roller Coaster of Rescue Work
00:12:48
Speaker
situation. And so um i became very good friends with the director of the rescue and everybody else that was on the board and just started volunteering and learning and we started fostering dogs left and right after that, actually.
00:13:03
Speaker
we So we got Penny and then we started, we fostered, gosh probably two or three more other dogs over the next few months and just continued to get involved. And um yeah, and as we kept going, we was fostering more and more dogs. So, i and and then i became on the board of the rescue after that and helped with a lot of the other ins and outs of, you know, screening adoption applications and doing home checks and being there for transport when dogs are brought in and things like that. So involved enough yeah. so it's a
00:13:46
Speaker
Did you have to get special training to like, you know, as you kept going with it and doing more and more, like, are there things that are particular to rescue dogs that you needed to learn or did you just kind of get it along the way while doing it?
00:14:03
Speaker
Definitely got it along the way while doing it. Just kind of, I learned so much from every dog that we fostered. Every dog has taught me something new because every dog has, you know, a different quirk, weird quirk. Even Penny who grew up with all kinds of other dogs around her.
00:14:25
Speaker
one time when she was pretty young, we took her to like a doggy, it was kind of like a doggy daycare. um We went in and she was attacked by another dog.
00:14:36
Speaker
And that situation like changed her life completely. After that incident, she didn't trust dogs immediately. So she would have to have long periods of carefully structured introductions to be able to get along with another dog.
00:15:00
Speaker
So it may take, you know, weeks or months of short like walks together to for them to get to, so she felt safe with the other dog because if she felt any threat from that other dog, she would lash out first.
00:15:19
Speaker
So she was completely changed by that. So that was a learning experience. Like how do you deal with a dog that's selectively not aggressive, but just protecting themselves because they've been attacked and now they think, well, I have to protect myself before I get attacked.
00:15:35
Speaker
So that taught me a whole bunch on how to be with a reactive dog, a dog that's reactive in certain situations. And we basically had to, i mean, there was no dog parks for us or, anything like that and had to be very careful, you know, in certain situations because I didn't want any other dog to get hurt and I didn't want her to get hurt either.
00:15:57
Speaker
And so, yeah, just learning all these things from every dog that came in. But, you know, even after that, we would foster and it just took time. Like we would have to keep them separate for a while and and, you know, just slowly integrate. And after a while, she realized they were safe and then she was fine. And then she, they were her best friend and she would play with them and everything would be fine.
00:16:17
Speaker
So it just took a lot of, you know, trial and error, I guess, is just trying to figure out, okay, what's the trigger? How do we avoid that trigger? And how, you know, how do we manage it all? So definitely just stuff you learn over time. And I would say that would just be with all the dogs that we've fostered. There's been something that you have to kind of just figure out along the way.
00:16:40
Speaker
This is like therapy, Charlotte, you know, like, like do you figure out what your, you know, client's triggers are and then work with them to how do you address this and how do you avoid it and how do you handle it? um So you, you mentioned that you're now on the board for the rescue. Is that the highway 50 freedom ride? Is that a rescue or No, the rescue was called my fairy dog mother.
00:17:04
Speaker
oh you yes Very cute. And I'm actually not on the board anymore. i did step away in 2023. had some health stuff that I was going through and, you know, rescue is really hard. It's really, really hard. too Oh my gosh.
00:17:22
Speaker
Emotionally, mentally. um it takes a lot out of your, your heart and soul and, um and you know it's stressful and, depressing a lot of times. And, yeah and you know, we always talked about like 10 years is ah is a lot of people's max limit as far as like being really entrenched in it because it does really take a lot out of you. and And when you're involved in it, it consumes your life. It really does. I mean, almost every weekend I was doing an event or helping a dog or, you know, fostering taking a dog to a vet, taking a dog to an event, taking, you know, so it really, or going to a board meeting, planning out what we're doing for fundraising. Do you know, i mean, it really, my whole life revolved around it for a long time. And, and then when I was going through my health stuff, I'm like, okay, I just need to step back for a little bit. I need to take care of my health, both physically and mentally. It's time to just take a step back for a little bit.
00:18:25
Speaker
um So I didn't, you know, excuse myself from the board at that point. So, but I'm still, you know, I'm that person that everyone's like, Hey, I have a dog that needs a home. Do you have any resources? So I'm, I'm that contact first. I'm still involved in those sorts of ways. And, and I know that eventually I do want to get back into fostering. We have a a senior right now who she's, we have three dogs right now. We had five and two of them passed away last year, a week apart, which was ah like so horrible. horrible.
00:18:57
Speaker
so horrible But so with the three we have now, we have four-year-old and they're all pit bull mixes. We have four-year-old, like a seven or eight-year-old. And then my old girl, she's about 13. So she gets pushed around by those two enough. I'm like, I can't bring a foster in right now. She's just delicate. You know what I mean? I don't want her to get hurt anything.
00:19:20
Speaker
anything like that. So, um, or further just annoyed in her age. Exactly. She deserves. And when you have foster, like you have to put so much energy and effort into that foster that I want to put all that energy and effort into her right now. Cause she deserves, you know, all the love and attention.
00:19:39
Speaker
What is the meaning, do you know, behind the the name, the Highway 50 Freedom Ride? Am I getting that right? Yeah. Yeah. So the the road that goes into La Junta and Rocky Ford area where the shelters are is Highway 50 down south. okay And so the road that's the road that they take out to get to I-25 to get back up to Denver.
00:20:02
Speaker
So that's the road that is the Freedom Ride for all those dogs. I do wonder, like because what I know of Denver, it is such a dog- Friendly.
00:20:13
Speaker
Yeah. like I mean, that is it's like craft beer, dogs, hiking. These are the three things that you need to be into to live here. Definitely. And in a way, I imagine that that like helps in trying to find people to actually adopt dogs in need. But then it is interesting to think about this other kind of community and population that you said, you know, there's the poverty and they have dogs and then just abandon them. And so it's almost like this weird...
00:20:48
Speaker
pipeline, but on on unneeded, like we don't, we don't need these dogs to come through that way.
Rescue Community Dynamics and Challenges
00:20:56
Speaker
um That was just a thought, but i am curious, like, do you feel like you almost run out of this pool of individuals that you can tap into who are looking for dog. It's like after a while, we're all good. we've We've got the dogs we need. And so then you either have bleeding hearts who are like, I'll just take more and more and more, or or does the community get bigger? And and how what resources do you guys use to get the word out? Obviously, Facebook was how you found out about it.
00:21:34
Speaker
Right. Yeah, it's interesting. you know She has a good group of rescues that she works with on a regular basis that really prioritize Colorado dogs, which I appreciate very much. A lot of the rescues in this Denver metro area bring in dogs from out of state, actually, because the, as big as our issue is here, issues like in the South and California are even more dire.
00:22:03
Speaker
So um a lot of, and my furry dog mother also would transfer dogs in from out of state um a lot of times. They, also specialized in hound hound dogs, which were a huge population of the dogs that were abandoned in the South. Hunting dogs, things like that, would just get dumped after a hunting season. And so she would bring those dogs up as a well.
00:22:31
Speaker
But specifically, yeah, I mean, i would say 2020, as horrible as it was as far as COVID and all that, was actually... a really amazing time in the dog rescue world because people were home and people had nothing else to do.
00:22:51
Speaker
And so people were adopting dogs like crazy from all over the place. Shelters were empty, rescues were empty. And so it was just like, great. All these dogs, any dog that came in, it was so easy to find some place to send them and things like that.
00:23:07
Speaker
And then as the inflation has gone up and things are not as great and people have hard hard times finding places to live and and affording places to live and, you know, affording groceries, much less vet bills for their dogs. A lot of dogs are being abandoned and or taken to the shelters and things like that. And so rescues right now are stretched super thin. So I can tell right now she's having a lot of harder time finding places for her to
00:23:39
Speaker
rescues to take the dogs because they're all full. They're all full. And so, yeah, you're right. It's, it's hard to find. And they're, like i said, there are some rescues that really do focus on, we want to help Colorado dogs. So we will prioritize the dogs down in Southern Colorado over bringing in dogs from other States and things like that. So luckily she does have some of those, even them, you know, I see them reaching out on Facebook or Instagram and think we need fosters. We need fosters. We want to save these dogs, but we need fosters. Yeah.
00:24:08
Speaker
And I think a lot of people who maybe would have normally fostered can't afford, not that it takes a lot of, most the rescues pay for fostering, but it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort. It's not an easy thing to do. I mean, a lot of these dogs have never been in a home before, so they don't, they're not potty trained or they need a lot of medical care. So you're transporting them back and forth to the vet on the regular basis. Some have behavioral issues, not all of them. Some of them are perfectly fine, but you just never know what you're going to get when you take a foster dog. And that's really the benefit of taking to have fosters because you get to bring in this dog, really evaluate like what kind of home would be perfect for this dog.
00:24:57
Speaker
You know, yeah when you go to a shelter, All you see is what the how the dog behaves in the shelter. And how a dog behaves in a shelter is completely different than how they are in a home.
00:25:12
Speaker
Right. They're like so stressed. Yes. They're stressed. There's barking all the time. There's chaos. They don't get outside. Exactly. They don't get regular walks and exercise that they need.
00:25:26
Speaker
So... Once you bring a dog into a home, you can really see, okay, this dog doesn't like female dogs, but she likes male dogs. Or this dog would do really well with kids, or this dog will not do well with kids. So, you know, it's those sort of things that make adopting from a rescue and from adopting a dog that's been in ah a home a lot easier because you can say,
00:25:52
Speaker
these are the specific guidelines this dog needs specifically, or this dog needs a ton of exercise. So they need a home where someone's going to take them hiking two, three times a week, you know? So those are the kinds of things I think really help when you can get a dog in a foster home.
00:26:08
Speaker
For sure. You're like a matchmaker. Yes. exactly Perfect matches. Someone who likes the outdoors. yeah No children. yeah yeah And I think that that is, it's so true though, because Janine, I got her from the shelter and she, she would not go on a walk with me, which is like how you go on a date with your dog. You know, she just sat down and was like, hell no. And then eventually ended up adopting her and then found out that she either didn't know how to go upstairs or was afraid to. So I had to carry her up. this It's like, I didn't know anything about her versus, yeah if they've been in a foster home, then, you know, like, do not, hey this this dog does not care for children, you know, like,
00:26:58
Speaker
Just avoid some situations. Avoid carrying your 50 pound dog up a flight of stairs. And Charlotte, be honest, that was part of why you you were like, oh, Janine doesn't like to walk. I don't either. Let's be friends. Well, i needed a reason to like go outside more. And then I found out that she really doesn't didn't like walking all that much.
00:27:26
Speaker
No, she's just like me. We need another dog. But I do think that the rescue community is so like supportive. And from what I know, because my parents adopted a dog who had been in a foster home. And the the previous like foster home was like, if you ever need dog sitter, we loved this dog so much we would...
00:27:48
Speaker
we would don't sit for free. yeah We've done that too. And it's been really cool. I've, I've made some really great friendships with people that have adopted my fosters. Um, we had, uh, uh, an old little, he was an old pit bull. He was probably, i don't know, nine, eight or nine years old. Um, he was at the shelter. They had found him, his neighbor had called and said, Hey, these people moved out.
00:28:15
Speaker
And um left their dog in the yard. And this was a little hunted dog. And um the dog has just been over there. And it's like, i'm been just feeding them scraps and stuff. But, you know, he doesn't look so good. So they came in and they got him.
00:28:30
Speaker
um Brought him to the shelter. and come to find We got him and come to find out, like, he would not listen to anything we were saying. were just like, hey, buddy, come here. And he just would go do his own thing. Well, come find out. He was deaf.
00:28:47
Speaker
Like, and that is something that, you know, even at a shelter, you may not know right away. You know, that's something that, because his ears were so disgusting. They were the most grossest thing I've ever seen in my life. Like, someone had clipped his ears off.
00:29:02
Speaker
So he, you know, he had the cropped ears. but they had never cleaned them or anything. They were so full of gross gunk that he was, and just been neglected for so long that he was deaf.
00:29:15
Speaker
He looked like a little gremlin. He was so adorable, but um the most amazing people came in and wanted to adopt him. And we've just been friends ever since. So it's it's a great way to meet people and um And that's such a great way to also find out, like, to keep tabs on the dogs that you foster to, like, because I'm sure you're curious after they leave, right? It's like, I want to know, how are they doing? how are Now that they're even more comfortable in their house, like, how are they thriving or evolving?
00:29:51
Speaker
Have you had any foster fails? Oh, yes, we have. We,
00:29:59
Speaker
We didn't for a long time. I actually pride myself on that for a while. We didn't have any foster fails. And then um we got this dog in and and we got adopted out one time, like about only about a few weeks after we got it, we got it and adopted out and he was gone for about a month.
00:30:22
Speaker
And then we got a call that they wanted to return him because he didn't like the man in the house, which I thought was very strange because he never had any problems.
00:30:33
Speaker
Yeah. I was like, he never had any problems with my husband or you know, any other man that we had around him. That's strange. And so i went and picked him up.
00:30:44
Speaker
And the thing that stuck with me so much was, so when we adopted him out, all I had was this pink collar and I had just stuck it on his neck. Cause I was the only collar I had available. So I stuck on his neck and I was like, and then I sent him home with these people.
00:30:58
Speaker
And when I picked him up, he still had that pink collar on his neck. And I was like, that's strange. Like you would think you adopted a new dog. Like one of the first things I do is like, let's get you a brand new collar and something, you know, something that fits your personality or something. So i was like, that's weird that he still has that pink collar on his neck.
00:31:17
Speaker
And then, um, come to find out that the, the guy was not such a great guy. And I think he, he was, he was different when he came back. And I think something not great happened while he was there. um and so after that, I was a little, ah tentative about adopting him out again.
00:31:41
Speaker
and he was so happy at our house. He was so safe and felt really comfortable. And my penny or pup or puppy penny, she fell in love with him. Um, she, once he came back, she was like, he's mine. i mean, they would just snuggle every night and play all day, just through the house up and down. And, um, they were best friends. And so I was like, all right, Penny, we'll keep him.
00:32:11
Speaker
He's ours now. he's ours now and okay Yeah. He was an amazing dog. Oh, that's lovely. Besties for many a year. So, yeah. so and So we've had, we had him and then um we actually took in a dog, kind of a similar situation. He, he had been in ah a yard in Pueblo. Really sad story. He had been tied up in a backyard probably his whole life.
00:32:43
Speaker
And he had really just tied up in a yard, no shelter, nothing. Thankfully, a lady had moved in saw him over the fence oh my god and went up to the people and was like, can I take that dog?
00:32:56
Speaker
And they're like, yeah, just take him. We don't want him. And so she took him, got him up to the rescue. and He was, he looked like a wolf, like a white wolf.
00:33:09
Speaker
He was so cool looking, but yeah, had probably, i don't, he acted like he had never been in a home, had never been loved, had never been cared for. His back legs were so atrophied because he could only go so far on that chain that he was on. He couldn't walk normal, you know, he could only go so far. So his legs would not, were like bent weird. He walk. He had like a, his back was like sloped.
00:33:36
Speaker
So we took him in as a forever foster. We didn't know. They told us when we got him that he maybe had six months to live. He lived two years. So he it was amazing.
00:33:48
Speaker
Yeah, it was an amazing transformation. Really very happy two years. Oh my gosh. Yeah, really sad story. But he lived the last two years of his life very loved and eating cheeseburgers out of my hand.
00:34:08
Speaker
like a it Yeah.
00:34:12
Speaker
Yes. and I could see why this would be like so intense, you know, like wonderfully intense and also really difficult.
00:34:24
Speaker
Just all of the emotions you can possibly feel. It's not an easy, and it's not even just the the dog part of it. A lot of it is the human element of it. Just seeing,
00:34:37
Speaker
the worst of the worst in humanity and and seeing how they treat these animals who do nothing but want to give you love and care, you know, and dealing with people who
Naming and Adopting Rescue Dogs
00:34:51
Speaker
say, oh yeah, I'm gonna adopt this dog. And then within 24 hours, you gotta come pick up this dog. I can't, this dog is just not what I thought of. You know, it's just like, it hasn't even been there for a day.
00:35:04
Speaker
it's going to take a little bit to get them decompressed and figure out what they're supposed to do you know, just give them some time. so That's a lot of it. is is That they're looking for like an instant solution or instant fix to something. It's like that this is a living being, you know, like that. What did you expect? Yeah.
00:35:26
Speaker
And don't they say like people who are bad to animals, like that's so often an early indicator of like other horrible things. Yeah, absolutely. Sociopathy.
00:35:39
Speaker
If you're, if you're like, you know, just blatantly cruel to animals. A lot of the serial killers started out, you know, doing bad things to animals. I am curious about, um on a lighter note, just for a minute, the naming. So I, um I bought my dog horribly.
00:35:58
Speaker
Horribly. But I tried for a year to adopt. And I was a first-time kind of dog owner. I had briefly had a dog with an ex. And um when that relationship ended, i lost the dog in the, you know, the breakup. The custody battle. Yeah, exactly. So as a first time dog person, I was living in a um apartment building, no yard in a city. I, I tried for a year to adopt and I kept, I listened to a ton of podcasts and they all kept being like, the shelters are full. Come on, help. You know? And I'm like, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying. um But
00:36:38
Speaker
I loved the names that they would have on these dogs, you know, like even at the anti-cruelty society in Chicago, you'd look, I'd look at their website every day to see like what dogs they had in. So do you know anything about the naming of any, any of the fosters that you work with? Like how, who gets to name them? How do they come up with them when, obviously when they don't already know the name of the dog that's coming in?
00:37:03
Speaker
Right. A lot of times it's just, well, sometimes it's kind of like, okay, what cute name can we name this dog that will be like, oh yeah, somebody wants a pancake, you know, or something, you know, silly like that. Like everybody wants a moo-moo dog, you know? A lot of times that's like, what can we name this dog going to get attention so that someone's going to want that dog?
00:37:25
Speaker
So that is how a lot of them are named. Sometimes it's just like, you just, I don't know. Some of the dogs we I've gotten, i'm just like, I've always loved the name Stella. So we named one of our fosters Stella.
00:37:37
Speaker
Um, I was a big fan of Chauncey Billups. And so we named one of our fosters Chauncey. So it's just kind of, you know, just pick a name. But a lot of times it is, it's like, okay, what's a super cute name or, you know something that nobody else is naming their dog. So let's get some attention for this dog.
00:37:57
Speaker
I would say is often how it works. So you've gotten to name some of the fosters or, or is that like once you've kept them? No, I've gotten to name some of the fosters. um Sometimes they lot names they come with names. Like, well, Chauncey, like he came with a weird name. It was like Debian or something like that. And I was like, that's a weird name. And I can't say, hey, Debian, come here. I don't know. it was I don't like that name.
00:38:24
Speaker
So was like, we're going to. Debian who? Yeah.
00:38:29
Speaker
just kind of depends sometimes the name just fits I mean we've got we have a dog named bear which I never would have thought I would have named my dog bear but that was the name he had in the shelter and It just fits him.
00:38:41
Speaker
So we just kept it. I've started following a couple of shelters on Instagram and I've started seeing that they are doing like just these kind of funny or cute things to, to, I don't know, get people excited about the dogs. And sometimes they will have like,
00:38:58
Speaker
names that are very of the moment or something and or kind of some sort of meme or trend and and it's pretty funny but yeah sometimes it'll just be like pancake which is a very cute name I would 100% adopt a dot named pancake they'll have like uh there's one where it'll be like Instead of like watching your ex play or not ex, watching your boyfriend play video games for three hours and then going out like and never coming back, adopt ah Bella, you know? Yeah. Or they have like um packs of puppies that come in and they'll name them all of the Game of Thrones characters or something like that, you know? So.
00:39:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. sometimes Sometimes you have to keep coming up with things because you have so many dogs that come through. You're like, okay, what are we going to name these dogs? And we've seen so many. That's what made me wonder. It's like, yeah, we have so many of the same names. Like I can't even tell you how many daisies we have had or Bellas or it's like the same names all the time.
00:40:05
Speaker
So yeah, trying to come up with something new and fresh takes some effort. Yeah, one of the dogs that I had gotten close to being able to adopt was Lollipop. And that was, I mean, all it was a big part of why I fell in love with her. she like it was such a cute dog and such a cute name. I was like, oh, Lollipop.
00:40:25
Speaker
Oh, Lollipop. Was it hard because of the applications and all of that? Yeah. Cause I feel like sometimes you find a dog you love and then like 10 people apply and then just, okay. yeah got Yeah. And again, it goes back to, you know, knowing exactly what the dog needs. And then you could set up a few meet and greets with different people. And, and it always kind of seemed like there was just one set of people or or one person that the dog really bonded with that you could see, oh yeah, this is it. The dog chooses a lot of times the dog is like,
00:41:01
Speaker
Oh yeah, i like this person. You know, this, this is the right one. You were saying that the dog chooses, have you guys seen those videos where they have like, they're showing and I, and I, I don't know if they're true or not, but they have those days at the shelter where the dogs come out and they're like lines of people all just kind of sitting and the dog does choose who they go home with.
00:41:23
Speaker
I have seen that. And it's like, so sweet. Like, so you were nodding your head. do you know, like, does that happen? Or you've just seen them?
00:41:34
Speaker
I have just seen it. I've never seen it live or know if that actually occurs. But yeah, I've seen the videos. it's like oh That's so sweet. That's a great way to do it if if you have multiple people, you know.
00:41:46
Speaker
Yes. Yes. There will sometimes be like an elderly man that like a dog comes like he's all by himself and a dog comes and chooses him. Like, you know, or like ah comes and chooses a kid or like a lady who, you know, I mean, it's just it's like.
00:42:03
Speaker
A, that would be such an amazing field to be like, you chose me But then also like, yeah, just that they know something and it's like, this is meant to be like, they know better than us what we need. Well,
00:42:17
Speaker
um well Anything else that is a don't know, like a big part of your interest and like the reason that it this has captured you that we haven't talked about yet? Well, I don't have kids. So I think that's probably one reason maybe that i really devote. I've always loved dogs though. Always ever since I was a kid has loved dogs, has felt a kinship with dogs. I don't, i know.
00:42:45
Speaker
I've always been the person, like if I go to someone's house, I hang out with their dog. more than I would be involving with the human. You know, that's just always been who I am. And so, yeah, I think that's just, I've had a calling towards them always. And they are just like my kids. I mean, involve them in every aspect of my life and they have made my life so much better. And I just feel like they they're them there the only thing that just loves you, no matter who you are.
Regulatory Aspects and Advocacy
00:43:16
Speaker
No matter what you look like, no matter what your financial situation is or anything like that, as long as you show love to them, they're going to love you back. And they're never grumpy or mad at you unless you're not taking them for a walk when they want to, i guess. but But most of the time.
00:43:36
Speaker
And they're just innocent little creatures who depend so much on us. What motivates me definitely to try and do what I can to to help them And just, I think for me, i like the harder dogs that maybe need a little something extra, a little extra help. I could tell you a story about our dog Bear that we got from La Junta.
00:43:58
Speaker
He came into the shelter and did not, would not even look at the shelter lady, would not have anything to do with her. When we picked him up from transport, he was laying on the bottom of the cage, just...
00:44:16
Speaker
despondent, like no movement, no reaction, just basically hiding his head. And so they're like, you're going to have to pick him up out of the a kennel and get him into your car. And my husband's like, okay, I don't know this dog. is this dog going to bite me? Is it going to, you know, anything? So picked him up and he didn't do anything. He just was ter so terrified, just in shock, I think. And got him into the vehicle, took him home.
00:44:48
Speaker
he would not even walk. Like you would get him out of the car. He would pancake on the ground right away, would not move. So we had to carry him carried him down to our spare room.
00:45:00
Speaker
And he basically lived in that spare room for a couple of months. He wouldn't leave. He, it has a bathroom right off of it. If we came in the room, he would hide in the bathroom behind the toilet.
00:45:14
Speaker
head to the wall, wouldn't look at us, would not interact with us at all. We were told that he had been running around the junta for about six months prior to being caught. They had been trying to catch him.
00:45:26
Speaker
And he was just eluding animal control. Finally, they had to, he was hopping over a fence and they shot him with a trink dart. And that's how they were able to finally catch him. He was so scared of people. he was just on the run. So he, yeah, he was absolutely terrified.
00:45:42
Speaker
We would come, I would come in And I would just sit in the bathroom with him and just talk to him. i would read to him just so he could get used to my presence being in the bathroom. What did you read to him? Shakespeare. I read Shakespeare too.
00:46:00
Speaker
I love Shakespeare.
00:46:04
Speaker
I thought maybe just the melodic tones, you know, and the rhyming and stuff would make, I don't know, do something. and so, yeah, just, week after week of this, we weren't seeing a lot of progress. We had a camera in the room so we could see what he was doing and he would get up on the bed and finally would, you know, fall asleep. And so there was a window in the room and that looks out onto our backyard.
00:46:34
Speaker
And so he started getting up on the bed and looking out the window. And we started to notice that when the other dogs were outside in the backyard, he would get so excited.
00:46:46
Speaker
Like his little tail would start wagging and he'd just get up in the window and be all excited. And I'm like, okay, let's, let's, let's see if we can play off of this. So finally we're like, let's get him out of the room and take him outside.
00:47:02
Speaker
and then we brought our other dog outside, um, birdie. And as soon as he saw her, cause I think he recognized her from being outside, he was like, oh he perked up and,
00:47:14
Speaker
Then he walked with us like a house and a half down the block. And then he pancaked and he was done. I'm like, okay. Next day, we tried it again. This time he walked to the end of the block.
00:47:27
Speaker
And then he was done. And finally, after doing this a few times, he walked all the way down to the park with us. And that changed everything. As soon as we got to the park, it's like he knew some something shifted. And he just became this like, he started to have a little jump in his step. And he rolled around in the grass and actually acted like a dog for the first time we've ever seen it.
00:47:54
Speaker
And just slowly after that, we brought him back, put him in his room. And then he started to come out. he would come out to the hallway and, then slowly started to come up the stairs and, you know, it just, it was such a slow process to get him to be a normal dog. But the the other dogs, once he saw the other dogs interacting with us, he learned they're fine. They're not scary.
00:48:21
Speaker
It's okay. So they made all the difference in seeing him become the dog he is now. And now he's such a goofball. He's, He's a total dork. He's big puppy and, you know, pounces and plays and loves to go for walks and loves to go in the car. and He still has some stranger danger, for sure. New people scare him, but but yeah, he's he's doing great. So so it's still stuff like that that make it all worth it. You know, seeing this dog that was terrified of everything turn into yes lovable, sweet, safe dog.
00:48:59
Speaker
dog. He's, it's awesome. so that's what keeps me going. Well, and that not, yeah. And not everybody would have had the patience or even just the intuition that you had on how to deal with that and bring that out of him. People have the best of intentions perhaps, but that's really such a a gift and a skill and that's not to I have a lot of support. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:24
Speaker
I had to reach out. I had a ah contact through someone who had dealt with feral dogs before. And so I did reach out to him to get some tips because I was like, i don't, when we weren't seeing any growth or change for a while, I'm like, i don't know what I'm doing. i don't know if I'm doing, if I'm hurting him more by what I'm doing or if I'm helping. So he gave me some great tips to help.
00:49:51
Speaker
make him, and he's like, it may take a while, you know, it's, it may not be a quick fix. So it's just having that patience and seeing what sparks the joy in him, you know, is what you got to watch for. So yeah, definitely had a lot of support.
00:50:07
Speaker
It's not an easy thing. And then I can give support to other people now, which is awesome, which I like too. Right. Yeah. That's amazing. Well, do you have homework for us? Cause I would love to get more into this. my god, we're about to have house full of dogs. I know. Janine would not go for it unless they were all little dogs. Well, definitely think, you Highway 50 Freedom Ride. Look through their Facebook.
00:50:36
Speaker
They have had check out highway fifty freedom ride look through their facebook they have had several pieces done on them through the local news and things like that about what they do and what their mission is.
00:50:52
Speaker
All the dogs that we've taken in from down there are the most amazing dogs. Like they're all just, I mean, all dogs are great, but these dogs, I don't know, there's something different about them. They're all amazing dogs. So check them out for sure. i would say one thing that you might be interesting for you guys to check out.
00:51:12
Speaker
So The organization, I guess it's don't know if it's it's a department. It's it's called PASFA. And it's the licensing and inspection department that regulates rescues and shelters in Colorado.
00:51:31
Speaker
So they're responsible for making sure that they're following regulations. They track like how many dogs are brought in. how many dogs are adopted out. They inspect the facilities to make sure that they are all meeting up to, you know, the dogs are healthy, that they're getting what they need. So I think that's a really interesting thing to look at as far as what the regulations are, what rescues and shelters, what regulations they're held to. i think it's a very interesting thing to look at, like, what specific things are put in place
00:52:08
Speaker
that rescues can and can't do or shelters can and can't do as opposed to what the laws are around breeders, what what accountability they have, what laws are they subject to comparatively. It, to me, seems very unequal as far as you hold rescues and shelters to all of these standards, and yet the breeders do not have the same sort of stipulations or standards that they're held to.
00:52:40
Speaker
So I think that's one of the things that I would like to get involved in to kind of see if there's some way to to change the laws on that as far as holding breeders accountable in the same way that, because not all breeders are bad, but I do believe that they need to be held to the same standards that rescue facilities and and shelter facilities are held to. So I think that's something definitely interesting to look into.
00:53:07
Speaker
And then I think also going along with that is you hear the term no-kill said a lot as far as rescues and shelters. And what does that truly mean?
00:53:20
Speaker
What organizations maybe in Colorado are considered no-kill? And which ones are not? And why that is? There's an organization called No-Kill Colorado,
00:53:33
Speaker
that has a lot of information about that and what that means. They are really on the forefront of saying that in Colorado specifically, because of like what you said, we're a Mecca for dogs here. People in rescues and shelters in other states are like, Colorado is where we want our dogs to go to because people love their dogs there. um And so being in that Mecca, we should be no kill, all of us. yeah Colorado, there's no reason why any healthy, well-adjusted dog should be euthanized in Colorado for space.
00:54:12
Speaker
So they're really working towards that. So I think that's something guys might be interested in looking into. yeah. Well, I'm very excited about this homework. It sounds like it'll be really interesting to find out more and also potentially potentially get us a lot more dogs in our house.
00:54:30
Speaker
which you know It is my dream to have a bunch of dogs who cuddle with each other or even just like two dogs who cuddle with each other. know. When you said that Penny would like cuddle with that dog. Pipples in general, you don't know this, but They are the cuddliest dogs, like with each other and with their human.
00:54:50
Speaker
That's all they do. They're couch potatoes and they snuggle. Snuggle all the time. and Just run around and that they love other. You want a snuggly dog? I highly recommend a pit bull. Okay, good to know.
00:55:02
Speaker
You want a snuggly dog? Get a pit bull. But I do feel like we should we should end this as Bob Barker would. yeah Get your pet spayed or neutered. Most important thing. oh that's right. He has to say that, yeah.
00:55:15
Speaker
It's the only way we're going to get out of this. yeah And then to also stay interesting. And stay interested. Thank you. Bye. Bye.
00:55:26
Speaker
Thanks for listening to today's episode. Please subscribe, comment, and like the podcast. Follow us on Blue Sky Social at CanWeInterestYouIn. Send us an email at CanWeInterestYouIn at gmail.com.
00:55:38
Speaker
And join us next time.