8 year old Doris

A couple of weeks ago, a Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) case worker reached out to counselor Amanda about Doris, an 8 year old Yorkie mix, who we helped before. Actually, this was the third time that Doris’ owner needed our services to support her path of recovery. Doris would need to go into boarding while her owner went into detox and rehab.

When you look at the photo of Doris, what do you see? Are you upset by the image? Do you want to rescue her, and get her out of that box? Or do you see a well cared for dog, who is snuggled in a blanket and placed in a box for safe keeping during her car ride? When I posted this photo on the DDR social media platforms, we received a variety of comments ranging from the assumption that she needed a new home, to offers of fostering. We also received very personal sharing of recovery and how pets had positively impacted, and in some cases, saved the person’s life.

Reading the comments posted on Facebook and Instagram, I can’t deny that I felt defensive, even a little judgmental reading the comments from followers, who thought that Doris needed to be re-homed, was in a bad situation due to being transported in a box, and even speculated as to what type of life she has had with her person. I wondered how someone could question whether she has a “good home”? To me it was obvious: she is well loved and adored. The photo told me everything I needed to know. FYI I have never met Doris or her person. I have never spoken to her over the phone. I know Doris and her person just about as well as anyone on social media knows them. But I could imagine how she felt. I’m grateful that I’ve had an opportunity to learn how incredibly difficult a path to recovery is for anyone, and how it is complicated more by being homeless, and/or without a stable support network.

Like most of our clients who need to go into treatment, Doris’ owner would not have accepted the offer of treatment if she could not be assured that her dog would be in a safe place and returned to her as soon as it was possible. Too often, not providing that assurance leads to pet owners who are experiencing homelessness and struggling with addiction, to stay living an unhealthy lifestyle on the streets.  Not to over generalize here, but I think it’s fair to write, based on many stories that I’ve listened to for more than 20 years, that for the pet owner who is homeless or addicted to drugs and /or alcohol, the dog or cat is their reason to get up everyday, the reason to live, and to try to get clean. It is their pet who offers them unconditional love. Caring for their pet might be their […]

When I think back on all the good work that Downtown Dog Rescue has done for more than twenty years, I’m really proud of the amazing team that I continue to work with, and the other non-profit organizations that we collaborate with to provide services. Too often, I think about what we’ve done in terms of the numbers. When we apply for grants, or appeal to donors for funding, it’s usually about how many services performed, how many dogs rescued, how many pets prevented from entering the shelter system, and the number of pets spayed and neutered.

DDR has rescued and adopted thousands of dogs, facilitated the spay and neuter of tens of thousands of cats and dogs, and prevented more than 14,000 pets from entering one shelter in only seven years. On paper, all of this looks impressive, the work that we have done. However, I measure success differently, much differently than I did when I started this organization. As a result of doing this type of work, and the pet owners and the dogs teaching me what I need to learn on a daily basis, I measure success by the relationships that we build one pet and one pet owner at a time.

Don’t think for a minute that I’m all “zen”, and everything in my world is unicorns and rainbows. It doesn’t take much for me to get caught in the cycle of putting too much emphasis on achieving a goal, a number that represents “a job well done”.  As a people-pleaser in recovery, it’s a daily challenge to just be in the moment, not worrying about how everyone else feels, or is reacting to me.  Just when I thought that I was doing super duper at being present, our monthly dog clinic with the SCVMA was an opportunity to stop, and examine what is truly important.

Due to COVID, our usual clinic locations, public parks still closed, the company that I work for, Modernica, agreed to generously allow the use of the five acre Modernica Factory campus.  It’s amazing, we had so much space to line up more than 100 cars of pet owners, and volunteers. This is how we kept it safe for everyone. Pet owners were required to call our office and make an appointment. Each pet owner was given a reservation time, and we filled out all their paperwork before the day of the clinic. When they arrived, the paperwork was placed on the windshield, the pet owner and the pet remained in their car until they drove up to one of the vaccination stations, where a tech took the pet out of the car to be vaccinated, microchipped, dewormed, and flea and tick meds were applied, all free of charge. We’ve completed two drive thru clinics, and almost doubled the number of cats and dogs served from the first drive thru clinic.

Before each clinic, I say the serenity prayer […]

I wanted to share a great event that we participated in on Saturday, a free dog and cat food drive thru, hosted by council members Wesson and Harris-Dawson, for South Los Angeles pet owners in need.  With our friends at Watts Project, DDR was able to sign up 67 pets for spay/neuter + vaccinations, who otherwise, might never have learned about the free resources to get more cats and dogs sterilized.

When we first received the event information, it was presented to us as partnering to help pass out food, which is wonderful, but doesn’t have a lasting impact.  Don’t get me wrong, for some pet owners, who are in dire financial situations, a free bag of pet food makes a big difference that month, but what about long term?  Giving out free supplies and food without resources to me doesn’t make a lot of sense.  When I write resources, I mean more than handing someone a flyer, a business card, telling them to call an office, or contact a person, etc, which often never gets done. Why? Because, as I often say to new volunteers who can’t understand why pet owners don’t spay and neuter their pets when it’s free, my reply is,”Life happens. ”

Getting a pet spayed or neutered when one may not have housing at the end of the month, or enough food to feed their children until the first of the next month, is not going to be top of the list of things to get done.  Plus, even free sometimes isn’t free.  The surgery is free but the vaccinations are not, and the vaccinations are required. A dog license must be purchased to get the free surgery.  All of the sudden the free service is costing $20 or more, which may not seem like a lot of money to you, but it’s the difference of paying the phone bill, or getting the phone cut off for many of our clients, and a mobile phone is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity to stay connected to opportunities, and more.

Back to the event, set up in a parking lot, cars drove through, food was picked up, DDR and Watts Project volunteers asked each pet owner if their pet was sterilized.  Of the 100 pets who received food, 67 needed services.  Not all of them needed surgery, some were sterilized, but needed booster vaccinations, which we will be provided at our drive thru vaccination clinic next Sunday with the SCVMA volunteer veterinarians and techs.  We will also partner with Spay4LA, who will have their mobile clinic parked and offering free spay and neuter surgeries.

Through ongoing community events, partnering with other non profits, we continue to spread the message about the importance of spay and neuter, as well as providing pet owners with a resource, right in their community, called the Pet Support Space.  At […]

I wanted to share a case with all of you, that really touched my heart on many levels.  It all started when I read an email entitled “Urgent – My Baby”. As you can imagine, I receive a lot of urgent email pleas, usually from people trying to re-home their dog, or asking DDR to rescue a particular shelter dog.  As a form of self-care, I limit the amount of messages and the types of messages that I will read.  This one appeared to be something different.  Jennifer, Baby’s “mom” was desperately reaching out to anyone and everyone who could help her redeem her Chihuahua named Baby. The fees totaled $385, and every day that Baby remained in the shelter, the fees increased by $50. I immediately thought about what this dog owner was going through, as someone who did not have the money to get her dog back.  Then, I checked myself, thinking, this dog is Orange County, I have to set boundaries, and just because someone is homeless and loves their dog doesn’t always mean the dog is better off going back to the owner. I had nothing but this email to prove to me that Baby’s case was different.

Even though I was going on a hike, more self care, and I told myself that I was going to be one of several that would donate, I replied back to Jennifer, asking her how much money she had raised, where in Orange County was Baby impounded, and to please send me her phone number so that we could talk.  Within minutes, I received a reply.  We talked, and within a few minutes, I knew from a lot of experience that the fees were accumulating faster than she could raise funds. With a very limited income, some recent health problems, which was the cause of Baby going to the shelter, she did not have any money raised.  From what I could hear, her network of friends were in similar situations to her current situation.  She went on to tell me she applied to other dog rescues and programs, and I was the first one that had gotten back to her.  I have to admit, I had a tinge of regret for getting involved as soon as we hung up.  I knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy case.

I cut my hike short so that I could speak to someone at the Orange County shelter about what it would really take to get Baby back with his mom. After being on hold for 20 minutes, it was now 1:30, the shelter closed at 5:00 which meant Jennifer had to get over there now.  When I called Jennifer, telling her to go to the shelter and that DDR would pay all the fees, as long as she agreed to use her free spay voucher, she was ecstatic, and very grateful.  However, she wasn’t […]