It takes a village to rescue an Old Friend....

It is always amazing to me how much goes into rescuing one dog, but at the same time that it works and that it works well most of the time. There is a quiet network of volunteers that comes to life when a dog (or other animal in other rescues) needs help.Without these behind the scenes volunteers and caregivers, we would not be able to do what we do. We are the facilitators, organizing a wonderful group of people who are already there, ready to help.

Facebook has been a powerful tool for animal rescue. By allowing all people who are interested in a cause, in our case senior dog rescue, to come together easily in one place many more dogs can be saved. Our Facebook friends are instrumental in getting the word to us and in getting the word out that volunteers are needed.

Take first, as an example, a rescue that is in progress right now. Sheila is a 14 year old border collie mix. Her human has gone to college and she is not being properly cared for by the remaining family. We were made aware of the situation by the now in college owner who was concerned about poor Sheila living on a chain. Sheila is in a town three hours from us, transport help is necessary. Sue will bring Sheila half way, I will meet her for the other half of the trip. From there Sheila goes to our vet. Dr. Benner and Staff are always there for us, no matter who and when we bring them in. They take wonderful, loving care of almost all of our Old Friends (unless they are just too far away). Sheila will stay there for a night before she goes to her forever foster family. Jerry and his family will take care of Sheila for the rest of her life. They will give her an opportunity to live happy, loved and comfortable for however long she has left.

 
In the case of Bennett and Arty, a 13 year old Yorkie mix and an 11 year old Papillon, there was a much larger distance to travel. Penny picked them up at the shelter in the Chicago area and held them for a night. In the morning, Penny met Brigit who took Arty and Bennett to a small airport. Arty and Bennett were flown from Louisville, KY to Lebanon, TN by another non-profit rescue group called Pilots-N-Paws. Pilots of small planes donate their time and their planes to help animals in need to get from one location to another. Until we needed them, we didn't even know they existed. From there Arty and Bennett were fully vetted and are now living here at the Sanctuary.

We wanted to get Ellie from the sanctuary in Mount Juliet, TN to her forever foster home in Indianapolis, IN. This is over a five hour drive one way. We put out a plea on Facebook and were able to find two wonderful volunteers to help with the drive. We had a three legged transport: Mount Juliet, TN to Bowling Green, KY (us), Bowling Green to Louisville, KY (Tina) and Louisville to Indianapolis (Becky). The transport went flawlessly and that night, Ellie was with her new family and foster Mom Cyndi, settling in.

These are only a few examples, each dog that we bring into our program goes through a similar, but always different, process.

Think for a moment about the IMPORTANT people who might be involved from the point that a dog needs rescue until that time that they are safe:

1. Shelter volunteer or worker or Surrendering owner (may be someone no longer able to care for a dog, or someone who has found a dog)
2. Our Facebook friends who are involved in spreading the word
3. Transport Volunteers
4. Veterinarian and their staff
5. Sometimes a boarding facility is used for an interim period
6. A Forever Foster Family
7. Last but not least, our Donors who help us to afford care and vetting for all of our Old Friends, both at the Sanctuary and in Forever Foster Homes for the rest of their lives.

Without any of these people, we would be unable to , or seriously restricted in, doing what we do.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE INVOLVED!! YOU ARE ALL AWESOME!

looking back on 2012....

Has it only been a year? It's amazing, the rest of our lives seem to fly on by, but the past year has been so busy and we have come so far with Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, that it seems like much more than that.
For a few years, the idea of starting a senior dog rescue has been developing in our minds. It kept getting clearer and clearer, the name, the ideas, the implementation.... Michael and I had been volunteering with another rescue group, and although they are a good group with great intentions, I knew that we could do so much more on our own. Besides that, the seniors needed us. That was where our hearts pulled us.
For the first few months of the year we talked more and more about a "senior dog sanctuary" the name "Old Friends" (the idea from an old Simon and Garfunkel song) and just how it would work. In mid-March, I had one of those defining moments, it was time...
By mid March, I had set up a facebook page, a website and a blog. After inviting friends to join, we had under 20 "likes" but we were on our way. It would be a slow start, but by the end of 2012, we are strong with over 4300 likes. Facebook has proven to be an amazing tool in spreading the word about what we do and in finding out about dogs who need our help.
In April, we started to work on our legalities and on becoming an official non-profit organization. We filed our paperwork and by the end of April we were a registered non profit Corporation in Tennessee, Old Friends Senior Dogs Inc.
On April 26, our effective date of incorporation, we had thirteen dogs with us at the Sanctuary. Two of them were, and of course, still are, Ginger and Gracie, our protector and recreation director. The other twelve ranged in age from nine to over fifteen, and averaged out around 13 years old.
By May, we were getting the word out very slowly. Early in the month, a friend of ours who had lots of other friends in rescue, put up a Facebook post about us, talking positively about what we do. This was our first push. Our Facebook friends grew to over 50 (WOW!) and as a result we rescued Zuzu, who we consider to be our first Old Friend at Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary.

Through May and June, I meticulously worked my way through the paperwork required to file our application to become an IRS registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We worked on our plan for that time and did not feel comfortable soliciting donations or volunteers until we had that completed. We are thankful to those who donated, in spite of our not having received our 501(c)(3) prior to verification of our status. As it turned out, our effective date of non-profit status was April 26.
Over the July 4 weekend, the paperwork was ready to send in. I had gone over it time and time again. We had heard stories of applications taking up to a year to approve due to questions and things that were a little bit out of line. We wrote the check and sent it in....and waited.....In the meantime we were really starting to set our goals and deciding how we were going to achieve them.
It was early August when we received our first acknowledgement from the IRS, they had received our application (the check had been cashed weeks before) and were reviewing it. The letter said that we would hear from them again and that we could expect to be contacted within 90 days. UGH!! We settled in for a long wait.
In early August, we took in one more senior dog, Lucky Penny. She is a fifteen year old hound/German Shepherd mix. Although skinny and sickly when she got here, she is a beautiful senior girl now. She is completely deaf and almost blind and doing great.

On August 22, our long (not) wait was over! Without any further questions or delays, we received our determination letter from the IRS. Old Friends Senior Dogs, Inc had an effective non profit date of April 26. We were ready to rock!!
We were ready to solicit donations and volunteers. At the very end of August, we placed our first Forever Foster Dog, Bandit. We were now one step further on our way to achieving our dream.

In early September, Princess Leia joined us at the sanctuary. She was originally thought to be a senior in need of a hospice home. Once she went to see Dr. Benner, we realized that she was under six years old and had had a terrible beginning to her life. Although she only lived for three more months before she passed on to the Rainbow Bridge, she had a huge impact on our hearts and our will to continue to do what we do. She had a chance to live a "normal" life, and although it did not last long, we were able to allow her to have some of the good life.

At the end of September, Arty and Bennett flew in via Pilots 'n Paws from Chicago to Lebanon, TN. We were impressed with the network of volunteers that allowed us to so easily take in two dogs from a Chicago Shelter. Arty and Bennett are a lively little pair with TONS of bad habits (but we love them).

In October, we were pretty quiet. We temporarily took Bandit back from his Forever Foster Home so that he could have an enforced rest period after continually injuring his back. After seven weeks he returned to his Forever Foster Home and has been doing well ever since. We also took Max into our program at this time. Max is a big lovable black dog, but unfortunately no one has agreed to Forever Foster him. He has been in a temporary foster situation for three months. We are anxious to find him a permanent placement. He is over twelve years old and needs a place to curl up and relax. He is unable to stay here with us because he gets stressed out with lots of dog activity. He will do best in a home with only a few, if any, other dogs.

Also in October, we placed our second Forever Foster Dog, Gracie. The placement is a match made in heaven. When Gracie went to her new home for the first time, she looked at us as if to say "can I stay, pleeeease, can I stay here?"

In mid October, Rannie, our nine year old Beagle, went to the Rainbow Bridge after having battled liver problems since mid summer. She had been with us for almost all of her nine years and we miss her crazy energy and smiling face.

In early November, Michael and I went to a workshop at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah entitled "How to Start an Animal Sanctuary". We signed up for the workshop in early April and it was finally time to attend. It was a life changing experience and completely energized us in our goals and dreams.We were able to come home with a solid path to follow. Instead of trimming our dreams, we fortified and expanded them!
Soon after we returned, Asteroid, our little papillon Old Friend, passed to the Rainbow Bridge after a brief illness.

In mid-November, after his rest period, Bandit returned to his wonderful Forever Foster Home where he was happy with his friends Flower and Cotton. Keller, who is blind, had been rescued by a Smyrna police officer, and came here from that same Foster home where Bandit returned. He was sharing the recovery room with Princess who had been there since September when she came to us.

They enjoyed one another's company on walks but tended to get a bit "argumentative" when left alone together so they continued to share the room with a divider in the middle. Princess was making great strides. She was starting to play ball and enjoy cuddling and walks. She ran a little and even wagged her tail.
Princess's progress came to an abrupt stop and she began to lose weight. Her previous life had done irreparable damage to her internal organs and she was unable to overcome that damage. On December 8, Princess passed peacefully to the Rainbow Bridge in my arms. She was at least able to discover that life didn't have to be bad.
In early December, our third Forever Foster Dog, Ellie, a sweet as can be senior Beagle, went to her Forever Foster Home. She has three new sister Beagles and is settling in nicely.

Later in December, our sweet thirteen and a half year old Maggie, who'd been with us for almost a year, went to the Rainbow Bridge. She did well up until the last day when something inside her gave out suddenly.

By the end of the year, we had lost six Old Friends. Rosie and Ozkar passed early in 2012. We miss them all, but we know that they were happy while they were here.

December went out in a flurry of activity. During the last week of the year, Peanut, our fourth Forever Foster Dog went off to his new home.

At the same time, we brought in three more Old Friends. Biscuit is deaf and blind, Meisha is a cute as can be little Pug and Dolly is a mellow girl who just wants a place to rest her sweet bones. We expect to place one or two more Forever Foster Dogs early in January 2013.

At the end of the year, we have nineteen Old Friends at the sanctuary, two of whom we expect to have in Forever Foster homes very soon. We have Four Old Friends in Forever Foster homes and one in a Temporary foster home. We have rescued thirteen dogs since April 26, our official start-up.

We feel that 2012 has been a very successful year for Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary. We are through the first steps and on our way to achieving our goals through 2013 and beyond. I will elaborate on those goals in a future blog post. We are excited and ready to move ahead!

remembering The Princess

Princess Leia

Just a few days ago, we said goodbye, way too soon, to Princess Leia. She had only been with us for a little over three months, but in that time had made a big imprint on our, and a lot of other folk's, hearts.
Our first view of Princess was laying on the floor at a rural animal control facility.

She was thought to be a senior dog and we took her as a hospice case. Once we got her to our Dr Benner, we found out that she was relatively young, under six years old. She was covered with fleas and with scars from a terrible and unknown past. She was severely dehydrated and her eyes were almost entirely covered by her third eyelid. We were unsure of whether she would survive a week. Amazingly enough, she began to make progress. By her second week she had gained almost 10 pounds and was eating and drinking healthily.

Princess continued to make progress a little bit at a time. It was so exciting to see her run down the driveway or to lay down in the grass and bask in the sun. We were starting to think of her as being a dog in recovery rather than one in hospice. More than that, we were completely taken by this little girl's spirit and will to live. We started to envision a full, happy life for her. A life that she hadn't come anywhere near in her past.

Every day, Princess would do things that seemed like great strides. One day she ran happily down the driveway, another she kicked up the dirt after she peed. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it really was something to see. Her tail was coming down from tight against her belly to straight down in back. One day we were sure that we even saw a little wag.
By early November, Princess was about to make her first trip out into the world, away from OFSDS. We were on our way to Utah for a workshop and Princess was on her way to what would be a spa vacation with a trusted friend of ours. We thought that Princess was doing great because we had seen such progress, but our friend, Tonia, was taken aback at the obvious distress that Princess had been through.
Princess had a true vacation with Tonia. She was pampered and happy. Princess was truly treated like royalty. We got this picture and knew that she was having the time of her life.

When Princess Leia returned home, she made great progress very quickly. We were very optimistic that she was going to someday be a "regular" dog able to live a good life like any other dog. She climbed up on the couch to sleep for the first time in mid November. She would climb up there often after this.

At Thanksgiving, Princess was really starting to enjoy her life. While our Grandsons were playing in the yard, she showed an interest in playing fetch. For the next hour, she played fetch and for the remainder of her life, she enjoyed a game of fetch everyday.

Right after Thanksgiving, Keller came to live with us. Keller, blind but gentle, seemed to be the perfect roommate for Princess Leia. She had been taking walks regularly with Bandit and with other dogs, but had not had close contact with any dog on a regular basis. Keller and Princess got along great on walks, but after a couple of "disagreements" were separated while they were alone. She still seemed to really enjoy his company on walks and we felt that she was getting some great socialization with him. We expected that they would be great friends eventually.

Little did we know at this time, Princess had internal problems that were fighting her as she was getting psychologically stronger and stronger. A couple of weeks after Thanksgiving, Michael commented that Princess looked as if she were losing weight again. Her appetite was good, but she was not able to keep her weight. I weighed her and was shocked to see that she had lost several pounds since a few weeks before. We brought her to Dr. Benner for a checkup and her blood work did not show any obvious problems. An x-ray showed that her liver was much smaller than it should have been. We scheduled an ultrasound for a few days later.

She never made it to the ultrasound. She quickly stopped eating or drinking at all, we had to syringe feed her and give her subcutaneous fluids several times. She was getting more and more disorientated and her problem could not be identified. We are convinced that the abuse and distress from her life before us had caused insurmountable damage to her internal organs.

I spent a lot of time just laying with her for those last few days. In the middle of the night on December 7, Princess called to me. I went to her and lay with her in her bed and she passed so peacefully on to the Rainbow Bridge.

We miss Princess and we especially miss the dreams of having her enjoy a long and normal life. She was starting to enjoy being part of a family, doing the things that dogs enjoy doing. The life that she came from caused too much damage to her physical body, and she could not recover from that. We are thankful for the short time that we had with this sweet girl. We wish that it were longer, but at least she had a short chance to enjoy her life and was able to see that living didn't have to be a terrible thing.

We will never forget The Princess.

Reflections on DogTown... and a couple of tips from the experts.

While at Best Friends Animal Society, we spent quite a bit of time in DogTown. With about 500 dogs at any given time, we were impressed and it warmed our hearts to discover that each dog is treated as an individual. New dogs are fully vetted and evaluated and then carefully placed with a dog who is considered likely to be compatible with him or her. Over several days, the dogs are put together during the day while a caregiver is monitoring their relationship and then they are separated at night until they prove to be a good match (or not in which case a new match is tried out). The enclosures are huge with a heated/cooled indoor area for each run. Some dogs are housed singly if they are not able to live closely with another dog. In the Old Friends area, dogs live in groups of up to four dogs. In one case, Layla, one of the Vicktory dogs (rescued from Michael Vick), was uncomfortable with other dogs at all. She has been moved to the Feathered Friends area of Best Friends where she lives as a companion to the caretakers there. She is very happy and loves people and the attention she gets.

A picture of us with Layla. We visited her a few times. She is as sweet as can be.

The folks in DogTown are the experts on dog care. They work within a sensible budget as all of us in rescue do in order to make the money go further in order to give each dog the best care possible while leaving funds for expansion and emergencies. They have found the best ways to deal with some basic problems in dog care. Here are three tips that we got that we have already used or will use soon at OFSDS.

1. Front clip harnesses: Most of the DogTown dogs are walked by volunteers, many even by young volunteers. I don't know about you all, but we have been through just about every type of harness that we can find and nothing is exactly right. They are either too flimsy, the dog can climb out of them or they are difficult to put on the dog. Most of the dogs that we walked at DogTown had a front clip harness, it pulls from under the dog's chin and keeps the dog from pulling because when the dog pulls it tends to turn them to the side. The harness doesn't have to be super tight and is extremely easy to put on. It is made of standard leash materials and is thus very durable. We bought one for Gracie and have tried it out. It works like a charm. Here is a link to the one that we got for Gracie: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009ZBKG4/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

Zeus, modeling his Easy Walk front clip harness.

 

2. For the food inhalers in your family: Simple, simple, simple solution for the dog who eats their food before you even put it down. Take a $5 stainless steel anti-tip bowl and flip it over. The food goes around the center and the dog has to slow down to get to it all. We have already started using this for Bandit and it has made a world of difference. The meal that took him three seconds to eat now takes a minute or more. Another solution used at Best Friends is to spread the food out in a muffin tin.

Slow feed dish

Bandit eating more slowly than before

3. Raised bowls for larger dogs: I thought that this was very clever. We will use this idea whenever we have the need for a raised bowl. It is a cutout plastic bucket with a stainless steel bowl set in the hole.

A taller or shorter bucket could be used depending on the dog

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Friends Animal Society Experience....

It's not easy for us to leave all of our Old Friends, and we sure don't do it often. If we leave, it's got to be for something really special or we aren't going to go. Last April, we planned that something special and have been waiting (im)patiently ever since. Last week we sent the Princess on a spa vacation of her own, packed Arty and Benny off to the resort, got a whole family to take care of our remaining Old Friends and headed off to Kanab, Utah and Best Friends Animal Society for a week long workshop on starting and running an animal sanctuary.
Let me tell you.... it was worth every minute of the wait.
Kanab, Utah is a very small town (population around 5000) far from anywhere else but nestled in the midst of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

The view from the dining/workshop area in Angel Village

Best Friends Animal Society has been in it's current location since 1984 and started on a shoestring budget with a vision that has grown into it's present day mission to "Bring about a time when there are no more Homeless Pets". This mission spreads far beyond their Sanctuary in Utah. Best Friends has discovered that the way to fulfill this vision is to build a network of partners throughout the world that each does their small part. They have called this the No More Homeless Pets Network. Through education, which includes workshops like the one we attended, the folks at Best Friends share the knowledge that they have gained in the past 28+ years to help others to build their own sanctuaries, rescues and other types of organizations dedicated to supporting the Best Friends Mission. OFSDS will be eligible to join this network in April 2013.
When we registered, we were excited when we read that founders of Best Friends would be giving some of the presentations during the workshop. We were overjoyed when founders Faith Maloney and Jana de Peyer were with us for nearly the entire workshop. They generously and openly shared their experiences and details about Best Friends throughout their growth and as it is now. There were also many other workshop presenters who work in various rolls at Best Friends. All had valuable information to share. We came away at the end of the week completely overflowing with ideas, new tools and tons of energy and enthusiasm.
Our week started with a two part tour of the Best Friends Sanctuary. They house about 1700 animals, comprised of dogs, cats, birds, horses, pigs, bunnies, wild animals for release when possible and other various animals. Throughout the week we had sessions on strategic planning, fundraising, finding and keeping volunteers, adoptions, talking with the veterinarians, dog training and evaluation and much more. We also spent two mornings in Dogtown and the Old Friends section of Dogtown working with the caretakers and walking dogs. It was an amazing week. While this workshop in no way made us experts in any of the areas we covered, it has helped to steer us in a more well defined direction.

This post is the first of a short series of posts over the next several days about some of what we took home from the workshop. While our mission and goals have changed very little, we will be refining our strategies and setting a more defined plan while the workshop and our thoughts are still fresh in our minds. I will share that with you all as we progress.
Below are some of the pictures from animal areas other than Dogtown. I will go into more detail about the dog areas in the next few days.

I was fascinated by the pigs - here's a potbelly

Cute but BIG

The birds were beautiful - they live for 80-100 years. More than a lifetime commitment

Horse fields

Pilots N Paws and the travels of Puffy and Bennett

We first heard about a senior (10-12 year old) Pom (was Arty now Puffy) who needed rescue on September 20. This adorable little guy was in danger and in need of a way out of Hammond Animal Control. We agreed to take him into our program. He would stay temporarily with Bandit's foster family until we could find him a forever placement.

Our first sight of Puffy, who could resist this little guy?

Next day, we found out, Puffy had a friend who also needed a way out. We pondered on it a bit and decided that we would take him too. This was Bennett, a little old (13 years) guy who also needed a retirement home. He was coming with Puffy....

Bennett, with his little grandpa sweater 

They were coming from Hammond, IN (not far from Chicago) to Mount Juliet, TN a seven hour drive, but we would somehow get them here....We discussed transports, and last weekend, Penny told us that the little guys were going to be flown in!
I had never heard of Pilots N Paws until now, if you haven't either, it's worth a look at their website, or their facebook page, it is a wonderful organization. They are a non-profit, 501(c)(3) like us, and are a network of pilots who donate their time and planes to transport dogs from an area where they have no chance to another where they can be adopted, or put in a rescue. Pilot Tom and his daughter Chandi volunteered to bring the boys from Columbus IN to Nashville. To get the boys from the shelter to Columbus was a three hour drive early this morning which was done by Penny and Brigit. There were lots of dedicated folks involved in this transport!
When the plane landed, the first thing that we saw was little Bennett sitting on Chandi's lap looking perky and happy. Puffy took the trip in the backseat in his kennel. Both flew very well...

Tom, Chandi and Bennett right after landing in Lebanon TN

Tom and Chandi with both of the boys

and then they were with us :)

Our original plan had Puffy being temporarily fostered by Bandit's foster family. We went directly there to see how everyone would get along. Things weren't too bad, but the boys started to get a bit testy with one another. It may have been the result of three as of yet un-neutered males in one space. (this is being fully remedied on Thursday). We decided that it might be better for us to bring both boys back with us for the week. While we were there we got some shots of everyone together. We hadn't seen Bandit in a few weeks and he is doing amazingly well.

Bennett, Bandit and Puffy

Bandit, Puffy and Flower

a sniff fest with the neighbor dog

The afternoon was filled with walks and arranging. We separated the boys for tonight but will start to work them into the rest of the OFSDS family tomorrow. They both walked very well on a leash and get along well with one another. They had a good dinner and off to bed. Enough for one day.....
We are looking for forever placements for both of these boys. They are so sweet and adorable. We don't think that it will take long for someone to fall in love with them.

Bennett

Bennett and Puffy

Puffy