Who knew rescues spent so much time on the mundane?
In which Jill spills the beans on some not-so-secret secrets.
My friend, Laura Garrick, and I were recently bemoaning the state of rescue in southern California. There are more dogs, less space at shelters, and fewer fosters and adopters. Rescues are working harder than ever. “People don’t realize that the story BEGINS when the dog is pulled,” Laura lamented.
It’s a truism that every rescue learns the hard way: After the freedom walk, the high-fives, and the slow-motion Puppuccino video, social media followers click the 👍, and move on to the next pup in need.
In the meantime, the rescue is sharing medical records, confirming microchips, emailing trainer referrals, and checking for donations that might have come in to help with costs (which reliably exceed the adoption fee). The happy dance is over, and the rescue quietly continues the humdrum tasks inherent in every enterprise.
Want to know what most rescues do when they’re not saving animals? Read on.
PAPERWORK. Paperwork is not sexy, and neither am I in a tank top and pajama bottoms looking for a dog’s neuter certificate. But, like any business, we file taxes (state and federal), ensure compliance with government institutions (ditto), request records from shelters, send pictures to adopters, track mileage (see file taxes above), answer texts and more texts, update our website, and pay our bills. Good times.
PROMOTING ANIMALS. Sounds obvious, right? But if we’re not active on social media—Facebook and Instagram are obligatory—animals who need homes won’t get noticed. In today’s world of more people dropping pets off at shelters than adopting them, there’s a new sense of urgency to get the word out. We’re not above posting flyers on our vet’s bulletin board or simply chatting up strangers to see if their dog needs a buddy. I wish I’d known the question—“Ever foster a dog before?”—was such a great opening line when I was single.
SUPPORTING FOSTERS AND ADOPTERS. Outta the Cage rescues dogs that we’ve gotten to know at shelters. So when we get an inquiry about a dog we’ve posted online, we work with the foster or adopter to make sure that the dog gets out. This might mean planning the dog’s rescue, helping an adopter arrange a meeting at the shelter, calling treasured volunteer contacts for information, or even steering the adopter to another dog. The point is to get the right dogs in the right homes, and we’ll do what we can to make that happen.
DRIVING. I spend more time than I should moving dogs from one place to another. From the shelter to the foster. From the foster to the vet to the specialist to the trainer to the adopter, and various waypoints in between. Last week, I found myself on the 101 freeway, transitioning to the 210 to the 57 to the 71 to the 60, like in some latter-day Joan Didion homage. Then I returned the same way I came.
PARTICIPATING IN SHELTER AND RESCUE INDUSTRY MEETINGS. You can’t spend a lot of time in shelters and not want change. I’m a member of the American Pets Alive Human and Animal Support Services (HASS) Technology working group, a co-chair of the Best Friends Data Standardization committee, and I attend regular meetings with Maddie’s Fund and other industry groups. Shelter reform is my jam—I even wrote an ebook about it. If we can help define what the future of animal welfare looks like, we can help make it happen.
THANKING OUR DONORS. We have amazing donors, and we don’t take them for granted. In fact, we launched our newsletter, The Outta the Cage Gazette, to stay in touch with our supporters, and we thank our donors by name every month. Without them, there are some amazing dogs in homes who would still be in shelters.
Like most rescues, we started Outta the Cage because we liked helping animals, but the administrative work goes with the territory. If you’re considering starting a rescue, then read this. Then get crackin’ on filing that paperwork!
