Tomorrow, Nancy and I leave on our first shelter tour to the north!

We have four planned visits to organizations in three states. Our goal is to learn more about northern shelters and rescues.

We hope to discover:

• Why and how these organizations pull dogs from southern shelters, including the history, and how the nationwide surge in shelter populations is affecting them.
• Best practices that are helping them save lives, including enrichment, community engagement, and how they utilize volunteers/fosters.
• How our southern shelter/rescue partners can find transport partners, and the statewide regulations in place for pulling dogs from the south.
• How/if transports have changed in light of the overcrowding at shelters nationwide.
• What their intake policies are and how they serve their communities.

But as I said on our volunteer call last night, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”

It’s much like our first shelter tour south. This is an exploratory mission, and I believe it will help us be more effective advocates for our shelter/rescue partners, but I really have no idea what we will find, only that we will learn a lot.

If you’d like to follow along, you can find regular updates/images/videos on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You can find links to those places here.

We appreciate your good wishes for traveling mercies as we embark on a whole new kind of shelter tour.

In case you’re curious, here’s where we are going:

Animal Friends (Pittsburgh, PA)

Animal Farm Foundation (Hudson Valley of New York)

Better Together Dog Rescue (Western Massachusetts)

North Shore Animal League America (Long Island, New York)

Exciting News! Look for a redesigned and even more useful website coming in the next month!

And if you are in the western Tennessee area, consider joining us for Stronger Together West Tennessee on Saturday, October 25. More information coming soon!

One last thing, I have slowly been developing our podcast. It’s a new skill for me, so be patient, but it’s one more way for us to raise awareness. This past week’s episode offers an honest look at what is happening in our shelters and the hard choices we are facing.

There is a real crisis in our animal shelters. We need to count not just the number of animals coming into and out of our shelters, but the ones that are being turned away. Not counting them does not mean they don’t exist, or that they aren’t suffering. It’s time for real change in our shelter system.

#CountALLtheAnimals

Until each one has a home,

Cara

If you want to learn more, be sure to subscribe to our email list to get the latest stories and solutions delivered to your inbox. And help us spread the word by sharing this post with others. Visit our website to learn more.

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Who Will Let the Dogs Out: Stories and Solutions for Shelters and Rescues was published in January of 2025. It is filled with stories and ideas to help everyone be part of the solution. You can buy a hardback or paperback copy for yourself and/or buy a copy for a shelter or rescue through our website. It is also available on Amazon in paperback and ebook. We are seeking opportunities to present the ideas from the book and facilitate discussions on how we can collaborate to find solutions for our shelters. If you have a dog-hearted group that would like to connect, contact Cara@wwldo.org.

To see our Emmy-nominated, award-winning short documentary, Amber’s Halfway Home, click here.

Did you know we have a podcast? I’m working at getting regular episodes up, including the audio version of the new book, and interviews with shelter heroes we meet. Find the podcast on Spotify and other podcast services.

For more information on any of our projects, to talk about rescue in your neck of the woods, or partner with us, please email cara@WWLDO.org.

For links to everything WWLDO, including volunteer applications, wishlists, and donation options, check out our Linktree.