It’s Time to Let the Dogs Out! After visiting over one hundred shelters, one thing we’ve realized is that too often people aren’t aware of what’s happening in their community’s shelter and sometimes they aren’t aware there is a shelter in their community. This is a recent message we received on Facebook: “…just wanted to…
WE’RE Letting the Dogs Out! Notes from our Founder, Cara Achterberg Three years ago, Nancy Slattery and I sat in a bar in Alabama, exhausted after another long drive and shelter visit. It was in that bar that we launched the idea of Who Will Let the Dogs Out and our mission to raise awareness…
“Why do you do this?” I asked Rose, the founder/director/doer-of-pretty-much-everything at Saving Webster Dogs. Rose shrugged, smiled, sighed, and said, “Somebody has to do it.” But, somebody doesn’t have to do it. In fact, nobody else in Webster County, West Virginia is willing to do what Rose does to save these dogs.
This month we are focused on the possibilities of shelter dogs. Too often people assume that shelter animals are ‘throwaway’ dogs with issues and health problems. That could not be further from the truth. We meet dogs all over the south who have landed in shelters through no fault of their own. Right now, pretty…
A few months ago, we visited Virginia Paws for Pits and had the pleasure of meeting Page Hearn, the founder and director, plus three lovely pups (all foster-fails). Page describes Paws for Pits as a low-volume, high-maintenance rescue. Page runs Paws for Pits out of her gym, Queen City Strength, in Staunton, Virginia. PFP is…
Our last stop on our January shelter tour was a tiny animal control facility beside the wastewater treatment plant in Live Oak, Florida. Mary, the sole ACO for Live Oak city shelter, was in the yard with a dog whose story haunted me the entire drive home. Mary picked up T-bone and another female dog…
“Are you a rescue?” This is the first question people ask when I tell them about Who Will Let the Dogs Out? I have to explain, that no, we aren’t a rescue, but we help rescues. We aren’t a shelter either, but we help shelters too. We don’t transport or train dogs. And we have…
Okay, let’s talk about something that’s super uncomfortable for me…. Money. I try hard to keep it in perspective. When my husband and I have to spend large sums of money on something truly un-fun or unexpected but necessary like a car or home repair, or we make a stupid mistake and waste money, or…
The smell is familiar to me now, but that hot August day in 2018 it overwhelmed my senses. The mix of disinfectant, urine, feces, mildew, and desperation was powerful, made even more so by the heat. Shelters, even the good ones, I’ve come to understand, have the same smell. I recognized it that first time…
Our second week on tour coincided with Hurricane Ida, which thankfully skirted around the places we planned to visit mostly dumping a bit of rain here and there. We were able to rearrange our visits and move our one all-day outside to after the weather passed thanks to the flexibility of many people. While our…
