What We Learned Visiting Shelters in North Carolina

What We Learned Visiting Shelters in North Carolina

After a week in North Carolina visiting 6 shelters, we learned a lot. Despite now visiting over 100 shelters, each visit teaches me something new about the challenges of saving dogs in the south and/or reminds me of some of the solutions. As exhausting as it can be, every single trip reinforces why we go…

Heading Into the New Year with Hope for Our Shelters
| | |

Heading Into the New Year with Hope for Our Shelters

Who Will Let the Dogs Out started after Nancy and I began visiting southern shelters to learn where all the dogs were coming from and why. We didn’t know how to fix the problem, but we knew we wanted to help. So we used the only skills we had – writing and photography. As we…

What We Learned Touring Twelve Shelters
| | | |

What We Learned Touring Twelve Shelters

Every shelter tour is hard, amazing, inspiring, heartbreaking, and exhausting, but I always learn more about the crisis of so many unwanted dogs in our country. This time we made 12 shelter visits in four states, bringing our total shelter visits to 95! Over the next few months, I will share the stories of the…

Shelter Tour Wrap Up: Where We Went and What We Learned
| | | | | | | | | |

Shelter Tour Wrap Up: Where We Went and What We Learned

Every time we go to the shelters, I learn something. This time was no different. We’ve been to over 80 shelters now, so you’d think they would all look alike. In a few ways (dogs in need, incredible people) they are, but in so many ways they are unique. One of the projects we are…

Off We Go on Shelter Tour!
| | | | | | | | |

Off We Go on Shelter Tour!

We leave for our shelter tour in two days. As always, I’m excited but nervous and slightly overwhelmed. There are so many details, so many new people, new places, and hundreds of miles to drive. Often when I reach out to a shelter director or Animal Control officer about a possible visit, they are skeptical….