Our Greatest Impact
This year marks five years for WWLDO, and we’re evaluating the impact we’ve had and mapping out a plan to greatly expand that impact. As part of that process, we recently polled some of the shelters we visited in the…
Tennessee
Overnight Success Twenty Years in the Making
Until 2004, the Unicoi County Animal Shelter on the eastern edge of Tennessee was a traditional dog pound—no adoptions, very few live releases. Enter Ellen, a current board member who changed the story and helped that dog pound become a…
Shelter Tour Was Inspiring: A Few Things We Learned
Last week’s shelter tour was inspiring. To be honest, I had braced myself, expecting the worst, as headline after headline declares shelters everywhere are overwhelmed. And yet, we met amazing people making the most of tough situations. For sure the…
Another County Depending on the Hearts of Remarkable Women
It’s a familiar story. A rescue comprised of remarkable women doing the job the county will not do. We’ve seen it all too often throughout the south. And every time, I leave with the same two thoughts – First, they…
Tiny Municipal Shelter Outside Nashville Has Only One Employee
In Robertson County, Tennessee, just outside Nashville, there are actually three municipal shelters. In addition to the Robertson shelter that I wrote about in the previous post, we also stopped at a tiny shelter ten minutes away— Greenbrier Animal Control.…
Visiting Tennessee Shelters With A Rescue Hero
While in Tennessee we spent a day with one of my favorite rescue women – Britt. Britt is a volunteer and outreach coordinator for CASA Transport . As part of that role, she spends a lot of time visiting dog…
CASA Transport Saving Thousands
Whenever we travel through Tennessee, we are lucky to have a homebase just outside of Nashville at the home of a rescue hero of mine. Laura Prechel is the mind and heart behind CASA Transport, which saved more than 2400…
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…
Animal Shelter with One Employee
It was a beautiful drive up to Mountain City, Tennessee. We followed a dead-end road up a hollow where it ended at the animal shelter. Mandy had told us to drive until the pavement ended and there would be the…
A Tale of Two Shelters
Private animal shelters often are built near public shelters to do the job that the tax-payer funded shelter is not. They literally rescue dogs from the public shelter. Why is more not expected from a government run shelter? Why do citizens pay for two shelters - one with their taxes and the other with their donations (and hearts)? And why, pray tell, do we allow this to go on?