What does it take to save an animal? A Tale of Two Dogs

Animals live 15 or even 20 years. Shelters and rescues aim to adopt animals to "forever" homes, yet there is a constant supply of animals being surrendered to the same shelters and rescues. Clearly, something doesn't add up! In animal welfare, people tend to measure success by the numbers, taking a short-term view: an animal placed is an animal saved. This limited view is often blind to the pitfalls in our system.

Dodi and Outlaw are beautiful, intelligent, and personable dogs who spent portions of their lives on the adoption circuit before coming to Home for Life®. Both dogs began their lives in loving homes.

Like almost every animal at Home for Life, they lost their homes and then circulated through the animal welfare system before arriving at our sanctuary. Their parallel tales illustrate how the uncertainties of a system that is captive to a short­ term view has left dogs and cats like them invisible and at risk.

Outlaw when he first arrived at
Home for Life; broken, ill,
blind and desperate.

OUTLAW
A five year old Australian Cattle Dog, Outlaw lost his first home at three years of age when his elderly owner was dying of heart disease and cancer. He was surrendered to a shelter to face his fate with his favorite toy, a bucket he loved to toss around playfully. The shelter found a quick placement for the playful and friendly dog, referring him to a rescue specializing in herding breeds like Outlaw. The shelter counted him among the saved in their quarterly tally, and so did the breed rescue when they found what they thought was a responsible and good home for the dog.

Dodi at Home for Life

DODI 
A Harlequin Great Dane, Dodi lost her first home at just 6 months of age, when she was surrendered to animal control due to epilepsy. She was facing euthanasia, but luckily a breed rescue stepped in to save her. The rescue group found a match for her and sent her off to her new home. The new owners had other Great Danes and were committed to providing a good home.

Outlaw's "forever" home was sadly, just the beginning of an odyssey filled with suffering and heartbreak. Instead of providing a stable and loving home, his new owner soon handed Outlaw off to someone else. The shelter and rescue that had handled the adoption were unaware of Outlaw's new circumstances. As far as they knew, he was enjoying a full life with all the opportunities that a committed owner could provide.

Dodi's adoption also turned out to be temporary . Her new owners found that she was too much for their household. After a year, they chose to entrust her to their pet sitter, who said that she knew how to manage Dodi's epilepsy.

Outlaw's third owner proved as unstable as the previous one. Within weeks, Outlaw found himself back in the cage of another shelter.

Dodi's new situation was a quick failure. The pet sitter was soon looking to unload the young dog. She contacted Home for Life and complained that Dodi had uncontrollable seizures despite being medicated, that she feared adult men, and ran away every chance she got. Crated for periods during the day, she went to the bathroom in her kennel and would spin, creating a terrible mess. The pet sitter called Dodi unmanageable and said that if Home for Life wouldn't take her, then she would end up being euthanized.

Home for Life considered Dodi's long range prospects: the 18 month old dog had already been in three homes. Given her large size, her chronic illness, and her negative rap sheet, it would not be easy to find a stable long-term placement for her. It was a big commitment given her young age, but that's the special role that a sanctuary fills. Dodi was accepted at Home for Life.

Outlaw's magnetic personality and appealing looks made him easy to place. The shelter where he had landed was soon drawing up new adoption papers and sending him off to yet another "forever" home, recording the placement in their quarterly data as another life saved.

Dodi settled in easily at Home for Life and began to build a social life with some of the other big dogs at the sanctuary. Her epilepsy was quickly brought under control, and she stopped having seizures.

Outlaw, meanwhile, was once again dumped back in a shelter. His fourth forever home had proven as temporary as the previous ones.

Dodi at the Masonic Children's Hospital Thanksgiving Party
Shown with a young patient and Vikings Quarterback, Sam Bradford

Dodi thrived at Home for Life. She was enrolled in the Renaissance program, one of Home for Life's community outreach services, where she built a solid working partnership with a student from Boys Totem Town School in St. Paul, MN. This young man helped her to overcome her fear of men, and in return, Dodi helped her training partner to develop self­-confidence and important skills in leadership and teamwork . With the young man's help Dodi earned her Canine Good Citizenship diploma, certifying her for participation in Home for Life's many other outreach programs.

The Invisible Animals 

Dodi in her role as a therapy dog

Dodi is now ten years old. It's hard to imagine that a dog weighing over 100 pounds could be an invisible animal, especially one with two different colored eyes and a flashy black and white fur coat. But this well recognized, well loved therapy dog nearly fell through the cracks to her death at just over one year of age, unwanted, overlooked and as far as her rescue prospects were concerned -  invisible. With the stability and individual care she receives, she has been transformed from an unwanted, invisible dog into a valuable member of society. She is now able to "pay it forward" through our community outreach programs, Peace Creatures®. She is a well-recognized and popular therapy dog who has provided solace and joy for nearly 8 years to hospitalized children at the nationally renowned Masonic Children's Hospital on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Invisible no more, she is regularly invited to the holiday celebrations hosted by the Minnesota Vikings for pediatric patients at the hospital.

Outlaw, the eminently adoptable dog, continued to move from home to shelter to new home to rescue for many more months. In just two years, Outlaw went through NINE placements in three different states trying to find his forever home.

With each placement, he was counted as a life saved. Somewhere between the quick hand-offs, he developed diabetes that went untreated. At last he landed in an Iowa shelter a badly broken dog, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. He was emaciated and blind from untreated diabetes ... and no longer adoptable . The good news is that Outlaw reached Home for Life in the nick of time and will never be put at risk again. He has truly found his home. His diabetes is under control, and his pancreatic endocrine insufficiency is now being managed by supplements and a special diet. Somewhere in the national statistics of saved dogs and cats, there are 9 tally marks recording Outlaw's painful journey through the system.

Outlaw smiling again!

Outlaw is smiling once again, energetic instead of forlornly hanging his head in defeat and desperation. This summer, the cataracts (caused by the uncontrolled diabetes) will be surgically removed, and this 5-year-old dog will be able to see again!

Who was the dog that was truly saved? Was it Outlaw, who was adopted 9 separate times but never rescued? Or was it Dodi, who has lived in health, peace, and happiness at Home for Life for the past 9 years; who has developed her potential, built lasting relationships with people and other dogs, and  who has contributed to her community through Home for Life's Peace Creatures outreach programs?

What Does It Take to Save An Animal? 
Most people in animal welfare know the motto: "Saving one animal won't change the world, but it will change the world for that one animal." What many don't understand is that when an animal comes to a care-for-life sanctuary, our commitment is for the long haul. We don't turn over the animals through adoption, and we don't benefit from adoption fees, which often represent a huge portion of a typical animal rescue or shelter's annual revenue - as much as 35-90%. It takes more than good intentions and mercy to help animals who come to Home for Life. Lives once overlooked or fallen victim to indifference, meanness, cruelty and despair are restored. Our special cats and dogs have gone on to live happy and peaceful lives at our sanctuary, a testament to what can be accomplished when those who love animals and care about them work together!

At the time of our founding, almost 20 years ago, and contrary to current practice, Home for Life opened our doors to animals like Dodi, deemed to have little or nothing to offer. Today we still welcome cats who are feral or who are positive for leukemia. We welcome dogs even when they are unsocial or incontinent.

Today, in 2017, we care for nearly 200 dogs and cats at our sanctuary facility in Star Prairie, Wisconsin, located on 40 acres long the Apple River. Our dogs and cats have come to use from all over the United States and even other countries. With requests for help from all over the world, the need for sanctuaries has never been more urgent.

Outlaw playing at Home for Life

While Home for Life celebrates adoption of dogs and cats who truly find their "forever" homes, as a care for life sanctuary, Home for Life is uniquely able to help animals like Dodi and Outlaw when all alternatives are closed to them. Although these dogs seemed highly adoptable at points in their journey, that option became closed to them and recycling through the rescue system became pointless and detrimental. Their stories of hope, redemption, and finally a path to a new life would not have been possible without sanctuary, the Third Door, a Home for Life.

The Adventures of Debbie and Dodi

This guest blog post has been written by Home for Life volunteer Debra Peterfeso. Together with Home for Life resident Dodi, an epileptic harlequin Great Dane, Deb represents Home for Life as a steadfast, compassionate  volunteer with our Sit*Stay*Heal Program,which provides solace and joy through healing pet therapy to hospitalized children and adults. Most of these patients have serious and even terminal illnesses and face long term hospitalizations. 

Home for Life believes our at risk animals can help at risk people. We believe that the uncondiitonal acceptance and love provided by a dog can heal and enhance the lives of the people we touch through our innovative,model community outreach programs. Home for Life animals like Dodi are ambassadors for our mission; anyone who meets one of our special needs animals through our outreach programs can never again dismiss them as unworthy of life just  because they couldn't live in a conventional adoptive home.   

Dodi came to Home for Life as an 18 month old young dog who was facing euthanasia due to uncontrolled epilepsy and separation anxiety. She routinely ran away from home at any opportunity.   She had already been in three homes, an animal control facility and Great Dane rescue by the time she came to Home for Life. Frankly , we were not enthused about accepting Dodi at Home for Life with all her problems,but couldn't see a dog of barely one year of age being put to sleep without at least trying our best to help her. It turned out that Dodi's epilepsy was not controlled because she was not reliably receiving her medications. At Home for Life, Dodi has never had a seizure. What's more she has never tried to run away. She loves the sanctuary and her dog friends. Once she settled in to life at the sanctuary we enrolled her in our Renaissance Program,where, working with a student from Boys' Totem Town, she learned basic obedience and worked on developing the skills to pass her test for certification as a therapy dog. After successfully graduating from the Renaissance Program, Dodi met Deb who visited Home for Life during one  of our open houses. They soon began working together to attain certification as a therapy dog team through  Therapy Dog, Inc.  and have become a welcome, well recognized and well loved presence at the  University Hospitals ever since.

Every other week Deb meets Dodi( she is driven in from Home for Life in Star Prairie WI by our staff to meet Deb at the hospital in Minneapolis) at the University of Minnesota Hospitals to visit each and every patient who wants to meet them as well as family, doctors,nurses and even a celebrity or two 
( see photo of  Minnesota Vikings Center John Sullivan with Dodi below;he was visiting patients while Dodi was there and was thrilled to meet her!) The candid photos,taken by Deb and included with this blog post are just some of the patients Deb and Dodi have met during their every other weekly visits;the joy they  bring to the children and adults they meet is evident.
    
Deb and Dodi are also featured  in the video below: Paying it Forward: Home for Life Animals Give Back to Kids 

Follow Deb on Twitter @italiangirlmpls
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“She’s so BEAUTIFUL”!  I’ve heard that phrase hundreds of times. 

Before questioning the size of my ego, I should explain, that those words are describing Dodi, Home for Life’s Harlequin Great Dane, upon meeting her adoring public.  Quite often, the next words I hear are “how much does she weigh”? 

Dodi is a registered therapy dog who regularly visits the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital as part of Home for Life’s Sit*Stay*Heal Program.

Dodi’s beauty was captured in a portrait painted by artist Paul Sansale of Rescue Dog Art (rescuedogart.com).  Dodi was featured as the November dog in the 2013 Rescued Heroes Calendar, which highlights and celebrates rescue dogs who are now therapy dogs (and 1 dog that is a service dog for an Iraq war veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder).  


I wish I could take photos of the faces of passersby when Dodi enters through the hospital doors --starting with the valet parking attendants, to the information desk staff, and the security guard–every face lights up when Dodi arrives.  The children walking through the lobby are so surprised to see a dog in the hospital, especially one the size of Dodi. 

Dodi greets Zachary, at a visit
at Amplatz children's Hospital, Minneapolis
See Zachary's Facebook page

 On a visit shortly before Christmas 2012, Dodi and I had just walked through the main entrance at Amplatz when we were stopped by a woman who asked if she could say hello to Dodi.  I responded “of course, this is Dodi, a therapy dog who is here to visit patients.”  As she patted Dodi on the head, and then hugged her tightly, I noticed tears in her eyes.  She told me that she had been at the hospital for over two weeks with her daughter, and that she missed her two Bassett hounds that were at home on the East Coast.  Her daughter was a patient in the bone marrow transplant unit, which is an isolation unit, and visitors are not allowed.  Even though her moments with Dodi brought tears to her eyes, I know this Mom’s tears were because of her daughter’s condition, but also missing the comfort of her own “furry kids.”  And that is exactly what a therapy dog’s job is—to provide comfort, to elicit a smile, a moment of pure joy—in the hospital environment.

Dodi and I went on our way to the hospital floors.  On the fifth floor, the staff at the nurse’s desk greeted Dodi with big smiles, as usual.  We always stop at the nurse’s station to check-in with the charge nurse to see if there are any special requests by patients wishing to visit with a therapy dog, or a patient who they think would benefit from a visit.  Some of the patients at Amplatz have been hospitalized for many weeks or months.  The nurses often know their patients’ backgrounds, and if they have a pet at home, and those patients are especially happy to visit with Dodi.

Dodi and I started our room visits, and after I knocked on the door, Dodi marched in, anxious to see who was inside.  Dodi usually stops at the first person she encounters once in the room.  The first lucky recipient to see Dodi’s sweet face in that room was a young doctor.  He smiled at Dodi and asked if hospital staff were allowed a “little therapy” from this visitor? 

I know that the hospital staff also enjoy visiting with Dodi, and their smiles belie this fact. 

Paying it Forward: Home for Life animals give back to kids featuring Deb & Dodi!

Dodi with Chloe at Amplatz

Another young doctor was in the room, and he asked if we could come with him to visit a patient.  The doctors and nurses had been unsuccessful in convincing an adolescent girl to get up and move around following her surgery.  As Dodi entered, the young patient, who was alone in her room, smiled brightly and practically jumped out of the chair!  She was so happy to visit with Dodi, she didn’t even notice that she had been standing and walking around the room for several minutes.  Needless to say, the doctor was quite pleased with this development and commented “this is why I love therapy dogs.” 

While in that room, a nurse stopped in and requested that Dodi come back to a room we had visited earlier, so the patient could have a “photo shoot” with Dodi.  Just a day in the life of Dodi, the therapy dog! 



Dodi with an adult patient at the
University of Minnesota Hospital, Main Campus,
Minneapolis

I often wonder if Dodi knows how much joy she brings to the kids she visits at the hospital.  I do believe that animals, and dogs in particular, have an innate sense to please.  Therapy dogs, like Dodi, often possess the instinct to connect, to provide healing in their own way, to nuzzle up to a child, sometimes with a big kiss on the face!  I also wonder if she ever feels emotional, as I do, when we visit a child who is receiving cancer treatment, has lost his/her hair, appears pale and fragile, and is in obvious pain.  It breaks my heart to see a child suffering from a serious illness, and that is the difficult part of volunteering at a children’s hospital.  I find myself bravely trying to smile in those instances, to be strong in front of the patient.  But when I see a smile on a child’s face when he or she interacts with Dodi--that smile is the BEST part of volunteering.

We often consider something as easy as a smile to be simply a facial movement.  I have lost track of the number of times a parent has thanked me for visiting with Dodi because they have not seen their child smile in a long time, until Dodi came to visit.  It may seem insignificant to some, but to the parent of a child who is hospitalized--seeing their child do something as small as smile at big dog--that little smile means the world to them. 

Summer in the big meadow at Home for Life

Winter in her pony coat at HFL



Dodi with John Sullivan ,
Center for the Minnesota Vikings,
and his wife Ashley,at Amplatz 

It’s an honor for me to be on Dodi’s therapy dog team; but, to be perfectly honest, Dodi does all the magic . . . I just hold her leash! 

As I was writing this blog, its theme presented itself to me—a smile.  And I thought of the song Smile, by the inimitable Nat King Cole, a favorite of my parents.  The words may be simplistic, but are relevant, and timeless. 

Dodi with two of the MN Vikings cheerleaders

Smile, though your heart is aching,

Smile, even though it’s breaking

When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by

If you smile, through your fear and sorrow

Smile, and maybe tomorrow

You’ll see the sun come shining through for you

Light up your face with gladness

Hide every trace of sadness

Although a tear may be ever so near

That’s the time you must keep on trying

Smile, what’s the use of crying?

You’ll find that life is still worthwhile

If you just SMILE