Rescue Remedy

Three year old hound Caden, came to Home for Life® from the Anti Cruelty Society in Chicago in 2018. Caden is a Southern boy, born in Alabama, who traveled north to Chicago to try his luck to find a home, an opportunity that had eluded him in Alabama. Although such a young dog, Caden was very underweight when transferred to Chicago from the Alabama shelter, was positive for heart-worm and also had what appeared to be a dislocated left hip. He arrived at the Anti Cruelty Society facility in February of 2018. There the Society's veterinary staff treated his heart-worm and obtained x-rays of his left leg and hip. Caden became a staff favorite with his gentle face and humble demeanor.

Caden at Home for Life®, Late Summer, 2018 

For months, Anti Cruelty personnel tried to find an adopter for Caden or a rescue to take him on. But no one was interested.  Was he not distinctive enough? too big? too old? too young? a mixed breed hound? Was it the medical history? His photos that, when shared and networked, failed to convey what a good dog he was - a dog who would never have a chance as the months went by and NOT ONE individual or rescue group from around the country expressed any interest in him. It was crickets wherever the staff at Anti Cruelty turned to find him a place, whatever avenue they tried.

Finally, the week came when those who must make the tough calls at the shelter told the rescue coordinators and staff that they would have to let go of Caden, and give up the hope that he could find rescue. He was to be euthanized and his date was scheduled, before the July 4 holiday when the shelter staff knew from experience they would see many new animals admitted and surrendered. Caden had been in the shelter kennels for months with no interest and other dogs needed to come in and have their chance too. It made logical sense but was a heartbreak for all those involved, to see Caden fall through the cracks despite their best efforts. The kennels of this inner city shelter, all enclosed, and with no access to the outdoors, were a hard place for a young dog to be month after month, designed as temporary holding for dogs who would be moving on to a home, to a  rescue, not designed for long-term care.

The day before Caden was scheduled to be euthanized, a friend and colleague at Anti Cruelty reached out to Home for Life®, one last time, to plea for Caden's life. We had previously turned her down, believing that a three-year-old dog could be adopted. Right? But he had not been, and was not going to be alive next week if help wasn't offered and soon. Caden could be defined as "adoptable" and it had seemed as if he was, should be but  how did that definition  help him? It had no applicability to his life that now hung in the balance if no one wanted him, and no one would help him.The reality is an animal is NOT adoptable if no one wants him. Unwilling to stand by while this good dog, 3-year-old Caden's loss of life became another statistic.  Home for Life® hastily put together a transport for him and welcomed him just a few days later, the week of Independence Day, fittingly. Two volunteers drove two legs of a transport on the July 4th holiday weekend to get him safely to Home for Life®.

"Rescued" in animal welfare is not the same thing as being saved. Look at Caden: he had been "rescued" twice: first by the Alabama shelter, then by the shelter in Chicago. Those are the rescues we know about. In addition, he had had at least two adoptive homes - all by the age of three.

But rescued animals are in transition. That transition to a destination, a hoped for home, is predicated upon the rescues' ability to market and turn over the dogs - the model is exactly premised on the retail market place where consumer goods are advertised, showcased and sold or turned over to make room for the next batch of inventory. The flaws with the model are revealed with cases like Caden who have traveled through the rescue circuit and yet had "rescue" elude them.

In over 20 years of Home for Life's® operation, it has been an interesting evolution to see more and more that it is the dogs and cats like Caden with nothing apparently "wrong" with them, who are in need of a care for life sanctuary whereas when we started the sanctuary, it was often the obviously disabled or animals with medical conditions who were in need of our help. Now there is often drama, high praise, money and recognition surrounding the "rescue" of these kinds of animals while other animals like Caden - and his friends in the video below - Home for Life's® Dagney, the St Bernard; Snowbelle, the shy shepherd mix; and Xerxes, the senior shepherd/wolf hybrid - twist in the wind, with no help or avenues for help available to them. Maybe it's social media and the need to have a visual impact with a very extreme case in order to be heard above the noise. Maybe with so many rescue organizations, competition is driving this circumstance - the more extreme and dramatic the "rescue," the more heart wrenching, the greater the leverage for donations: "look at us - we can help even this animal!" It was interesting that in the months that Caden was available yet overlooked by all rescues, there was an English Bulldog who came through the same Chicago shelter, with many health issues, yet who had organizations climbing over each other to "rescue" him - while Caden was completely ignored.  Rescues compete to scoop up a particularly sympathetic case, knowing what that will mean for donor goodwill and ensuing financial support. The public assumes if a rescue can help the very extreme cases, then the average cat or dog is surely finding placement. But it is turning out that these "normal" ones ARE the animals that are in need of help, but not finding it with "rescue." And they are the ones, the invisible animals, who are being left with nowhere to turn, and often dying untimely deaths by euthanasia because they are passed up for help and "rescue."

Meet another dog who really needed a Home for Life®, the 3rd Door in animal welfare. You might imagine it's Mana, the 2-legged dog in the wheelchair. No, the dog who really needed sanctuary was her friend Pickles, the black lab/shepherd mix. At the age of 5 years, Pickles had exhausted options available to him in a rescue world predicated on adoption and based on a market place model

First adopted out as a puppy with his sister Olive, Pickles lost his home when only age 4 when the family split up and lost their house. Pickles and Olive were fortunate to be accepted by the Minnesota organization Rescued Tails, who enrolled them in their innovative prison program at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility where dogs live with the inmates and received dog training and socialization to prepare them for placement. Both dogs did pretty well although they didn't like people in reflective vests. Rescued Tails was able to find the siblings a home together, and Olive remains in that home to this day. But Pickles had a more difficult adjustment, and was returned from his adoptive home after he was alleged to have leaped at a delivery man and grabbed a man while on leash on a walk. Although it wasn't a "bite," it was still a worrisome incident for Pickles' adoptive family and a situation they didn't want to deal with again. However, The rescue was full, so Pickles had to go to a foster home. There he stayed for the next several months, well and lovingly cared for, but crated for many hours a day with a foster who worked full time and with other dogs in the home who were dog aggressive. Although the rescue highlighted Pickles on their social media channels and on their website, stressing that he was in need of an urgent adoption, there were no takers - and no interest in him. 

So - there was Pickles, age 5 - not a young dog but not a senior either. Not ready for hospice care.  He had been adopted twice, been in rescue and two foster homes (counting the prison) and now was without options. What was his fate? to reside in a crate in the home of his foster, for the rest of his life, hoping for the magical day when he might get adopted? As a middle aged, black, large and mixed breed dog, full of energy, his placement prospects were very bleak.

Pickles at Home for Life®, late fall 2018

It's  often not the disabled or old or those that derive from dramatic circumstances like natural disasters or extreme abuse (for example the dog meat trade rescues) who desperately need sanctuary, the 3rd Door of animal welfare, but dogs and cats like Pickles - the regular animals who find themselves boxed out of the animal welfare discussion and without options. Dogs and cats like Pickles who have been through multiple placements and who lose their home(s) through no fault of their own are not unusual at Home for Life®.(https://homeforlifesanctuary.blogspot.com/2017/05/what-does-it-take-to-save-animal-tale.html)

Pickles does so well at Home for Life® and we have seen none of the problem behaviors that he was accused of in his previous home. He IS a very energetic guy who loves to run and play and would probably find life hard to bear in a home without an opportunity for plenty of exercise and play. But at Home for Life®, with the chance to go in and out via a dog door from his townhouse whenever he wants, and friends like Mana to play with all day long, he is able to work off that exuberance through appropriate outlets. His foster worked with him and he is very responsive to all treats, always has a big smile on his face and a happy bark for us. He sits nicely for attention and pets, his tail wagging, in anticipation, at top speed like a cartoon dog.

Pickles is just one of the "invisible animals" of rescue who recycle through adoptions, fosters and shelters multiple times in their short lives, yet fail to find help in a system that is often unable to offer them any recourse.

To see Pickles and learn about his story shines a light on a widespread phenomena in animal welfare which leaves scores of cats and dogs just like him adrift with their lives at risk in the name of “rescue.” It's real, rather than data. As a care-for-life sanctuary, standing at the end of the funnel, so to speak, we hear about cases like his that may escape the notice of the average animal lover with a passing acquaintance with “rescue.”  Read more about the invisible animals of rescue: https://homeforlifesanctuary.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-invisible-animals.html

When Home for Life began, our focus was helping cats and dogs who were not candidates for adoption - generally speaking, these animals were old, had disabilities or medical issues - sometimes all three together. They were the invisible animals of rescue, and in those days, held in the back at shelters and never offered for placement to the public due to their unique needs. Other animals had behavior issues as well that exempted them for placement, and these too often never saw the light of day on the adoption floor. No one of the public was the wiser because these animals were unseen at the shelters or rescue. The invisible animals. At the sanctuary, when asked by some of these rescues or shelters for help we did our best to assist as many as we could and gave them a loving home for life, as our name indicates. There were so few organizations doing what we did, and we had requests from all over the world for help.

Fast forward to today: we are still helping the animals with extraordinary medical needs, the older animals and those disabled, as well as animals with behavior concerns. We have several pending requests as we speak. Our cats and dogs still come to us from near and far: we have animals from China, Mexico, Taiwan , Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Tunisia, Thailand and India as well as most of the states of our country.

But, these days - something new is going on - we are finding a different sector of animals now desperate for help and being boxed out of rescue. These animals are dying in vast numbers.

Miss Kitty's profile from the impound
cats Facebook page  

One week at Home for Life® - just one week in cat rescue at Home for Life®, illustrates the house of mirrors that has become animal rescue. First, it was the late fall in 2018 and the deadline for three cats at the humane society on their "partner placement" list was imminent. Partner placement means that cats and dogs that the humane society does not believe are candidates for adoption through their program are offered to rescues and sanctuaries, to see if they can possibly find placement through a different organization, rather than be euthanized. The three cats available were an 18-year-old named Baby Girl,  an eight-year-old, Miss Kitty, who is a unique color for a female and who had been sassy when her back was petted ( turned out she had impacted anal glands), and two-year-old shy Jasmine, who had been bullied by another cat in her previous home and had occasionally failed to use the litter box. Which cat do you think needed Home for Life®? If you guessed the 18-year-old you would not be correct. This cat found placement with a rescue, but the deadline arrived without another organization among the 300 comprising the humane society's placement partners stepping up to help the younger cats. Guess which cats ended up at Home for Life®, in need of sanctuary? Are you surprised that the ones our sanctuary took in to spare their lives were: 2-year-old Jasmine and 8-year-old MIss Kitty?

Jasmine's profile from the
impound cats Facebook page

Later, that same week, we received a call from some woman in Hudson, WI who claimed she had been feeding a stray black and white cat in her development for months. She had looked on her neighbor hood watch websites, called around to see if he belonged to someone - he was friendly but appeared to be an abandoned pet as he had been hanging around the subdivision for months. She and others in the development were feeding him but no one wanted to adopt him for their own. Now the weather was getting cold, and what was worse, he was limping and appeared to be injured on the front leg. She did not want to turn him into the humane society. We asked her to check with local rescues and see if someone could help what appeared to be an adoptable cat who needed help, living outside and with an injury. Of those she called, not one called back except one organization who stated they could not help because they were full on adult cats. She plead with us again to help the cat, and due to the colder weather and his injury, we did.  And glad we did, Andy saw our vet the next day and turned out to be a neutered male, FIV+ and had been shot in the leg - he was limping because of the shrapnel pieces still visible on x-ray in his elbow joint. The injury was a couple of months old.

Now, here is where the story gets interesting - because also this same weekend, Home for Life® was asked to possibly help a 13-year-old blind cat who was at an impound and who was scheduled to be euthanized the next day. This was a cat you would think would really need the help of a sanctuary,  but, it turned out, this senior blind cat found " rescue." And which organization do you think helped him?  I bet you are as surprised as were to learn that it was the one rescue who did call the woman back but declined to help Andy, the injured cat from Hudson, because they were "full on adult cats." That's right, this organization instead took in a blind 13-year-old cat from an impound the next day. What?! Wouldn't this cat be considered a tougher case than the younger cat that was outside after all? Wasn't the cat from Hudson urgent and in need of rescue living outside and with an injury? Who needed a sanctuary - the 13-year-old-senior-blind ca t- or the young neutered black and white cat abandoned and now injured from being shot? Which cat was " rescued" - and which needed a Home for Life® or face a bitter winter outside with a hurt leg?

Andy At Home for Life®, January 2019 

In animal rescue today, there are  rescues specifically for old animals, rescues for blind animals, rescues for disabled animals. There are even animal rescues created specifically for dying animals who need hospice.  But with all these organizations and programs, there are still many dogs and cats who are not finding help in rescue, and who end up losing their lives.

Home for Life® was created to help at risk cats and dogs through responsive, cost effective model programs which are designed to react swiftly to the ever-changing landscape of unwanted animals, animals who cannot find help through conventional solutions offered by shelters and rescues.  Home for Life® was created to help those animals who fall through the cracks.

It's become clear that the kind of animals who are falling through the cracks, who are unwanted and without options, has changed. The rescue to adoption model is not working for many deserving dogs and cats, and they are dying because of this inability or unwillingness of the animal welfare system, as it currently exists, to respond to their plight. Although Caden, Pickles, Miss Kitty, Jasmine and Andy seemed highly adoptable at points in their journey, that opportunity became closed to them, even while four of them were wards of animal welfare organizations with strong adoption programs , and recycling them through the rescue system yet again was pointless and detrimental, like an endless loop. Insisting that these animals can be adopted, when they are passed by for rescue creates an infinite loop that will continue endlessly, unless an external intervention occurs.  The endless recycling results in a shocking loss of life of so many dogs and cats, more than caring people realize. For these animals, a new  model is called for, rather than insisting that a one-size-fits-all option of rescue to adoption will work.

 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 when all alternatives are closed to animals whose lives are at risk. The stories of Caden, and our other animals , profiles 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®. Care-for-Life sanctuary - the remedy for the gaps emerging in the animal welfare world that leaves so many vulnerable dogs and cats "rescued" but not saved.

The Invisible Animals

The photo of Zuzu we received from her former owner

This is Zuzu, originally adopted about 3 years ago from a large, well funded local (Twin Cities, MN) rescue that does a lot of importing of out of state animals for adoption here.So far so good; except, a few months after her adoption, Zuzu was struggling in her adoptive home and the new owner called and emailed the rescue for help - and never heard back. Nothing - not one word.

You wouldn't think small, adorable, white, young dogs like Zuzu with nothing apparently "wrong" with them would have ANY problem finding a home and keeping that home. But you would be mistaken.

Zuzu this spring at Home for Life

So, the owner soldiered on, doing her best - with the help of a trainer, a behaviorist and even working with a veterinarian who prescribed medication. Zuzu's owner worked hard, and everyone tried their best, including Zuzu. But as the owner described it, she had to be ever vigilant with Zuzu around neighbors, visitors, repairmen - this was a dog who feared strangers, and lacked confidence in unfamiliar situations. The last straw was when the owner lost focus momentarily when a neighbor stopped by, and Zuzu nipped the houseguest on the ankle. At this point Zuzu's owner - more than two years post adoption, was exhausted and just not able to cope anymore - managing Zuzu was taking huge amounts of energy and time. Once again she went back to Zuzu's rescue - because that’s what the adoption contract called for, and what adopters are supposed to do if their rescues don’t work out. THIS time she got a call back but the rescue declined to help and have Zuzu's return to them. No doubt, assuming that she was not going to be super easy to re-adopt out, they claimed they had no fosters available and therefore no opening for them to take Zuzu back into their organization - although they continued to bring truckloads of animals up from out of state each week. Zuzu was the third dog from this rescue that Home for Life was asked to help in the space of four months after the adoptions failed, the organization would not take the dogs back and in two instances, told the adopter to put the dog to sleep. Zuzu is now at Home for Life and for that reason, she eluded that fate, and because she is with us, her story is known and her photos seen.

We call dogs and cats like Zuzu the invisible animals, and they are legion in rescue. They are like refugees who have lost their home, but who stand a slim to none chance of being “rescued” and landing anywhere to have safety and a new beginning. What happens to the dogs and cats like Zuzu, who have reached their expiration date, who have been recycled thru rescue, been "rehabilitated" yet lose their home, their appeal - and are rejected from organizations and shelters focused on adoption? What do you think happens to most of them? Turned in to animal controls or shelters for euthanasia or quietly put down in veterinarian offices - yet they have been counted in the "Saved" columns by their rescues who adopted them out. But were they ever truly safe?

It's not our intent to single out one organization out for blame or attack but to shine a light on a widespread phenomena in animal welfare which leaves scores of cats and dogs adrift with their lives at risk in the name of “rescue” . As a care for life sanctuary, standing at the end of the funnel, so to speak, when animals can’t find a new home but shouldn’t be put down, we hear about cases that may escape the notice of the average animal lover with a passing acquaintance with “rescue”. Because the truth is, everywhere animals are being “rescued” but not truly saved, and there is a difference.

Jasmine's intake photo from the humane society

Consider another recent case - Jasmine. A flame point Siamese mix, age 3, she was turned in to the humane society by the adult daughter when her elderly mother passed away. Jasmine’s owner had died in February 2017 and the daughter had cared for the cat until late August. She turned her in because Jasmine, a shy cat who was good about her litter box habits, and basically a sweet girl, missed her former owner, was timid and resistant to getting to know the other animals of the household. She had been kept separated from them and according to the daughter had not adjusted well. At the humane society, Jasmine was very shy and afraid and pressed herself to the back of her cage. Because she was not social, the humane society placed her on the rescue request list: this is a list of animals deemed unable to be placed thru the humane society shelters who are then offered to rescue partners. The goal is that rather than having to euthanize these animals, independent rescues approved by the humane society can take on these cases. The hope is that in a different setting such as a foster home, out of the shelter environment, the animals might come around and have a chance to ultimately find an adopter.
Here is Jasmine’s photo and information received by rescues from the humane society:


Jasmine
Breed: Siamese mix
Sex: Female
Age 3 years
Weight (pounds) 9.8 pounds.
Sterilization Status: Spayed
Declawed (felines) N/A

Reason not placeable in shelter setting:

Medical: Per surrender: overall very healthy cat, brought her regularly to the vet clinic. Cat has been spayed and is microchipped. The only thing the surrender did note was in the past two weeks Jasmine has been itching her neck raw. She has a few patches of hair loss behind her left ear and under the left side of her chin.

Behavioral: Jasmine does not get along with resident pets. Jasmine belonged to surrender’s mother. Mother died February 2017, surrender has been taking care of cat since then. Jasmine has been staying in a bedroom since the cat came to live with her. Jasmine does not like resident cat and is afraid of the dogs. Surrender thinks she would do best as an only pet. Jasmine is afraid to be out of her room even when all of the animals are locked in another room. Has never had any litter box issues, did nip mother when she was done being pet, and has nipped at surrender before when she is done getting attention. Bites did not break skin. Otherwise very sweet girl, likes to be petted but will let you know when she is done, not a fan of being picked up.

Medical: Bright, alert, responsive. Body condition score 6/9. Oral: mild-moderate dental tartar and gingivitis throughout, 2 2-4 mm pink growths by teeth 206/7. Ears look fairly clean. Hair loss with wounds from scratching next to and below left ear. Remainder of physical exam unremarkable. Staff not been able to monitor if wounds are better or worse since intake due to behavior.

In Jasmine’s case however, none of the over 300 rescue partners of this humane society “tagged” Jasmine to claim her by the deadline. Maybe all the rescues thought, a three-year old Siamese mix would be claimed by someone. Everyone thought someone else would be able to help her. But when her date to be claimed by a rescue came and went, Jasmine, a three-year old, shy, pretty Siamese mix, was euthanized. Alone, afraid, her owner gone, Jasmine’s photo and case would not otherwise be known except for our sharing it here. Like so many cats and dogs, she is one of the invisible animals who lose their lives each year in the rescue system. As Kristin Auerbach wrote in an article that appeared in  The Huffington Post, "Stories of healthy cats and dogs whose lives are ended in shelters are rarely told. Animal shelter leaders worry about public criticism and internal organizational conflict. Virtually every one of the estimated three million pets dying in shelters are invisible to the public. No one ever knows their names or faces.”¹

The prevailing view in animal welfare fueled by advocacy organizations like Maddie’s Fund is that all animals are adoptable. By effective publicity bringing animals previously thought difficult to place to the attention of potential pet owners, it should be possible to place every animal. Dramatic cases are held out by shelters and rescues as indicative that they can really “#savethemall” and suggest that had Jasmine been the beneficiary of publicity and marketing or more of those , she too might have been able to find a home that was a perfect fit. If she had not been invisible she might have been saved.

Smokey, left, and River with their former owner

The case of two senior dogs who came to Home for Life in 2013 illustrates the limits of marketing and publicity, and creating drama around animals in need. It turns out public relations and drama won’t necessarily save animals from being or becoming invisible in the rescue world as it currently exists. River and Smokey were two dogs who were hardly invisible at the time their touching story went viral But after they were swept up by a rescue, placed in a foster home, kicked out of the foster home, ending up in a boarding kennel, they and their plight had been forgotten, and they were on the verge of being quietly put down, no one the wiser, but for a volunteer with the rescue who alerted Home for Life to their sad and desperate situation.

In the spring of 2013, you may have remembered reading about two special senior dogs, one blind and one deaf, whose owner had lost his home after his wife died. He desperately wanted to find a new home for his boys, one that would keep the two dogs together. Their owner described how he acquired both dogs when they were just puppies: “Smokey's mother was picked up by animal control when she was pregnant, so he was born into the "system." He came into my life when he was three months old. He turned blind about two years ago, but it hasn't stopped him from being a lovable guy. River was found floating down the Mississippi river, as a puppy. Hence, his name. They are both getting older, but are a great couple of dogs, and I so want to give them the opportunity to live out the rest of their days, together."

Smokey, left, with River in the lead at Home for Life

River and Smokey had been together since they were puppies. Now both age 11, the two big guys had become each other’s eyes and ears and relied on each other to navigate the world. Smokey, a collie/Doberman/Shepard mix, lost his sight about 2 years ago while River lost his hearing about the same time. Together since they were just about 3 months old, the dogs had forged a bond and were inseparable, depending upon one another to face the world: Smokey ears for River and River eyes for Smokey. Their story touched the hearts of dog lovers around the country, as their story went viral, and their owner desperately looked for a safe landing for his dogs before he lost his house.

The owner contacted Home for Life to help the dogs, but we were at capacity so, we asked him to hang on to them until his house was sold, in the hope we would be able to work them in a few months. But he worried that he was not providing the care and attention the dogs needed given his demanding work schedule and continued to look for a rescue to help his dogs. We assumed that River and Smokey were going to stay with their owner until his house sold. Time marched on, and when we didn't hear back from the owner we lost track of the two dogs when as a result of the publicity their story generated a rescue took them in.

A still from the KARE-11 feature of the 2 dogs in the rescue foster home

The rescue assigned the two brothers to a foster home in Bloomington, Minnesota and attained publicity via many news and internet outlets including KARE 11 news, a major news outlet her in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. On the feature story that aired on KARE11, the foster pledged that Smokey and River would remain together forever whether that meant they stayed in the foster home or found a new adoptive home.

The next information we heard about them was about four months later, when a supporter contacted us via Home for Life's Facebook to see if we would take the dogs. The supporter volunteered with the local foster based rescue who had taken River and Smokey, and they were looking for a home for the two dogs where they could stay together. It turns out the foster, perhaps initially well meaning, had promised the two dogs could remain together in her home forever, if an adoptive home could not be found to take the pair and best friends. But this pledge could not be fulfilled when the foster home did not work out for Smokey and River. Smokey was alleged by to have chewed some woodwork in the foster home, and then the foster accused the two dogs - who had been comrades and friends for over 11 years - of fighting with one another. She gave the rescue less than 24 hours to remove the dogs from her home. The rescue had no other foster homes available and had no choice but to put the dogs into boarding - in separate kennel runs. Home for Life learned of the two dogs’ latest predicament after the volunteer from the rescue contacted us, recognizing that the dogs were deteriorating in the boarding kennel, losing weight and becoming depressed and despondent. With no foster for them, and no adoption prospects, there was serious discussion at the rescue of euthanizing the dogs. 
They had no future and no opportunity for another foster home let alone for adoption. River was having trouble walking without pain, and there was talk of putting him down. Smokey was physically better off but was lonely and afraid, without his brother in the unfamiliar setting and unable to see.

We decided that the two older dogs deserved to have a safe and peaceful home - together - for their last years, and this time decided not to pass up the second chance to help them. The two dogs came to Home for Life late in the summer of 2013 and were sore from arthritis, and very underweight. At Home for Life, with good care and reunited, the health and happiness of the two friends was restored and River lived until age 14, Smokey until age 15 - good long lives. (See more photos of River and Smiokey and see the blog post:   http://homeforlifesanctuary.blogspot.com/2013/10/what-ever-happened-to-smokey-river.html)

In recent years, rescues and shelters have now begun to promote animals with special needs for adoption, and there have been some well publicized cases, like that of River and Smokey, of special need animals finding homes. Such celebrated cases create an assumption that rescued animals with less dramatic situations, animals like Jasmine and Zuzu, are - of course - ALSO finding homes, yet, the data shows otherwise.

In the United States, more than four million dogs and still many more cats enter the shelter and rescue system each year. Millions each year do not get out alive; estimates are that up to two million dogs alone are destroyed.² It seems that there should be plenty of homes available for animals in shelters and rescues. In fact, in the case of dogs, Americans take in nearly eight million new puppies and dogs to their households each year as new pets. However, they are not getting these new pets from shelters or rescues. Though rescue groups have proliferated everywhere including the Twin Cities area where, at last count there were over 300 organizations almost all doing adoptions, animal welfare groups have not found an answer to save the lives of the two million unwanted dogs and many more cats who are killed each year when no one can be found to adopt them. Meanwhile, the pool of available dogs and cats has widened through publicity to include animals previously considered hard to place, such as older animals or those with disabilities or medical conditions. Nonetheless, if animals cannot successfully transition to an adoptive home, then rescues and shelters will not be a lifesaving option, no matter how many organizations there are.

With so many rescue groups, competition among organizations for “resources” has led to a market atmosphere with shelters and rescues as the new pet stores. This approach has seen groups importing dogs and cats from all over the country, as was the case with Zuzu, to meet the demand for the types of animals most likely to be adopted.³

It makes sense for groups to collaborate and relieve pressure on crowded shelters by sending some of their animals to facilities with more space or rescues with available foster homes. Many groups operate in this spirit. Yet the market force at work in the rescue community has driven some groups to treat animals as commodities in the name of sustaining their operation and attempting to meet the public demand for new pets of sought after breeds or types of animals.⁴ Success for rescues and shelters in this market model is measured by the “live release” rate. Overemphasis on this single metric has missed the whole point of the real welfare of a dog or cat. Shifting in and out of facilities and foster homes is not the same as being saved. A 100% live release rate does not explain what happened to the animals released from the impound or shelter, nor the ultimate outcome for the dog or cat. For example, statistics from the first quarter of 2016 for Midwestern shelters and rescues, (including the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Illinois) shows that 1500 cats were taken in from other agencies with 1100 transferred to another organization. For dogs, 2000 animals were taken in by reporting shelters and rescues from other agencies, with nearly half those dogs then transferred out to another organization, By the end of the year, 2016, the number transferred, nationwide, approached 400,000 animals.⁵ The numbers show that animals are being “placed” yet in many cases, placement just means transfer to another organization. Each transition in or out of a shelter or rescue group is counted and tallied as a separate “live release” by each group - the same animal - counted three times!

As far as the live release” rate is concerned, transition to another organization is the same as placement in an adoptive home. In reality, many “placed” animals are merely circulating through a system that emphasizes efficiency, revenue, and turnover, while paying little attention to the individual animal’s long term well being . The human-animal bond, supposedly justifying a companion animal’s worth, has been broken again and again as animals circulate through the adoption system, with dire long term consequences for many dogs and cats. Boxed out of an animal welfare discussion focused on live release is the fate of the 2500 animals euthanized during the first quarter of 2016 according to the Midwestern regional data reported,  and the over 400,000 animals nationwide,who, in 2016, according to the reporting shelters and rescues, were euthanized by these organizations or surrendered by their owners to organizations to be put down.⁶ As Kristin Auerbach noted in her article for the Huffington Post, their faces will never be seen, nor their stories known.

The belief persists that animals mainly matter as companions for humans. Many people are hard-pressed to imagine an animal could have a fulfilling life outside of a human home. The pressure to move animals through the system together with the fixation on adoption as the single best option for every animal denies many cats and dogs a humane alternative when they are rejected and overlooked for placement. In a system where shelters or rescues measure success according to how many adoptable animals get placed, there has been no solution for the “invisible animals” the cats and dogs who need help but who will not find it because they won’t contribute to the evaluation of performance based on live release metrics. The invisible animals are the natural outgrowth of the market place model predominating in animal welfare currently, and their default predicament reveals the limits of what can be achieved through aggressive adoption efforts and the expanded idea of the “adoptable”.

As the poet Maya Angelou wrote, “the ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go where we are not questioned." We believe that the longing for a place to belong, a home, exists in animals too.    Though the 3rd Door -care for life sanctuaries- could provide a home for at risk animals, we believe that the innovation of sanctuaries has not been widely recognized because that the dogs and cats so in need of this resource have - up to this point - been invisible.

Dr. Atal Gawande wrote in his article “Sharing Slow Ideas,” that the slow acceptance and application of good ideas, (such as 3^rd Door® care-for-life sanctuaries), has been the pattern of many important but stalled innovations. These are ideas which attack big problems that are nevertheless invisible to most people.⁷ In the world of animal welfare, the plight of so many invisible cats and dogs who fail to find homes, has continued to confound those charged with helping them. Home for Life’s innovative 3^rd Door, our care for life sanctuary, could make a huge difference for these animals. Yet the 3^rd Door solution has been slow to reach widespread acceptance and application.

How can animal welfare possibly hope to "save them all" without an option for dogs and cats like Zuzu and Jasmine and River and Smokey? It is for animals like them that we created Home for Life, the 3rd Door in animal welfare and by telling their stories to ensure  that they will never be invisible again.
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¹ Kristen Auerbach,”Shelter Hopes One dog’s Tragic Story Will Inspire You to Save Lives”, The Huffington Post, Dec,18,2016(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/shelter-hopes-one-dogs-tragic-story-will-inspire-you-us5856c85de4bOd5f48e1650b6)

² Kim Kavin, The Dog Merchants( New York:Pegasus Press, 2016),140,141

³ http://www.animals24-7.org/2015/11/17/why-we-cannot-adopt-our-way-out-of-shelter-killing/

⁴ For example buying puppies and pregnant dogs of desirable breeds from puppy mill auctions, selectively rescuing dogs of desirable breeds, sizes from impound and shelters

^5,6 http://www.shelteranimalscount.org/data/Explore-the-Data/dataset: annual numbers for the Midwest region disclose that gross intake was 155,325, with 45,712 of those as incoming transfers from other organizations.  Of live outcomes reported,13,244 animals are transferred out to other  `
organizations- 1/3 of the number of incoming transfers. 16,194 animals were euthanized by reporting organizations in 2016, representing more than 10% of gross intake. In other words, 20% of  the animals as represented by the gross intake of reporting shelters were either euthanized or shifted to another organizations.

7 Atal Gawande, M.D., “Sharing Slow Ideas,” The New Yorker, July 29, 2013.