July 19, 2025 • 57 mins
In this episode of Our Community, host Candice Michel talks with Jennifer Alcorn, outgoing director of the South Coast Humane Society, and Cora Calloway, the shelter’s new manager, about the challenges of animal welfare in our area. They discuss the transition in leadership, the importance of community support through donations and fostering, and efforts to […]
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Episode Transcript
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(00:12):
Hi. I'm Candice Michelle, and this is our
community.
My guest today is one of those people
that I'm always glad to have back in
the studio.
She's a remarkable advocate for our four legged
family members, and she turned our local humane
shelter from okay
to spectacular.
Rescuing so many animals from high kill shelters,
(00:33):
transporting them here, getting them healthy, neutered, and
spayed, and finding wonderful, loving families for them.
I am just so pleased to welcome Jennifer
Alcorn back to the show. Always a pleasure,
Candace. It's great to have you. So I
also you brought your sidekick along, which I
think is absolutely wonderful. Absolutely. And this is
(00:53):
Cora Cluell,
who is your Manager. Manager. She is the
new manager since I since I moved away.
Yeah. When did you leave?
It's been a couple months now. It it
doesn't seem like it was that long, but
sometimes it feels like it's been forever. Yeah.
But I've been back a couple times because
I still have family in this area and
still acting as the interim director Good. In
(01:14):
this transition to ensure that the animals are
still doing what they need to do and
and trying to be a sound board for
for Cora so that if she needs help
in any way, I can I can even
if it's coming and cleaning kennels for her
Right? I can get over here on the
plane. Well, welcome aboard, Cora. Thank you. Yeah.
We'll have plenty more conversations.
Absolutely.
Yeah. So Thanks again. Jennifer.
(01:35):
Tennessee.
I mean, okay.
I know.
Beautiful. Right? I grew up back east. I
just wanna be as far west as I
can go. Where back east?
Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Okay. I went to Scranton once.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I bought the amateur national
finals, and I was like,
(01:56):
Scranton.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. It was interesting place. It's all grown
up a bit since I was there because
I, you know, I was there in the
sixties.
But,
yeah, I like the West Coast. I just
like being as close to the edge of
the continent
as possible. I hear you. It was a
(02:17):
it was a big change.
We moved over there. I actually do have
some family
in Saint Croix. My parents live in Saint
Croix. They had always lived on the East
or West Coast as well. Mhmm.
Farm family,
which was kind of odd. And then when
my brother and I moved out and moved
on,
they sold the property and they were doing
(02:38):
cruises and all this stuff and they relocated
to Saint Croix of all places. I'm like,
he moved to an island.
Like like, fifteen,
sixteen hours away from us. That's odd. Right?
Yeah. But then we decided that we were
gonna pick up and and do something we
haven't done before. It's the bible belt. Mhmm.
We we started going to a a really
nice Baptist church over there. Great. We have
(03:00):
really big property for all of my special
shelter dogs so that they don't bother anybody.
I love that. Yeah.
I mean, when you take on shelter animals,
especially the ones that I have taken on,
that's really a lifetime commitment. And I know
we say it's a lifetime commitment for all
animals, but the ones that I took from
my shelter,
they were large, number one.
(03:22):
All of them were over a 100 pounds
and had some some trauma in the past.
So not putting those dogs in a position
to fail is super important, not having a
neighbor right next door so that, you know,
there's a lot of reactivity
and all that good stuff.
They do well when I introduce people in
my home. Mhmm.
I take two out that need to go
(03:43):
out on a regular basis. They go out
with me every day on a six mile
walk Oh, yeah. Because they need it. Right.
And they were used to coming to work
with me every day. Oh. The other ones
are kinda lazy and don't really care and
lay around and, you know, they just wanna
be dogs. Yeah.
That's great. I mean, it really is just
it's super. And it's super to have that
much property that It is. They can run
(04:06):
and have a good time. Mhmm. When we
lived in California, we were we were right
next to someone all the time. Oh.
So that and then here,
we had neighbors and then I was at
the ranch property, which is really nice. Mhmm.
But not having someone right next door to
you is just really Oh, it's yeah. A
bonus. No. Absolutely.
(04:26):
My grandparents had a dairy farm in Pennsylvania,
and I'd go and spend
part of my summers there every every year.
And it was just
it was
miles,
it felt like. Okay? I have no idea
how many acres it actually was, but
and I could just I could walk all
day long on the country roads and not
(04:49):
see anybody, and, you know, I'd have the
farm dog hanging around with me. It yeah.
It was just
I like country living. I do. Yeah. Mhmm.
Yeah.
So Cora.
Yes?
So how did you get roped into this?
Well,
I'm a certified vet tech. Mhmm.
(05:11):
And, actually with,
I live in Crescent City. Mhmm. So I'm
a registered technician for California.
And, my doctor,
that I work for is retiring.
And,
I knew that they were having the
spay and neuter clinics up here. And so
I reached out to see if they needed
(05:31):
any help.
And so I started They always need help.
Yes. Yep. Yeah. So I got my organ
license so that I could come up here
and help out with that. So started with
that.
And then,
my doctor retired.
And then I talked to him about
coming up and doing wellness clinics,
(05:53):
to help out the community,
because, you know, it's it is hard to
get into.
It's
ridiculous.
Yeah. I wanted to get Daisy her,
you know, update and shots and stuff, and,
like, it was four months out. Yeah. Yeah.
And it's like that everywhere.
It's not just here. It's all across The
(06:15):
US, really. Wow.
So, I mean, we're
we're limited
on what we can do because we're not
a full service
veterinary office there at the shelter. But,
you know, we're we're glad that we can
offer
what we can,
to help out. And you're still doing nail
clippings?
Yes. Yep. Nailed things.
(06:36):
As far as I was concerned, that was
one of the most important things. Yes. Just
trying to hold your dog that's eighty five
pounds while you're, I mean Yeah. If if
they're not used to it, then, yeah, it's
always nice to be able to. And they're
a little,
less,
you know, they they'll allow us to do
things that they wouldn't necessarily
(06:57):
let you do because
you're their, you know, their own She knows
that my heart is pounding in my chest
while I'm doing yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah.
She's got my number. Yeah. And we can
do vaccines as well.
Great. We can do rabies when we have
a veterinarian,
at the shelter. Great. And so yeah. Great.
Excellent. So
(07:19):
So
how has it been going? How
what's the process been of bringing
new people in? And Well, it's it's definitely
a training process because going from vet medicine
to shelter medicine is a little bit different.
Mhmm.
So we have worked really closely on
(07:39):
policies and protocols.
Because, say, for instance, a you acquire an
animal out in the public. It's safe in
your home,
and, you know, the vet may recommend you
vaccinate between six and eight weeks.
Well, in a shelter, because of the high
population, we vaccinate as early as
as four weeks and every two weeks while
the animal is in our care. That's just
(07:59):
one example
of a, you know, a different type of
protocol in order to keep shelter animals safe.
So we've worked together so that everybody's on
the same page and we can keep everybody,
you know, healthy and happy. Yep. And then
monitoring,
large populations versus being you know, working with
individual animals.
(08:19):
And
Coral will tell you too,
animals in a shelter don't act the same
as owned animals. Yep.
It takes time for them to decompress if
they've been in a shelter, if they've been
surrendered, they're stray. Yeah. You know, depending on
how we got them, it it it all
makes a difference. And especially when it's like
(08:40):
a dog that has been in the shelter
before and gets returned to the shelter.
You know, it's almost like a double whammy
psychologically for the dog. Yeah. Now if you
get a puppy, puppies are just like, I'm
a puppy and I don't care. I'm just
here to poop on stuff and, god, this
guy. Oh, I get to go to another
on your shoes and Yeah. But, you know,
older dogs,
depending on what they've gone through Mhmm. It
(09:01):
can take a long time. Mhmm. So,
it's been about two and a half months
ish, and they're they're doing a great job
in acclimating to the different types of protocols.
And they're also bringing a different level of
medical care because they're able to see some
things and and work closely with
(09:21):
I'm gonna say who your vet is. Doctor
Franjusic. Everybody loves doctor Franjusic.
So she goes, my doctor,
doctor Franjusic.
You know, she can give doctor Franjusic a
call.
I I worked really close with doctor Tribble.
They still work, close with doctor Tribble.
And I think I've said this before,
(09:41):
we use Town and Country as well. I
mean, we use the vets that we can
get into.
Town and Country's super busy.
So is doctor Tribble. Doctor Franjusic is retired,
but he's still,
as a courtesy to us. And I think
Cora, because I think well, I think she's
one of his favorites because because he comes
up quite a bit. I mean, she's been
(10:01):
with him thirty years. Oh, well. So Duh.
Skye? I mean, it's almost like He's family.
You're his kid. Exactly. So it it's a
bonus to be able to have that expertise
at the end of the phone Mhmm. If
she runs into something that she needs help
with. Mhmm. Yep. Yeah. It really does make
a difference. I I
my dog,
(10:22):
Cola,
had to ended up having to be put
down back in January, and she started having
seizures
at 11:00 on a Saturday night. So we're
going into Sunday. Right? I mean, it's like,
yeah,
disaster. And and I'm not good in those
kind of situations,
but I called Town and Country and, you
(10:43):
know, and they luckily had somebody who was
on call
that could at least talk
me through it and said, you gotta get
her in the next day. You gotta get
her in there. You know?
Probably, this is not a good situation.
But it helped so much to have another
person on the end of the phone
(11:03):
that actually knew what I was talking about
and that could talk me off the ledge
a little bit. It it makes a big
difference.
Yeah. Yeah. I have that little reassurance.
Yeah. Absolutely.
So how are you finding
working
as a manager at the shelter? Is
it interesting? Is it challenging? Yeah. I mean,
(11:26):
we we saw the a little bit of
the shelter side of thing just means that
we helped out,
with, you know, Del Norte Humane Society,
because doctor Franusic's practice was in Crescent City.
Mhmm. So we we did help with with
that type. So I kinda knew a little
bit about
that. But but like Jen said, shelter medicine
(11:48):
is is different. Mhmm. You know, there's different
things just because of the high
number of pets that you see, whether it
be cats or dogs.
So but I think we're figuring it out
pretty good.
I think we're getting it. Yep. So how
many
dogs and cats you got at this point?
Currently?
(12:09):
Yeah. Currently.
What are you looking at currently?
Well, currently,
they have roughly 35 dogs
in shelter.
There is a transport
coming tomorrow because I'm in town, and I
was like, we're gonna get little dogs. So
Okay.
I'm not sure when this airs, but,
Probably not until Tuesday. So they'll be in.
(12:30):
That's perfect. That's perfect. Yeah. Yep. That's perfect.
So, you know, watching the Facebook is always
a good way to see which animals are
available. And there are some small ones, some
scruffy ones.
We've got a Frenchie coming in. We've got
a Pug coming in. You know, some it's
Yeah. It's shelter these days. Couple of geriatric.
Yes. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. I, a couple of
(12:51):
senior kids, that are bonded. Mhmm. So, you
know, the smaller groups and the smaller dogs
usually go really well here because of the
older population
and,
smaller living quarters. So people like to have
smaller dogs.
Plus it's hard to pick up 80 pounds
of dog when you're turning 75.
(13:11):
I'm just saying. It's hard to do when
you're 55.
I'm just saying.
The, cat population isn't crazy right now. I
knocked on wood. It didn't feel like
kitten season
was was, well Nuts, was it? Well,
it took a really, really long time to
get here. And then when it got here,
it got here. Oh. So but the adult
(13:33):
population, there's only we only have about eight
to 10 adult cats right now, which is
an interesting thing because
we have a couple
a couple of pairs that could go into
barns. They're not super happy to be at
the shelter because they were caught and they
were outside kitties. Yeah. It was a large
group. Yeah. These are some gray and white
tabbies that are absolutely gorgeous and would be
(13:54):
great hunters.
So we were really looking to get
three pairs of cats into
barn type situations. They'd be great varmint killers.
Mhmm. And then, And we got lots of
varmint. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then there are,
like, three or four really nice cats in
our in our main cattery. And you know
that we do use our thrift store as
(14:14):
a satellite adoption center. Oh, I didn't wear
that. Donna has built a little cater catio
patio over there where you can go in
and sit. And a lot of times people
come to the shelter and
they'll say, it's just so sad. There's so
many animals or or there's too many animals
and it's overwhelming. Mhmm. But if if they
can go to the thrift store and they're
shopping Yeah. And they go in and they
(14:34):
sit with just one or two cats Yeah.
They may end up falling in love and
taking one home. Yep. Yep. Alright. So the
kittens, there there's about how many kittens in
the shelter right now? 30 ish? Yeah. Oh.
About 30 kittens. Okay. 26, but probably 30
is close. And some some in foster. Mhmm.
But she's got a clinic coming up here
on Thursday where several of them will get
(14:56):
fixed.
But we do the foster to adopt so
they can take them home, bring them back.
Mhmm. That's really safe for the animal to
get them out of the shelter, let them
develop and continue with their vaccination history so
that when they come back, they're healthy and
ready to go. It makes a huge difference.
I
my dog, Cola, I got from the shelter,
(15:16):
but it was before you were here, and
they wouldn't let me take her until she
was three months old. So she and her
two siblings were stuck in a cage until
she was three months old.
You do not wanna spend your first three
months of life in a cage
with crazy dogs barking in the next cage
over you. That's not a good way to
(15:36):
spend your first three months.
No. So yeah. I I when I heard
that you were doing foster to adopt
a while ago, I thought, yes. So when
you had good compliance,
every once in a great while, someone falls
off and and
doesn't come back, which is kinda frustrating. Mhmm.
But,
(15:56):
I think that
overall, the program has been very successful. Mhmm.
We offer a refund of a deposit. We
have a have a matching deposit
adoption fee. And when you bring that animal
back to get fixed for free Mhmm. We
refund that. So a $100 dog adoption fee,
vaccinated, flea treated, dewormed, microchipped, fixed, and kittens
(16:19):
and cats, $60
vaccinated, least treated. I mean, that's you can't
even go to the vet for that. So
No. Not not not at all. Yeah.
Now that's great.
Good.
Good. So do you have,
some interesting
dogs and cats? Anybody
(16:40):
you wanna
talk about? I would love to hear
about the interesting
ones.
We've got
Aria.
Mhmm.
She's been there,
gosh, next week. It will be a year
for her.
Wow.
That's too Yeah. Yep. She's,
(17:01):
she's shy to start out. Mhmm.
She kinda lost her trust in people. Mhmm.
Because of some stuff that happened in her
background. Yeah. So she's gonna need that person
that is patient.
And What kind of dog? She's
a pity mix.
Yeah. She's
a brindle color,
but she's got ears that stand straight up.
(17:23):
Mhmm.
And she's she gets along with all other
dogs.
She is
She's roughly about seven, eight years old. Okay.
Okay. Yeah. But she just needs that. That's
she needs that. Senior, but that's starting
to be mature. Yeah. We we call it
a senior AM. Mhmm. And that dog for
(17:45):
me,
that is the dog that needs to get
out of the shelter the most. Mhmm.
Because she was one of the rescues that
I took in from California, like, way back.
She got adopted
with another
female dog that was a senior. Mhmm. They
had the dogs for four years.
The lady got sick. They were moving out
of state and she just comes out of
(18:06):
the blue and says, hey, I thought I
had a home for them. I don't. Here
they are. Oh. And and so they they
hadn't done a lot of socializing
outside of the house. Right. And when she
left our shelter, she was so happy in
playgroups and friendly and just everything everything was
great. But when she came back and went
came back to a shelter, I mean,
can you
imagine for a dog to walk back into
(18:26):
a shelter and be locked up after she's
been and I say locked up, but kenneled,
you know, after she's been on the couch
with a person and another dog. Every night.
So Yes. She she's just, you know and
when people come to the shelter,
when they wanna meet dogs, they wanna get
on their level, put their face down, and
go, oh, do do do do. Yeah. And
if you do that to her, she's gonna
she's gonna back up and maybe even growl
(18:48):
at you a little bit because it's intimidating.
Yeah. You know, she's not a puppy. She's
an older dog that's been turned in once
for who knows what reason. Yeah. Came here,
got
turned back in. And since then, that senior
dog that she was with, which was harder
to adopt in my opinion,
got adopted and is living great, so she
needs to get out. Yep. She needs to
(19:09):
get out. Yep.
She just needs someone that gives her a
chance. Because you get her in a grassy
yard, we've taken her up to the property.
She loves playing in the yard. She thinks
it's great. She'd get along with another
equal sized dog easily.
If there was an older kid, probably. Little
kids running around Too much noise. Yeah. Too
much. You know?
(19:29):
I'm older. I don't wanna It's too much
for me. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, come on,
you know?
Right.
But she's gotten
too used to being there. Yeah. We need
to get her
Absolutely. And get her into it. Yeah. Because
it it can't be
her best life to be in a No.
Shelter. It just can't be I mean, she's
(19:49):
happy. Of course. And you take the care
of her brother-in-law routine. Yeah. But still. But,
yeah. She yeah. We need to she needs
it. And what's her name again? Aria. Aria.
Yeah. And we have, I mean, so many
great ones.
All of the other ones are are are
actually pretty easy.
Mhmm. We had a dog that has been
(20:11):
there for about three or four months that
originally
was found as a stray, lived in a
home where
this lady gets dogs dumped on her all
the time.
Wow. And she gets them vetted, and then
she finds rescues like us to take them
on. She instead of getting them into high
kill shelters, so they forego that. So she
came to our shelter. It was Sandy.
And Sandy,
(20:32):
she was great at first, and then now
she's just getting super frustrated, so she gets
a little nippy with dogs. Mhmm. So we
have a great volunteer. I think I've talked
about him before. You might remember me talking
about Chicken Bob. Yes.
K. This is so funny because when I
talk about Chicken Bob, then people are in
the store and they're like, hey, that's Chicken
Bob.
(20:52):
Yeah.
So so Chicken Bob,
he fostered,
another dog named Simba. Mhmm. And
unfortunately I mean, he fostered her for a
long time.
We ended up humanely putting her down. It
was the end of her life. She lived
a great life with him. And I told
Corey, I go, gosh, Sandy looks just like
this dog. And I said, you need to
(21:13):
you need to get him back there and
just let him touch her. If he touched
her, he's taking her home. So she did.
And guess what? He picked her up today.
No way. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So I love it. So that's a
good one. And then our other long term
dog, Thea,
who would be a year in the shelter,
did some videos this last week. And one
of our awesome adopters,
(21:35):
he walks by the shelter with his two
dogs every day. He and his wife came
down, met her yesterday.
I did a little team walk, and I
took the took her over to his yard
because his dog he's got a big dog
named Bane.
And,
he Bane was being a little protective on
the walk and stuff. He said, why don't
you bring her to the house? What I
didn't realize is his other dog,
(21:57):
I had delivered her four years ago to
his house. I'm like, god. This backyard looks
really familiar. They're like, yeah. You brought this
other dog over here too.
So I dropped her off. She's doing a
sleepover.
Right. She and everything looks great. But, you
know, when you get them out of that
environment
and the other dogs aren't there smelling all
those smells and sitts Right. Nobody's nobody's puffed
(22:19):
up, you know. Right. Right. Just changes everything.
And they do change when they're when they're
out of the shelter
for a while, you know. They do they
do change. Their their personality
changes. They Mhmm. You know, they get a
little more relaxed. They're not as edgy.
Some it's quicker than others.
(22:40):
You know, but that's the thing is,
people just need to give them time.
Time to adjust, time to unwind, time to
relax. Yep. Don't don't expect too much of
them too soon. Yeah. Don't Yeah. Yeah. Because
it's not now puppies, whole other story. Right.
They're rare and then ready to go.
But, yeah, the older adult dogs, it's just
(23:01):
because they've been in that such that routine,
that it just takes them a while to
learn your routine and
and, you know, get used to the smells
and the cold and the cold. Trust you.
Yes. Right. Yes. I mean, that Yeah. That's
that was what Daisy, you know, came from
that
really not great situation where her owner died
(23:22):
and come back to the shelter. And, I
mean, it's just like that.
That just has to be,
you know Yeah. Really kind of traumatic for
the dog. You know? And just
you just kinda wanna go in there and,
like, erase all those memories. Right? All the
bad memories and just go People say that
dogs don't remember, and I think that's a
(23:43):
stone cold lie. I I agree. I think
I think that smells, sights, sounds, they can
take them right back to something traumatic just
like people. Yep. Yep. Just like people. And
I really wish that I could get into
her brain Oh, god. Me too. You know,
and just see what it was Mhmm. So
that I could then know how to help
her
(24:03):
come out of that, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
Only your dog could talk. I know.
I know. I know. I know. With something
besides her eyes. Right? I mean, she definitely
talks to me with her eyes, but,
yeah, they're they are just amazing creatures. I'm
I'm so glad that you guys are doing
what you do.
(24:24):
So you asked,
interesting interesting animals. So
I think all the dogs are interesting. Interesting.
I think those are the those are the
ones that we really would like to place.
There's another male named Mikio
that's been there a little bit, and he's
he's kinda turned into a little punk guy
on the yard. And not not in a
bad way, but he's just acts kinda punky
now. Yeah. He'd be great to go. He's
(24:44):
got the most beautiful coat. He is only
a little over a year old. He's been
with us since about January,
so before I left. Mhmm.
But he had a
a beautiful brother. He was
stone
cold black with bright blue eyes, one ear
up, one ear down, and was like a
shepherd mix. He doesn't look anything like that.
(25:05):
And I thought he was gonna go before
the brother because the brother was more reserved.
Mhmm.
He's just, like, if you can let him
hang out in the laundry room and he's
just kind of a lazy
lazy guy. He's just lazy. But he he
will chase a cat. Yeah. But he gets
along with any and all dogs. He's great.
Right. They just had a little kitten, and
this is kind of hard luck story,
(25:27):
that came in that was super sick, and
they had to remove both eyes because of
the upper respiratory.
And I I I don't know that kitty's
name because I'm I'm I didn't name it.
I I call them silver eyes.
Yeah. Now without minus them, so we have
to come up with a new name. I
think doctor Kribble had had socket.
(25:48):
Socket?
There you go.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We we have to be
creative. Right?
So yeah. So he had
he had entropion, which is where their eyelids
turn in
word. And then it's a it's a common
thing in dogs, your larger breed, your mastiffs,
your bloodhounds,
your Cane Corsos.
(26:10):
It's more common to just have one eyelid
turn in, but not necessarily both. And this
poor little guy, he had both.
And then because of the
lashes,
it scratched the surface of the eye and
then created ulcers. But then also because of
the upper respiratory virus he had, that caused
an infection.
And so,
(26:31):
they had to be taken out. Tears. Yeah.
But
he is doing great,
and he's used to not
seeing
because I don't think he's ever been able
to. Oh. And so
he gets around
Okay. Really well,
because he doesn't know any different. Yeah. So
(26:53):
he'll be a special needs guy, but,
but he's
super cute and doing really good. How old?
Oh,
I think
close to six weeks now. Six, seven weeks.
Yeah. Tiny.
Tiny guy. Tiny guy. Yeah. Yep. He's in
a foster home where he's got, another little
(27:15):
companion that I think kinda helps him. So
if he went, you know, paired with another
kitten, that would be good because, of course,
kittens always do better in pairs because then
they can annoy each other and tear other
than Do they? Because dogs don't always do
better in pairs, do they? They don't.
Not siblings. Not siblings. Not siblings.
Yeah. What happens with that whole Sibling rivalry.
(27:37):
You know? That's just weird. You just get
tired of your siblings, man.
Tired of it. Year, man. Yep. Yeah. I
it's been pretty rare.
I we used to incur we wow. Two
puppies are leaving? Yay.
And then it got to the point where
I had had a number of puppies that
they ended up not getting along. So I
(27:58):
really dissuade if you want two puppies, get
two puppies from different litters and try to
space them out. Mhmm. But you get them
both together eventually.
It just seems like unless you're a special
person that puts a lot of time and
effort into
that, it can it can be problematic.
And are females
different? Yeah. For bitch. Like,
I mean, really. I mean, that that's I
(28:19):
have heard that, that you don't wanna get
necessarily two females because,
you know, they're quick to be what I
was I was taught,
in
behavior from someone that runs a huge shelter.
She said,
most times, boys and girls are no brainer.
But it's okay if the girl's bitchy. Right?
(28:40):
Mhmm. She can tell the boy no. Right.
And sometimes you'll see guys that they've got
the machismo so they can kinda butt heads.
Right? Right. Which is normal. And then you
have two bitches. And I'm using bitches As
the female dog. Yes. Correct. Yes.
If you've got two bitches, they can be
bitchy to a southern. Right. Okay? Yeah. So
when you're thinking about getting two dogs, you
(29:02):
know, I only have one bitch in my
family. Mhmm. Including myself.
So Are you serious? All of your dogs
are male? Except for Vita. I have one
female. Okay. I do have one female. But
she kinda she kinda dictates everything. Yeah. And
even though she's not the physically
superior dog,
it's like she
(29:23):
tells everybody what to do subliminally.
Yeah. She's kind of the front of the
female. Yeah. Well, I think that's right. I
mean, I don't
See?
There we we were on the I got
to think that that's right, but whatever. You
know?
There was a dog that,
I think Debbie was telling me about
that was
deaf?
(29:45):
Yes. Yeah. Prince Prince Philip.
He is. He's a, Australian shepherd mix.
He's on the Beautiful dog. He is. He's
on the smaller side. Like, I don't think
he's gonna get very big. I don't think
he he maybe will be, like, thirty
thirty five, forty pounds. Mhmm. But he is
the double merle,
which can carry,
(30:07):
the deafness gene.
He he's got blue eyes. We are kind
of wondering if his vision is a 100%
because it does seem like you have to
get closer to him. Mhmm.
And then when he sees you, he gets,
super excited. Nice. He's he's a great guy.
He does great in a crate.
(30:29):
He seems to do better
with other dogs. Mhmm. He,
doesn't,
do well alone. Mhmm. He,
I think it just Wants to be part
of it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and
that makes sense. I mean, if he's deaf,
his world is already
somewhat,
(30:50):
well Yeah. Quiet. Mhmm. You know?
So Yeah. You know, having interaction with creatures
that are on his level Yes. Yeah. Would
make a difference. And he,
you can tell he uses his nose a
lot, because he'll sniff the air if he's
trying to catch a scent of something.
And,
so,
(31:12):
I think if someone, you know, they did
their research on how to train Mhmm. Because,
Debbie's already been working with him with some
hand signals and stuff, and he's picking up
on it pretty quick. Yeah. That's true. Debbie's
an awesome foster. Oh, Debbie is just awesome.
Yeah. Mary a dino.
Yeah. She's she's one of my go to
people. She was she just got, she had
(31:34):
a litter of puppies. And then I'm like,
you know, Prince I I bet I bet
you if I text her and tell her,
she she'll take this doc. Because when she
she doesn't just foster them. She teaches them.
In the mail. She teaches them. Yes. And
she's gotta pack. Yeah. You know? She doesn't
just go, okay. I get all the all
the supplies
leashes. I you know? I'm going to teach
them manners. Yep. So it's really cool when
(31:56):
she takes in a group. And, you know,
she has a farm, so we are limited
to certain seasons for with her. Mhmm. And
so I think that gives her a decent
break. Yes. Because because we abuse her as
much as possible.
Yeah. I think she's she's got that dog
back now though. Yes. Yeah. He went on
a he went on a trial and,
(32:17):
Just didn't work out. It didn't. No. Yeah.
He was the only dog. Right. And,
and then that's where we've kind of you
know, we learn
too when they go out on trial. Yeah.
If it doesn't work out, what
what, you know, what was the experience there?
Right. And,
so and then then not having another dog
(32:38):
because their,
description of him at their home
was much different than what Debbie had experienced
with him at her home. Mhmm. And then
when he went back
to her home, he just went right back.
Yeah. And so so I think definitely for
him, having another dog is gonna be
(32:58):
Or a pack.
Like, Debbie's pack. I did wanna tell you,
because I think you'll find this super interesting.
I know we talk about dogs the whole
time, but we had,
a cat come in that was pregnant and
had kitties.
And there was a swimmer kitty, which she
can tell you about the swimmer stuff.
Okay. And then there were two with cerebral
(33:18):
hypoplasia.
So that's called wobble cat syndrome
where they're almost drunk. I'm gonna pull up
a video for you to see. Oh my
god. And they can live healthy lives, but
it, you know, it's it takes proper management.
And
when we talk about
the shelter,
we have to have the capacity to care
(33:38):
for animals like that with special needs. Mhmm.
And if we don't have the capacity to
care, then it's our job to find someone
who does. Mhmm. So Cora had had, mentioned
to me that, you know, these kitties are
getting to an age where we gotta we
gotta find something.
And I mean, think about it.
You got your apartment and you're gonna go
adopt two kittens. You're not gonna get two
(33:59):
kittens that can't necessarily all always find the
litter box. It's challenging. Okay. That could be
a problem. And then they stop, drop, roll,
roll over and I mean but they are
the friendliest little things. Yep. So I reached
out
to someone that I knew that had worked
with them,
and we found a rescue in Salt Lake
City,
(34:20):
fourteen hours. And this happened within
the last couple days. It was just like
I got a hold of the gal. I
sent videos, sent all that stuff, and then
she says, I will take them.
And I was like, holy moly. Wow. We
can't let this opportunity
go away because that's a lifetime commitment. And
she does people go to her specifically. You
(34:40):
can actually look her up on Facebook. It's,
the wobbly wobbly cat rescue. Mhmm. And I
had never heard that's a thing. Mhmm. And
she's gonna tell you about the swimmer stuff
because she's she's better versed at that.
So I got a hold of Carrie who
is president of our board, and her husband
used to be a CHP officer. And he
likes to drive.
Oh.
(35:01):
And I said, how how do you feel?
Drive myself in the city. How do you
feel about a fourteen hour drive? He says,
I'll leave tomorrow.
Wow. He did that yesterday. Yep. And he
drove left at, like, five in the morning,
got there at 08:30, sent me a picture.
She is, like, over the moon. We sent
a really generous donation for the care of
those kitties because we know that we saved
two lives. Yes. You know? So Exactly. So
(35:22):
when you donate
to our society,
you're not just donating to the care here.
You may be donating to the care of
an animal that
may have been euthanized
anywhere else. We we try to find the
solutions so that we don't have to do
those things. But the swimmer, she'll tell you
I mean
Yes. Tell me about the swimmer. Yeah. So
(35:43):
the legs kinda go out the back kinda
like,
like the
fin or the the tail of a seal
or a sea lion. Wow. And so, I
mean, the legs the legs bend like they're
supposed to, but they just can't get up
underneath
the
the back end
and,
help them
walk.
(36:04):
And so what you've gotta do is,
there's a way to tape them
so that they can be up underneath the
back end,
and then,
the kitten can grow and then and then
use those back legs. Oh. And so we
did that. So you tape
You tape down
down between the knee and the
(36:26):
and the the Ankle? The ankle. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And so you just put a little
tape in there just to hold them together
so that when they do get underneath of
them, they don't fall out the back. Right.
And,
that kitten is doing doing really well.
And what is the, do you know what
biologically
is going on there that
(36:47):
those legs are doing that? Like,
is there a missing part? I don't
know. You know, I don't.
I don't, I don't know. I find But
if they're taped, it works. Yes, yes. Because
then they can get them up underneath of
them. And then they can
start to use them. Now, if they're just
left like that, then obviously, they're not gonna
(37:08):
develop
normally. And so then
that kitten would then probably, unfortunately,
wind up euthanized
just because it wouldn't develop and it wouldn't
be able to walk as it grew into
an adult.
And so we're able to tape it and
get them up underneath of them so that
they can learn to to use them, and
then they and then they grow right. Yeah.
That's excellent. Yeah. I think it's a really
(37:30):
nice point that you made about people donating.
You're literally not just donating to your community,
which,
you know, for some people that's really important
to donate to their community.
But for a lot of us, I don't
care whether
the dog that needs help is in Timbuktu
or here. Mhmm. You know, if it needs
(37:51):
help, it needs help and, you know Well
and I and I wanna point out another
thing that our our rescue has been able
to do because,
and I always try to give
recognition where recognition is due.
The the passport,
they manage their money
wonderful.
And our thrift store is it's the the
(38:13):
most successful thrift store in Oregon. I will.
100%.
And, now I gotta now I gotta give
a shout out for that because I went
to the Humane Education
Society,
thrift store, which I volunteer over in Tennessee
now. Mhmm. It's just not the same. Mhmm.
Don't wanna work there. Just volunteering and getting
my feet wet. At least now. Yes.
And I went to their thrift store and
(38:34):
I walked in and I literally walked back
out. I was like, holy moly. If they
saw our thrift store, our thrift store is
rocking. Yes. I mean, it's off the hook.
It is. I mean, you can find so
much stuff in there. And when I was
difference in how it looks between,
like, five years ago and now is Well,
it astounding.
When COVID happened, that gave us the opportunity
(38:56):
to get in there, knock walls down, paint
stuff. Yep. And then when Donna took over,
Donna's been here, talked with you before. Mhmm.
Donna, I mean, I told Donna I I
I call her Donna, let's make a deal,
Nielsen.
You know? You everything's for sale. Yes. Everything's
for sale.
It doesn't do us good putting inflated prices
on things
(39:16):
when we're getting another donation
right now. Yeah. You know, I mean, you
think you're gonna run out, but people keep
giving and giving and giving. Yeah. So,
I was going on a tangent and then
you told me that somebody used Put your
name in the Amazon. But the thrift store
I can't pull it back. I'm so big.
So the thrift store so because the thrift
store is is so successful
(39:37):
and the money management of the passport
and now us moving forward, we've been able
to invest in the property. And then we
also have some funding
for
other rescues and shelters.
We actually made a a nice donation.
I can't remember where it's at now. It's
gonna drive me nuts. But the chimpanzee rescue
that took in George,
(39:58):
he was on the roadside,
the safari.
Mhmm. They came in and closed that down.
Yep. And I talked to the board about
that. And so we sent a donation up
to the to the primate rescue up in
I think it's Washington where he's at.
And I've shared some of his posts online.
And it's, you know, we wanna help other
rescues continue to rescue animals. It's not just
(40:20):
about our animals. Right. It's about
every animal. Right. You know? Right. Yeah. We're
not prejudiced what kind of animal it is.
We're not prejudiced where it comes from.
We just wanna help when we can. Yep.
Yep.
You does the Humane Society
get governmental
funds or is it all donations? All It's
(40:40):
all donations. Yeah. It's all donations and thrift
store monies. And then, you know, our low
cost spay and neuter
clinic, we don't
charge a lot. Do we make a little
bit?
We just try we try to cover what
we can. Right. But we do pay our
vets. You know, we don't have,
volunteer veterinarians. A lot of people are like,
wow, that's great. You're volunteer. They come and
(41:01):
volunteer.
Their time is worth
worth money. Mhmm. Just like our managers and
the people that work at our shelter and
the people at our thrift store.
Lots of organizations
run strictly on volunteers.
Yes. I was, like, flabbergasted
how many people volunteer in Tennessee. It's like,
holy moly.
There's a lot of volunteers.
(41:21):
It would be great to have more volunteers
here. It'd be great. Sure. You know what
would be really great is if we had
just a couple
more employees at the at the shelter. It's
hard to find
people that don't get burnt out from care.
Right. And they're physically capable to keep up
with the workload.
Because it's It's hard work. It is hard
work. It is hard work. And it's, you
(41:43):
know, it's it's a lot mentally too because
you're rooting for those animals.
You're rooting for them. So I I remember
watching a video,
because you always used to post videos.
And it was,
I think it was the kittens
that were on the road
when you were coming home.
(42:05):
Oh, yeah. I was going up, going up
to Taylor Creek and I it was dark.
I swerved around and they ran across the
road. I had my dog in the back
seat.
I got my flashlight out. I was able
to get a couple and then somewhere up
the hill, someone underneath a homeless person's
vehicle. And I was, like, knocking on the
door, like, I'm not gonna
I got them all. And we ended up
(42:27):
we ended up catching You got the dad,
didn't you? Yes. The big dad. And he
was nice. God, he's a nice cat.
But, yeah, that was Did you find the
mother? Never found the mother? No. Which is
really odd. Mhmm. Because they were in a
place where they should not have been.
Somebody had to dump them. Yeah. So maybe
(42:47):
they kept the mom, dumped the dad, said,
you're the one that made this problem. Here
you go.
Yeah.
And all the kids, by the way. You're
you're taking all the kids as well.
Well, that's a change usually. I end up
as a mom. Exactly.
So what else is going on? What what
what do you guys need help with?
(43:08):
Like well, like Jen said,
a couple more employees. Mhmm. So if, you
know, if anybody
out there is interested in that.
So what are the qualifications?
What are you what are you looking for?
Well, you know, animal experience is great, but
we can pretty much train
you, you know, train anybody to to do
(43:28):
that.
Good
people skills because sometimes, you know, you
interact with the, you know, the people that
come in the shelter. Because
let me tell you what, sometimes there's
Hell yeah. 25
people in that lobby. Yep. So it would
be It's just on Wednesday afternoons when you're
like, holy. We actually have a traffic control
(43:50):
die now that comes in.
And yeah. Because there's a couple fender benders
in the parking lot. No. So Yeah. You
know,
if we if we had the ability to
get, you know, a couple more employees that
were available in the afternoon, it would be
really awesome to be able to have, you
know, walk in nail trims if we had
(44:10):
more people available Yeah. So that we didn't
back up everybody on Wednesday because Right. Everybody
does what everybody knows. Yes. Mhmm. It's Wednesday.
No. I know. You know? And
Trying to get down railroad
on Wednesday at 02:00
with car doors opening and these cars pulling
in and going yeah. It's it's an adventure.
(44:31):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So a couple more employees would be great.
Yeah. And,
dog walkers. Mhmm. You know, the that it's
really nice to be able to
get the dogs out. And even if it's
for, you know, a thirty minute walk, we
have a couple of dog walkers that will
come,
(44:52):
and take them for a couple of hours.
We had the other day,
some people came and took four dogs,
and,
they had taken them to the beach. And,
man, those dogs were wore out. Good.
Yeah. And That's what you want. Yes. Yeah.
Of course, we, you know, we ask that
(45:12):
they're not
allowed off leash. Right.
They're not allowed to,
we don't want really any,
mingling with other,
dogs because
because we don't know what those dogs would
do, and we don't wanna have any issues
with our dogs. Sure. And so we kinda
go over that with everybody,
before they take them. Of course, there's a
(45:33):
volunteer waiver that we, you know, we have
you fill out so we have information
so we can get a hold of, you
know, you if if you're out and about
with a dog and maybe somebody comes to
look at that dog, then we can get
a hold of you to come back.
But, you know, just getting them
out and getting them exercise and I mean,
because they go out in their difference. They
(45:54):
go out in their play groups. Mhmm. But
it's not like going out on a walk.
Yeah. You know? That's completely different. And so
and some of the dogs really love water.
Yep. And they get that stimulation,
you know, if they get to go to
the beach and, you know, and and play
in the play in the water and and
stuff like that. So,
And are you looking for people who will
(46:16):
foster,
for instance, a mama and their babies that
are brand new? Because I've seen those pictures.
Yes. Yeah. They're great pictures. Yes.
And
then, so both, you know, cats and dogs,
cats that have come because
stress, you know, they come to us and
they may be pregnant, and then the next
(46:37):
morning we come in and they've got babies
because stress will do that. Yeah. And so
then we wanna get them out of the
shelter and into a home where then things
can be quieter and not so much, you
know, a commotion and and and movement and
everything. And then and the same with dogs.
Of course,
some of the dogs we get, they come
with the puppies, but it has happened where
(46:58):
they've had the puppies Yep. The day after
transport. And so getting them out,
getting them to where they'll be quieter, less
stress,
where they can decompress and then just focus
on their on their puppies is great.
And you have I think
when I was looking at the web page
today, I think it looked like there were
(47:18):
maybe
four or five dogs that have litters that
you're hoping
somebody or maybe that was a
Okay. I think I had shared. Yeah. I
think you did. You know, if I if
I was
when I say yes to to transport and
I I commit
to,
(47:39):
to taking them in,
if I have a mom and puppies, I
have to have a place if I don't
have somebody at the shelter. Right. So, you
know, if somebody says, hey, I've got a
secure place, that's a dog an animal or
a litter that I can say yes to,
get it out of another high kill shelter
and help. So when I promote stuff like
that, I'm I'm kinda fishing for more Got
(47:59):
it. Fosters. Right. And, you know, small dog
fosters are easy. Mhmm.
Large dog fosters, you know, Debbie's had many
mantas and puppies. Mhmm. And,
it's it can it can be a lot.
It can be challenging.
Mhmm.
For sure.
And, you know, we have we have a
few dogs too that wouldn't necessarily go on
(48:20):
a walk. Mhmm.
But just to get them out, and we
have a bench,
in the front
just to sit with them and expose them
to
the noises, to the traffic, to
the people walking by.
You know, just just
even just that helps them.
(48:41):
Yeah. Because they're out in the world and
they're seeing what the world is. Yeah. Because
they've become,
like, Peaches is the one that I'm thinking
of. She's so accustomed
to shelter life that to go outside
terrifies her. Oh. You know? And she's just
scared.
And so even just coming in and getting,
(49:04):
her and taking her out and sitting with
her outside and just helping expose her to
that
and And what kind of a dog is
Peaches? She's a
Chow mix. They came three sisters
three sisters together. They were found on Halloween,
in
San Francisco?
A little bit lower than that down.
(49:25):
I'm trying to remember which which shelter I
took them from. Yeah.
One has been adopted. Two are still in
the shelter. They might have a little bit
of Aussie in them, Australian Shepherd, but they've
got some purple spots on their tongue. So
there's probably some chow in there somewhere. Yep.
Two of the sisters were super friendly. Peaches
just and she's the prettiest of them all
probably. It was striking. Mhmm.
(49:48):
And I I know we're gonna find a
home for her. I do.
But it's gonna be that special person. Yeah.
Yeah. It will. And the crazy part is
we had a dog named Troy. I had
taken him out of a shelter. I believe
it was Stockton. He had gotten hit by
a car. He was
going to be euthanized.
We ended up they put him in a
foster down there. He got up here. He
(50:09):
was here for
a little over a year or so. Wow.
And
very shy, reserved, but would start to come
out of his shell. Loved other dogs.
I did a couple videos. This lady came
out of the woodwork, said, I want that
dog. She came and got him. Mhmm. And
he's do he's playing with her cats. He's
living with her dogs. I mean,
she she loves that dog.
(50:31):
She loves it. She still sends updates. So
I try to put those updates on Facebook
so that people can see.
They just need time. Yeah. Time, time, time.
Yeah. Yeah. So Peaches would be one of
those. She'd probably do well with at least
one other dog in the family Mhmm. Just
so she can see.
I can trust that person. Exactly. And what
does it look like to be a dog
(50:52):
in this family? Mhmm. Which, you know, sometimes
they just need
a little guidance. Right. You know? Yeah. Like,
it's okay to be here. This is what
you do. Mhmm. This is how you let
them know you have to potty. You know,
it's just it's just that stuff. Well, the
crazy part is we learn what they know
when they go into a home a lot
of times. A lot of times, they know
(51:13):
all those things and Mhmm. We don't have
any idea. No. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Yeah. I know.
So you had a picture
on the website
of this German shepherd
mix with
ears that were like, oh my god.
Mhmm. Huge
freaking ears. Puppies? Finch and Buster, probably? Probably
(51:36):
one dog that I saw, it was like,
oh my god.
Yeah. He'll never grow into those ears. How
was that? Those puppies, it might have been
that one right there. Oh, yes. Look at
those ears. That one went home. They've both
gone home. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah. Both of
those. That's wonderful. Yeah. Because huge. Right? I
mean Yeah. Who has ears that look like
(51:57):
that? Ridiculous. Yeah. Oh my god. It's great.
Yeah.
Alright. So we've only got a few minutes
left.
Let me know what you
need in terms of supplies. Do you need
stuff? Do you need blankets? Do you need
towels? Do you need dog food? What what
do you need? We can always use all
(52:18):
of the above. Okay.
You know, the blankets, some of the dogs
will will tear them up. So,
can always use blankets.
Towels for sure.
You know, we go through a lot of
laundry soap. A lot of soap, paper towels.
Okay.
That's good to know. And,
(52:39):
yeah.
If you do decide to get food,
we do feed a certain brand. Okay.
Just because we try to keep everybody on
the same thing so we don't have diarrhea.
Mhmm.
You can purchase it at Cascade.
We are feeding Diamond Naturals.
And it's the lamb and rice and the
red and white bag. And that's the one.
(52:59):
Because we get a lot of really nice
people that they'll go buy a dog dog
food and bring it to the shelter. Yeah.
But if we mix that in, it causes
gastrointestinal
upset for the dogs. Yeah. So a lot
of times, we will,
we hate to say no. Mhmm.
And I think I talked about this earlier
with you in a different, interview.
We used to take in all kinds of
(53:20):
donation dog food and hand it out to
the public.
But we started having a rat infestation.
So because we because we were storing so
much food as a shelter. Yes. So we
ended up having to get a company to
come out to monitor that, which it's completely
under control. Right. But we just asked that
if you have dog food,
(53:41):
save us a trip and take it to
the food bank. The food bank is wonderful
at distributing
bags for people that need it. Oh, great.
It's right behind Railroad Market. Right. And that's
where we send people if they need if
they need dog food now. Oh, that's right.
It's not that we don't wanna help the
public. It's just that it caused us a
lot. Too many problems. Yeah. You don't want
rodents running around. Yeah. That's just Our dogs
(54:04):
thought it was kinda cool because then, you
know,
every once in a while, you find dog
with rats.
That's great. Great.
And toys?
Toys. Yeah. Soft ones, the hard rubber ones,
the,
the squeaky. Some of them really love the
squeaky.
You know, anything that to me. But stimulates
them and, you know, and just helps them
(54:26):
break up the, you know, the Right. One
of my favorite things to do
when I used to be here is when
it would be 05:30 ish,
I'd distribute squeaky toys and shut out the
lights. And then you just hear them squeak,
squeak, squeak. It was they just go to
town. Yes. You know, it's it's kinda cool.
There's there's all kinds of toys. There's the
crackly ones. There's the squeaker ones.
(54:49):
All
they they need them. They need that stimulation.
Yep. We have,
Lily.
She's a healer
mix.
She runs around with us in the morning
in the laundry room and stuff. So we
get the buckets because we're gonna go throw
the toys. We let her pick out of
the bucket. She gets in there and roots
around and takes the toy out as she
(55:11):
wants. That's adorable.
Yeah. She's a pretty good girl. So we're
just about out of town. Time. Town. We're
out of we're out of town and out
of time. No. We're in town.
Understood.
This is what happens when you chew gum
and try to walk at the same time.
Don't know what to say.
Cora, it has been delightful having you here.
(55:32):
I am just so happy to meet you.
Nice to meet you. And you should know
that you have an open invitation if there's
ever any time you wanna come back on,
you have something you wanna talk about, special
circumstance.
Okay. You know, anything. If you got an
event coming up, we do PSA's all the
time. So just
I'll give you my card and just make
(55:53):
sure you get in touch with me. Yeah.
Sounds good. Jennifer, it's
delightful to see you again. I am No
worries. I am All come sad that you're
out of town. Right? But I'm really glad
that you look happy. I'll be coming back
and visiting. You notice I have a little
bit of a tan now. I don't have
a freaking tan inside. That. Yeah. Yeah. Holy
moly.
You know what they always say? Tan fat
(56:14):
looks better than white fat. So there is
that.
Thank you both so much for coming on
the show. Thank you. Thank you. And I
wanna thank you for listening.
It's been a pleasure having these young women
in here, and we will definitely have them
back.
If you're fortunate enough to have,
(56:36):
four legged creatures in your life, please take
really good care of them. They're worth every
minute of it. I'm Candice Michelle, and this
is our community.
Hi. I'm Candice Michelle, and this is our
community.
My guest today is one of those people
that I'm always glad to have back in
the studio.
She's a remarkable advocate for our four legged
family members, and she turned our local humane
shelter from okay
to spectacular.
Rescuing so many animals from high kill shelters,
(00:33):
transporting them here, getting them healthy, neutered, and
spayed, and finding wonderful, loving families for them.
I am just so pleased to welcome Jennifer
Alcorn back to the show. Always a pleasure,
Candace. It's great to have you. So I
also you brought your sidekick along, which I
think is absolutely wonderful. Absolutely. And this is
(00:53):
Cora Cluell,
who is your Manager. Manager. She is the
new manager since I since I moved away.
Yeah. When did you leave?
It's been a couple months now. It it
doesn't seem like it was that long, but
sometimes it feels like it's been forever. Yeah.
But I've been back a couple times because
I still have family in this area and
still acting as the interim director Good. In
(01:14):
this transition to ensure that the animals are
still doing what they need to do and
and trying to be a sound board for
for Cora so that if she needs help
in any way, I can I can even
if it's coming and cleaning kennels for her
Right? I can get over here on the
plane. Well, welcome aboard, Cora. Thank you. Yeah.
We'll have plenty more conversations.
Absolutely.
Yeah. So Thanks again. Jennifer.
(01:35):
Tennessee.
I mean, okay.
I know.
Beautiful. Right? I grew up back east. I
just wanna be as far west as I
can go. Where back east?
Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Okay. I went to Scranton once.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I bought the amateur national
finals, and I was like,
(01:56):
Scranton.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. It was interesting place. It's all grown
up a bit since I was there because
I, you know, I was there in the
sixties.
But,
yeah, I like the West Coast. I just
like being as close to the edge of
the continent
as possible. I hear you. It was a
(02:17):
it was a big change.
We moved over there. I actually do have
some family
in Saint Croix. My parents live in Saint
Croix. They had always lived on the East
or West Coast as well. Mhmm.
Farm family,
which was kind of odd. And then when
my brother and I moved out and moved
on,
they sold the property and they were doing
(02:38):
cruises and all this stuff and they relocated
to Saint Croix of all places. I'm like,
he moved to an island.
Like like, fifteen,
sixteen hours away from us. That's odd. Right?
Yeah. But then we decided that we were
gonna pick up and and do something we
haven't done before. It's the bible belt. Mhmm.
We we started going to a a really
nice Baptist church over there. Great. We have
(03:00):
really big property for all of my special
shelter dogs so that they don't bother anybody.
I love that. Yeah.
I mean, when you take on shelter animals,
especially the ones that I have taken on,
that's really a lifetime commitment. And I know
we say it's a lifetime commitment for all
animals, but the ones that I took from
my shelter,
they were large, number one.
(03:22):
All of them were over a 100 pounds
and had some some trauma in the past.
So not putting those dogs in a position
to fail is super important, not having a
neighbor right next door so that, you know,
there's a lot of reactivity
and all that good stuff.
They do well when I introduce people in
my home. Mhmm.
I take two out that need to go
(03:43):
out on a regular basis. They go out
with me every day on a six mile
walk Oh, yeah. Because they need it. Right.
And they were used to coming to work
with me every day. Oh. The other ones
are kinda lazy and don't really care and
lay around and, you know, they just wanna
be dogs. Yeah.
That's great. I mean, it really is just
it's super. And it's super to have that
much property that It is. They can run
(04:06):
and have a good time. Mhmm. When we
lived in California, we were we were right
next to someone all the time. Oh.
So that and then here,
we had neighbors and then I was at
the ranch property, which is really nice. Mhmm.
But not having someone right next door to
you is just really Oh, it's yeah. A
bonus. No. Absolutely.
(04:26):
My grandparents had a dairy farm in Pennsylvania,
and I'd go and spend
part of my summers there every every year.
And it was just
it was
miles,
it felt like. Okay? I have no idea
how many acres it actually was, but
and I could just I could walk all
day long on the country roads and not
(04:49):
see anybody, and, you know, I'd have the
farm dog hanging around with me. It yeah.
It was just
I like country living. I do. Yeah. Mhmm.
Yeah.
So Cora.
Yes?
So how did you get roped into this?
Well,
I'm a certified vet tech. Mhmm.
(05:11):
And, actually with,
I live in Crescent City. Mhmm. So I'm
a registered technician for California.
And, my doctor,
that I work for is retiring.
And,
I knew that they were having the
spay and neuter clinics up here. And so
I reached out to see if they needed
(05:31):
any help.
And so I started They always need help.
Yes. Yep. Yeah. So I got my organ
license so that I could come up here
and help out with that. So started with
that.
And then,
my doctor retired.
And then I talked to him about
coming up and doing wellness clinics,
(05:53):
to help out the community,
because, you know, it's it is hard to
get into.
It's
ridiculous.
Yeah. I wanted to get Daisy her,
you know, update and shots and stuff, and,
like, it was four months out. Yeah. Yeah.
And it's like that everywhere.
It's not just here. It's all across The
(06:15):
US, really. Wow.
So, I mean, we're
we're limited
on what we can do because we're not
a full service
veterinary office there at the shelter. But,
you know, we're we're glad that we can
offer
what we can,
to help out. And you're still doing nail
clippings?
Yes. Yep. Nailed things.
(06:36):
As far as I was concerned, that was
one of the most important things. Yes. Just
trying to hold your dog that's eighty five
pounds while you're, I mean Yeah. If if
they're not used to it, then, yeah, it's
always nice to be able to. And they're
a little,
less,
you know, they they'll allow us to do
things that they wouldn't necessarily
(06:57):
let you do because
you're their, you know, their own She knows
that my heart is pounding in my chest
while I'm doing yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah.
She's got my number. Yeah. And we can
do vaccines as well.
Great. We can do rabies when we have
a veterinarian,
at the shelter. Great. And so yeah. Great.
Excellent. So
(07:19):
So
how has it been going? How
what's the process been of bringing
new people in? And Well, it's it's definitely
a training process because going from vet medicine
to shelter medicine is a little bit different.
Mhmm.
So we have worked really closely on
(07:39):
policies and protocols.
Because, say, for instance, a you acquire an
animal out in the public. It's safe in
your home,
and, you know, the vet may recommend you
vaccinate between six and eight weeks.
Well, in a shelter, because of the high
population, we vaccinate as early as
as four weeks and every two weeks while
the animal is in our care. That's just
(07:59):
one example
of a, you know, a different type of
protocol in order to keep shelter animals safe.
So we've worked together so that everybody's on
the same page and we can keep everybody,
you know, healthy and happy. Yep. And then
monitoring,
large populations versus being you know, working with
individual animals.
(08:19):
And
Coral will tell you too,
animals in a shelter don't act the same
as owned animals. Yep.
It takes time for them to decompress if
they've been in a shelter, if they've been
surrendered, they're stray. Yeah. You know, depending on
how we got them, it it it all
makes a difference. And especially when it's like
(08:40):
a dog that has been in the shelter
before and gets returned to the shelter.
You know, it's almost like a double whammy
psychologically for the dog. Yeah. Now if you
get a puppy, puppies are just like, I'm
a puppy and I don't care. I'm just
here to poop on stuff and, god, this
guy. Oh, I get to go to another
on your shoes and Yeah. But, you know,
older dogs,
depending on what they've gone through Mhmm. It
(09:01):
can take a long time. Mhmm. So,
it's been about two and a half months
ish, and they're they're doing a great job
in acclimating to the different types of protocols.
And they're also bringing a different level of
medical care because they're able to see some
things and and work closely with
(09:21):
I'm gonna say who your vet is. Doctor
Franjusic. Everybody loves doctor Franjusic.
So she goes, my doctor,
doctor Franjusic.
You know, she can give doctor Franjusic a
call.
I I worked really close with doctor Tribble.
They still work, close with doctor Tribble.
And I think I've said this before,
(09:41):
we use Town and Country as well. I
mean, we use the vets that we can
get into.
Town and Country's super busy.
So is doctor Tribble. Doctor Franjusic is retired,
but he's still,
as a courtesy to us. And I think
Cora, because I think well, I think she's
one of his favorites because because he comes
up quite a bit. I mean, she's been
(10:01):
with him thirty years. Oh, well. So Duh.
Skye? I mean, it's almost like He's family.
You're his kid. Exactly. So it it's a
bonus to be able to have that expertise
at the end of the phone Mhmm. If
she runs into something that she needs help
with. Mhmm. Yep. Yeah. It really does make
a difference. I I
my dog,
(10:22):
Cola,
had to ended up having to be put
down back in January, and she started having
seizures
at 11:00 on a Saturday night. So we're
going into Sunday. Right? I mean, it's like,
yeah,
disaster. And and I'm not good in those
kind of situations,
but I called Town and Country and, you
(10:43):
know, and they luckily had somebody who was
on call
that could at least talk
me through it and said, you gotta get
her in the next day. You gotta get
her in there. You know?
Probably, this is not a good situation.
But it helped so much to have another
person on the end of the phone
(11:03):
that actually knew what I was talking about
and that could talk me off the ledge
a little bit. It it makes a big
difference.
Yeah. Yeah. I have that little reassurance.
Yeah. Absolutely.
So how are you finding
working
as a manager at the shelter? Is
it interesting? Is it challenging? Yeah. I mean,
(11:26):
we we saw the a little bit of
the shelter side of thing just means that
we helped out,
with, you know, Del Norte Humane Society,
because doctor Franusic's practice was in Crescent City.
Mhmm. So we we did help with with
that type. So I kinda knew a little
bit about
that. But but like Jen said, shelter medicine
(11:48):
is is different. Mhmm. You know, there's different
things just because of the high
number of pets that you see, whether it
be cats or dogs.
So but I think we're figuring it out
pretty good.
I think we're getting it. Yep. So how
many
dogs and cats you got at this point?
Currently?
(12:09):
Yeah. Currently.
What are you looking at currently?
Well, currently,
they have roughly 35 dogs
in shelter.
There is a transport
coming tomorrow because I'm in town, and I
was like, we're gonna get little dogs. So
Okay.
I'm not sure when this airs, but,
Probably not until Tuesday. So they'll be in.
(12:30):
That's perfect. That's perfect. Yeah. Yep. That's perfect.
So, you know, watching the Facebook is always
a good way to see which animals are
available. And there are some small ones, some
scruffy ones.
We've got a Frenchie coming in. We've got
a Pug coming in. You know, some it's
Yeah. It's shelter these days. Couple of geriatric.
Yes. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. I, a couple of
(12:51):
senior kids, that are bonded. Mhmm. So, you
know, the smaller groups and the smaller dogs
usually go really well here because of the
older population
and,
smaller living quarters. So people like to have
smaller dogs.
Plus it's hard to pick up 80 pounds
of dog when you're turning 75.
(13:11):
I'm just saying. It's hard to do when
you're 55.
I'm just saying.
The, cat population isn't crazy right now. I
knocked on wood. It didn't feel like
kitten season
was was, well Nuts, was it? Well,
it took a really, really long time to
get here. And then when it got here,
it got here. Oh. So but the adult
(13:33):
population, there's only we only have about eight
to 10 adult cats right now, which is
an interesting thing because
we have a couple
a couple of pairs that could go into
barns. They're not super happy to be at
the shelter because they were caught and they
were outside kitties. Yeah. It was a large
group. Yeah. These are some gray and white
tabbies that are absolutely gorgeous and would be
(13:54):
great hunters.
So we were really looking to get
three pairs of cats into
barn type situations. They'd be great varmint killers.
Mhmm. And then, And we got lots of
varmint. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then there are,
like, three or four really nice cats in
our in our main cattery. And you know
that we do use our thrift store as
(14:14):
a satellite adoption center. Oh, I didn't wear
that. Donna has built a little cater catio
patio over there where you can go in
and sit. And a lot of times people
come to the shelter and
they'll say, it's just so sad. There's so
many animals or or there's too many animals
and it's overwhelming. Mhmm. But if if they
can go to the thrift store and they're
shopping Yeah. And they go in and they
(14:34):
sit with just one or two cats Yeah.
They may end up falling in love and
taking one home. Yep. Yep. Alright. So the
kittens, there there's about how many kittens in
the shelter right now? 30 ish? Yeah. Oh.
About 30 kittens. Okay. 26, but probably 30
is close. And some some in foster. Mhmm.
But she's got a clinic coming up here
on Thursday where several of them will get
(14:56):
fixed.
But we do the foster to adopt so
they can take them home, bring them back.
Mhmm. That's really safe for the animal to
get them out of the shelter, let them
develop and continue with their vaccination history so
that when they come back, they're healthy and
ready to go. It makes a huge difference.
I
my dog, Cola, I got from the shelter,
(15:16):
but it was before you were here, and
they wouldn't let me take her until she
was three months old. So she and her
two siblings were stuck in a cage until
she was three months old.
You do not wanna spend your first three
months of life in a cage
with crazy dogs barking in the next cage
over you. That's not a good way to
(15:36):
spend your first three months.
No. So yeah. I I when I heard
that you were doing foster to adopt
a while ago, I thought, yes. So when
you had good compliance,
every once in a great while, someone falls
off and and
doesn't come back, which is kinda frustrating. Mhmm.
But,
(15:56):
I think that
overall, the program has been very successful. Mhmm.
We offer a refund of a deposit. We
have a have a matching deposit
adoption fee. And when you bring that animal
back to get fixed for free Mhmm. We
refund that. So a $100 dog adoption fee,
vaccinated, flea treated, dewormed, microchipped, fixed, and kittens
(16:19):
and cats, $60
vaccinated, least treated. I mean, that's you can't
even go to the vet for that. So
No. Not not not at all. Yeah.
Now that's great.
Good.
Good. So do you have,
some interesting
dogs and cats? Anybody
(16:40):
you wanna
talk about? I would love to hear
about the interesting
ones.
We've got
Aria.
Mhmm.
She's been there,
gosh, next week. It will be a year
for her.
Wow.
That's too Yeah. Yep. She's,
(17:01):
she's shy to start out. Mhmm.
She kinda lost her trust in people. Mhmm.
Because of some stuff that happened in her
background. Yeah. So she's gonna need that person
that is patient.
And What kind of dog? She's
a pity mix.
Yeah. She's
a brindle color,
but she's got ears that stand straight up.
(17:23):
Mhmm.
And she's she gets along with all other
dogs.
She is
She's roughly about seven, eight years old. Okay.
Okay. Yeah. But she just needs that. That's
she needs that. Senior, but that's starting
to be mature. Yeah. We we call it
a senior AM. Mhmm. And that dog for
(17:45):
me,
that is the dog that needs to get
out of the shelter the most. Mhmm.
Because she was one of the rescues that
I took in from California, like, way back.
She got adopted
with another
female dog that was a senior. Mhmm. They
had the dogs for four years.
The lady got sick. They were moving out
of state and she just comes out of
(18:06):
the blue and says, hey, I thought I
had a home for them. I don't. Here
they are. Oh. And and so they they
hadn't done a lot of socializing
outside of the house. Right. And when she
left our shelter, she was so happy in
playgroups and friendly and just everything everything was
great. But when she came back and went
came back to a shelter, I mean,
can you
imagine for a dog to walk back into
(18:26):
a shelter and be locked up after she's
been and I say locked up, but kenneled,
you know, after she's been on the couch
with a person and another dog. Every night.
So Yes. She she's just, you know and
when people come to the shelter,
when they wanna meet dogs, they wanna get
on their level, put their face down, and
go, oh, do do do do. Yeah. And
if you do that to her, she's gonna
she's gonna back up and maybe even growl
(18:48):
at you a little bit because it's intimidating.
Yeah. You know, she's not a puppy. She's
an older dog that's been turned in once
for who knows what reason. Yeah. Came here,
got
turned back in. And since then, that senior
dog that she was with, which was harder
to adopt in my opinion,
got adopted and is living great, so she
needs to get out. Yep. She needs to
(19:09):
get out. Yep.
She just needs someone that gives her a
chance. Because you get her in a grassy
yard, we've taken her up to the property.
She loves playing in the yard. She thinks
it's great. She'd get along with another
equal sized dog easily.
If there was an older kid, probably. Little
kids running around Too much noise. Yeah. Too
much. You know?
(19:29):
I'm older. I don't wanna It's too much
for me. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, come on,
you know?
Right.
But she's gotten
too used to being there. Yeah. We need
to get her
Absolutely. And get her into it. Yeah. Because
it it can't be
her best life to be in a No.
Shelter. It just can't be I mean, she's
(19:49):
happy. Of course. And you take the care
of her brother-in-law routine. Yeah. But still. But,
yeah. She yeah. We need to she needs
it. And what's her name again? Aria. Aria.
Yeah. And we have, I mean, so many
great ones.
All of the other ones are are are
actually pretty easy.
Mhmm. We had a dog that has been
(20:11):
there for about three or four months that
originally
was found as a stray, lived in a
home where
this lady gets dogs dumped on her all
the time.
Wow. And she gets them vetted, and then
she finds rescues like us to take them
on. She instead of getting them into high
kill shelters, so they forego that. So she
came to our shelter. It was Sandy.
And Sandy,
(20:32):
she was great at first, and then now
she's just getting super frustrated, so she gets
a little nippy with dogs. Mhmm. So we
have a great volunteer. I think I've talked
about him before. You might remember me talking
about Chicken Bob. Yes.
K. This is so funny because when I
talk about Chicken Bob, then people are in
the store and they're like, hey, that's Chicken
Bob.
(20:52):
Yeah.
So so Chicken Bob,
he fostered,
another dog named Simba. Mhmm. And
unfortunately I mean, he fostered her for a
long time.
We ended up humanely putting her down. It
was the end of her life. She lived
a great life with him. And I told
Corey, I go, gosh, Sandy looks just like
this dog. And I said, you need to
(21:13):
you need to get him back there and
just let him touch her. If he touched
her, he's taking her home. So she did.
And guess what? He picked her up today.
No way. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So I love it. So that's a
good one. And then our other long term
dog, Thea,
who would be a year in the shelter,
did some videos this last week. And one
of our awesome adopters,
(21:35):
he walks by the shelter with his two
dogs every day. He and his wife came
down, met her yesterday.
I did a little team walk, and I
took the took her over to his yard
because his dog he's got a big dog
named Bane.
And,
he Bane was being a little protective on
the walk and stuff. He said, why don't
you bring her to the house? What I
didn't realize is his other dog,
(21:57):
I had delivered her four years ago to
his house. I'm like, god. This backyard looks
really familiar. They're like, yeah. You brought this
other dog over here too.
So I dropped her off. She's doing a
sleepover.
Right. She and everything looks great. But, you
know, when you get them out of that
environment
and the other dogs aren't there smelling all
those smells and sitts Right. Nobody's nobody's puffed
(22:19):
up, you know. Right. Right. Just changes everything.
And they do change when they're when they're
out of the shelter
for a while, you know. They do they
do change. Their their personality
changes. They Mhmm. You know, they get a
little more relaxed. They're not as edgy.
Some it's quicker than others.
(22:40):
You know, but that's the thing is,
people just need to give them time.
Time to adjust, time to unwind, time to
relax. Yep. Don't don't expect too much of
them too soon. Yeah. Don't Yeah. Yeah. Because
it's not now puppies, whole other story. Right.
They're rare and then ready to go.
But, yeah, the older adult dogs, it's just
(23:01):
because they've been in that such that routine,
that it just takes them a while to
learn your routine and
and, you know, get used to the smells
and the cold and the cold. Trust you.
Yes. Right. Yes. I mean, that Yeah. That's
that was what Daisy, you know, came from
that
really not great situation where her owner died
(23:22):
and come back to the shelter. And, I
mean, it's just like that.
That just has to be,
you know Yeah. Really kind of traumatic for
the dog. You know? And just
you just kinda wanna go in there and,
like, erase all those memories. Right? All the
bad memories and just go People say that
dogs don't remember, and I think that's a
(23:43):
stone cold lie. I I agree. I think
I think that smells, sights, sounds, they can
take them right back to something traumatic just
like people. Yep. Yep. Just like people. And
I really wish that I could get into
her brain Oh, god. Me too. You know,
and just see what it was Mhmm. So
that I could then know how to help
her
(24:03):
come out of that, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
Only your dog could talk. I know.
I know. I know. I know. With something
besides her eyes. Right? I mean, she definitely
talks to me with her eyes, but,
yeah, they're they are just amazing creatures. I'm
I'm so glad that you guys are doing
what you do.
(24:24):
So you asked,
interesting interesting animals. So
I think all the dogs are interesting. Interesting.
I think those are the those are the
ones that we really would like to place.
There's another male named Mikio
that's been there a little bit, and he's
he's kinda turned into a little punk guy
on the yard. And not not in a
bad way, but he's just acts kinda punky
now. Yeah. He'd be great to go. He's
(24:44):
got the most beautiful coat. He is only
a little over a year old. He's been
with us since about January,
so before I left. Mhmm.
But he had a
a beautiful brother. He was
stone
cold black with bright blue eyes, one ear
up, one ear down, and was like a
shepherd mix. He doesn't look anything like that.
(25:05):
And I thought he was gonna go before
the brother because the brother was more reserved.
Mhmm.
He's just, like, if you can let him
hang out in the laundry room and he's
just kind of a lazy
lazy guy. He's just lazy. But he he
will chase a cat. Yeah. But he gets
along with any and all dogs. He's great.
Right. They just had a little kitten, and
this is kind of hard luck story,
(25:27):
that came in that was super sick, and
they had to remove both eyes because of
the upper respiratory.
And I I I don't know that kitty's
name because I'm I'm I didn't name it.
I I call them silver eyes.
Yeah. Now without minus them, so we have
to come up with a new name. I
think doctor Kribble had had socket.
(25:48):
Socket?
There you go.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We we have to be
creative. Right?
So yeah. So he had
he had entropion, which is where their eyelids
turn in
word. And then it's a it's a common
thing in dogs, your larger breed, your mastiffs,
your bloodhounds,
your Cane Corsos.
(26:10):
It's more common to just have one eyelid
turn in, but not necessarily both. And this
poor little guy, he had both.
And then because of the
lashes,
it scratched the surface of the eye and
then created ulcers. But then also because of
the upper respiratory virus he had, that caused
an infection.
And so,
(26:31):
they had to be taken out. Tears. Yeah.
But
he is doing great,
and he's used to not
seeing
because I don't think he's ever been able
to. Oh. And so
he gets around
Okay. Really well,
because he doesn't know any different. Yeah. So
(26:53):
he'll be a special needs guy, but,
but he's
super cute and doing really good. How old?
Oh,
I think
close to six weeks now. Six, seven weeks.
Yeah. Tiny.
Tiny guy. Tiny guy. Yeah. Yep. He's in
a foster home where he's got, another little
(27:15):
companion that I think kinda helps him. So
if he went, you know, paired with another
kitten, that would be good because, of course,
kittens always do better in pairs because then
they can annoy each other and tear other
than Do they? Because dogs don't always do
better in pairs, do they? They don't.
Not siblings. Not siblings. Not siblings.
Yeah. What happens with that whole Sibling rivalry.
(27:37):
You know? That's just weird. You just get
tired of your siblings, man.
Tired of it. Year, man. Yep. Yeah. I
it's been pretty rare.
I we used to incur we wow. Two
puppies are leaving? Yay.
And then it got to the point where
I had had a number of puppies that
they ended up not getting along. So I
(27:58):
really dissuade if you want two puppies, get
two puppies from different litters and try to
space them out. Mhmm. But you get them
both together eventually.
It just seems like unless you're a special
person that puts a lot of time and
effort into
that, it can it can be problematic.
And are females
different? Yeah. For bitch. Like,
I mean, really. I mean, that that's I
(28:19):
have heard that, that you don't wanna get
necessarily two females because,
you know, they're quick to be what I
was I was taught,
in
behavior from someone that runs a huge shelter.
She said,
most times, boys and girls are no brainer.
But it's okay if the girl's bitchy. Right?
(28:40):
Mhmm. She can tell the boy no. Right.
And sometimes you'll see guys that they've got
the machismo so they can kinda butt heads.
Right? Right. Which is normal. And then you
have two bitches. And I'm using bitches As
the female dog. Yes. Correct. Yes.
If you've got two bitches, they can be
bitchy to a southern. Right. Okay? Yeah. So
when you're thinking about getting two dogs, you
(29:02):
know, I only have one bitch in my
family. Mhmm. Including myself.
So Are you serious? All of your dogs
are male? Except for Vita. I have one
female. Okay. I do have one female. But
she kinda she kinda dictates everything. Yeah. And
even though she's not the physically
superior dog,
it's like she
(29:23):
tells everybody what to do subliminally.
Yeah. She's kind of the front of the
female. Yeah. Well, I think that's right. I
mean, I don't
See?
There we we were on the I got
to think that that's right, but whatever. You
know?
There was a dog that,
I think Debbie was telling me about
that was
deaf?
(29:45):
Yes. Yeah. Prince Prince Philip.
He is. He's a, Australian shepherd mix.
He's on the Beautiful dog. He is. He's
on the smaller side. Like, I don't think
he's gonna get very big. I don't think
he he maybe will be, like, thirty
thirty five, forty pounds. Mhmm. But he is
the double merle,
which can carry,
(30:07):
the deafness gene.
He he's got blue eyes. We are kind
of wondering if his vision is a 100%
because it does seem like you have to
get closer to him. Mhmm.
And then when he sees you, he gets,
super excited. Nice. He's he's a great guy.
He does great in a crate.
(30:29):
He seems to do better
with other dogs. Mhmm. He,
doesn't,
do well alone. Mhmm. He,
I think it just Wants to be part
of it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and
that makes sense. I mean, if he's deaf,
his world is already
somewhat,
(30:50):
well Yeah. Quiet. Mhmm. You know?
So Yeah. You know, having interaction with creatures
that are on his level Yes. Yeah. Would
make a difference. And he,
you can tell he uses his nose a
lot, because he'll sniff the air if he's
trying to catch a scent of something.
And,
so,
(31:12):
I think if someone, you know, they did
their research on how to train Mhmm. Because,
Debbie's already been working with him with some
hand signals and stuff, and he's picking up
on it pretty quick. Yeah. That's true. Debbie's
an awesome foster. Oh, Debbie is just awesome.
Yeah. Mary a dino.
Yeah. She's she's one of my go to
people. She was she just got, she had
(31:34):
a litter of puppies. And then I'm like,
you know, Prince I I bet I bet
you if I text her and tell her,
she she'll take this doc. Because when she
she doesn't just foster them. She teaches them.
In the mail. She teaches them. Yes. And
she's gotta pack. Yeah. You know? She doesn't
just go, okay. I get all the all
the supplies
leashes. I you know? I'm going to teach
them manners. Yep. So it's really cool when
(31:56):
she takes in a group. And, you know,
she has a farm, so we are limited
to certain seasons for with her. Mhmm. And
so I think that gives her a decent
break. Yes. Because because we abuse her as
much as possible.
Yeah. I think she's she's got that dog
back now though. Yes. Yeah. He went on
a he went on a trial and,
(32:17):
Just didn't work out. It didn't. No. Yeah.
He was the only dog. Right. And,
and then that's where we've kind of you
know, we learn
too when they go out on trial. Yeah.
If it doesn't work out, what
what, you know, what was the experience there?
Right. And,
so and then then not having another dog
(32:38):
because their,
description of him at their home
was much different than what Debbie had experienced
with him at her home. Mhmm. And then
when he went back
to her home, he just went right back.
Yeah. And so so I think definitely for
him, having another dog is gonna be
(32:58):
Or a pack.
Like, Debbie's pack. I did wanna tell you,
because I think you'll find this super interesting.
I know we talk about dogs the whole
time, but we had,
a cat come in that was pregnant and
had kitties.
And there was a swimmer kitty, which she
can tell you about the swimmer stuff.
Okay. And then there were two with cerebral
(33:18):
hypoplasia.
So that's called wobble cat syndrome
where they're almost drunk. I'm gonna pull up
a video for you to see. Oh my
god. And they can live healthy lives, but
it, you know, it's it takes proper management.
And
when we talk about
the shelter,
we have to have the capacity to care
(33:38):
for animals like that with special needs. Mhmm.
And if we don't have the capacity to
care, then it's our job to find someone
who does. Mhmm. So Cora had had, mentioned
to me that, you know, these kitties are
getting to an age where we gotta we
gotta find something.
And I mean, think about it.
You got your apartment and you're gonna go
adopt two kittens. You're not gonna get two
(33:59):
kittens that can't necessarily all always find the
litter box. It's challenging. Okay. That could be
a problem. And then they stop, drop, roll,
roll over and I mean but they are
the friendliest little things. Yep. So I reached
out
to someone that I knew that had worked
with them,
and we found a rescue in Salt Lake
City,
(34:20):
fourteen hours. And this happened within
the last couple days. It was just like
I got a hold of the gal. I
sent videos, sent all that stuff, and then
she says, I will take them.
And I was like, holy moly. Wow. We
can't let this opportunity
go away because that's a lifetime commitment. And
she does people go to her specifically. You
(34:40):
can actually look her up on Facebook. It's,
the wobbly wobbly cat rescue. Mhmm. And I
had never heard that's a thing. Mhmm. And
she's gonna tell you about the swimmer stuff
because she's she's better versed at that.
So I got a hold of Carrie who
is president of our board, and her husband
used to be a CHP officer. And he
likes to drive.
Oh.
(35:01):
And I said, how how do you feel?
Drive myself in the city. How do you
feel about a fourteen hour drive? He says,
I'll leave tomorrow.
Wow. He did that yesterday. Yep. And he
drove left at, like, five in the morning,
got there at 08:30, sent me a picture.
She is, like, over the moon. We sent
a really generous donation for the care of
those kitties because we know that we saved
two lives. Yes. You know? So Exactly. So
(35:22):
when you donate
to our society,
you're not just donating to the care here.
You may be donating to the care of
an animal that
may have been euthanized
anywhere else. We we try to find the
solutions so that we don't have to do
those things. But the swimmer, she'll tell you
I mean
Yes. Tell me about the swimmer. Yeah. So
(35:43):
the legs kinda go out the back kinda
like,
like the
fin or the the tail of a seal
or a sea lion. Wow. And so, I
mean, the legs the legs bend like they're
supposed to, but they just can't get up
underneath
the
the back end
and,
help them
walk.
(36:04):
And so what you've gotta do is,
there's a way to tape them
so that they can be up underneath the
back end,
and then,
the kitten can grow and then and then
use those back legs. Oh. And so we
did that. So you tape
You tape down
down between the knee and the
(36:26):
and the the Ankle? The ankle. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And so you just put a little
tape in there just to hold them together
so that when they do get underneath of
them, they don't fall out the back. Right.
And,
that kitten is doing doing really well.
And what is the, do you know what
biologically
is going on there that
(36:47):
those legs are doing that? Like,
is there a missing part? I don't
know. You know, I don't.
I don't, I don't know. I find But
if they're taped, it works. Yes, yes. Because
then they can get them up underneath of
them. And then they can
start to use them. Now, if they're just
left like that, then obviously, they're not gonna
(37:08):
develop
normally. And so then
that kitten would then probably, unfortunately,
wind up euthanized
just because it wouldn't develop and it wouldn't
be able to walk as it grew into
an adult.
And so we're able to tape it and
get them up underneath of them so that
they can learn to to use them, and
then they and then they grow right. Yeah.
That's excellent. Yeah. I think it's a really
(37:30):
nice point that you made about people donating.
You're literally not just donating to your community,
which,
you know, for some people that's really important
to donate to their community.
But for a lot of us, I don't
care whether
the dog that needs help is in Timbuktu
or here. Mhmm. You know, if it needs
(37:51):
help, it needs help and, you know Well
and I and I wanna point out another
thing that our our rescue has been able
to do because,
and I always try to give
recognition where recognition is due.
The the passport,
they manage their money
wonderful.
And our thrift store is it's the the
(38:13):
most successful thrift store in Oregon. I will.
100%.
And, now I gotta now I gotta give
a shout out for that because I went
to the Humane Education
Society,
thrift store, which I volunteer over in Tennessee
now. Mhmm. It's just not the same. Mhmm.
Don't wanna work there. Just volunteering and getting
my feet wet. At least now. Yes.
And I went to their thrift store and
(38:34):
I walked in and I literally walked back
out. I was like, holy moly. If they
saw our thrift store, our thrift store is
rocking. Yes. I mean, it's off the hook.
It is. I mean, you can find so
much stuff in there. And when I was
difference in how it looks between,
like, five years ago and now is Well,
it astounding.
When COVID happened, that gave us the opportunity
(38:56):
to get in there, knock walls down, paint
stuff. Yep. And then when Donna took over,
Donna's been here, talked with you before. Mhmm.
Donna, I mean, I told Donna I I
I call her Donna, let's make a deal,
Nielsen.
You know? You everything's for sale. Yes. Everything's
for sale.
It doesn't do us good putting inflated prices
on things
(39:16):
when we're getting another donation
right now. Yeah. You know, I mean, you
think you're gonna run out, but people keep
giving and giving and giving. Yeah. So,
I was going on a tangent and then
you told me that somebody used Put your
name in the Amazon. But the thrift store
I can't pull it back. I'm so big.
So the thrift store so because the thrift
store is is so successful
(39:37):
and the money management of the passport
and now us moving forward, we've been able
to invest in the property. And then we
also have some funding
for
other rescues and shelters.
We actually made a a nice donation.
I can't remember where it's at now. It's
gonna drive me nuts. But the chimpanzee rescue
that took in George,
(39:58):
he was on the roadside,
the safari.
Mhmm. They came in and closed that down.
Yep. And I talked to the board about
that. And so we sent a donation up
to the to the primate rescue up in
I think it's Washington where he's at.
And I've shared some of his posts online.
And it's, you know, we wanna help other
rescues continue to rescue animals. It's not just
(40:20):
about our animals. Right. It's about
every animal. Right. You know? Right. Yeah. We're
not prejudiced what kind of animal it is.
We're not prejudiced where it comes from.
We just wanna help when we can. Yep.
Yep.
You does the Humane Society
get governmental
funds or is it all donations? All It's
(40:40):
all donations. Yeah. It's all donations and thrift
store monies. And then, you know, our low
cost spay and neuter
clinic, we don't
charge a lot. Do we make a little
bit?
We just try we try to cover what
we can. Right. But we do pay our
vets. You know, we don't have,
volunteer veterinarians. A lot of people are like,
wow, that's great. You're volunteer. They come and
(41:01):
volunteer.
Their time is worth
worth money. Mhmm. Just like our managers and
the people that work at our shelter and
the people at our thrift store.
Lots of organizations
run strictly on volunteers.
Yes. I was, like, flabbergasted
how many people volunteer in Tennessee. It's like,
holy moly.
There's a lot of volunteers.
(41:21):
It would be great to have more volunteers
here. It'd be great. Sure. You know what
would be really great is if we had
just a couple
more employees at the at the shelter. It's
hard to find
people that don't get burnt out from care.
Right. And they're physically capable to keep up
with the workload.
Because it's It's hard work. It is hard
work. It is hard work. And it's, you
(41:43):
know, it's it's a lot mentally too because
you're rooting for those animals.
You're rooting for them. So I I remember
watching a video,
because you always used to post videos.
And it was,
I think it was the kittens
that were on the road
when you were coming home.
(42:05):
Oh, yeah. I was going up, going up
to Taylor Creek and I it was dark.
I swerved around and they ran across the
road. I had my dog in the back
seat.
I got my flashlight out. I was able
to get a couple and then somewhere up
the hill, someone underneath a homeless person's
vehicle. And I was, like, knocking on the
door, like, I'm not gonna
I got them all. And we ended up
(42:27):
we ended up catching You got the dad,
didn't you? Yes. The big dad. And he
was nice. God, he's a nice cat.
But, yeah, that was Did you find the
mother? Never found the mother? No. Which is
really odd. Mhmm. Because they were in a
place where they should not have been.
Somebody had to dump them. Yeah. So maybe
(42:47):
they kept the mom, dumped the dad, said,
you're the one that made this problem. Here
you go.
Yeah.
And all the kids, by the way. You're
you're taking all the kids as well.
Well, that's a change usually. I end up
as a mom. Exactly.
So what else is going on? What what
what do you guys need help with?
(43:08):
Like well, like Jen said,
a couple more employees. Mhmm. So if, you
know, if anybody
out there is interested in that.
So what are the qualifications?
What are you what are you looking for?
Well, you know, animal experience is great, but
we can pretty much train
you, you know, train anybody to to do
(43:28):
that.
Good
people skills because sometimes, you know, you
interact with the, you know, the people that
come in the shelter. Because
let me tell you what, sometimes there's
Hell yeah. 25
people in that lobby. Yep. So it would
be It's just on Wednesday afternoons when you're
like, holy. We actually have a traffic control
(43:50):
die now that comes in.
And yeah. Because there's a couple fender benders
in the parking lot. No. So Yeah. You
know,
if we if we had the ability to
get, you know, a couple more employees that
were available in the afternoon, it would be
really awesome to be able to have, you
know, walk in nail trims if we had
(44:10):
more people available Yeah. So that we didn't
back up everybody on Wednesday because Right. Everybody
does what everybody knows. Yes. Mhmm. It's Wednesday.
No. I know. You know? And
Trying to get down railroad
on Wednesday at 02:00
with car doors opening and these cars pulling
in and going yeah. It's it's an adventure.
(44:31):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So a couple more employees would be great.
Yeah. And,
dog walkers. Mhmm. You know, the that it's
really nice to be able to
get the dogs out. And even if it's
for, you know, a thirty minute walk, we
have a couple of dog walkers that will
come,
(44:52):
and take them for a couple of hours.
We had the other day,
some people came and took four dogs,
and,
they had taken them to the beach. And,
man, those dogs were wore out. Good.
Yeah. And That's what you want. Yes. Yeah.
Of course, we, you know, we ask that
(45:12):
they're not
allowed off leash. Right.
They're not allowed to,
we don't want really any,
mingling with other,
dogs because
because we don't know what those dogs would
do, and we don't wanna have any issues
with our dogs. Sure. And so we kinda
go over that with everybody,
before they take them. Of course, there's a
(45:33):
volunteer waiver that we, you know, we have
you fill out so we have information
so we can get a hold of, you
know, you if if you're out and about
with a dog and maybe somebody comes to
look at that dog, then we can get
a hold of you to come back.
But, you know, just getting them
out and getting them exercise and I mean,
because they go out in their difference. They
(45:54):
go out in their play groups. Mhmm. But
it's not like going out on a walk.
Yeah. You know? That's completely different. And so
and some of the dogs really love water.
Yep. And they get that stimulation,
you know, if they get to go to
the beach and, you know, and and play
in the play in the water and and
stuff like that. So,
And are you looking for people who will
(46:16):
foster,
for instance, a mama and their babies that
are brand new? Because I've seen those pictures.
Yes. Yeah. They're great pictures. Yes.
And
then, so both, you know, cats and dogs,
cats that have come because
stress, you know, they come to us and
they may be pregnant, and then the next
(46:37):
morning we come in and they've got babies
because stress will do that. Yeah. And so
then we wanna get them out of the
shelter and into a home where then things
can be quieter and not so much, you
know, a commotion and and and movement and
everything. And then and the same with dogs.
Of course,
some of the dogs we get, they come
with the puppies, but it has happened where
(46:58):
they've had the puppies Yep. The day after
transport. And so getting them out,
getting them to where they'll be quieter, less
stress,
where they can decompress and then just focus
on their on their puppies is great.
And you have I think
when I was looking at the web page
today, I think it looked like there were
(47:18):
maybe
four or five dogs that have litters that
you're hoping
somebody or maybe that was a
Okay. I think I had shared. Yeah. I
think you did. You know, if I if
I was
when I say yes to to transport and
I I commit
to,
(47:39):
to taking them in,
if I have a mom and puppies, I
have to have a place if I don't
have somebody at the shelter. Right. So, you
know, if somebody says, hey, I've got a
secure place, that's a dog an animal or
a litter that I can say yes to,
get it out of another high kill shelter
and help. So when I promote stuff like
that, I'm I'm kinda fishing for more Got
(47:59):
it. Fosters. Right. And, you know, small dog
fosters are easy. Mhmm.
Large dog fosters, you know, Debbie's had many
mantas and puppies. Mhmm. And,
it's it can it can be a lot.
It can be challenging.
Mhmm.
For sure.
And, you know, we have we have a
few dogs too that wouldn't necessarily go on
(48:20):
a walk. Mhmm.
But just to get them out, and we
have a bench,
in the front
just to sit with them and expose them
to
the noises, to the traffic, to
the people walking by.
You know, just just
even just that helps them.
(48:41):
Yeah. Because they're out in the world and
they're seeing what the world is. Yeah. Because
they've become,
like, Peaches is the one that I'm thinking
of. She's so accustomed
to shelter life that to go outside
terrifies her. Oh. You know? And she's just
scared.
And so even just coming in and getting,
(49:04):
her and taking her out and sitting with
her outside and just helping expose her to
that
and And what kind of a dog is
Peaches? She's a
Chow mix. They came three sisters
three sisters together. They were found on Halloween,
in
San Francisco?
A little bit lower than that down.
(49:25):
I'm trying to remember which which shelter I
took them from. Yeah.
One has been adopted. Two are still in
the shelter. They might have a little bit
of Aussie in them, Australian Shepherd, but they've
got some purple spots on their tongue. So
there's probably some chow in there somewhere. Yep.
Two of the sisters were super friendly. Peaches
just and she's the prettiest of them all
probably. It was striking. Mhmm.
(49:48):
And I I know we're gonna find a
home for her. I do.
But it's gonna be that special person. Yeah.
Yeah. It will. And the crazy part is
we had a dog named Troy. I had
taken him out of a shelter. I believe
it was Stockton. He had gotten hit by
a car. He was
going to be euthanized.
We ended up they put him in a
foster down there. He got up here. He
(50:09):
was here for
a little over a year or so. Wow.
And
very shy, reserved, but would start to come
out of his shell. Loved other dogs.
I did a couple videos. This lady came
out of the woodwork, said, I want that
dog. She came and got him. Mhmm. And
he's do he's playing with her cats. He's
living with her dogs. I mean,
she she loves that dog.
(50:31):
She loves it. She still sends updates. So
I try to put those updates on Facebook
so that people can see.
They just need time. Yeah. Time, time, time.
Yeah. Yeah. So Peaches would be one of
those. She'd probably do well with at least
one other dog in the family Mhmm. Just
so she can see.
I can trust that person. Exactly. And what
does it look like to be a dog
(50:52):
in this family? Mhmm. Which, you know, sometimes
they just need
a little guidance. Right. You know? Yeah. Like,
it's okay to be here. This is what
you do. Mhmm. This is how you let
them know you have to potty. You know,
it's just it's just that stuff. Well, the
crazy part is we learn what they know
when they go into a home a lot
of times. A lot of times, they know
(51:13):
all those things and Mhmm. We don't have
any idea. No. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Yeah. I know.
So you had a picture
on the website
of this German shepherd
mix with
ears that were like, oh my god.
Mhmm. Huge
freaking ears. Puppies? Finch and Buster, probably? Probably
(51:36):
one dog that I saw, it was like,
oh my god.
Yeah. He'll never grow into those ears. How
was that? Those puppies, it might have been
that one right there. Oh, yes. Look at
those ears. That one went home. They've both
gone home. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah. Both of
those. That's wonderful. Yeah. Because huge. Right? I
mean Yeah. Who has ears that look like
(51:57):
that? Ridiculous. Yeah. Oh my god. It's great.
Yeah.
Alright. So we've only got a few minutes
left.
Let me know what you
need in terms of supplies. Do you need
stuff? Do you need blankets? Do you need
towels? Do you need dog food? What what
do you need? We can always use all
(52:18):
of the above. Okay.
You know, the blankets, some of the dogs
will will tear them up. So,
can always use blankets.
Towels for sure.
You know, we go through a lot of
laundry soap. A lot of soap, paper towels.
Okay.
That's good to know. And,
(52:39):
yeah.
If you do decide to get food,
we do feed a certain brand. Okay.
Just because we try to keep everybody on
the same thing so we don't have diarrhea.
Mhmm.
You can purchase it at Cascade.
We are feeding Diamond Naturals.
And it's the lamb and rice and the
red and white bag. And that's the one.
(52:59):
Because we get a lot of really nice
people that they'll go buy a dog dog
food and bring it to the shelter. Yeah.
But if we mix that in, it causes
gastrointestinal
upset for the dogs. Yeah. So a lot
of times, we will,
we hate to say no. Mhmm.
And I think I talked about this earlier
with you in a different, interview.
We used to take in all kinds of
(53:20):
donation dog food and hand it out to
the public.
But we started having a rat infestation.
So because we because we were storing so
much food as a shelter. Yes. So we
ended up having to get a company to
come out to monitor that, which it's completely
under control. Right. But we just asked that
if you have dog food,
(53:41):
save us a trip and take it to
the food bank. The food bank is wonderful
at distributing
bags for people that need it. Oh, great.
It's right behind Railroad Market. Right. And that's
where we send people if they need if
they need dog food now. Oh, that's right.
It's not that we don't wanna help the
public. It's just that it caused us a
lot. Too many problems. Yeah. You don't want
rodents running around. Yeah. That's just Our dogs
(54:04):
thought it was kinda cool because then, you
know,
every once in a while, you find dog
with rats.
That's great. Great.
And toys?
Toys. Yeah. Soft ones, the hard rubber ones,
the,
the squeaky. Some of them really love the
squeaky.
You know, anything that to me. But stimulates
them and, you know, and just helps them
(54:26):
break up the, you know, the Right. One
of my favorite things to do
when I used to be here is when
it would be 05:30 ish,
I'd distribute squeaky toys and shut out the
lights. And then you just hear them squeak,
squeak, squeak. It was they just go to
town. Yes. You know, it's it's kinda cool.
There's there's all kinds of toys. There's the
crackly ones. There's the squeaker ones.
(54:49):
All
they they need them. They need that stimulation.
Yep. We have,
Lily.
She's a healer
mix.
She runs around with us in the morning
in the laundry room and stuff. So we
get the buckets because we're gonna go throw
the toys. We let her pick out of
the bucket. She gets in there and roots
around and takes the toy out as she
(55:11):
wants. That's adorable.
Yeah. She's a pretty good girl. So we're
just about out of town. Time. Town. We're
out of we're out of town and out
of time. No. We're in town.
Understood.
This is what happens when you chew gum
and try to walk at the same time.
Don't know what to say.
Cora, it has been delightful having you here.
(55:32):
I am just so happy to meet you.
Nice to meet you. And you should know
that you have an open invitation if there's
ever any time you wanna come back on,
you have something you wanna talk about, special
circumstance.
Okay. You know, anything. If you got an
event coming up, we do PSA's all the
time. So just
I'll give you my card and just make
(55:53):
sure you get in touch with me. Yeah.
Sounds good. Jennifer, it's
delightful to see you again. I am No
worries. I am All come sad that you're
out of town. Right? But I'm really glad
that you look happy. I'll be coming back
and visiting. You notice I have a little
bit of a tan now. I don't have
a freaking tan inside. That. Yeah. Yeah. Holy
moly.
You know what they always say? Tan fat
(56:14):
looks better than white fat. So there is
that.
Thank you both so much for coming on
the show. Thank you. Thank you. And I
wanna thank you for listening.
It's been a pleasure having these young women
in here, and we will definitely have them
back.
If you're fortunate enough to have,
(56:36):
four legged creatures in your life, please take
really good care of them. They're worth every
minute of it. I'm Candice Michelle, and this
is our community.
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