August 1, 2025 • 45 mins
Healing Broken Hearts Rescue founder, Dezzie Howe, joins us to discuss her revolutionary approach to animal rescue. In this episode, Dezzie shares how her organization operates without cages, allowing dogs to live in a communal, home-like environment. She explains how this method fosters healing and prepares dogs for their forever homes. Dezzie also delves into her vision for the future of animal shelters, advocating for a shift from traditional kennels to a more holistic, low-stress model focused on the emotional and psychological well-being of the animals. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in animal welfare and the power of innovative rescue methods.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dixie (00:02):
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Today's guest is Dezzie Howe withHealing Broken Hearts Rescue.
Hi Dezzie, how are you?
Dezzie (00:15):
Hi, how are you?
Dixie (00:16):
I'm good.
Thanks for coming on the show.
I appreciate it.
Dezzie (00:18):
Thanks for
asking me.
Dixie (00:20):
Yeah.
I'm looking forward to learningabout Healing Broken Hearts Rescue.
to begin could you please share a bitabout your background and what initially
sparked your passion for animal welfare?
Dezzie (00:33):
Mine is lifelong.
My stepdad of 20 years trained policedogs, so we had 40 kennels and a
training ground, so I grew up in it,and then I started working in a animal
shelter and I did that for 10 yearsand then I switched over to rescue.
Dixie (00:57):
With the Healing Broken Hearts Rescue.
What is your title?
Dezzie (01:02):
I'm the
director.
Dixie (01:04):
And when was the organization founded?
Dezzie (01:07):
2019
Dixie (01:08):
what is your mission and what is a day like in the life
of Healing Broken Hearts Rescue.
Dezzie (01:14):
The mission is to change the educational system
on how we treat animals.
I would like to build and teach awhole new way to do animal shelters.
There's a better way to do it.
I honestly believe there is abetter way to do it where we could
(01:37):
help our community a lot more.
We could get our kids involved init and we could help our veterans.
Dixie (01:44):
When you say a better way, what is your vision of a better way?
Dezzie (01:49):
No more cages.
Let's stop treating 'emlike they're prisoners.
It's not necessary.
It's lazy.
It's because they won't putanyone in a facility 24 hours.
They won't do night shifts,so you have to use cages.
And my idea is to turn it over to veteransand build them into veterans housing,
(02:10):
that takes care of your animal population.
. We have it all drawn out.
We have a whole plan.
Dixie (02:18):
Tell me about it.
I'd love to hear more about this.
It's a very interesting concept for sure.
Dezzie (02:24):
Think about it.
If you took and you had one mainbuilding and you put in 25 tiny houses,
no kitchens in them, you have one mainkitchen . Main laundry, and all they had
was bathrooms and bedrooms in the tinies.
You could put two veteransper tiny and each one could be
in charge of two dogs, right?
(02:47):
And then you could have yourdogs that were just coming in
or just starting training orhaven't been placed in groups yet.
The main building.
And you could have 50 dogs workingwith your veterans, getting ready
for adoptions or being trained to beservice animals for other veterans.
(03:08):
There's a concept, actually helpingour veterans out because that way
you're housing your veterans, you'regiving them a purpose, and everyone
knows for depression and stuff,animals are really good for you.
They help with that.
You could really do a lot ofgood by having them all together,
(03:34):
and give them a purpose and take a lotof the strain and stuff off of your
smaller counties that can't afford it.
Could I go off subject for justa second and tell you . What
made me go in that direction?
Dixie (03:50):
Yes, please.
Dezzie (03:52):
Okay.
About 10 years ago my brother who
Owned a construction company,thought I was nuts for dedicating
so much time to animals.
But he described it in a way that'salways stuck with me and why I wanna
make the change so desperately onwhat we're doing in this country.
(04:12):
The county shelters the big shelters,he said those are like federal prisons.
Those are the big prisons.
We treat 'em the same.
They're out an hour a day.
They're treated just like they'vedone something wrong to be
there and most of 'em have not.
And he said the smaller rescuesaround, are your county jails
(04:34):
still in kennels all the time.
Still on that, very fewget very much freedom.
And he said, but the way I do it here,because I do open pack, he said, this
is a halfway house and it hit me.
Why do we have to have the other two?
(04:54):
They could all be done the wayI'm doing it if we changed up the
way we did the human side of it.
Dixie (05:02):
I understand.
So explain how you do it
Dezzie (05:06):
Okay.
I don't use any kennels.
I don't use kennels.
I have kennel here in case of a badstorm or something like that, or
just when we have new ones come inand they're acclimating, but once
they're acclimated, they get putinto one of three groups and then
they're just let to be dogs.
And
(05:26):
it's set up.
I have special beds made.
I have rooms dedicated, andthey just get to be dogs.
They each have their own yard to play in.
They've all got theirown groups to play with.
One of my groups is 22, 1 group is 13and the other group is seven right now.
(05:49):
And they don't have to bein kennels all the time.
There's no reason for it.
There's no reason for 'em tobe separated from each other.
They need that connectionas much as humans.
It doesn't do well to putthem in solitary confinement.
We call it kennel Crazy.
And a lot of dogs that havebeen in shelter situations
tend to go kennel crazy.
(06:09):
And that's where the uglyside of that job comes in.
And we have to do eus
And being an EU tech for as many yearsas I was, I'd like to make it so no
one else ever has to do that job.
And in most shelters it's a requirementbecause the way they house dogs.
Dogs don't do well.
(06:31):
So I think we need to switch it upand there's a better way to do it.
Dixie (06:36):
The way that I handle my cats is, we will have separate rooms for 'em.
I don't really kennel 'em or keep'em in a cage unless I have to, like
when I do tiny babies, so of coursewhen they're little tiny babies,
I have to put 'em in something.
Dezzie (06:51):
sick, tiny, surgeries.
Dixie (06:52):
Yeah.
I have to put 'em insomething till I get home.
But then when I come home, it's like atplaytime they get their own separate room.
When I go to work again in the morning,they might go in their little thing, but
they have plenty of room to run around.
But once they get a certain age,
Dezzie (07:05):
absolutely
Dixie (07:05):
and they're all vaccinated and everybody's healthy, they
come out into general population.
So they can come getalong with the big cats.
Dezzie (07:12):
Exactly.
Dixie (07:13):
Yeah
Dezzie (07:13):
but listen to the way we so naturally called what you just called it.
It was natural and easy for both ofus to call it general population.
Dixie (07:22):
Yes.
I never thought about it like that
Dezzie (07:24):
exactly.
Dixie (07:25):
Yeah.
That's very interesting.
Dezzie (07:26):
And
it is a normalcy for us to do that.
And it shouldn't be, they'reanimals, they're not criminals.
Because words matter.
Dixie (07:37):
They do.
Yeah, absolutely.
Dezzie (07:38):
And the perception that's why shelters have so many look
I'm not going to a shelter.
They're wild animals.
It's because we treat themlike they're wild animals.
We don't treat them like they weresomebody's pet that got loose or
somebody had to give up an animal thathad been living in a home forever, or
somebody had a cat and they passed away.
(08:00):
We don't treat them likethat in the shelter system.
And that's because.
They don't have anybody to bethere 24 7 in the shelter system.
They only have day shift.
The animals are left in cages all night.
See what I mean?
And I think that we could change that.
My cats are all loose and I took, andI built a cattery outside of my house.
(08:25):
They have a room inside that connectsto a huge room outside, which connects
to 14 kennels that I hung from theceiling and put pathways that leads to a
carport that leads to another huge room.
Dixie (08:44):
Oh, that sounds amazing.
Dezzie (08:44):
That's secured.
Dixie (08:45):
I have to see a picture of that.
That sounds absolutely amazing.
Dezzie (08:48):
I'm on
TikTok.
Okay.
We're HBH Rescue on TikTok.
And it's healing brokenhearts on Facebook.
And I have pictures of CatCity and of my dog rooms.
Got lots of little videosthat we've put up there.
Dixie (09:04):
Sounds like they would have a good time in that.
Now I'm building, a cat sanctuary.
We're at the ground level, so westill have a lot left to do, my vision
is similar to what you explained.
So we're gonna make a room for where theyhave a big indoor space, but then we want
them to have a safe, enclosed outdoorspace that they can go enjoy the sun in.
Dezzie (09:27):
Yeah.
And the one out in the front, the topof it is chicken wire, so it's open
to the sun, but the walkways, and Ihope they don't look at you as crazy
as they did me when I built this,because I kept telling everybody
that I was going to use all of mytransport kennels in a very unusual way.
(09:49):
And they're like, what are you gonna do?
And I said, I'm gonna hangthem from the ceiling.
And they're like, what are you doing?
And then I got sewer pipes, the plasticPVC, great big ones, and I cut 'em in
half longways, uhhuh, and made walkways.
Yeah, that goes fromone kennel to another.
And I netted it all in and it leads, likeI said to the carport where we built a
(10:12):
whole nother enclosure on the carportfor them to be able to go from all the
way inside the house around the house.
Come out, hit a couple rooms, gothrough and they're in it all the time.
They love it.
And it gives them lots and lots of space.
But if you don't have a lot of moneyand you've got , an overhang on your
(10:33):
house that's pretty good size or acarport, hanging kennels is cheap.
Doing walkways, you can use afence board, to do a walkway.
Part of mine are done with that.
Part of 'em are done with two of 'emare done with the tubes from carpet.
Dixie (10:49):
Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Dezzie (10:50):
And we painted the tubes so it looks like tunnels.
We call it Cat city.
Dixie (10:55):
Yeah, I can imagine.
They must love it.
Dezzie (10:58):
They do.
And it's amazing on how fastthey all learn to run up and
down through it and play.
And there's stuff hanging in alot of the cages that are up there
for 'em to stop and play with.
And they all connect one to the other.
And I have them outwith the dogs that way.
(11:18):
So it helps train thedogs not to be aggressive
towards cats.
Dixie (11:24):
And how many residents do you have in total?
Dezzie (11:27):
Okay, so I've got I think 36 pups.
Our dogs right now, wehave 22 cats all together.
I have eight chickens
and one old fat house pig,
(11:51):
which I adopted from theshelter that I worked at.
Dixie (11:57):
And can I ask what shelter you worked at?
Dezzie (12:00):
I worked at Jefferson Parish . I worked at Vermilion County before that.
In Illinois.
Dixie (12:05):
So suppose there is a rescue that's listening that does a lot of the
kenneling and does a lot of the cages.
What advice would you offer themto transition to what you do?
Dezzie (12:17):
Stop being scared.
They're dogs.
They listen, they're natural pack animals.
They are not trying to killeach other all the time.
They'll argue with each other, butyou can correct them like you're
on a playground with children.
It is not hard to do.
I'm not gonna say that it, it's not easy'cause you have to stay vigilant with it.
(12:41):
But even at the animal shelterwhen I was there, I got to
where I had play groups up to.
15, 20 dogs in a playgroup there, it canbe done, it can be done in a shelter.
It can be done in a rescue.
There's it's fear.
I think a lot of it is fear.
A lot of people that got their heart inthe right place that really wanna help,
(13:05):
but they have that fear in the back oftheir head because dogs can be scary, and
you just, you have to get past that fear.
Dixie (13:13):
Yeah, I can understand that because I know, like with the cats, I
hear it a lot with people that, oh, mycat doesn't get along with other cats.
And it's no, if you do it theright way, they get along.
Now they might not love each other,but they will tolerate each other.
There's just ways to do it.
Dezzie (13:31):
Exactly.
One of the biggest things isanimals pick up on our emotions.
You have to go in like a boss.
If you want to integrate animalstogether, you have to go in like
the boss saying, this is what we'regoing to do, no questions asked.
This is how it's done.
(13:51):
And they'll follow you.
Dixie (13:54):
I definitely agree with that, with the whole emotion thing too.
And for anybody that is skepticalabout that, just look at like, when
you're stressed out, your animalsare stressed out or you know when
you're worried, 'cause you gottatake your animal to the vet.
Your animal is gonna getworried too and start hiding.
It's like they know.
Dezzie (14:14):
Or when you're in a goofy mood and you're playing, you'll
notice your animal will get morehyped up and wanna play with you.
Dixie (14:19):
Yep, definitely.
Dezzie (14:20):
They feel all the emotions, and they'll pick up on it and they
will follow what you set forth.
People are always tellingme, what you do is amazing.
I know I'm one of thefew that does what I do.
But I just believe that if you reallywant to do this and do it right, you
cannot be afraid, even a little bit.
(14:42):
And yeah, you may getbit, that's part of it.
It's gonna happen sooner or later.
Kids fight on the playground every day.
You gotta go break 'em up, dogs don'teven fight as often as children do,
but they do once in a while and thereis a chance and you've gotta be able
to, willing to stand toe to toe in it.
If you wanna make a very happy,adjusted animal, I don't believe
(15:07):
kennels are the way to go.
Dixie (15:10):
How do you integrate the pig and the chickens into this mix?
Dezzie (15:16):
You should check my
videos.
He's with the dogs.
Here's the funny thing.
I adopted four animalsfrom the animal shelter.
I adopted three black dogsbecause, black dog syndrome and
a black pig all at the same time.
They're all now seven years old.
We built Bo his own bedroom in the house.
(15:38):
But he is always hung out with dogs andhe actually lives with two great danes.
Do you know what greatDanes are known for?
Dixie (15:46):
What's that?
Dezzie (15:48):
Hunting pigs.
Dixie (15:49):
Really?
I didn't know that.
Dezzie (15:51):
Yeah, that's what they were originally bred
out to do was hunt wild pigs.
Huh.
And I have two living with a pig side byside and they have now for seven years.
It's all about the training
Dixie (16:03):
Where are the chickens at now?
Dezzie (16:04):
They're on the carport right now with the dogs because we are building
a brand new chicken coop for 'em.
They're getting a whole new house.
Dixie (16:14):
Yeah.
And it sounds like you have somechicken math going on too, huh?
Dezzie (16:18):
I do.
And we've always gotchicken math going on.
And here's a fun thing.
My mother, I had mentioned a coupleweeks ago that I would love to have
Easter Eggers all of mine lay brown eggs.
And I was whining to my mom that I wantedsome that laid pretty green and blue eggs.
(16:38):
And my daughter happened to have somebodygive her a dozen fresh eggs from a farm,
and they happened to be Easter egger eggs.
They had been in the refrigerator.
My mom says let's try it.
And she took that dozen eggs andput 'em in her incubator, and
I have five new babies coming.
Dixie (17:00):
Oh, wow.
Congratulations.
Dezzie (17:03):
From a refrigerator.
They had been refrigerated eggsand we still got them to hatch out.
Dixie (17:11):
Roosters too?
Dezzie (17:14):
No, Ru I did have, but I've got a friend of mine that lives
outside of Orleans Parish on a farm,and he takes the roos because they
made it illegal to have 'em here.
Dixie (17:24):
Yeah.
Dezzie (17:25):
And so I work with another farmer.
That if we ever get roos, they'vegot a safe place to go and they just
get to be farm roos at that point.
Dixie (17:36):
Yeah.
'cause it's hard findinga place for them to go.
'cause people just don'tthink of 'em the same way.
Dezzie (17:42):
No, they don't.
Which is, very sad because pretty sooneverybody gonna want their own chickens.
Chickens are reallyinteresting animals to have.
They can become veryloving and very friendly.
The babies are only a couple weeksold, but now whenever I go to their
pen, they immediately, will jumpon my feet and will ride my feet
(18:04):
around while I'm walking around.
It's really cute when they're little.
My mom keeps saying, whatcha areyou gonna do when they grow up?
And I was like, I dunno, but it'sso cute now I can't stop 'em.
Dixie (18:16):
Yeah, I find they're actually a lot like cats with the curiosity and stuff.
Like they'll follow, theyreally are around and they're
like, what are you doing?
Let me see what you're doing.
Dezzie (18:27):
Always interested in what you got in your hands.
Is that for
me?
They are very cute.
Dixie (18:34):
The animals that you have, do you adopt those out as well?
Dezzie (18:38):
I do not the chickens, the cats and the pig.
No, I do cat sanctuary here.
So a lot of the cats we have are older.
I don't know if you'veheard of Julia Ackil.
She is the absolute best TNRperson down here in this area.
(19:01):
She is amazing.
She does so much for so manyand gets so little in return.
But she had a colony of cats thatthe person that was taking care
of them was no longer with them.
And the neighbors were doing horrendousthings and she was so upset one
(19:21):
night and she put out a post going,Hey I gotta get these cats moved.
And there was a bunch of themand she's I've gotta move them.
So I just very quietly got aholdof her and sent her pictures
of my cattery and I says, Hey.
It's empty.
And she says how many can you take?
And I started laughing.
I said, all of them, get thatcolony moved and let's get it safe.
(19:46):
And so a lot of my cats have beentogether, they're from a colony.
A couple of my cats are from Texas,where we went down there and helped
out and brought some in from Texas.
Most of those we did get adopted becausethey, we brought them in as kittens.
And if they're kittens, Idon't mind adopting them.
(20:06):
The older cats, I won'tseparate from each other.
I just, I have the spacefor 'em and I have the time.
There's no reason to make 'emstart all over at their ages,
when , most of 'em are a family unit.
I would imagine that they're probablyfrom the area they came out of.
They're probably all relatedin one way or another.
Dixie (20:27):
Were they feral when you got em?
Dezzie (20:30):
Some, but we've got that pretty much worked out.
They all like food and we kept 'emfor months just in the two rooms.
I blocked off most of the walkway and justgave 'em the inside room and the outside
room where I could get into both rooms.
So I would just go in and sit with themfor hours and get everybody used to me.
(20:50):
My cat room's prettycomfortable to go sit in.
Dixie (20:52):
Yeah, I think that's a misconception people have too,
is that once a cat is feral,it's always gonna be feral.
I have TNR Cats
I have a few at my home and then Ihave a few actually at my business.
And when they came over here, we couldnot touch 'em, they would see us, they
would run, we would put the food outand now we can pick 'em up if we want.
(21:13):
Now we're the only ones that can do it.
Dezzie (21:15):
And see, to me,
that tells me all Ineed to know about you.
You good in my book Ferals like you.
When you can turn a feralfriendly then you all right.
You just, are you all right?
I've got a couple.
I'm so proud that this last coupleweeks the hard nose feral I had
finally after months has let metouch him and I've been so excited.
. Dixie (21:39):
It is exciting when they come around and it's like when they come around
I find it's not like bit by bit, it's oneday they're running from you and the next
day they're like, Hey, let's be friends.
Dezzie (21:50):
Yep.
Yep.
When they make up their mind,they make up their mind.
There's no second guess.
And they're like, okay.
You've passed, you now get to bea friend, which I think is great.
But dogs are a lot the same way as cats.
Like that, feral dogs can be the same way.
Dixie (22:09):
So do you look for homes for the dogs that you have?
Dezzie (22:13):
I do.
I had some health issues awhile back ago and I died for
a very short period of time.
I had two heart attacks in a day, andthen I had to have a series of surgeries.
So I've been just onsurvival mode for a while.
(22:35):
We haven't been doing a lot ofadoptions because of my health.
I just haven't dug it.
It's mainly been just keep 'em safe,keep 'em happy, keep 'em alive, and we
will work on that when I can dedicate, 12hours a day to it again I do one or two
. Like two weeks ago, we did an adoption.
We're not doing the numberof adoptions we were before.
(22:57):
So I've had the same group here fora little longer than what most are,
but honestly, that's completely me.
It has absolutely nothing to do withthis amazing group of pups I have here.
They've been dealing with me quite well.
I've been so impressed withall of them because of it.
(23:17):
But I slowed down because of my healthand I'm starting to get healthy again,
and I'm starting to, surgeries areall done and I'm feeling better, so
we're starting to get back into it.
I'm just pacing myself,
Dixie (23:30):
yeah, it's a lot going on, so you do need to definitely take it slow.
Dezzie (23:35):
Yeah.
Everybody, they're like,
you need to get rid of all of 'em.
I was like, no, I don't, becausethat would kill me again.
What I need is for everybody, just,let me take the time I need to heal.
That has been probably the mosthelpful part is I've got a core group
that comes and helps when I need it.
(23:56):
But most days we just we do prettygood without too much trouble.
Dixie (24:01):
When you do adoptions, do you attend events or do you do like pet finder
online, Facebook, those kinds of things?
Dezzie (24:09):
Yeah.
I will not do eventsdown here in New Orleans.
I'm sorry, I won't go around it.
I don't wanna be a part of it.
I don't wanna be a partof that culture down here.
I think it's extremely toxic.
I think it's unhelpful to the animals.
I haven't really done a lot on petfinders lately . We do a lot of Facebook,
(24:31):
and a lot of mine are word of mouth.
I've done over 2000animals through my home.
Wow.
So through, through the rescueand I've been all over the place.
So I've got friends and we've hadso many really great adoptions.
That word of mouth has done a lot forus because we consistently put out.
(24:54):
Good dogs, adjusted happy dogs.
But we will probably go back todoing pet finders once everything
calms down a little bit.
Dixie (25:06):
So tell me what you mean about toxic.
Dezzie (25:09):
Here's something that I think would change a lot of it really quickly.
I think before you should be able to get a5 0 1 C3, I think one of the requirements
is you should have to work a couple yearsin a shelter, in an actual animal shelter.
So you understand
Really what the true other side of it is.
(25:32):
I believe that.
Something that was extremelytoxic was called Save Them All.
And that is probably one of the worstthings that's ever happened because
they will spend thousands and thousandsof dollars on one animal to extend
its life a couple of months insteadof making the responsible decision to
(25:57):
either let that animal go at that pointor make it as comfortable as it can
be until it goes and spend the moneyon actually getting animals moved.
So I believe that and then stoptrying to save the ones that are
so far gone that are a danger.
(26:19):
Because they can't make the hard decision.
And that's why I believe you should haveto have a couple years in a shelter.
Because there, you haveto make that decision.
And if you can't, then it showsyou're in the wrong field.
I'm sorry.
I know that because I'm from shelterwork and I was an a ACA for so long,
sometimes it makes me sound very.
(26:42):
Cold and harsh, and I'm not trying to be,but there is a responsible way of doing
things and there is an irresponsible way.
And right now, I know for the lastseven years this whole country has
been on a very irresponsible trekwhen it comes to animal welfare.
Dixie (27:01):
A problem that I see, is that a lot of rescues, they
don't wanna work together.
Dezzie (27:06):
Yes.
That's why I won't workwith them down here.
I've got great rescues in Texas, inMississippi, in New York, in Connecticut,
and the girls up in Illinois are fabulous.
And I've got ones in Ohio I'vebeen working with, and they're all
great and everybody works together.
Dixie (27:24):
It just drives me crazy because we're all here , for the same
reason we're all helping animals.
Dezzie (27:29):
I am gonna show my age a little bit, but I've been doing just
the rescue and stuff for 32 years withthe groups of animals in my house and.
Working at the shelters and havingthe rescue and back and forth.
And I've been doing this a longtime in a lot of places, and I was a
(27:51):
military wife, so we moved all over.
So I find that it's worse herethan I've ever seen anywhere else.
I have different rescues inviting me toplease move up around us all the time.
And here you can't even get them to.
Now one of 'em was so bad, shewas getting extra food and stuff
(28:12):
and she was letting it go bad.
Instead of calling other rescues aroundand saying, Hey, could you use this?
She would just throw it away.
Now come on, that's toxic.
We all fight in the same fight i'vegotten quite a few very large donations
here because they've got the wordsgotten out that whatever I get, I share.
(28:33):
If I've got extra, it's going tosomebody else in need, like cat food.
I was sending a lot of that down to Houma,to the rescues down there and dog food.
We were getting large groups,things of dog food for a while.
And instead of other groups workingwith me on it, they went behind and got
it canceled for us because they didn'tlike that we were getting dog food.
Dixie (28:57):
Oh, that's a shame.
Dezzie (28:58):
Yeah, because now I struggle trying to make sure everybody
gets fed every day, and we hadthat to a point where that was
one worry we just didn't have.
So we could worry about all the others.
We were able to take in a few more.
We were able to have our numbersa little higher 'cause we didn't
have to worry about dog food.
And, I've got two really greatvets that I work with that I think
(29:19):
are fabulous when I need them.
And it's Dr.
Sachs.
He's in New Orleans, absolutelyamazing at surgeries.
Amazing.
I've seen that man and his team goin and do 20 surgeries in an in a
morning and never have a bad one.
(29:40):
And he's done that several times for me.
I know he is done it for others.
I know he does the TNRprograms, he donates to that.
And then Dr.
Shine, she's a traveling vet who doeslarge animals, but she also comes here and
we try to get her in once, maybe twice ayear, every year to do a rabies clinic.
And she does the threeyear rabies shot for $20.
(30:05):
So makes it affordable for people.
She's pretty amazing.
So it's just, there are somedown here that will work with
everybody, but you'll find that theydon't deal with a lot of rescue.
Yeah.
But I'm not a regular rescuerbecause I'm a shelter worker.
I'm an a ACA, first and foremost.
(30:26):
I've been an a ACA most of my life,and I look at it much differently than
what somebody who's never had a lot.
And I don't agree withthe foster based rescues.
Dixie (30:38):
Can I ask why?
Dezzie (30:39):
Yeah, you can, because we were gonna try it.
The first three fosters we got inhere decided they knew better than
us and they wouldn't listen to us.
And one of 'em ran a vet bill upto $10,000 without our permission
going behind our back to run adog back and forth to the vet, for
the vet to keep telling her therewas nothing wrong with the dog.
(31:03):
And then I got stuck with $10,000worth of a bill because of it.
Another one decided she knewbetter and adopted out our animals
without telling us and wouldn'ttell us who she adopted them to.
No microchip.
One of 'em wasn't even fixed
(31:25):
and she got rid of our animals andwhen we tried to do something about
it, the police, it's not a priority.
Animals are not a police priority.
There wasn't a whole lotwe could do about it.
So
you don't have
the control base.
You can't learn their behaviors.
(31:46):
You're not doing group settings.
There's a lot of things in thebehaviors that you're not understanding.
Because you're not aroundthat animal every day.
You don't know if that foster's gotthat animal and that foster could
tell you anything, and that dog couldact one way with that foster and
act completely different with you.
And in order to do an actualbehavioral test, somebody who knows
(32:08):
what they're doing with large groupsof dogs needs to do that test.
And most rescues don't have that person.
I just think that it makes it for a moreunsafe environment when you're not testing
these dogs fully to know every littlequirk about them before you send them out.
(32:32):
You've got to know your animals becauseyou might have one I've got one dog here.
He is absolutely fabulous with people.
He's great with a couple different dogs,but God help you, you get him out with
others that he don't know, ain't noway, he's not nice, he can be a problem.
(32:52):
So his adoption will be very specific.
But we know this about him.
Why?
Because he's been with us for months andwe've been able to watch his behaviors
and test him on many different things.
I just think
it's safer.
Dixie (33:07):
Earlier in our conversation, you mentioned that you wanted
to start things with education.
Can we go touch on that a little bit?
Dezzie (33:15):
Oh, absolutely.
I think that our studentsshould be more involved.
I think that kids should be taughtat a small age or a young age.
Jefferson Parish was doing a.
Reading time where we would takedogs to a school and we'd go sit
in the library with a few of ourdogs and they would read to 'em.
(33:37):
We used to do 4th of July night atthe shelter, which is where students
would come in and hang out withthe dogs and read to 'em and stuff.
Why fireworks were going on.
I think that was an amazing program.
We used to have groups of kids cometo the shelter and we would spend the
whole day there teaching them what wedid and how we did things and we would
(33:59):
take 'em through and show 'em everythingand write down to a playgroup on how to
integrate dogs together at a shelter.
So I think that so many kidshave to get hours for school.
I think more of 'em should be encouragedto do their hours at the animal shelters.
And have more programs set up.
(34:19):
And I think school hours should beable to go to places like me who is a
rescue, where I could bring in a groupof five kids and give them their hours
and give them practical experience.
You
have it to where they could get theirschool hours, plus I could be a reference
for them of practical experience ina pack scenario of a large group of
(34:46):
dogs to where if they wanted to gosomeplace because I don't know if
Orleans is, but Jefferson Parish, that'sa parish job with parish benefits.
That's a good paying job.
It's not a bad job at all.
And good overtime and, hazardpay and all of that stuff.
And that would get their footin the door at a decent job.
(35:08):
You know what I mean?
Outta high school.
Dixie (35:10):
I'm all for more education programs too.
Dezzie (35:14):
I think that's the way to go if we really wanna change this.
We are never going to convince adultsto change the way they do things,
but man, we get ahold of the kids.
We can guarantee we could havechange in another, seven to 10 years
drastic change in this country.
, If we could teach the kids.
(35:36):
New ways of doing things.
Dixie (35:40):
It's been an interesting conversation.
I enjoyed learning about your setup
Do you have any adoptionsuccess stories that we could
maybe end the conversation on?
Dezzie (35:49):
Oh.
I have so many.
I get more emails from dogs than I dohumans from success stories where I've
got one point that sticks to mind.
Okay.
I adopted out a dog, andthis was 11 years ago.
(36:12):
I hadn't seen the dog in 10 years,but I used to be the dog walker.
I'd babysat him.
I adopted him to the woman he wasliving with, and we had a routine.
I would go over there three times aweek, go to the front door, he'd bring me
the leash, we'd go for a walk, and thenI'd come back, and that's what we did.
(36:32):
After his adoption, I just becameher dog sitter for her, and I moved
away and I came back and it had beennine years and I hadn't seen her.
And I went over to her house and I got tothe front door and the dogs come up to me.
They had not seen me in nine years.
(36:54):
The dogs come up to me, Percy standsthere for a minute and I'm looking
hi Percy, how you doing buddy?.
And he took a good sniff of me andall of a sudden he went right to his
basket, he grabbed his leash, broughtit to me, and I looked at her and I
said you know what I'm about to do?
And she goes, yeah, I'll seeyou in about a half hour.
Dixie (37:14):
Wow,
Dezzie (37:15):
that's awesome.
After nine years he immediatelywent and got his leash and he
took me right back on our walk.
Dixie (37:22):
Wow.
That is awesome.
Dezzie (37:25):
Yeah.
But I get a lot.
A couple weeks ago I was feelingdown and I put out in the universe,
what am I doing with my life?
And that day I probably got nine.
Nine different people messagedme with updates on how
great their dogs were doing.
So there's a lot of success storiesin it, and that's what keeps us going.
(37:49):
Even in these hard times, we're havingtrouble getting food and we're having
trouble getting, any kind of supportbecause everybody's having a rough time.
Dixie (37:58):
Yeah.
Dezzie (37:59):
And about the time where I wanna give up and I just
wanna say, okay, you beat me.
I can't I'm done.
I'll start getting emails out ofthe blue, like God's trying to
tell me, nah, you ain't done yet.
You're just upset today.
Put your big pants on andlet's go back to work.
(38:19):
And I'll start getting picturesand updates and just amazing
stories on how great or funnythings that the dogs are doing.
And I get a lot of those.
Some of 'em are going back 15 years.
Dixie (38:37):
Yeah.
So
that definitely is whatmakes it worthwhile.
I love getting
Dezzie (38:44):
it does
Dixie (38:44):
the updates, or just out of the blue, somebody will send you a photo and
be like, oh, look how so and so's doing.
And you see 'em living their best life
Dezzie (38:52):
and it's the greatest
feeling.
Dixie (38:53):
Yes,
it is.
It definitely
is.
Dezzie (38:54):
Yeah.
, Okay.
Because, people are always asking, becausethe previous two jobs I did before I
started in dogs, I made a lot of money..
And people are always askingme, do you miss the money?
I was like, yes, I do.
I don't miss the work,but I do miss the money.
And in this right now, in the lastcouple years, the struggle because
(39:15):
our dog food, just dog food alonecosts me a thousand dollars a month.
Just dog food is athousand dollars a month.
And you keep looking and it's like,how am I gonna keep doing this?
And people ask me all the time,it's like, how do you afford it?
And I'm just like, I don'tknow the grace of God.
I'm not sure.
Because
(39:35):
It's just always there.
Dixie (39:37):
Yeah.
The one thing about rescue that a lot ofpeople don't realize is how much of your
own money you have to spend on rescue.
Everybody will start a rescue.
Oh yeah.
And they think all this money is justgonna come pouring in on donations and
it's, oh no, your own money that youare using to take care of these animals.
Dezzie (39:56):
Absolutely.
And now, don't get me wrong,I have some amazing helpers.
I've got a few that are dedicatedto helping probably get five
bags of dog food a month.
I need 30.
But I'm guaranteed because I know thesecertain people that are doing these
(40:17):
donations, they are absolutely faithfulto it, and it's a bag of dog food.
And one of 'em, she told me, she was like,it's two cups of coffee, for the month.
She gives up
two cups of coffee and she can buyme a bag of dog food every month.
Which is amazing that people would
do that, so I do getdonations, don't get me wrong.
(40:41):
And I do get help.
There's somebody else here toothough, that I, wanna mention her
by name, she's been pretty amazing.
With getting people to donate and help.
Tonda.
Johnston and that woman is amazing.
We had, a medical issue.
And her people before the nightwas over, it was taken care of, so
(41:06):
there are some that will stand upwhen you need it, but there's just
so many right now asking for help.
How do you choose?
Because everybody needs help right now.
Dixie (41:16):
Yeah, I understand that for sure.
Thank you, so much for takingthe time to speak with me.
I really appreciate it.
I enjoyed our conversation.
Dezzie (41:25):
It was lovely talking to you, mam.
Great.
I'm so glad you called me andthank you for thinking of me.
Dixie (41:30):
That's all the time that we have for today's episode.
Thank you for listening andwe hope you join us next week.
If you know somebody that loves animalsas much as I do, please send 'em our way.
We would love to talk to 'em.
If you are enjoying our show, pleaseconsider leaving us a donation.
A hundred percent goes to our animals.
(41:50):
Paws in
the night Claws in thefight Whiskers twitch and
tails
take flight
They’re calling in Stories to spinFrom the wild to the heart within
(42:18):
Broken wings and hopeful springsWe’re the voices for these things
animal posse hear the call.
We stand together.
Big and small Rescue tales We’vegot it all Animal posse Saving
(42:45):
them
all
The vet’s got tips The rescuer’sgrit The foster homes where love
won’t quit From a pup in the rain toa bird in pain , Every soul’s worth
(43:13):
the
strain
Animal posse
Hear the call
We stand together Big
(43:39):
and small Rescue tales We’ve gotit all Animal posse Saving them all
Every caller tells a tale, everyhowl a whispered wail, we rise up.
We never
(43:59):
fail.
This
is
the
bond
The holy grail
(44:20):
Animal posse Hear the call We standtogether Big and small Rescue tales We’ve
got it all Animal posse Saving them all
(44:44):
Every caller tells a tale Every howla whispered wail We rise up We never
fail This is the bond The holy grail.
Song by Suno.ai
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Today's guest is Dezzie Howe withHealing Broken Hearts Rescue.
Hi Dezzie, how are you?
Dezzie (00:15):
Hi, how are you?
Dixie (00:16):
I'm good.
Thanks for coming on the show.
I appreciate it.
Dezzie (00:18):
Thanks for
asking me.
Dixie (00:20):
Yeah.
I'm looking forward to learningabout Healing Broken Hearts Rescue.
to begin could you please share a bitabout your background and what initially
sparked your passion for animal welfare?
Dezzie (00:33):
Mine is lifelong.
My stepdad of 20 years trained policedogs, so we had 40 kennels and a
training ground, so I grew up in it,and then I started working in a animal
shelter and I did that for 10 yearsand then I switched over to rescue.
Dixie (00:57):
With the Healing Broken Hearts Rescue.
What is your title?
Dezzie (01:02):
I'm the
director.
Dixie (01:04):
And when was the organization founded?
Dezzie (01:07):
2019
Dixie (01:08):
what is your mission and what is a day like in the life
of Healing Broken Hearts Rescue.
Dezzie (01:14):
The mission is to change the educational system
on how we treat animals.
I would like to build and teach awhole new way to do animal shelters.
There's a better way to do it.
I honestly believe there is abetter way to do it where we could
(01:37):
help our community a lot more.
We could get our kids involved init and we could help our veterans.
Dixie (01:44):
When you say a better way, what is your vision of a better way?
Dezzie (01:49):
No more cages.
Let's stop treating 'emlike they're prisoners.
It's not necessary.
It's lazy.
It's because they won't putanyone in a facility 24 hours.
They won't do night shifts,so you have to use cages.
And my idea is to turn it over to veteransand build them into veterans housing,
(02:10):
that takes care of your animal population.
. We have it all drawn out.
We have a whole plan.
Dixie (02:18):
Tell me about it.
I'd love to hear more about this.
It's a very interesting concept for sure.
Dezzie (02:24):
Think about it.
If you took and you had one mainbuilding and you put in 25 tiny houses,
no kitchens in them, you have one mainkitchen . Main laundry, and all they had
was bathrooms and bedrooms in the tinies.
You could put two veteransper tiny and each one could be
in charge of two dogs, right?
(02:47):
And then you could have yourdogs that were just coming in
or just starting training orhaven't been placed in groups yet.
The main building.
And you could have 50 dogs workingwith your veterans, getting ready
for adoptions or being trained to beservice animals for other veterans.
(03:08):
There's a concept, actually helpingour veterans out because that way
you're housing your veterans, you'regiving them a purpose, and everyone
knows for depression and stuff,animals are really good for you.
They help with that.
You could really do a lot ofgood by having them all together,
(03:34):
and give them a purpose and take a lotof the strain and stuff off of your
smaller counties that can't afford it.
Could I go off subject for justa second and tell you . What
made me go in that direction?
Dixie (03:50):
Yes, please.
Dezzie (03:52):
Okay.
About 10 years ago my brother who
Owned a construction company,thought I was nuts for dedicating
so much time to animals.
But he described it in a way that'salways stuck with me and why I wanna
make the change so desperately onwhat we're doing in this country.
(04:12):
The county shelters the big shelters,he said those are like federal prisons.
Those are the big prisons.
We treat 'em the same.
They're out an hour a day.
They're treated just like they'vedone something wrong to be
there and most of 'em have not.
And he said the smaller rescuesaround, are your county jails
(04:34):
still in kennels all the time.
Still on that, very fewget very much freedom.
And he said, but the way I do it here,because I do open pack, he said, this
is a halfway house and it hit me.
Why do we have to have the other two?
(04:54):
They could all be done the wayI'm doing it if we changed up the
way we did the human side of it.
Dixie (05:02):
I understand.
So explain how you do it
Dezzie (05:06):
Okay.
I don't use any kennels.
I don't use kennels.
I have kennel here in case of a badstorm or something like that, or
just when we have new ones come inand they're acclimating, but once
they're acclimated, they get putinto one of three groups and then
they're just let to be dogs.
And
(05:26):
it's set up.
I have special beds made.
I have rooms dedicated, andthey just get to be dogs.
They each have their own yard to play in.
They've all got theirown groups to play with.
One of my groups is 22, 1 group is 13and the other group is seven right now.
(05:49):
And they don't have to bein kennels all the time.
There's no reason for it.
There's no reason for 'em tobe separated from each other.
They need that connectionas much as humans.
It doesn't do well to putthem in solitary confinement.
We call it kennel Crazy.
And a lot of dogs that havebeen in shelter situations
tend to go kennel crazy.
(06:09):
And that's where the uglyside of that job comes in.
And we have to do eus
And being an EU tech for as many yearsas I was, I'd like to make it so no
one else ever has to do that job.
And in most shelters it's a requirementbecause the way they house dogs.
Dogs don't do well.
(06:31):
So I think we need to switch it upand there's a better way to do it.
Dixie (06:36):
The way that I handle my cats is, we will have separate rooms for 'em.
I don't really kennel 'em or keep'em in a cage unless I have to, like
when I do tiny babies, so of coursewhen they're little tiny babies,
I have to put 'em in something.
Dezzie (06:51):
sick, tiny, surgeries.
Dixie (06:52):
Yeah.
I have to put 'em insomething till I get home.
But then when I come home, it's like atplaytime they get their own separate room.
When I go to work again in the morning,they might go in their little thing, but
they have plenty of room to run around.
But once they get a certain age,
Dezzie (07:05):
absolutely
Dixie (07:05):
and they're all vaccinated and everybody's healthy, they
come out into general population.
So they can come getalong with the big cats.
Dezzie (07:12):
Exactly.
Dixie (07:13):
Yeah
Dezzie (07:13):
but listen to the way we so naturally called what you just called it.
It was natural and easy for both ofus to call it general population.
Dixie (07:22):
Yes.
I never thought about it like that
Dezzie (07:24):
exactly.
Dixie (07:25):
Yeah.
That's very interesting.
Dezzie (07:26):
And
it is a normalcy for us to do that.
And it shouldn't be, they'reanimals, they're not criminals.
Because words matter.
Dixie (07:37):
They do.
Yeah, absolutely.
Dezzie (07:38):
And the perception that's why shelters have so many look
I'm not going to a shelter.
They're wild animals.
It's because we treat themlike they're wild animals.
We don't treat them like they weresomebody's pet that got loose or
somebody had to give up an animal thathad been living in a home forever, or
somebody had a cat and they passed away.
(08:00):
We don't treat them likethat in the shelter system.
And that's because.
They don't have anybody to bethere 24 7 in the shelter system.
They only have day shift.
The animals are left in cages all night.
See what I mean?
And I think that we could change that.
My cats are all loose and I took, andI built a cattery outside of my house.
(08:25):
They have a room inside that connectsto a huge room outside, which connects
to 14 kennels that I hung from theceiling and put pathways that leads to a
carport that leads to another huge room.
Dixie (08:44):
Oh, that sounds amazing.
Dezzie (08:44):
That's secured.
Dixie (08:45):
I have to see a picture of that.
That sounds absolutely amazing.
Dezzie (08:48):
I'm on
TikTok.
Okay.
We're HBH Rescue on TikTok.
And it's healing brokenhearts on Facebook.
And I have pictures of CatCity and of my dog rooms.
Got lots of little videosthat we've put up there.
Dixie (09:04):
Sounds like they would have a good time in that.
Now I'm building, a cat sanctuary.
We're at the ground level, so westill have a lot left to do, my vision
is similar to what you explained.
So we're gonna make a room for where theyhave a big indoor space, but then we want
them to have a safe, enclosed outdoorspace that they can go enjoy the sun in.
Dezzie (09:27):
Yeah.
And the one out in the front, the topof it is chicken wire, so it's open
to the sun, but the walkways, and Ihope they don't look at you as crazy
as they did me when I built this,because I kept telling everybody
that I was going to use all of mytransport kennels in a very unusual way.
(09:49):
And they're like, what are you gonna do?
And I said, I'm gonna hangthem from the ceiling.
And they're like, what are you doing?
And then I got sewer pipes, the plasticPVC, great big ones, and I cut 'em in
half longways, uhhuh, and made walkways.
Yeah, that goes fromone kennel to another.
And I netted it all in and it leads, likeI said to the carport where we built a
(10:12):
whole nother enclosure on the carportfor them to be able to go from all the
way inside the house around the house.
Come out, hit a couple rooms, gothrough and they're in it all the time.
They love it.
And it gives them lots and lots of space.
But if you don't have a lot of moneyand you've got , an overhang on your
(10:33):
house that's pretty good size or acarport, hanging kennels is cheap.
Doing walkways, you can use afence board, to do a walkway.
Part of mine are done with that.
Part of 'em are done with two of 'emare done with the tubes from carpet.
Dixie (10:49):
Uhhuh.
Yeah.
Dezzie (10:50):
And we painted the tubes so it looks like tunnels.
We call it Cat city.
Dixie (10:55):
Yeah, I can imagine.
They must love it.
Dezzie (10:58):
They do.
And it's amazing on how fastthey all learn to run up and
down through it and play.
And there's stuff hanging in alot of the cages that are up there
for 'em to stop and play with.
And they all connect one to the other.
And I have them outwith the dogs that way.
(11:18):
So it helps train thedogs not to be aggressive
towards cats.
Dixie (11:24):
And how many residents do you have in total?
Dezzie (11:27):
Okay, so I've got I think 36 pups.
Our dogs right now, wehave 22 cats all together.
I have eight chickens
and one old fat house pig,
(11:51):
which I adopted from theshelter that I worked at.
Dixie (11:57):
And can I ask what shelter you worked at?
Dezzie (12:00):
I worked at Jefferson Parish . I worked at Vermilion County before that.
In Illinois.
Dixie (12:05):
So suppose there is a rescue that's listening that does a lot of the
kenneling and does a lot of the cages.
What advice would you offer themto transition to what you do?
Dezzie (12:17):
Stop being scared.
They're dogs.
They listen, they're natural pack animals.
They are not trying to killeach other all the time.
They'll argue with each other, butyou can correct them like you're
on a playground with children.
It is not hard to do.
I'm not gonna say that it, it's not easy'cause you have to stay vigilant with it.
(12:41):
But even at the animal shelterwhen I was there, I got to
where I had play groups up to.
15, 20 dogs in a playgroup there, it canbe done, it can be done in a shelter.
It can be done in a rescue.
There's it's fear.
I think a lot of it is fear.
A lot of people that got their heart inthe right place that really wanna help,
(13:05):
but they have that fear in the back oftheir head because dogs can be scary, and
you just, you have to get past that fear.
Dixie (13:13):
Yeah, I can understand that because I know, like with the cats, I
hear it a lot with people that, oh, mycat doesn't get along with other cats.
And it's no, if you do it theright way, they get along.
Now they might not love each other,but they will tolerate each other.
There's just ways to do it.
Dezzie (13:31):
Exactly.
One of the biggest things isanimals pick up on our emotions.
You have to go in like a boss.
If you want to integrate animalstogether, you have to go in like
the boss saying, this is what we'regoing to do, no questions asked.
This is how it's done.
(13:51):
And they'll follow you.
Dixie (13:54):
I definitely agree with that, with the whole emotion thing too.
And for anybody that is skepticalabout that, just look at like, when
you're stressed out, your animalsare stressed out or you know when
you're worried, 'cause you gottatake your animal to the vet.
Your animal is gonna getworried too and start hiding.
It's like they know.
Dezzie (14:14):
Or when you're in a goofy mood and you're playing, you'll
notice your animal will get morehyped up and wanna play with you.
Dixie (14:19):
Yep, definitely.
Dezzie (14:20):
They feel all the emotions, and they'll pick up on it and they
will follow what you set forth.
People are always tellingme, what you do is amazing.
I know I'm one of thefew that does what I do.
But I just believe that if you reallywant to do this and do it right, you
cannot be afraid, even a little bit.
(14:42):
And yeah, you may getbit, that's part of it.
It's gonna happen sooner or later.
Kids fight on the playground every day.
You gotta go break 'em up, dogs don'teven fight as often as children do,
but they do once in a while and thereis a chance and you've gotta be able
to, willing to stand toe to toe in it.
If you wanna make a very happy,adjusted animal, I don't believe
(15:07):
kennels are the way to go.
Dixie (15:10):
How do you integrate the pig and the chickens into this mix?
Dezzie (15:16):
You should check my
videos.
He's with the dogs.
Here's the funny thing.
I adopted four animalsfrom the animal shelter.
I adopted three black dogsbecause, black dog syndrome and
a black pig all at the same time.
They're all now seven years old.
We built Bo his own bedroom in the house.
(15:38):
But he is always hung out with dogs andhe actually lives with two great danes.
Do you know what greatDanes are known for?
Dixie (15:46):
What's that?
Dezzie (15:48):
Hunting pigs.
Dixie (15:49):
Really?
I didn't know that.
Dezzie (15:51):
Yeah, that's what they were originally bred
out to do was hunt wild pigs.
Huh.
And I have two living with a pig side byside and they have now for seven years.
It's all about the training
Dixie (16:03):
Where are the chickens at now?
Dezzie (16:04):
They're on the carport right now with the dogs because we are building
a brand new chicken coop for 'em.
They're getting a whole new house.
Dixie (16:14):
Yeah.
And it sounds like you have somechicken math going on too, huh?
Dezzie (16:18):
I do.
And we've always gotchicken math going on.
And here's a fun thing.
My mother, I had mentioned a coupleweeks ago that I would love to have
Easter Eggers all of mine lay brown eggs.
And I was whining to my mom that I wantedsome that laid pretty green and blue eggs.
(16:38):
And my daughter happened to have somebodygive her a dozen fresh eggs from a farm,
and they happened to be Easter egger eggs.
They had been in the refrigerator.
My mom says let's try it.
And she took that dozen eggs andput 'em in her incubator, and
I have five new babies coming.
Dixie (17:00):
Oh, wow.
Congratulations.
Dezzie (17:03):
From a refrigerator.
They had been refrigerated eggsand we still got them to hatch out.
Dixie (17:11):
Roosters too?
Dezzie (17:14):
No, Ru I did have, but I've got a friend of mine that lives
outside of Orleans Parish on a farm,and he takes the roos because they
made it illegal to have 'em here.
Dixie (17:24):
Yeah.
Dezzie (17:25):
And so I work with another farmer.
That if we ever get roos, they'vegot a safe place to go and they just
get to be farm roos at that point.
Dixie (17:36):
Yeah.
'cause it's hard findinga place for them to go.
'cause people just don'tthink of 'em the same way.
Dezzie (17:42):
No, they don't.
Which is, very sad because pretty sooneverybody gonna want their own chickens.
Chickens are reallyinteresting animals to have.
They can become veryloving and very friendly.
The babies are only a couple weeksold, but now whenever I go to their
pen, they immediately, will jumpon my feet and will ride my feet
(18:04):
around while I'm walking around.
It's really cute when they're little.
My mom keeps saying, whatcha areyou gonna do when they grow up?
And I was like, I dunno, but it'sso cute now I can't stop 'em.
Dixie (18:16):
Yeah, I find they're actually a lot like cats with the curiosity and stuff.
Like they'll follow, theyreally are around and they're
like, what are you doing?
Let me see what you're doing.
Dezzie (18:27):
Always interested in what you got in your hands.
Is that for
me?
They are very cute.
Dixie (18:34):
The animals that you have, do you adopt those out as well?
Dezzie (18:38):
I do not the chickens, the cats and the pig.
No, I do cat sanctuary here.
So a lot of the cats we have are older.
I don't know if you'veheard of Julia Ackil.
She is the absolute best TNRperson down here in this area.
(19:01):
She is amazing.
She does so much for so manyand gets so little in return.
But she had a colony of cats thatthe person that was taking care
of them was no longer with them.
And the neighbors were doing horrendousthings and she was so upset one
(19:21):
night and she put out a post going,Hey I gotta get these cats moved.
And there was a bunch of themand she's I've gotta move them.
So I just very quietly got aholdof her and sent her pictures
of my cattery and I says, Hey.
It's empty.
And she says how many can you take?
And I started laughing.
I said, all of them, get thatcolony moved and let's get it safe.
(19:46):
And so a lot of my cats have beentogether, they're from a colony.
A couple of my cats are from Texas,where we went down there and helped
out and brought some in from Texas.
Most of those we did get adopted becausethey, we brought them in as kittens.
And if they're kittens, Idon't mind adopting them.
(20:06):
The older cats, I won'tseparate from each other.
I just, I have the spacefor 'em and I have the time.
There's no reason to make 'emstart all over at their ages,
when , most of 'em are a family unit.
I would imagine that they're probablyfrom the area they came out of.
They're probably all relatedin one way or another.
Dixie (20:27):
Were they feral when you got em?
Dezzie (20:30):
Some, but we've got that pretty much worked out.
They all like food and we kept 'emfor months just in the two rooms.
I blocked off most of the walkway and justgave 'em the inside room and the outside
room where I could get into both rooms.
So I would just go in and sit with themfor hours and get everybody used to me.
(20:50):
My cat room's prettycomfortable to go sit in.
Dixie (20:52):
Yeah, I think that's a misconception people have too,
is that once a cat is feral,it's always gonna be feral.
I have TNR Cats
I have a few at my home and then Ihave a few actually at my business.
And when they came over here, we couldnot touch 'em, they would see us, they
would run, we would put the food outand now we can pick 'em up if we want.
(21:13):
Now we're the only ones that can do it.
Dezzie (21:15):
And see, to me,
that tells me all Ineed to know about you.
You good in my book Ferals like you.
When you can turn a feralfriendly then you all right.
You just, are you all right?
I've got a couple.
I'm so proud that this last coupleweeks the hard nose feral I had
finally after months has let metouch him and I've been so excited.
. Dixie (21:39):
It is exciting when they come around and it's like when they come around
I find it's not like bit by bit, it's oneday they're running from you and the next
day they're like, Hey, let's be friends.
Dezzie (21:50):
Yep.
Yep.
When they make up their mind,they make up their mind.
There's no second guess.
And they're like, okay.
You've passed, you now get to bea friend, which I think is great.
But dogs are a lot the same way as cats.
Like that, feral dogs can be the same way.
Dixie (22:09):
So do you look for homes for the dogs that you have?
Dezzie (22:13):
I do.
I had some health issues awhile back ago and I died for
a very short period of time.
I had two heart attacks in a day, andthen I had to have a series of surgeries.
So I've been just onsurvival mode for a while.
(22:35):
We haven't been doing a lot ofadoptions because of my health.
I just haven't dug it.
It's mainly been just keep 'em safe,keep 'em happy, keep 'em alive, and we
will work on that when I can dedicate, 12hours a day to it again I do one or two
. Like two weeks ago, we did an adoption.
We're not doing the numberof adoptions we were before.
(22:57):
So I've had the same group here fora little longer than what most are,
but honestly, that's completely me.
It has absolutely nothing to do withthis amazing group of pups I have here.
They've been dealing with me quite well.
I've been so impressed withall of them because of it.
(23:17):
But I slowed down because of my healthand I'm starting to get healthy again,
and I'm starting to, surgeries areall done and I'm feeling better, so
we're starting to get back into it.
I'm just pacing myself,
Dixie (23:30):
yeah, it's a lot going on, so you do need to definitely take it slow.
Dezzie (23:35):
Yeah.
Everybody, they're like,
you need to get rid of all of 'em.
I was like, no, I don't, becausethat would kill me again.
What I need is for everybody, just,let me take the time I need to heal.
That has been probably the mosthelpful part is I've got a core group
that comes and helps when I need it.
(23:56):
But most days we just we do prettygood without too much trouble.
Dixie (24:01):
When you do adoptions, do you attend events or do you do like pet finder
online, Facebook, those kinds of things?
Dezzie (24:09):
Yeah.
I will not do eventsdown here in New Orleans.
I'm sorry, I won't go around it.
I don't wanna be a part of it.
I don't wanna be a partof that culture down here.
I think it's extremely toxic.
I think it's unhelpful to the animals.
I haven't really done a lot on petfinders lately . We do a lot of Facebook,
(24:31):
and a lot of mine are word of mouth.
I've done over 2000animals through my home.
Wow.
So through, through the rescueand I've been all over the place.
So I've got friends and we've hadso many really great adoptions.
That word of mouth has done a lot forus because we consistently put out.
(24:54):
Good dogs, adjusted happy dogs.
But we will probably go back todoing pet finders once everything
calms down a little bit.
Dixie (25:06):
So tell me what you mean about toxic.
Dezzie (25:09):
Here's something that I think would change a lot of it really quickly.
I think before you should be able to get a5 0 1 C3, I think one of the requirements
is you should have to work a couple yearsin a shelter, in an actual animal shelter.
So you understand
Really what the true other side of it is.
(25:32):
I believe that.
Something that was extremelytoxic was called Save Them All.
And that is probably one of the worstthings that's ever happened because
they will spend thousands and thousandsof dollars on one animal to extend
its life a couple of months insteadof making the responsible decision to
(25:57):
either let that animal go at that pointor make it as comfortable as it can
be until it goes and spend the moneyon actually getting animals moved.
So I believe that and then stoptrying to save the ones that are
so far gone that are a danger.
(26:19):
Because they can't make the hard decision.
And that's why I believe you should haveto have a couple years in a shelter.
Because there, you haveto make that decision.
And if you can't, then it showsyou're in the wrong field.
I'm sorry.
I know that because I'm from shelterwork and I was an a ACA for so long,
sometimes it makes me sound very.
(26:42):
Cold and harsh, and I'm not trying to be,but there is a responsible way of doing
things and there is an irresponsible way.
And right now, I know for the lastseven years this whole country has
been on a very irresponsible trekwhen it comes to animal welfare.
Dixie (27:01):
A problem that I see, is that a lot of rescues, they
don't wanna work together.
Dezzie (27:06):
Yes.
That's why I won't workwith them down here.
I've got great rescues in Texas, inMississippi, in New York, in Connecticut,
and the girls up in Illinois are fabulous.
And I've got ones in Ohio I'vebeen working with, and they're all
great and everybody works together.
Dixie (27:24):
It just drives me crazy because we're all here , for the same
reason we're all helping animals.
Dezzie (27:29):
I am gonna show my age a little bit, but I've been doing just
the rescue and stuff for 32 years withthe groups of animals in my house and.
Working at the shelters and havingthe rescue and back and forth.
And I've been doing this a longtime in a lot of places, and I was a
(27:51):
military wife, so we moved all over.
So I find that it's worse herethan I've ever seen anywhere else.
I have different rescues inviting me toplease move up around us all the time.
And here you can't even get them to.
Now one of 'em was so bad, shewas getting extra food and stuff
(28:12):
and she was letting it go bad.
Instead of calling other rescues aroundand saying, Hey, could you use this?
She would just throw it away.
Now come on, that's toxic.
We all fight in the same fight i'vegotten quite a few very large donations
here because they've got the wordsgotten out that whatever I get, I share.
(28:33):
If I've got extra, it's going tosomebody else in need, like cat food.
I was sending a lot of that down to Houma,to the rescues down there and dog food.
We were getting large groups,things of dog food for a while.
And instead of other groups workingwith me on it, they went behind and got
it canceled for us because they didn'tlike that we were getting dog food.
Dixie (28:57):
Oh, that's a shame.
Dezzie (28:58):
Yeah, because now I struggle trying to make sure everybody
gets fed every day, and we hadthat to a point where that was
one worry we just didn't have.
So we could worry about all the others.
We were able to take in a few more.
We were able to have our numbersa little higher 'cause we didn't
have to worry about dog food.
And, I've got two really greatvets that I work with that I think
(29:19):
are fabulous when I need them.
And it's Dr.
Sachs.
He's in New Orleans, absolutelyamazing at surgeries.
Amazing.
I've seen that man and his team goin and do 20 surgeries in an in a
morning and never have a bad one.
(29:40):
And he's done that several times for me.
I know he is done it for others.
I know he does the TNRprograms, he donates to that.
And then Dr.
Shine, she's a traveling vet who doeslarge animals, but she also comes here and
we try to get her in once, maybe twice ayear, every year to do a rabies clinic.
And she does the threeyear rabies shot for $20.
(30:05):
So makes it affordable for people.
She's pretty amazing.
So it's just, there are somedown here that will work with
everybody, but you'll find that theydon't deal with a lot of rescue.
Yeah.
But I'm not a regular rescuerbecause I'm a shelter worker.
I'm an a ACA, first and foremost.
(30:26):
I've been an a ACA most of my life,and I look at it much differently than
what somebody who's never had a lot.
And I don't agree withthe foster based rescues.
Dixie (30:38):
Can I ask why?
Dezzie (30:39):
Yeah, you can, because we were gonna try it.
The first three fosters we got inhere decided they knew better than
us and they wouldn't listen to us.
And one of 'em ran a vet bill upto $10,000 without our permission
going behind our back to run adog back and forth to the vet, for
the vet to keep telling her therewas nothing wrong with the dog.
(31:03):
And then I got stuck with $10,000worth of a bill because of it.
Another one decided she knewbetter and adopted out our animals
without telling us and wouldn'ttell us who she adopted them to.
No microchip.
One of 'em wasn't even fixed
(31:25):
and she got rid of our animals andwhen we tried to do something about
it, the police, it's not a priority.
Animals are not a police priority.
There wasn't a whole lotwe could do about it.
So
you don't have
the control base.
You can't learn their behaviors.
(31:46):
You're not doing group settings.
There's a lot of things in thebehaviors that you're not understanding.
Because you're not aroundthat animal every day.
You don't know if that foster's gotthat animal and that foster could
tell you anything, and that dog couldact one way with that foster and
act completely different with you.
And in order to do an actualbehavioral test, somebody who knows
(32:08):
what they're doing with large groupsof dogs needs to do that test.
And most rescues don't have that person.
I just think that it makes it for a moreunsafe environment when you're not testing
these dogs fully to know every littlequirk about them before you send them out.
(32:32):
You've got to know your animals becauseyou might have one I've got one dog here.
He is absolutely fabulous with people.
He's great with a couple different dogs,but God help you, you get him out with
others that he don't know, ain't noway, he's not nice, he can be a problem.
(32:52):
So his adoption will be very specific.
But we know this about him.
Why?
Because he's been with us for months andwe've been able to watch his behaviors
and test him on many different things.
I just think
it's safer.
Dixie (33:07):
Earlier in our conversation, you mentioned that you wanted
to start things with education.
Can we go touch on that a little bit?
Dezzie (33:15):
Oh, absolutely.
I think that our studentsshould be more involved.
I think that kids should be taughtat a small age or a young age.
Jefferson Parish was doing a.
Reading time where we would takedogs to a school and we'd go sit
in the library with a few of ourdogs and they would read to 'em.
(33:37):
We used to do 4th of July night atthe shelter, which is where students
would come in and hang out withthe dogs and read to 'em and stuff.
Why fireworks were going on.
I think that was an amazing program.
We used to have groups of kids cometo the shelter and we would spend the
whole day there teaching them what wedid and how we did things and we would
(33:59):
take 'em through and show 'em everythingand write down to a playgroup on how to
integrate dogs together at a shelter.
So I think that so many kidshave to get hours for school.
I think more of 'em should be encouragedto do their hours at the animal shelters.
And have more programs set up.
(34:19):
And I think school hours should beable to go to places like me who is a
rescue, where I could bring in a groupof five kids and give them their hours
and give them practical experience.
You
have it to where they could get theirschool hours, plus I could be a reference
for them of practical experience ina pack scenario of a large group of
(34:46):
dogs to where if they wanted to gosomeplace because I don't know if
Orleans is, but Jefferson Parish, that'sa parish job with parish benefits.
That's a good paying job.
It's not a bad job at all.
And good overtime and, hazardpay and all of that stuff.
And that would get their footin the door at a decent job.
(35:08):
You know what I mean?
Outta high school.
Dixie (35:10):
I'm all for more education programs too.
Dezzie (35:14):
I think that's the way to go if we really wanna change this.
We are never going to convince adultsto change the way they do things,
but man, we get ahold of the kids.
We can guarantee we could havechange in another, seven to 10 years
drastic change in this country.
, If we could teach the kids.
(35:36):
New ways of doing things.
Dixie (35:40):
It's been an interesting conversation.
I enjoyed learning about your setup
Do you have any adoptionsuccess stories that we could
maybe end the conversation on?
Dezzie (35:49):
Oh.
I have so many.
I get more emails from dogs than I dohumans from success stories where I've
got one point that sticks to mind.
Okay.
I adopted out a dog, andthis was 11 years ago.
(36:12):
I hadn't seen the dog in 10 years,but I used to be the dog walker.
I'd babysat him.
I adopted him to the woman he wasliving with, and we had a routine.
I would go over there three times aweek, go to the front door, he'd bring me
the leash, we'd go for a walk, and thenI'd come back, and that's what we did.
(36:32):
After his adoption, I just becameher dog sitter for her, and I moved
away and I came back and it had beennine years and I hadn't seen her.
And I went over to her house and I got tothe front door and the dogs come up to me.
They had not seen me in nine years.
(36:54):
The dogs come up to me, Percy standsthere for a minute and I'm looking
hi Percy, how you doing buddy?.
And he took a good sniff of me andall of a sudden he went right to his
basket, he grabbed his leash, broughtit to me, and I looked at her and I
said you know what I'm about to do?
And she goes, yeah, I'll seeyou in about a half hour.
Dixie (37:14):
Wow,
Dezzie (37:15):
that's awesome.
After nine years he immediatelywent and got his leash and he
took me right back on our walk.
Dixie (37:22):
Wow.
That is awesome.
Dezzie (37:25):
Yeah.
But I get a lot.
A couple weeks ago I was feelingdown and I put out in the universe,
what am I doing with my life?
And that day I probably got nine.
Nine different people messagedme with updates on how
great their dogs were doing.
So there's a lot of success storiesin it, and that's what keeps us going.
(37:49):
Even in these hard times, we're havingtrouble getting food and we're having
trouble getting, any kind of supportbecause everybody's having a rough time.
Dixie (37:58):
Yeah.
Dezzie (37:59):
And about the time where I wanna give up and I just
wanna say, okay, you beat me.
I can't I'm done.
I'll start getting emails out ofthe blue, like God's trying to
tell me, nah, you ain't done yet.
You're just upset today.
Put your big pants on andlet's go back to work.
(38:19):
And I'll start getting picturesand updates and just amazing
stories on how great or funnythings that the dogs are doing.
And I get a lot of those.
Some of 'em are going back 15 years.
Dixie (38:37):
Yeah.
So
that definitely is whatmakes it worthwhile.
I love getting
Dezzie (38:44):
it does
Dixie (38:44):
the updates, or just out of the blue, somebody will send you a photo and
be like, oh, look how so and so's doing.
And you see 'em living their best life
Dezzie (38:52):
and it's the greatest
feeling.
Dixie (38:53):
Yes,
it is.
It definitely
is.
Dezzie (38:54):
Yeah.
, Okay.
Because, people are always asking, becausethe previous two jobs I did before I
started in dogs, I made a lot of money..
And people are always askingme, do you miss the money?
I was like, yes, I do.
I don't miss the work,but I do miss the money.
And in this right now, in the lastcouple years, the struggle because
(39:15):
our dog food, just dog food alonecosts me a thousand dollars a month.
Just dog food is athousand dollars a month.
And you keep looking and it's like,how am I gonna keep doing this?
And people ask me all the time,it's like, how do you afford it?
And I'm just like, I don'tknow the grace of God.
I'm not sure.
Because
(39:35):
It's just always there.
Dixie (39:37):
Yeah.
The one thing about rescue that a lot ofpeople don't realize is how much of your
own money you have to spend on rescue.
Everybody will start a rescue.
Oh yeah.
And they think all this money is justgonna come pouring in on donations and
it's, oh no, your own money that youare using to take care of these animals.
Dezzie (39:56):
Absolutely.
And now, don't get me wrong,I have some amazing helpers.
I've got a few that are dedicatedto helping probably get five
bags of dog food a month.
I need 30.
But I'm guaranteed because I know thesecertain people that are doing these
(40:17):
donations, they are absolutely faithfulto it, and it's a bag of dog food.
And one of 'em, she told me, she was like,it's two cups of coffee, for the month.
She gives up
two cups of coffee and she can buyme a bag of dog food every month.
Which is amazing that people would
do that, so I do getdonations, don't get me wrong.
(40:41):
And I do get help.
There's somebody else here toothough, that I, wanna mention her
by name, she's been pretty amazing.
With getting people to donate and help.
Tonda.
Johnston and that woman is amazing.
We had, a medical issue.
And her people before the nightwas over, it was taken care of, so
(41:06):
there are some that will stand upwhen you need it, but there's just
so many right now asking for help.
How do you choose?
Because everybody needs help right now.
Dixie (41:16):
Yeah, I understand that for sure.
Thank you, so much for takingthe time to speak with me.
I really appreciate it.
I enjoyed our conversation.
Dezzie (41:25):
It was lovely talking to you, mam.
Great.
I'm so glad you called me andthank you for thinking of me.
Dixie (41:30):
That's all the time that we have for today's episode.
Thank you for listening andwe hope you join us next week.
If you know somebody that loves animalsas much as I do, please send 'em our way.
We would love to talk to 'em.
If you are enjoying our show, pleaseconsider leaving us a donation.
A hundred percent goes to our animals.
(41:50):
Paws in
the night Claws in thefight Whiskers twitch and
tails
take flight
They’re calling in Stories to spinFrom the wild to the heart within
(42:18):
Broken wings and hopeful springsWe’re the voices for these things
animal posse hear the call.
We stand together.
Big and small Rescue tales We’vegot it all Animal posse Saving
(42:45):
them
all
The vet’s got tips The rescuer’sgrit The foster homes where love
won’t quit From a pup in the rain toa bird in pain , Every soul’s worth
(43:13):
the
strain
Animal posse
Hear the call
We stand together Big
(43:39):
and small Rescue tales We’ve gotit all Animal posse Saving them all
Every caller tells a tale, everyhowl a whispered wail, we rise up.
We never
(43:59):
fail.
This
is
the
bond
The holy grail
(44:20):
Animal posse Hear the call We standtogether Big and small Rescue tales We’ve
got it all Animal posse Saving them all
(44:44):
Every caller tells a tale Every howla whispered wail We rise up We never
fail This is the bond The holy grail.
Song by Suno.ai
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