September 10, 2024 • 50 mins
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In this episode, you’ll hear us refer to the show as Starlight Pet Talk—that’s what we called it before we decided to embrace the fur, mess, and mayhem. Don’t worry, you’re in the right place for Muddy Paws and Hairballs—same great content, just with a name that fits! - Amy
What happens when both you and your spouse are suddenly called to military duty, leaving your beloved pet with no one to care for them? This was the challenge Alisa Sieber-Johnson faced, which inspired her to co-found Dogs on Deployment. This nonprofit provides crucial support for military families by connecting service members and first responders with volunteer pet boarders through their online platform. This ensures that no pet has to be surrendered due to deployment. Additionally, the organization offers financial assistance and other resources that significantly impact those who serve nationwide.
In this heartwarming episode, Alisa shares her journey of starting Dogs on Deployment and how the organization has become a vital resource for military personnel and their pets. We explore the wide-reaching impact of their services and the diverse range of pets they support, driven by Alisa’s unwavering commitment to military pet owners.
You’ll also hear the inspiring story of a dedicated Marine Corps officer and pilot who discovered a profound calling in pet fostering. Balancing a demanding career with a commitment to helping military families, his story underscores the critical role of foster homes, the ongoing need for volunteers, and the transformative power of community support to ensure no pet is left behind.
Tune in to learn more about how Dogs on Deployment is making a difference and how you can get involved!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Amy Castro (00:00):
If you're a pet parent, you know it is tough
enough to find care for yourpets when you go on vacation.
But imagine if you were amilitary service member or first
responder and you were beingdeployed at the last minute, or
you were going on temporary dutyfor a year or more and you had
to find someone to care for yourpets while you're gone.
On today's episode, we diveinto the inspiring story behind
(00:20):
Dogs on Deployment, a remarkableorganization dedicated to
ensuring that no pet is leftbehind from our nation's heroes.
Join us as we talk with AlisaSieber-Johnson, the visionary
co-founder who turned herpersonal challenge into a
nationwide movement.
Discover how Dogs on Deploymentprovides critical support to
(00:40):
our nation's heroes, offering anetwork of pet foster homes and
financial assistance to keepbeloved pets safe and cared for
during their service commitments.
You won't want to miss thisheartwarming episode about the
powerful bond between ournation's service members and
their pets.
Tune in to learn more aboutDogsOnDeploymentcom.
Here we go.
(01:01):
You're listening to StarlightPet Talk, a podcast for pet
parents who want the best petcare advice from cat experts,
dog trainers, veterinarians andother top pet professionals who
will help you live your verybest life with your pets.
Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk,I'm your host, amy Castro, and
(01:22):
on today's episode we are joinedby Alisa Sieber-Johnson,
president and co-founder of Dogson Deployment.
Alisa's journey began with apersonal need to find care for
her own dog while she and herhusband fulfilled their military
duties, which led to a creationof a national nonprofit that
provides crucial support formilitary pet owners.
(01:42):
Her leadership has turned Dogson Deployment into a lifeline
for military families, offeringa network of pet fostering and
financial assistance.
Elisa served in the US MarineCorps as a badass C-130 pilot,
but she also served as a sexualassault response coordinator
during her time in the Marines.
She has a passion for those inthe military and for helping
(02:04):
others, and she continues toadvocate for military pet owner
rights and responsible petownership.
So, elisa, thank you so muchfor being here with us today.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (02:13):
Thank you.
I'm excited to share the storyof dogs on deployment with you
and your listeners.
Amy Castro (02:18):
Yes, I know, because at first I was thinking dogs on
deployment or dogs deploying.
But yeah, I was fascinated byyour story.
So why don't you tell us howthis all got started?
Because it's shocking to me notonly how a person can be so
motivated to make somethinghappen, but at such a young age
when you started thisorganization.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (02:37):
So tell us more, yeah it's funny because I
truly do feel like I'm in thatnext phase of my life where I
look back and I look into my 20sand I realize what I'm
accomplished at that time andthe legacy that it's led, and at
times it's very humbling toknow that I carry that history
with me because of the profoundimpacts that the organization
(02:58):
has made on so many servicemembers throughout the years.
So my name is Elisa Johnson.
I founded Dogs Unemployment in2011.
I was a newly commissionedMarine Corps officer and I had
scheduled to go to the basicschool, which is an
infantry-centric six-monthtraining in Quantico, virginia,
(03:20):
and my husband at the same timewas scheduled to deploy.
We had a dog, jd, and nobody wasable to watch our dog while we
went on our dual servicecommitments, and it got us into
this real big predicament wherewe were looking at professional
boarding and kenneling, but wewere talking thousands of
dollars for six months.
(03:40):
On top of that, my dog hadhorrible separation anxiety and
so it really didn't feel like akennel was a feasible option.
My family lived in Hawaii, sothey were not an option, and our
other relatives were not in aposition to take a dog, and so
we just didn't know what to do,and we were extremely lucky that
(04:02):
we had a distant relative thatheard about our story.
They were also veterans, and sothey were willing to take my
dog, and the best part about itis that they lived in Virginia.
So while everybody else on theweekends was going out partying
in the basic school, I was goingover to their house hanging out
with my dog.
You know and I think that reallyjust sums up honestly most of
(04:25):
my personality is I alwayschoose my dog, and you know, it
was on our drive, as we weremoving myself from California to
Virginia we're driving acrossthe country that we started
thinking about this problem.
And then, at the same time, wewere looking to adopt a second
dog and I had just been deniedan adoption application from a
(04:49):
rescue group.
It made me feel extremelysaddened because, you know, I
knew that there was this problemwith pet relinquishment.
I had already come from theanimal rescue community and then
here I am with a dual you knowofficers as well.
So we had the financial meansright, like we could have taken
care of ourselves.
(05:09):
But you know, as leaders you'rethinking okay, if I had this
problem, well, what about theMarines under me?
What are they doing whenthey're having problems with
their pets?
And suddenly I just I realizedthat this was a real problem and
I bought an HTML for dummiesbook from the Barnes and Noble
(05:30):
in Alexandria, virginia, andthat weekend, while I was
waiting to check in, when I hadmy Xbox and my laptop, and I
coded the first website for dogsin employment, and the rest is
history.
Amy Castro (05:43):
You're a motivated woman, for sure, the Marine.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (05:46):
Corps would agree, I guess.
Amy Castro (05:49):
Yes, I was married to Marines, so I know that
personality.
Who is the program open to whenit comes to that need for
finding someone to take care ofmy dog?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (06:02):
The organization is open to the pets
of all companion animalsbelonging to our eligible pet
parents.
So we've had several cats, butalso parrots, ferrets, a chicken
, a snake, guinea pigs, so we'vehad everything.
If you have a pet and it'slegal, we allow it onto our
(06:23):
website application.
So to answer your question,though, about who are those
eligible pet parents, so yeah,when I started the organization,
I was very focused on thejunior enlisted population of
the services, because those arethe ones that we continue to
help the most of.
However, they are not uniquelythe only ones that need our
(06:45):
services.
So as we started to find moreand more volunteers and we
started to pick up momentumthroughout the years, we started
to expand our program.
So we always helped active duty,we always helped preserve us,
We've always helped honorablydischarged veterans, but
throughout the years, then, wewere able to expand to saying we
(07:06):
can also help first responders.
So, for example, we've had afew firemen use our services
that have had to move fromSouthern California to Northern
California, for example, we'vehad police.
If they're having to go toacademy or training or God
forbid, they have anything thathappens to them while they're in
the line of duty that they needour assistance for and we also
(07:27):
helped a few nurses and medicalpersonnel during the COVID
pandemic.
We had one civilian, forexample, that went on to one of
our hospital ships that we wereable to assist and we also help
just general service employeesof the United States government
or government contractors thatare deploying in support of a
military operation.
(07:48):
So essentially, if you're doingsomething for the benefit of
the United States military thatrequires you to take yourself
away from your pet ownership andyou're in need, we look at your
application.
Amy Castro (08:01):
That's great and I like what you said about
focusing on the junior enlistedbecause, as an officer, I mean
you know what you said aboutfocusing on the junior enlisted
because, as you know, as anofficer, I mean I've actually
gone back recently because I'mgetting closer to retirement and
I'm looking at what I made whenI was in the Air Force but it's
like I still made way more thanyou know, than the enlisted
folks, and you had these youngpeople that were serving their
country and they got deployed toIraq or they got deployed to
(08:22):
Afghanistan and it's like nobodycan afford that.
I mean it's hard enough toafford boarding at all, let
alone for six months on asergeant's pay or, you know,
airman's pay, whatever it mightbe.
It's just it's pretty muchimpossible.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (08:36):
Yes, Our military deserves our support
wherever we can give themDefinitely, definitely.
Amy Castro (08:44):
So when you started the organization and obviously
you were on active duty tryingto start the organization at the
same time what were some of thechallenges that you faced, that
you had to overcome getting thewhole program rolling?
Oh, they were endless, I'm sure.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (09:00):
And, honestly, the biggest challenge
was the military itself.
It was a huge conflict ofinterest.
So myself, as a flight studentand as a young, new Marine Corps
officer, I was doing somethingthat was extremely frowned upon
because it was like a conflictof interest to my duties, to my
(09:24):
duties, and so I had a lot ofuphill battles just in starting
the organization to begin with,where my leadership highly
encouraged me not to pursuerepresenting myself in
conjunction with a nonprofit,because there's actually
restrictions against active dutyservice members being able to
endorse or represent a nonprofitorganization.
So I always had to toe the line.
So for me personally, that wasprobably the hugest challenge
(09:47):
was just the support of myactual professional career and
the conflict that I constantlyfelt.
Where, you know, I was a partof this organization, the Marine
Corps that I had put my life,you know, my soul into.
I joined when I was 17 years old, so going to college and
becoming an officer was asurprise.
(10:10):
Let's just say that.
You know that was not the routethat I was originally going to
take or had available to me totake, that I thought that I was
going to be able to take, and sowhen I found myself in this
leadership role, suddenly I felta huge drive to provide the
services that I was going to beable to take.
And so, when I found myself inthis leadership role, suddenly I
felt a huge drive to providethe services that I was creating
for military members.
(10:30):
I would have people calling mein tears because they were at
the shelter or they had justtalked to a shelter, or they'd
be sending me an email with thislong-winded explanation of why
they couldn't pay for their dogto get boarding and how they
didn't know what to do withthemselves and their pet.
And here I am, a new lieutenantthat's supposed to be
(10:52):
concentrated on my flight schoolstudies.
But then I had these messagesin my inbox of people that
really needed help, and I joinedthe Marine Corps to be a leader
, to be of service and to havemy life be of a greater purpose.
And so I felt myself in thishuge conflict of a position
where I tended to lean towardshelping those people.
(11:15):
It fulfilled me, but, like Isaid, that fulfillment came at a
cost to my professionalreputation like I said, that
fulfillment came at a cost to myprofessional reputation.
Amy Castro (11:27):
Yeah, and that's.
You know, it's that higher,that higher calling sometimes
that wins out in those, in thosesituations, and it's a
challenge to to juggle twoaspects of your life that are so
different and then, you know,also in conflict.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (11:36):
The intersection is huge, but
they're also like completelyopposite.
You know, of the Venn diagram,the intersection was very small.
Amy Castro (11:44):
Yeah, and I hope people who are listening to this
hear that you know, when youthink about the animals that are
in shelters you know oftentimeswe think about, you know
animals that are picked up atstrays or you know people that
don't care about their pets and,quote unquote, dump them in
shelters.
And I know that.
You know, in my personalcommunity we don't have a big
military population so, havingvolunteered in shelters, it's
(12:07):
not like we saw lots of servicepeople in.
But I think it's pretty sadwhen you get to a point where
somebody has given up their lifeto serve their country and then
they have to give up their petand basically leave it at a
shelter because there's.
You know, prior to yourorganization existing, there
were a few options If you didn'thave friends or family that
wanted to take your dog for ayear, which is a long time, or
(12:27):
for an undetermined amount oftime, that was, that's basically
your option and that's really,really sad and it's it's awesome
that you've been able to fillthat gap.
I know we talked about this inour pre-recording the whole idea
of fosters how does the processwork?
And then, at that same time,I'm curious how do you get as
many fosters, as you've beenable to get, and all around the
(12:49):
country.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (12:50):
Well, first, how do we get as many
fosters?
It's by doing interviews likethis.
I mean, we blew up because in2013, we were on the Queen
Latifah show and Queen Latifahif you ever think of us again, I
mean honestly, it was gettingthat national exposure and
suddenly everybody was like, oh,this exists.
(13:13):
And we ended up in PeopleMagazine several times after
that and several other nationalnews publications that allowed
the organization to gain a name.
But with that momentum also,you need to have the
organizational capacity to beable to build upon that momentum
.
Unfortunately, as a volunteerorganization that then went
through the pandemic, it's verydifficult to keep that momentum
(13:34):
driven.
So we are now at that point oftime where, at one point of time
, we had a huge amount offosters in our system and I felt
very confident that, you know,anybody that came to our
organization that needed a freeboarding home for their pet
while they were on a servicecommitment would be able to find
one.
Times have changed.
(13:55):
Now I don't have that mobilizedvolunteer force that I used to
have, that mobilized volunteerforce that I used to, and we're
looking to regain that becausewe need it.
So what is a foster?
Well, you kind of come up fromit.
I think we can look at thisfrom the rescue community.
Is that a foster?
Somebody that takes in a petthat needs a temporary home?
(14:16):
Now, the difference between arescue foster and dogs in
employment we don't actually usethe word foster, we use the
word boarding because we thinkof our volunteers more as
boarders than fosters.
The pets that go into your homehave an owner, they have some
place to return to, and so therelationship there with the pet
(14:38):
is also different.
But when you become a boarderto our organization, the process
is as simple as signing up.
You complete a profile thatlists your home details who's in
your house, what kind of petsdo you have, are you an active
family?
Do you live in an apartment?
Do you have a house with a yardthe details that somebody
(14:58):
looking for a home for their petwould want to know and then
you're basically just listed.
Now it's up to the boarder todecide how active or proactive
they're going to be with ourorganization.
So some of our boarders justlist themselves, and if you
don't log back in, we willeventually remove you from our
(15:19):
system, because we want peopleto be interacting and responding
to messages.
So when you log in, you haveyour choice of either not doing
anything or searching for petsin need, and when you find a pet
that you're like, oh, I think Imight be able to help that
service member, you just sendthem a message and that's how
(15:40):
you start the communication.
So it's really important forour boarders to realize that
when you create an account andyou're listed, and if you leave,
that's going to be the end ofyour experience because our
organization does not contactyou to put a dog or something
into your home.
It's up to you, as the boarder,to contact pet owners that you
(16:02):
think you can help, and thenvice versa, when a pet owner is
approved and able to use ourapplication system and our
network, they're able to senddirect messages to boarders.
So if you receive a message asa boarder, we want you to log in
, check that message and respondto it.
Either yes, I can help you oryes, I want to talk more, or no,
(16:24):
it's not the right fit for meat this time.
Amy Castro (16:27):
Okay.
So basically you're providing aplatform and then also some
pretty extensive, I know,because I do want to talk about
the application process, but youknow the platform and then the
screening process to put thesepeople in a room together, so to
speak, and give them theopportunity to make those
connections.
But both parties need to workit.
(16:48):
If I'm a service member lookingfor somebody for my pet, can I
go and look for people as welland reach out to those people?
Or is it only the other wayaround?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (16:57):
Exactly, they can connect with another.
Remember, I started thisorganization in 2011.
So this is pre-Rover orpre-Carecom.
It was the very early days ofthe Airbnb model, and so I
actually based my site off ofMatchcom.
Okay said it was a matchcom formilitary and, to be fair, too,
(17:21):
we did have a pet owner thatthey used a border and they fell
in love with the border'sroommate and got married.
It was a real thing.
So we do have one matchcomsuccess.
Amy Castro (17:38):
That's hysterical.
Yeah, that's funny.
Well, yeah, you know people wholike dogs or pets.
It's kind of a you already havethat in common.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (17:45):
So that's Right, I mean, we do have
primarily single military on ourwebsite as our primary
demographic.
Not saying anything, I'm just.
These are the facts becausethey don't have other people
able to help them and they arethe ones that are most at risk.
They're the ones that we haveto help the most because they
don't have people to rely on.
Amy Castro (18:06):
Yeah, it's definitely just such a such a
great option.
And is there a cost involved tothe military member, or how
does how does that work?
As far as you know, if I'mgoing to keep somebody's pet for
a year, am I getting paid forit?
Am I getting reimbursed forexpenses?
How does that work?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (18:21):
That is a fantastic question and probably
the one that we try to emphasizethe most is that dog's
unemployment is free to use forthe service member, meaning that
you cannot sign up to be aboarder on our website and then
ask a service member for aboarding fee.
You can't say, hey, I'll watchyour dog, but pay me $10 a day.
That is not allowed.
(18:42):
What is required by the petowner is that before they give
their dog to the border or theirpet to the border, that they
have had an agreement in placeand we try to help them.
We try to provide someresources on our website through
what we call a boarding andcare plan.
That is essentially a longinstructional document for the
(19:04):
boarder of what the pet owner'sexpectations are for the care of
their pet when it comes totheir feeding, their food, their
exercise, their health, etc.
But part of that being theexpenses, and the pet owner is
required to remain financiallyresponsible for the care of
their pet during their servicecommitment.
While in boarding Meaning, ifthe pet has to have grooming
(19:25):
done, they need to be sendingmoney to the boarder to either
reimburse or they need to bepaying the groomer directly If
the pet needs to have somethingdone at the veterinarian's
office while the service memberis overseas.
We actually recommend thatbefore they deploy, they leave a
credit card authorization withtheir veterinarian prior to
(19:46):
leaving so that way, if anythinghappens, that they can just
bill the pet owner directly atthe time of the incident and not
worry about reimbursement to aboarder that has to put it on
their card.
So everything is centeredaround it being a system
designed for people to helppeople, but you still have to
remain that responsible petowner in that financial sense.
Amy Castro (20:10):
Right, because one of the concerns that I had
expressed to you when we hadtalked previously and I feel
sort of guilty about it now butwe have, as a rescue, had people
, you know, maybe twice in theyears that we've had the rescue
open where somebody has reachedout and says my sister's in the
military and she has two cats orshe has three cats or whatever
it is, and she's gettingdeployed and you know, can you
(20:31):
take the cats?
And you know, and they use theterm foster them until she gets
back.
And I've always been veryhesitant because it's like what
are the odds they're going totake that pet back and how you
know, like you said, thefinancial responsibility or just
making decisions for somebodyelse's pet over a year long
period.
But it sounds like you guyshave obviously thought of all
(20:54):
that and at least have thosestructures in place so that as
the two parties go into thisarrangement, that they go in
with their eyes wide open or aswide open as we can be.
Obviously there's going to bethings that happen in life that
are not always predictable, butit sounds like you've thought
about a lot of the caveats orcontingencies that could happen.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (21:15):
Yeah, and I love that you mentioned that
about a service member coming toyou as a rescue and what do you
do in that situation?
So, first of all, dogs inEmployment does have a program
called Operation ShelterPartners, and right now we're
focusing our attention on brickand mortar facilities.
But making sure that yourfacility whether you're a foster
(21:44):
only based organization orbrick and mortar you have a
process in place for petadoption and for pet
relinquishment.
That asks the question are youmilitary or a veteran?
And if yes, have a separate setof procedures for that person,
meaning if they're being anadopter.
Give them a flyer from DogsUnemployment.
You can get rat cards from usfor free.
You can literally come to ourwebsite.
There's a thing that saysdistribute info and we will send
(22:04):
you free rat cards If you'redoing a relinquishment process
and they come to you instead ofjust taking the pet from them,
tell them about our organization, send them to us.
Rescues are not set up ordesigned to handle what dogs in
employment handles.
It stresses your capacity andit puts you at liability risk
(22:28):
because, to your point, youdon't have agreements in place
with those pet owners that theyremain financially liable, that
they are the legal pet ownerthat dogs in employment is not
taking any sort of possession ofthis animal owner that dogs in
employment is not taking anysort of possession of this
animal.
So you know I throw it outthere to anybody in the rescue
(22:49):
community that if you have aservice member or a veteran,
come to you for help, pleasecontact dogs in employment.
And even if you've never had aservice member contact you for
help, please connect withdogsemployment and just know
that we are a tool that helpsensure your capacity doesn't get
fulfilled by something thatshouldn't be your responsibility
(23:10):
to take care of.
We've got that.
Amy Castro (23:12):
Yeah, and how easy is it to just add a question you
know, are you currently servingin the military, or reserves,
or a first responder, or youknow it could be like a just
check the box, if any of theseapply, because to your point,
and what happened to you as aservice member and being denied
adoption?
I mean, we have adopted out toseveral service members, but
(23:33):
generally it's families, and soit's like there's a thing in the
back of your head that says,well, at least if the spouse
isn't in the military, then theodds are the spouse will be able
to take care of the pet.
But you've even mentioned thatthere's scenarios like I think
you mentioned one about you knowthe service members deployed
and then the spouse is pregnantand ends up hospitalized, you
know, and so it's like theycould still need assistance.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (23:56):
Yes, yes, several, several situations
where you know the one spouse isdeployed, the other spouse is
home happily taking care of thedog and something tragic happens
to them, and there's nothingworse than being by yourself in
those hard moments, you know,and the last thing you want to
(24:18):
worry about is like what am Igoing to do with my dog?
You know, when you think ofmilitary families too and it's
really hard, for if you've neverbeen connected to the military,
it's really hard toconceptualize how difficult
being a military family is.
And I think when I was in theservice I was very blinded to it
myself because I was soingrained with it and I was just
(24:39):
used to the distance myselfbecause I was so ingrained with
it and I was just used to thedistance.
I mean, in my own life I waswith my husband for 10 years,
the co-founder of Dogs.
Unemployment no-transcript.
And that was our early romanceand for a family.
(25:01):
This is the situation that weoften see Service member departs
, spouse is home taking care ofthe kids, taking care of the
home front, taking care of thedog, and either they have an
emergency that requireshospitalization, or their parent
has emergency and suddenly theyhave to leave.
Or another situation is likemaybe they don't have kids but
(25:25):
they're keeping a house that isdraining them financially that
they don't need because thatservice member is deployed and
that spouse can go live withtheir parents or live someplace
else, but they can't take theirpet with them.
And it's like you really haveto look at all of these
individual situations and say,okay, do we have the capacity to
help?
(25:45):
Do those people need help?
Are we making a positive benefitfor the service members' peace
of mind, which is in our firstfew words of our mission
statement, is to provide peaceof mind.
First few words of our missionstatement is to provide peace of
mind.
Then yes, if we have theability to assist, we will do
all that we can.
With that said, we do have avery strict eligibility process
(26:08):
because we also want to makesure that the people using our
website are in fact in need andwe're not getting people that
are just, hey, I'm going onvacation or I don't want to take
care of my pet because I'm justan irresponsible pet owner.
Those people do exist.
We cannot be naive to that, andso that is where our screening
(26:30):
process and our executivedirector does a fantastic job of
making sure that every singleservice member that comes to our
organization for assistance isbeing looked at on an individual
, case-by-case basis.
Amy Castro (26:44):
That's great.
I think it shows the level ofcommitment obviously of your
organization but to the servicemember that they're going
through this process.
You know, because I've recentlyhad an opportunity and I'm still
kind of deciding whether I'mgoing to pursue it or not.
But it's like once I saw thelist of requirements to take
advantage of the opportunity andI'm still kind of deciding
whether I'm going to pursue itor not.
(27:04):
But it's like once I saw thelist of requirements to take
advantage of the opportunity,I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing
all that, you know.
And so for somebody to say, oh,I am dedicated enough to my pet
to take all of these steps andto fill out these forms and to
go through the screening process, I think it's you know it, it
shows a dedication to that petand I think would make me feel
better as a boarder that thatperson truly is committed to
coming back to their pet.
And I remember I had I hadasked you like how many cases
(27:27):
have you had where somebodybasically didn't come back for
their pet?
And it was so small I can'tremember the exact number.
I mean not necessarily the exactnumber but it was like a
handful compared to thousands.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (27:40):
Yeah, it really is very small and we
don't have an exact number.
The reason for that is becausewhen people come to our website,
they either find somebody orthey don't, and in the cases
that they don't, a lot of timesthat's oh, my deployment got
canceled or I ended up.
You know, you were my backupplan, my family did end up
(28:02):
taking my pet, or you know, Ifound a girlfriend or a
boyfriend and they're watchingmy pet now.
Whatever the case may be, but Ican't think of a time off the
top of my head when we hadsomebody approved and actively
able to use our website and thenstill turn their pet into a
shelter.
Amy Castro (28:21):
Right, and I could see that there would be
scenarios where somebody, maybethey got deployed, like your
example of separation anxiety,and it's like you know, I get
deployed and then I have anopportunity to extend because
it's going to be good for mycareer, or I have to extend, and
now it's longer than Ioriginally said, that, yeah, it
might get to a point where it'slike I thought I was going to be
(28:41):
able to navigate this and thencome back to my pet, but maybe
the best thing for my pet is to,you know, to find a more stable
permanent home.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (28:50):
We have had that happen before and you
know when it does happen it'sreally hard.
But every single time it hashappened it has been like a
conversation where the executivedirector is talking to the
boarder, that's talking to thepet owner, and I'm talking to
our ED and we're making adecision of like, okay, how are
we going to approach this?
And in some cases we've hadboarders adopt the pet.
(29:12):
In other cases, dogs.
Unemployment has contacted andworked with rescues to rehome
the pet.
So we're not going to leavesomebody that's in our network
abandoned.
We intervene if there's anissue, but that does not mean
that we don't want to beconnected with our boarders so
that if somebody is activelyboarding a pet, we love getting
(29:34):
updates, we love seeing pictures, we love getting stories, we
love it when people tag us onsocial media.
Those are the things that notonly are great to share and
showcase what this organizationis about, but truly they keep us
going.
There are times with my teamthat we feel so down in the
dumps because something bad hashappened in our community and
(29:55):
we're trying to reel from it.
For example, over the summer wehad a really hard time dealing
with the changes to the CDCimportation guidelines for pets
from overseas.
So in the last you know, reallyin the sense, the pandemic, but
really in the last six monthsthere's actually been a lot of
changes in pet travelinternationally and it's caused
(30:19):
a huge problem for ourorganization because one, in
addition to fostering, we alsoprovide financial assistance
grants and one of our programsis to help provide grants to
ship pets from overseas dutystations back to the United
States and vice versa, sincethat's something that majority
comes out of the servicemember's pocket.
However, because of airlinecosts going up tremendously
(30:45):
since the pandemic for shipping,but also new regulations are
putting pets out of thepassenger holds and into cargo,
which means you have to shipthem in a separate system, which
is much more expensive, and wehave also new quarantine
requirements.
(31:05):
So there's a lot of problemsgoing on and the impact to us is
an overwhelming request forsupport in terms of financial
assistance that we absolutelycannot meet.
I wish we could.
I think it was in the last year.
We had nearly like $700,000total requested from service
(31:28):
members and pet shipping,because each service member, for
the cost to ship one pet fromone duty station to the other
anywhere in the world isprobably somewhere between
$3,000 to $7,000.
We've had grants come in for$10,000.
We had a service member thatshipped their Great Dane from
(31:49):
the West Coast to Japan for$10,000.
They paid for it.
They got there, they had anemergency, very sad tragedy that
required them to come back tothe United States and then they
had to pay another $10,000.
And you're just thinking this issuch a broken system.
(32:09):
Why is this so expensive?
Why is this so hard?
We're having pets that arebeing forced to be kept overseas
and we're trying to figure out.
Can we stand up aninternational chapter to support
those pets?
If needed?
Can we operate in that regard?
Can we do something to workwith the international pet
(32:31):
travel agency agents that wework with?
So we have several partners inpet travel agencies.
Can we work with them to helpbring more awareness to these
problems and how changes in theCDC are not just impacting all
pet travel but specificallymilitary families that weren't
expecting it?
So we're just constantlyreacting to hardships and so
(32:54):
when we get those stories backfrom our borders that say, look
at this dog, like having such agreat time while a service
member is deployed, or the bestis the reunion, and it keeps us
going and it keeps us motivatedand reminds us like oh yeah,
this is what this organizationis really about.
Amy Castro (33:12):
Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that from the
standpoint of you know, becausewhen I, of course, when I was in
the air I was only in the airforce for four years and the you
know, the place I really,really, really really wanted to
get stationed was either, youknow, germany or England, and
you know England has such strictquarantine that you know it
would have been kind ofpointless to to bring a dog, but
like so I guess in my mind, ifsomebody was going to PCS
(33:35):
overseas, that they justwouldn't take their pets, and
it's like I never even thought,like I can't even imagine
sending a dog to Japan.
I mean, it's just that floorsme.
That was out of my realm ofunderstanding or thinking.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (33:49):
Yeah, and then the alternative to that is
being away from your pet, fromtwo years, yeah, or four, or
whatever it might be.
Right.
So there's a real balance thatyou have to play and there is no
perfect solution and you can'tjust put a blanket over
everybody's scenario and sayit's a one size fits all
(34:09):
solution, like our organizationhas to look at every single
person case by case and justunderstand that what we're
trying to do is bridge the gapbetween understanding, between
civilian and militarypopulations.
Right, this goes beyond the petownership.
This goes into making somebodythat has never met a service
(34:29):
member or doesn't have anybodyin their family that's ever
served and doesn't have anyconnection to it and maybe
doesn't care, but they loveanimals.
And so now they're boardingthis pet and now they've met the
to it and maybe doesn't care,but they love animals.
And so now they're boardingthis pet and now they've met the
service member and now they'vefelt this person's story and now
they feel compelled to be apart of that journey because
they're helping this pet.
(34:50):
And now they have love in it.
Right, and we need more love inthis world.
Suddenly now you've createdthis like cataclysmic connection
in the world of a servicemember and a person that never
would have known that person tobegin with, but now they're
intimately tied through this dogor this cat.
Now you have these advocates inthe world that are saying I
(35:14):
can't believe somebody helped mein that way.
Somebody watched my cat for sixmonths and my cat pissed on
their carpet every single dayfor six months and they still
did it for me because I wasdeployed overseas and my life
sucked for six months and Ican't believe that there was
somebody with the heart outthere that took care of my cat.
(35:36):
For me that's life-changing,not just for that service member
, but for who they tell thatstory to.
Amy Castro (35:44):
Yeah Well, and that's a good point, is that
it's not.
You know I mean, animals areanimals and I know I run into
this with fosters too is thatyou know it's you're gonna, you
know you're gonna facechallenges potentially too, so
you have to be prepared for that, but the end result is is worth
(36:04):
it because you look at what wasthe alternative for that person
and for that pet ending up in ashelter or possibly being
euthanized or something likethat If that person had no other
alternatives but to turn theiranimal into a shelter.
So and I'm sure you've gotprobably tons of other than a
marriage.
I mean, that's kind of hard totop that.
But is there any particularsuccess story that jumps out?
You know that you would want toshare?
Yeah, absolutely.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (36:24):
Actually, this year we had a story you can
read about it on our blog,frontline Tales but we received
an email from an animal sheltersaying that they had received
this intake of a Cane Carouselnamed Blue Moon and this dog had
been turned in by their servicemember that had a short notice
(36:44):
deployment and, because of hisdog's breed, he was really
worried.
What is he going to do?
And he went to the shelter thisis the option that he thought
he had available and the shelterwas very, very nice.
They assured him they would doeverything they could for the
dog, but he still left thinkinghe was never going to see his
dog again.
(37:05):
The shelter in fact, did hold uptheir end of a bargain making
sure that Blue Moon went to agood home and luckily they were
told about dogs in Plymouth.
So when they contacted us andwe learned about Blue Moon's
owner, we actually got incontact with him, got him
registered on our website, gothim approved.
He was able to connect with aboarder and that boarder was
(37:27):
able to get that dog from theshelter and six months later he
came home.
And you know I unfortunatelythey were not able to record the
reunion, I think becauseeverybody was crying or the dog,
like knock the camera out.
Something happened, um, but therecording was not able to get
done.
But yeah, to come home tosomething you thought you would
(37:49):
never see again is a verypowerful experience.
Amy Castro (37:56):
Yeah, that's amazing .
That is amazing.
So obviously we know that inorder for the organization to
continue to meet need that, youneed I would say what as many
borders as you can get, becauseit's really just like it just
gives more options and choicesin the system for people.
Does it matter where a personlives, you know?
(38:17):
I mean I would assume thatthere are certain parts of the
country where there's moredemand, like Norfolk, virginia.
You know there might be morepeople there than you know
someplace that doesn't have amilitary population.
But is there like a mileagelimit from where that person's
stationed or how does that work?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (38:31):
Great question as well.
Yes, we do primarily have needin places where there is a
military town, obviously, andour biggest chapters are in San
Diego and in Virginia Beach.
Because of the fact that I wasin the Marine Corps, my husband
was in the Navy and that's wherethe Navy and the Marine Corps
are stationed on the East andthe West Coast, so there was a
(38:53):
lot of emphasis in starting ourorganization there.
However, we are national andbecause we don't just help
active duty and we help veteransveterans live everywhere and
first responders live everywhere, and we also have military
members that are willing totravel for the right person to
watch their dog.
If I was living someplace and Ihad the choice of an apartment
(39:17):
within my city or I could drivethree miles away and my dog
could go live on a ranch andhave the time of his life with a
family, and I had an Australianshepherd, so I'm going to go
three hours right.
So don't let distance be thething that says, well, oh, I'm
not going to register.
And to your point, choice isimperative here, because we're
(39:40):
not doing the placements.
We need service members to beable to interview several people
, talk to several people and ourgoal is to have 10 borders for
every one approved pet.
That's our minimum baseline.
We're just under that right now.
So we do need people to be onthe website registering and what
we call them as our DODreserves.
(40:02):
We think of it just like themilitary.
We probably won't need you.
You might be registered for twoyears before you get an email,
but that first email you get isyour call to action, and that's
how the military operates, right.
We have our active duty forcethe people that are deploying
and they're doing our day-to-dayoperations.
(40:23):
But then we have our reserveforce and those are the people
that are in the ready line andthey're standing by until their
time is called.
And if our country goes intosome sort of mass deployment or
reactive state and we see a lotof people being activated
especially if we ever activateour reserve force we expect to
(40:45):
see a high influx of petslooking for homes through our
organization.
And I am not confident that Ican keep that story where I told
you earlier that I don't thinkthat we've ever had anybody come
to our website and not be ableto find somebody when they were
really in need.
I don't know that.
I can continue to say that ifwe were to have a mass
(41:06):
deployment situation.
Amy Castro (41:09):
Right, yeah.
So people who are listening tothis, you know this is your
opportunity to step up,investigate, register and again,
you may not get called, you maynot be needed, but you also
might find a point in time whereyou're desperately needed.
You know it can be so lastminute and there's so few
alternative options availablefor people.
(41:29):
So, beyond if somebody was notin a position to be a boarder
for whatever reason, are thereother things that they can do to
help the organization?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (41:40):
Absolutely .
Our organization is virtual, sowe do work with all kinds of
different virtual volunteers andbasically, if you're listening
and you're like, I love thisorganization, I love pets, I
love the service members, I wantto do something in this field,
just shoot us an email.
Tell us what you like to do.
We're very small.
We might look big on ourwebsite, but it is me and I have
(42:00):
two other team members and wehave a very small team of core
volunteers.
So we're looking to build ourteam.
So come, send your resume, tellus what you want to do.
Do tell us what your vision isand let's have a conversation.
Um, you know other ways tosupport is looking at that
operation, shelter partners thatif you're out there and you're
in the rescue community and youwant to be a part of the
(42:21):
solution, contact us and let'stalk about how your organization
can be a part of the alliancethat we're trying to create,
which is a pledge to say we'renot going to see military pet
relinquishment.
And then, yeah, finally, thatfundraising piece is always
something that we're all goingto be challenged in.
So I will say, no, it's notfundraising that I need from
(42:43):
your community, but what I doneed is partnerships.
We're all resource limited andwe're all working with some sort
of limited capacity, and DogsUnemployment is here to create
partnerships with otherorganizations, not to take away.
So if you're in a situationwhere you think that we could do
a joint fundraiser or we can doa joint event or we can work
(43:05):
together in a collaborative way,shoot us an email.
Our organization is not one totake resources from other
nonprofits.
No, I'm presently getting mymaster's in nonprofit leadership
and management and there is somuch opportunity out there for
all of us.
We just have to find the righttools and the right avenues to
(43:27):
make that opportunity accessibleto everyone.
The other reason why we want tohave a large database of DoD
boarders is not only to betterserve our service members that
might need us, but if I have tobe completely honest, when I
started this organization in2011, I was a foster parent
first.
(43:47):
I would pick up every stray dogon the side of the road and I
would foster it, and what Irealized very early on was
recruiting and retaining fosterparents for rescues is so
incredibly difficult.
My long-term visions for dogson deployment is being able to
(44:16):
expand my network and educatingmy DOD boarders about not only
deployment, military boarding,but also rescue, fostering the
differences between it and howthey can be activated to not
only supporting my organizationbecause, like I said, most of my
boarders are not going to get apet to board, but they've
already expressed interest inboarding a pet.
(44:38):
So if I can createcollaborations with local foster
groups or rescue groups thatallows my boarders to then be
educated on foster programs intheir local community, I want to
be able to help local groupswith that avenue of connection.
It's not on our capacity or ourabilities yet, but it is
(45:00):
something that I'm activelytrying to figure out how I can
include in our future expansionof our Hero Pet Boarding Network
, which is something I'm seekinggrant funding for, as well as
corporate sponsorship for.
Amy Castro (45:18):
Awesome, yeah, definitely.
So I have to ask what's next?
What's on the horizon otherthan obviously getting more
borders?
Any other new programs or newinitiatives that you want to
share?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (45:26):
Yeah, we each year do what's called our
American Hero, pet of the Yearand DOD Mascot Competition, and
this is a contest where it'sphoto based.
So of course we're looking forcute photos of military pet
owners or military pets, butmore so it's a storytelling
contest.
It's a ability to connect ourcivilian populations with the
(45:47):
meaning behind pets of ourservice members and really
diffusing that maybe negativeperception of like, oh well, no,
you're in the military, youshouldn't have gotten a pet in
the first place.
Okay, and I've said this before, valid for some, not valid for
all.
That is not something that canbe a blanket statement for all
service members, and so thiscontest is really about
(46:09):
showcasing the importance ofpets within our military
community by showcasing realstories along with super cute
pet pictures.
(46:50):
So in November we'll be appliesfor our contest or are an
ambassador, influencer orsomething we'd love to work with
you.
We are looking for prizesponsorships for products for
our top three contestants, sothat is another way that we
could work together on that andthen all of our contestants.
They'll be closed up by the endof the year and public voting
(47:11):
will be available in January.
So we ask that everybody cometo our organization, give us a
like on Facebook and Instagramand please vote for your
favorite contestant when they'reposted at the beginning of the
year.
Amy Castro (47:24):
Awesome, looking forward to reading those stories
and seeing those photos.
Well, elisa, thank you so much.
Well, number one, thank you foryour service, and thank you for
your service to service membersand our other heroes in not
only creating but running thisorganization for as long as you
have, and I'm so glad that we'vehad this opportunity for you to
(47:45):
come on the show and openeverybody's eyes to number one,
the need, and number two, theservices that you have available
for both service members andboarders.
I really, really appreciate youand everything that you do.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (47:57):
Well, thank you so much for letting me
talk about my favorite petpassion project.
Amy Castro (48:03):
Awesome and for everybody that's listening,
we're going to have links in theshow notes.
But make sure you do go out andcheck out Dogs on Deployment
and, you know, look for thoseopportunities to get involved.
I think so many times it's realeasy to sit on the sidelines
and say somebody should dosomething.
Who's going to do it?
If you don't do it, you knowyou need to be the one.
(48:24):
Don't wait for somebody else tostep up.
So at least go check it out,see what opportunities.
It sounds like there's lots ofoptions to get involved,
depending upon your interest,availability and skills.
So make sure you do that.
That's my challenge to you forthis week and other than that,
we will see you next week onanother episode of Starlight Pet
Talk.
Thanks for listening toStarlight Pet Talk.
(48:45):
Be sure to visit our website atwwwstarlightpettalkcom for more
resources and be sure to followthis podcast on your favorite
podcast app, so you'll nevermiss a show.
If you enjoyed and found valuein today's episode, we'd
appreciate a rating on Apple.
Or if you'd simply tell afriend about the show, that
would be great too.
Don't forget to tune in nextweek and every week for a brand
(49:08):
new episode of Starlight PetTalk.
And if you don't do anythingelse this week, give your pets a
big hug from us.
Thanks for listening toStarlight Pet Talk.
Be sure to visit our website atwwwstarlightpettalkcom for more
resources, and be sure tofollow this podcast on your
favorite podcast app, so you'llnever miss a show.
(49:29):
If you enjoyed and found valuein today's episode, we'd
appreciate a rating on Apple.
Or if you'd simply tell afriend about the show, that
would be great too.
Don't forget to tune in nextweek and every week for a brand
new episode of Starlight PetTalk.
And if you don't do anythingelse this week, give your pets a
big hug from us.
If you're a pet parent, you know it is tough
enough to find care for yourpets when you go on vacation.
But imagine if you were amilitary service member or first
responder and you were beingdeployed at the last minute, or
you were going on temporary dutyfor a year or more and you had
to find someone to care for yourpets while you're gone.
On today's episode, we diveinto the inspiring story behind
(00:20):
Dogs on Deployment, a remarkableorganization dedicated to
ensuring that no pet is leftbehind from our nation's heroes.
Join us as we talk with AlisaSieber-Johnson, the visionary
co-founder who turned herpersonal challenge into a
nationwide movement.
Discover how Dogs on Deploymentprovides critical support to
(00:40):
our nation's heroes, offering anetwork of pet foster homes and
financial assistance to keepbeloved pets safe and cared for
during their service commitments.
You won't want to miss thisheartwarming episode about the
powerful bond between ournation's service members and
their pets.
Tune in to learn more aboutDogsOnDeploymentcom.
Here we go.
(01:01):
You're listening to StarlightPet Talk, a podcast for pet
parents who want the best petcare advice from cat experts,
dog trainers, veterinarians andother top pet professionals who
will help you live your verybest life with your pets.
Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk,I'm your host, amy Castro, and
(01:22):
on today's episode we are joinedby Alisa Sieber-Johnson,
president and co-founder of Dogson Deployment.
Alisa's journey began with apersonal need to find care for
her own dog while she and herhusband fulfilled their military
duties, which led to a creationof a national nonprofit that
provides crucial support formilitary pet owners.
(01:42):
Her leadership has turned Dogson Deployment into a lifeline
for military families, offeringa network of pet fostering and
financial assistance.
Elisa served in the US MarineCorps as a badass C-130 pilot,
but she also served as a sexualassault response coordinator
during her time in the Marines.
She has a passion for those inthe military and for helping
(02:04):
others, and she continues toadvocate for military pet owner
rights and responsible petownership.
So, elisa, thank you so muchfor being here with us today.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (02:13):
Thank you.
I'm excited to share the storyof dogs on deployment with you
and your listeners.
Amy Castro (02:18):
Yes, I know, because at first I was thinking dogs on
deployment or dogs deploying.
But yeah, I was fascinated byyour story.
So why don't you tell us howthis all got started?
Because it's shocking to me notonly how a person can be so
motivated to make somethinghappen, but at such a young age
when you started thisorganization.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (02:37):
So tell us more, yeah it's funny because I
truly do feel like I'm in thatnext phase of my life where I
look back and I look into my 20sand I realize what I'm
accomplished at that time andthe legacy that it's led, and at
times it's very humbling toknow that I carry that history
with me because of the profoundimpacts that the organization
(02:58):
has made on so many servicemembers throughout the years.
So my name is Elisa Johnson.
I founded Dogs Unemployment in2011.
I was a newly commissionedMarine Corps officer and I had
scheduled to go to the basicschool, which is an
infantry-centric six-monthtraining in Quantico, virginia,
(03:20):
and my husband at the same timewas scheduled to deploy.
We had a dog, jd, and nobody wasable to watch our dog while we
went on our dual servicecommitments, and it got us into
this real big predicament wherewe were looking at professional
boarding and kenneling, but wewere talking thousands of
dollars for six months.
(03:40):
On top of that, my dog hadhorrible separation anxiety and
so it really didn't feel like akennel was a feasible option.
My family lived in Hawaii, sothey were not an option, and our
other relatives were not in aposition to take a dog, and so
we just didn't know what to do,and we were extremely lucky that
(04:02):
we had a distant relative thatheard about our story.
They were also veterans, and sothey were willing to take my
dog, and the best part about itis that they lived in Virginia.
So while everybody else on theweekends was going out partying
in the basic school, I was goingover to their house hanging out
with my dog.
You know and I think that reallyjust sums up honestly most of
(04:25):
my personality is I alwayschoose my dog, and you know, it
was on our drive, as we weremoving myself from California to
Virginia we're driving acrossthe country that we started
thinking about this problem.
And then, at the same time, wewere looking to adopt a second
dog and I had just been deniedan adoption application from a
(04:49):
rescue group.
It made me feel extremelysaddened because, you know, I
knew that there was this problemwith pet relinquishment.
I had already come from theanimal rescue community and then
here I am with a dual you knowofficers as well.
So we had the financial meansright, like we could have taken
care of ourselves.
(05:09):
But you know, as leaders you'rethinking okay, if I had this
problem, well, what about theMarines under me?
What are they doing whenthey're having problems with
their pets?
And suddenly I just I realizedthat this was a real problem and
I bought an HTML for dummiesbook from the Barnes and Noble
(05:30):
in Alexandria, virginia, andthat weekend, while I was
waiting to check in, when I hadmy Xbox and my laptop, and I
coded the first website for dogsin employment, and the rest is
history.
Amy Castro (05:43):
You're a motivated woman, for sure, the Marine.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (05:46):
Corps would agree, I guess.
Amy Castro (05:49):
Yes, I was married to Marines, so I know that
personality.
Who is the program open to whenit comes to that need for
finding someone to take care ofmy dog?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (06:02):
The organization is open to the pets
of all companion animalsbelonging to our eligible pet
parents.
So we've had several cats, butalso parrots, ferrets, a chicken
, a snake, guinea pigs, so we'vehad everything.
If you have a pet and it'slegal, we allow it onto our
(06:23):
website application.
So to answer your question,though, about who are those
eligible pet parents, so yeah,when I started the organization,
I was very focused on thejunior enlisted population of
the services, because those arethe ones that we continue to
help the most of.
However, they are not uniquelythe only ones that need our
(06:45):
services.
So as we started to find moreand more volunteers and we
started to pick up momentumthroughout the years, we started
to expand our program.
So we always helped active duty,we always helped preserve us,
We've always helped honorablydischarged veterans, but
throughout the years, then, wewere able to expand to saying we
(07:06):
can also help first responders.
So, for example, we've had afew firemen use our services
that have had to move fromSouthern California to Northern
California, for example, we'vehad police.
If they're having to go toacademy or training or God
forbid, they have anything thathappens to them while they're in
the line of duty that they needour assistance for and we also
(07:27):
helped a few nurses and medicalpersonnel during the COVID
pandemic.
We had one civilian, forexample, that went on to one of
our hospital ships that we wereable to assist and we also help
just general service employeesof the United States government
or government contractors thatare deploying in support of a
military operation.
(07:48):
So essentially, if you're doingsomething for the benefit of
the United States military thatrequires you to take yourself
away from your pet ownership andyou're in need, we look at your
application.
Amy Castro (08:01):
That's great and I like what you said about
focusing on the junior enlistedbecause, as an officer, I mean
you know what you said aboutfocusing on the junior enlisted
because, as you know, as anofficer, I mean I've actually
gone back recently because I'mgetting closer to retirement and
I'm looking at what I made whenI was in the Air Force but it's
like I still made way more thanyou know, than the enlisted
folks, and you had these youngpeople that were serving their
country and they got deployed toIraq or they got deployed to
(08:22):
Afghanistan and it's like nobodycan afford that.
I mean it's hard enough toafford boarding at all, let
alone for six months on asergeant's pay or, you know,
airman's pay, whatever it mightbe.
It's just it's pretty muchimpossible.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (08:36):
Yes, Our military deserves our support
wherever we can give themDefinitely, definitely.
Amy Castro (08:44):
So when you started the organization and obviously
you were on active duty tryingto start the organization at the
same time what were some of thechallenges that you faced, that
you had to overcome getting thewhole program rolling?
Oh, they were endless, I'm sure.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (09:00):
And, honestly, the biggest challenge
was the military itself.
It was a huge conflict ofinterest.
So myself, as a flight studentand as a young, new Marine Corps
officer, I was doing somethingthat was extremely frowned upon
because it was like a conflictof interest to my duties, to my
(09:24):
duties, and so I had a lot ofuphill battles just in starting
the organization to begin with,where my leadership highly
encouraged me not to pursuerepresenting myself in
conjunction with a nonprofit,because there's actually
restrictions against active dutyservice members being able to
endorse or represent a nonprofitorganization.
So I always had to toe the line.
So for me personally, that wasprobably the hugest challenge
(09:47):
was just the support of myactual professional career and
the conflict that I constantlyfelt.
Where, you know, I was a partof this organization, the Marine
Corps that I had put my life,you know, my soul into.
I joined when I was 17 years old, so going to college and
becoming an officer was asurprise.
(10:10):
Let's just say that.
You know that was not the routethat I was originally going to
take or had available to me totake, that I thought that I was
going to be able to take, and sowhen I found myself in this
leadership role, suddenly I felta huge drive to provide the
services that I was going to beable to take.
And so, when I found myself inthis leadership role, suddenly I
felt a huge drive to providethe services that I was creating
for military members.
(10:30):
I would have people calling mein tears because they were at
the shelter or they had justtalked to a shelter, or they'd
be sending me an email with thislong-winded explanation of why
they couldn't pay for their dogto get boarding and how they
didn't know what to do withthemselves and their pet.
And here I am, a new lieutenantthat's supposed to be
(10:52):
concentrated on my flight schoolstudies.
But then I had these messagesin my inbox of people that
really needed help, and I joinedthe Marine Corps to be a leader
, to be of service and to havemy life be of a greater purpose.
And so I felt myself in thishuge conflict of a position
where I tended to lean towardshelping those people.
(11:15):
It fulfilled me, but, like Isaid, that fulfillment came at a
cost to my professionalreputation like I said, that
fulfillment came at a cost to myprofessional reputation.
Amy Castro (11:27):
Yeah, and that's.
You know, it's that higher,that higher calling sometimes
that wins out in those, in thosesituations, and it's a
challenge to to juggle twoaspects of your life that are so
different and then, you know,also in conflict.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (11:36):
The intersection is huge, but
they're also like completelyopposite.
You know, of the Venn diagram,the intersection was very small.
Amy Castro (11:44):
Yeah, and I hope people who are listening to this
hear that you know, when youthink about the animals that are
in shelters you know oftentimeswe think about, you know
animals that are picked up atstrays or you know people that
don't care about their pets and,quote unquote, dump them in
shelters.
And I know that.
You know, in my personalcommunity we don't have a big
military population so, havingvolunteered in shelters, it's
(12:07):
not like we saw lots of servicepeople in.
But I think it's pretty sadwhen you get to a point where
somebody has given up their lifeto serve their country and then
they have to give up their petand basically leave it at a
shelter because there's.
You know, prior to yourorganization existing, there
were a few options If you didn'thave friends or family that
wanted to take your dog for ayear, which is a long time, or
(12:27):
for an undetermined amount oftime, that was, that's basically
your option and that's really,really sad and it's it's awesome
that you've been able to fillthat gap.
I know we talked about this inour pre-recording the whole idea
of fosters how does the processwork?
And then, at that same time,I'm curious how do you get as
many fosters, as you've beenable to get, and all around the
(12:49):
country.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (12:50):
Well, first, how do we get as many
fosters?
It's by doing interviews likethis.
I mean, we blew up because in2013, we were on the Queen
Latifah show and Queen Latifahif you ever think of us again, I
mean honestly, it was gettingthat national exposure and
suddenly everybody was like, oh,this exists.
(13:13):
And we ended up in PeopleMagazine several times after
that and several other nationalnews publications that allowed
the organization to gain a name.
But with that momentum also,you need to have the
organizational capacity to beable to build upon that momentum
.
Unfortunately, as a volunteerorganization that then went
through the pandemic, it's verydifficult to keep that momentum
(13:34):
driven.
So we are now at that point oftime where, at one point of time
, we had a huge amount offosters in our system and I felt
very confident that, you know,anybody that came to our
organization that needed a freeboarding home for their pet
while they were on a servicecommitment would be able to find
one.
Times have changed.
(13:55):
Now I don't have that mobilizedvolunteer force that I used to
have, that mobilized volunteerforce that I used to, and we're
looking to regain that becausewe need it.
So what is a foster?
Well, you kind of come up fromit.
I think we can look at thisfrom the rescue community.
Is that a foster?
Somebody that takes in a petthat needs a temporary home?
(14:16):
Now, the difference between arescue foster and dogs in
employment we don't actually usethe word foster, we use the
word boarding because we thinkof our volunteers more as
boarders than fosters.
The pets that go into your homehave an owner, they have some
place to return to, and so therelationship there with the pet
(14:38):
is also different.
But when you become a boarderto our organization, the process
is as simple as signing up.
You complete a profile thatlists your home details who's in
your house, what kind of petsdo you have, are you an active
family?
Do you live in an apartment?
Do you have a house with a yardthe details that somebody
(14:58):
looking for a home for their petwould want to know and then
you're basically just listed.
Now it's up to the boarder todecide how active or proactive
they're going to be with ourorganization.
So some of our boarders justlist themselves, and if you
don't log back in, we willeventually remove you from our
(15:19):
system, because we want peopleto be interacting and responding
to messages.
So when you log in, you haveyour choice of either not doing
anything or searching for petsin need, and when you find a pet
that you're like, oh, I think Imight be able to help that
service member, you just sendthem a message and that's how
(15:40):
you start the communication.
So it's really important forour boarders to realize that
when you create an account andyou're listed, and if you leave,
that's going to be the end ofyour experience because our
organization does not contactyou to put a dog or something
into your home.
It's up to you, as the boarder,to contact pet owners that you
(16:02):
think you can help, and thenvice versa, when a pet owner is
approved and able to use ourapplication system and our
network, they're able to senddirect messages to boarders.
So if you receive a message asa boarder, we want you to log in
, check that message and respondto it.
Either yes, I can help you oryes, I want to talk more, or no,
(16:24):
it's not the right fit for meat this time.
Amy Castro (16:27):
Okay.
So basically you're providing aplatform and then also some
pretty extensive, I know,because I do want to talk about
the application process, but youknow the platform and then the
screening process to put thesepeople in a room together, so to
speak, and give them theopportunity to make those
connections.
But both parties need to workit.
(16:48):
If I'm a service member lookingfor somebody for my pet, can I
go and look for people as welland reach out to those people?
Or is it only the other wayaround?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (16:57):
Exactly, they can connect with another.
Remember, I started thisorganization in 2011.
So this is pre-Rover orpre-Carecom.
It was the very early days ofthe Airbnb model, and so I
actually based my site off ofMatchcom.
Okay said it was a matchcom formilitary and, to be fair, too,
(17:21):
we did have a pet owner thatthey used a border and they fell
in love with the border'sroommate and got married.
It was a real thing.
So we do have one matchcomsuccess.
Amy Castro (17:38):
That's hysterical.
Yeah, that's funny.
Well, yeah, you know people wholike dogs or pets.
It's kind of a you already havethat in common.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (17:45):
So that's Right, I mean, we do have
primarily single military on ourwebsite as our primary
demographic.
Not saying anything, I'm just.
These are the facts becausethey don't have other people
able to help them and they arethe ones that are most at risk.
They're the ones that we haveto help the most because they
don't have people to rely on.
Amy Castro (18:06):
Yeah, it's definitely just such a such a
great option.
And is there a cost involved tothe military member, or how
does how does that work?
As far as you know, if I'mgoing to keep somebody's pet for
a year, am I getting paid forit?
Am I getting reimbursed forexpenses?
How does that work?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (18:21):
That is a fantastic question and probably
the one that we try to emphasizethe most is that dog's
unemployment is free to use forthe service member, meaning that
you cannot sign up to be aboarder on our website and then
ask a service member for aboarding fee.
You can't say, hey, I'll watchyour dog, but pay me $10 a day.
That is not allowed.
(18:42):
What is required by the petowner is that before they give
their dog to the border or theirpet to the border, that they
have had an agreement in placeand we try to help them.
We try to provide someresources on our website through
what we call a boarding andcare plan.
That is essentially a longinstructional document for the
(19:04):
boarder of what the pet owner'sexpectations are for the care of
their pet when it comes totheir feeding, their food, their
exercise, their health, etc.
But part of that being theexpenses, and the pet owner is
required to remain financiallyresponsible for the care of
their pet during their servicecommitment.
While in boarding Meaning, ifthe pet has to have grooming
(19:25):
done, they need to be sendingmoney to the boarder to either
reimburse or they need to bepaying the groomer directly If
the pet needs to have somethingdone at the veterinarian's
office while the service memberis overseas.
We actually recommend thatbefore they deploy, they leave a
credit card authorization withtheir veterinarian prior to
(19:46):
leaving so that way, if anythinghappens, that they can just
bill the pet owner directly atthe time of the incident and not
worry about reimbursement to aboarder that has to put it on
their card.
So everything is centeredaround it being a system
designed for people to helppeople, but you still have to
remain that responsible petowner in that financial sense.
Amy Castro (20:10):
Right, because one of the concerns that I had
expressed to you when we hadtalked previously and I feel
sort of guilty about it now butwe have, as a rescue, had people
, you know, maybe twice in theyears that we've had the rescue
open where somebody has reachedout and says my sister's in the
military and she has two cats orshe has three cats or whatever
it is, and she's gettingdeployed and you know, can you
(20:31):
take the cats?
And you know, and they use theterm foster them until she gets
back.
And I've always been veryhesitant because it's like what
are the odds they're going totake that pet back and how you
know, like you said, thefinancial responsibility or just
making decisions for somebodyelse's pet over a year long
period.
But it sounds like you guyshave obviously thought of all
(20:54):
that and at least have thosestructures in place so that as
the two parties go into thisarrangement, that they go in
with their eyes wide open or aswide open as we can be.
Obviously there's going to bethings that happen in life that
are not always predictable, butit sounds like you've thought
about a lot of the caveats orcontingencies that could happen.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (21:15):
Yeah, and I love that you mentioned that
about a service member coming toyou as a rescue and what do you
do in that situation?
So, first of all, dogs inEmployment does have a program
called Operation ShelterPartners, and right now we're
focusing our attention on brickand mortar facilities.
But making sure that yourfacility whether you're a foster
(21:44):
only based organization orbrick and mortar you have a
process in place for petadoption and for pet
relinquishment.
That asks the question are youmilitary or a veteran?
And if yes, have a separate setof procedures for that person,
meaning if they're being anadopter.
Give them a flyer from DogsUnemployment.
You can get rat cards from usfor free.
You can literally come to ourwebsite.
There's a thing that saysdistribute info and we will send
(22:04):
you free rat cards If you'redoing a relinquishment process
and they come to you instead ofjust taking the pet from them,
tell them about our organization, send them to us.
Rescues are not set up ordesigned to handle what dogs in
employment handles.
It stresses your capacity andit puts you at liability risk
(22:28):
because, to your point, youdon't have agreements in place
with those pet owners that theyremain financially liable, that
they are the legal pet ownerthat dogs in employment is not
taking any sort of possession ofthis animal owner that dogs in
employment is not taking anysort of possession of this
animal.
So you know I throw it outthere to anybody in the rescue
(22:49):
community that if you have aservice member or a veteran,
come to you for help, pleasecontact dogs in employment.
And even if you've never had aservice member contact you for
help, please connect withdogsemployment and just know
that we are a tool that helpsensure your capacity doesn't get
fulfilled by something thatshouldn't be your responsibility
(23:10):
to take care of.
We've got that.
Amy Castro (23:12):
Yeah, and how easy is it to just add a question you
know, are you currently servingin the military, or reserves,
or a first responder, or youknow it could be like a just
check the box, if any of theseapply, because to your point,
and what happened to you as aservice member and being denied
adoption?
I mean, we have adopted out toseveral service members, but
(23:33):
generally it's families, and soit's like there's a thing in the
back of your head that says,well, at least if the spouse
isn't in the military, then theodds are the spouse will be able
to take care of the pet.
But you've even mentioned thatthere's scenarios like I think
you mentioned one about you knowthe service members deployed
and then the spouse is pregnantand ends up hospitalized, you
know, and so it's like theycould still need assistance.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (23:56):
Yes, yes, several, several situations
where you know the one spouse isdeployed, the other spouse is
home happily taking care of thedog and something tragic happens
to them, and there's nothingworse than being by yourself in
those hard moments, you know,and the last thing you want to
(24:18):
worry about is like what am Igoing to do with my dog?
You know, when you think ofmilitary families too and it's
really hard, for if you've neverbeen connected to the military,
it's really hard toconceptualize how difficult
being a military family is.
And I think when I was in theservice I was very blinded to it
myself because I was soingrained with it and I was just
(24:39):
used to the distance myselfbecause I was so ingrained with
it and I was just used to thedistance.
I mean, in my own life I waswith my husband for 10 years,
the co-founder of Dogs.
Unemployment no-transcript.
And that was our early romanceand for a family.
(25:01):
This is the situation that weoften see Service member departs
, spouse is home taking care ofthe kids, taking care of the
home front, taking care of thedog, and either they have an
emergency that requireshospitalization, or their parent
has emergency and suddenly theyhave to leave.
Or another situation is likemaybe they don't have kids but
(25:25):
they're keeping a house that isdraining them financially that
they don't need because thatservice member is deployed and
that spouse can go live withtheir parents or live someplace
else, but they can't take theirpet with them.
And it's like you really haveto look at all of these
individual situations and say,okay, do we have the capacity to
help?
(25:45):
Do those people need help?
Are we making a positive benefitfor the service members' peace
of mind, which is in our firstfew words of our mission
statement, is to provide peaceof mind.
First few words of our missionstatement is to provide peace of
mind.
Then yes, if we have theability to assist, we will do
all that we can.
With that said, we do have avery strict eligibility process
(26:08):
because we also want to makesure that the people using our
website are in fact in need andwe're not getting people that
are just, hey, I'm going onvacation or I don't want to take
care of my pet because I'm justan irresponsible pet owner.
Those people do exist.
We cannot be naive to that, andso that is where our screening
(26:30):
process and our executivedirector does a fantastic job of
making sure that every singleservice member that comes to our
organization for assistance isbeing looked at on an individual
, case-by-case basis.
Amy Castro (26:44):
That's great.
I think it shows the level ofcommitment obviously of your
organization but to the servicemember that they're going
through this process.
You know, because I've recentlyhad an opportunity and I'm still
kind of deciding whether I'mgoing to pursue it or not.
But it's like once I saw thelist of requirements to take
advantage of the opportunity andI'm still kind of deciding
whether I'm going to pursue itor not.
(27:04):
But it's like once I saw thelist of requirements to take
advantage of the opportunity,I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing
all that, you know.
And so for somebody to say, oh,I am dedicated enough to my pet
to take all of these steps andto fill out these forms and to
go through the screening process, I think it's you know it, it
shows a dedication to that petand I think would make me feel
better as a boarder that thatperson truly is committed to
coming back to their pet.
And I remember I had I hadasked you like how many cases
(27:27):
have you had where somebodybasically didn't come back for
their pet?
And it was so small I can'tremember the exact number.
I mean not necessarily the exactnumber but it was like a
handful compared to thousands.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (27:40):
Yeah, it really is very small and we
don't have an exact number.
The reason for that is becausewhen people come to our website,
they either find somebody orthey don't, and in the cases
that they don't, a lot of timesthat's oh, my deployment got
canceled or I ended up.
You know, you were my backupplan, my family did end up
(28:02):
taking my pet, or you know, Ifound a girlfriend or a
boyfriend and they're watchingmy pet now.
Whatever the case may be, but Ican't think of a time off the
top of my head when we hadsomebody approved and actively
able to use our website and thenstill turn their pet into a
shelter.
Amy Castro (28:21):
Right, and I could see that there would be
scenarios where somebody, maybethey got deployed, like your
example of separation anxiety,and it's like you know, I get
deployed and then I have anopportunity to extend because
it's going to be good for mycareer, or I have to extend, and
now it's longer than Ioriginally said, that, yeah, it
might get to a point where it'slike I thought I was going to be
(28:41):
able to navigate this and thencome back to my pet, but maybe
the best thing for my pet is to,you know, to find a more stable
permanent home.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (28:50):
We have had that happen before and you
know when it does happen it'sreally hard.
But every single time it hashappened it has been like a
conversation where the executivedirector is talking to the
boarder, that's talking to thepet owner, and I'm talking to
our ED and we're making adecision of like, okay, how are
we going to approach this?
And in some cases we've hadboarders adopt the pet.
(29:12):
In other cases, dogs.
Unemployment has contacted andworked with rescues to rehome
the pet.
So we're not going to leavesomebody that's in our network
abandoned.
We intervene if there's anissue, but that does not mean
that we don't want to beconnected with our boarders so
that if somebody is activelyboarding a pet, we love getting
(29:34):
updates, we love seeing pictures, we love getting stories, we
love it when people tag us onsocial media.
Those are the things that notonly are great to share and
showcase what this organizationis about, but truly they keep us
going.
There are times with my teamthat we feel so down in the
dumps because something bad hashappened in our community and
(29:55):
we're trying to reel from it.
For example, over the summer wehad a really hard time dealing
with the changes to the CDCimportation guidelines for pets
from overseas.
So in the last you know, reallyin the sense, the pandemic, but
really in the last six monthsthere's actually been a lot of
changes in pet travelinternationally and it's caused
(30:19):
a huge problem for ourorganization because one, in
addition to fostering, we alsoprovide financial assistance
grants and one of our programsis to help provide grants to
ship pets from overseas dutystations back to the United
States and vice versa, sincethat's something that majority
comes out of the servicemember's pocket.
However, because of airlinecosts going up tremendously
(30:45):
since the pandemic for shipping,but also new regulations are
putting pets out of thepassenger holds and into cargo,
which means you have to shipthem in a separate system, which
is much more expensive, and wehave also new quarantine
requirements.
(31:05):
So there's a lot of problemsgoing on and the impact to us is
an overwhelming request forsupport in terms of financial
assistance that we absolutelycannot meet.
I wish we could.
I think it was in the last year.
We had nearly like $700,000total requested from service
(31:28):
members and pet shipping,because each service member, for
the cost to ship one pet fromone duty station to the other
anywhere in the world isprobably somewhere between
$3,000 to $7,000.
We've had grants come in for$10,000.
We had a service member thatshipped their Great Dane from
(31:49):
the West Coast to Japan for$10,000.
They paid for it.
They got there, they had anemergency, very sad tragedy that
required them to come back tothe United States and then they
had to pay another $10,000.
And you're just thinking this issuch a broken system.
(32:09):
Why is this so expensive?
Why is this so hard?
We're having pets that arebeing forced to be kept overseas
and we're trying to figure out.
Can we stand up aninternational chapter to support
those pets?
If needed?
Can we operate in that regard?
Can we do something to workwith the international pet
(32:31):
travel agency agents that wework with?
So we have several partners inpet travel agencies.
Can we work with them to helpbring more awareness to these
problems and how changes in theCDC are not just impacting all
pet travel but specificallymilitary families that weren't
expecting it?
So we're just constantlyreacting to hardships and so
(32:54):
when we get those stories backfrom our borders that say, look
at this dog, like having such agreat time while a service
member is deployed, or the bestis the reunion, and it keeps us
going and it keeps us motivatedand reminds us like oh yeah,
this is what this organizationis really about.
Amy Castro (33:12):
Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that from the
standpoint of you know, becausewhen I, of course, when I was in
the air I was only in the airforce for four years and the you
know, the place I really,really, really really wanted to
get stationed was either, youknow, germany or England, and
you know England has such strictquarantine that you know it
would have been kind ofpointless to to bring a dog, but
like so I guess in my mind, ifsomebody was going to PCS
(33:35):
overseas, that they justwouldn't take their pets, and
it's like I never even thought,like I can't even imagine
sending a dog to Japan.
I mean, it's just that floorsme.
That was out of my realm ofunderstanding or thinking.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (33:49):
Yeah, and then the alternative to that is
being away from your pet, fromtwo years, yeah, or four, or
whatever it might be.
Right.
So there's a real balance thatyou have to play and there is no
perfect solution and you can'tjust put a blanket over
everybody's scenario and sayit's a one size fits all
(34:09):
solution, like our organizationhas to look at every single
person case by case and justunderstand that what we're
trying to do is bridge the gapbetween understanding, between
civilian and militarypopulations.
Right, this goes beyond the petownership.
This goes into making somebodythat has never met a service
(34:29):
member or doesn't have anybodyin their family that's ever
served and doesn't have anyconnection to it and maybe
doesn't care, but they loveanimals.
And so now they're boardingthis pet and now they've met the
to it and maybe doesn't care,but they love animals.
And so now they're boardingthis pet and now they've met the
service member and now they'vefelt this person's story and now
they feel compelled to be apart of that journey because
they're helping this pet.
(34:50):
And now they have love in it.
Right, and we need more love inthis world.
Suddenly now you've createdthis like cataclysmic connection
in the world of a servicemember and a person that never
would have known that person tobegin with, but now they're
intimately tied through this dogor this cat.
Now you have these advocates inthe world that are saying I
(35:14):
can't believe somebody helped mein that way.
Somebody watched my cat for sixmonths and my cat pissed on
their carpet every single dayfor six months and they still
did it for me because I wasdeployed overseas and my life
sucked for six months and Ican't believe that there was
somebody with the heart outthere that took care of my cat.
(35:36):
For me that's life-changing,not just for that service member
, but for who they tell thatstory to.
Amy Castro (35:44):
Yeah Well, and that's a good point, is that
it's not.
You know I mean, animals areanimals and I know I run into
this with fosters too is thatyou know it's you're gonna, you
know you're gonna facechallenges potentially too, so
you have to be prepared for that, but the end result is is worth
(36:04):
it because you look at what wasthe alternative for that person
and for that pet ending up in ashelter or possibly being
euthanized or something likethat If that person had no other
alternatives but to turn theiranimal into a shelter.
So and I'm sure you've gotprobably tons of other than a
marriage.
I mean, that's kind of hard totop that.
But is there any particularsuccess story that jumps out?
You know that you would want toshare?
Yeah, absolutely.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (36:24):
Actually, this year we had a story you can
read about it on our blog,frontline Tales but we received
an email from an animal sheltersaying that they had received
this intake of a Cane Carouselnamed Blue Moon and this dog had
been turned in by their servicemember that had a short notice
(36:44):
deployment and, because of hisdog's breed, he was really
worried.
What is he going to do?
And he went to the shelter thisis the option that he thought
he had available and the shelterwas very, very nice.
They assured him they would doeverything they could for the
dog, but he still left thinkinghe was never going to see his
dog again.
(37:05):
The shelter in fact, did hold uptheir end of a bargain making
sure that Blue Moon went to agood home and luckily they were
told about dogs in Plymouth.
So when they contacted us andwe learned about Blue Moon's
owner, we actually got incontact with him, got him
registered on our website, gothim approved.
He was able to connect with aboarder and that boarder was
(37:27):
able to get that dog from theshelter and six months later he
came home.
And you know I unfortunatelythey were not able to record the
reunion, I think becauseeverybody was crying or the dog,
like knock the camera out.
Something happened, um, but therecording was not able to get
done.
But yeah, to come home tosomething you thought you would
(37:49):
never see again is a verypowerful experience.
Amy Castro (37:56):
Yeah, that's amazing .
That is amazing.
So obviously we know that inorder for the organization to
continue to meet need that, youneed I would say what as many
borders as you can get, becauseit's really just like it just
gives more options and choicesin the system for people.
Does it matter where a personlives, you know?
(38:17):
I mean I would assume thatthere are certain parts of the
country where there's moredemand, like Norfolk, virginia.
You know there might be morepeople there than you know
someplace that doesn't have amilitary population.
But is there like a mileagelimit from where that person's
stationed or how does that work?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (38:31):
Great question as well.
Yes, we do primarily have needin places where there is a
military town, obviously, andour biggest chapters are in San
Diego and in Virginia Beach.
Because of the fact that I wasin the Marine Corps, my husband
was in the Navy and that's wherethe Navy and the Marine Corps
are stationed on the East andthe West Coast, so there was a
(38:53):
lot of emphasis in starting ourorganization there.
However, we are national andbecause we don't just help
active duty and we help veteransveterans live everywhere and
first responders live everywhere, and we also have military
members that are willing totravel for the right person to
watch their dog.
If I was living someplace and Ihad the choice of an apartment
(39:17):
within my city or I could drivethree miles away and my dog
could go live on a ranch andhave the time of his life with a
family, and I had an Australianshepherd, so I'm going to go
three hours right.
So don't let distance be thething that says, well, oh, I'm
not going to register.
And to your point, choice isimperative here, because we're
(39:40):
not doing the placements.
We need service members to beable to interview several people
, talk to several people and ourgoal is to have 10 borders for
every one approved pet.
That's our minimum baseline.
We're just under that right now.
So we do need people to be onthe website registering and what
we call them as our DODreserves.
(40:02):
We think of it just like themilitary.
We probably won't need you.
You might be registered for twoyears before you get an email,
but that first email you get isyour call to action, and that's
how the military operates, right.
We have our active duty forcethe people that are deploying
and they're doing our day-to-dayoperations.
(40:23):
But then we have our reserveforce and those are the people
that are in the ready line andthey're standing by until their
time is called.
And if our country goes intosome sort of mass deployment or
reactive state and we see a lotof people being activated
especially if we ever activateour reserve force we expect to
(40:45):
see a high influx of petslooking for homes through our
organization.
And I am not confident that Ican keep that story where I told
you earlier that I don't thinkthat we've ever had anybody come
to our website and not be ableto find somebody when they were
really in need.
I don't know that.
I can continue to say that ifwe were to have a mass
(41:06):
deployment situation.
Amy Castro (41:09):
Right, yeah.
So people who are listening tothis, you know this is your
opportunity to step up,investigate, register and again,
you may not get called, you maynot be needed, but you also
might find a point in time whereyou're desperately needed.
You know it can be so lastminute and there's so few
alternative options availablefor people.
(41:29):
So, beyond if somebody was notin a position to be a boarder
for whatever reason, are thereother things that they can do to
help the organization?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (41:40):
Absolutely .
Our organization is virtual, sowe do work with all kinds of
different virtual volunteers andbasically, if you're listening
and you're like, I love thisorganization, I love pets, I
love the service members, I wantto do something in this field,
just shoot us an email.
Tell us what you like to do.
We're very small.
We might look big on ourwebsite, but it is me and I have
(42:00):
two other team members and wehave a very small team of core
volunteers.
So we're looking to build ourteam.
So come, send your resume, tellus what you want to do.
Do tell us what your vision isand let's have a conversation.
Um, you know other ways tosupport is looking at that
operation, shelter partners thatif you're out there and you're
in the rescue community and youwant to be a part of the
(42:21):
solution, contact us and let'stalk about how your organization
can be a part of the alliancethat we're trying to create,
which is a pledge to say we'renot going to see military pet
relinquishment.
And then, yeah, finally, thatfundraising piece is always
something that we're all goingto be challenged in.
So I will say, no, it's notfundraising that I need from
(42:43):
your community, but what I doneed is partnerships.
We're all resource limited andwe're all working with some sort
of limited capacity, and DogsUnemployment is here to create
partnerships with otherorganizations, not to take away.
So if you're in a situationwhere you think that we could do
a joint fundraiser or we can doa joint event or we can work
(43:05):
together in a collaborative way,shoot us an email.
Our organization is not one totake resources from other
nonprofits.
No, I'm presently getting mymaster's in nonprofit leadership
and management and there is somuch opportunity out there for
all of us.
We just have to find the righttools and the right avenues to
(43:27):
make that opportunity accessibleto everyone.
The other reason why we want tohave a large database of DoD
boarders is not only to betterserve our service members that
might need us, but if I have tobe completely honest, when I
started this organization in2011, I was a foster parent
first.
(43:47):
I would pick up every stray dogon the side of the road and I
would foster it, and what Irealized very early on was
recruiting and retaining fosterparents for rescues is so
incredibly difficult.
My long-term visions for dogson deployment is being able to
(44:16):
expand my network and educatingmy DOD boarders about not only
deployment, military boarding,but also rescue, fostering the
differences between it and howthey can be activated to not
only supporting my organizationbecause, like I said, most of my
boarders are not going to get apet to board, but they've
already expressed interest inboarding a pet.
(44:38):
So if I can createcollaborations with local foster
groups or rescue groups thatallows my boarders to then be
educated on foster programs intheir local community, I want to
be able to help local groupswith that avenue of connection.
It's not on our capacity or ourabilities yet, but it is
(45:00):
something that I'm activelytrying to figure out how I can
include in our future expansionof our Hero Pet Boarding Network
, which is something I'm seekinggrant funding for, as well as
corporate sponsorship for.
Amy Castro (45:18):
Awesome, yeah, definitely.
So I have to ask what's next?
What's on the horizon otherthan obviously getting more
borders?
Any other new programs or newinitiatives that you want to
share?
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (45:26):
Yeah, we each year do what's called our
American Hero, pet of the Yearand DOD Mascot Competition, and
this is a contest where it'sphoto based.
So of course we're looking forcute photos of military pet
owners or military pets, butmore so it's a storytelling
contest.
It's a ability to connect ourcivilian populations with the
(45:47):
meaning behind pets of ourservice members and really
diffusing that maybe negativeperception of like, oh well, no,
you're in the military, youshouldn't have gotten a pet in
the first place.
Okay, and I've said this before, valid for some, not valid for
all.
That is not something that canbe a blanket statement for all
service members, and so thiscontest is really about
(46:09):
showcasing the importance ofpets within our military
community by showcasing realstories along with super cute
pet pictures.
(46:50):
So in November we'll be appliesfor our contest or are an
ambassador, influencer orsomething we'd love to work with
you.
We are looking for prizesponsorships for products for
our top three contestants, sothat is another way that we
could work together on that andthen all of our contestants.
They'll be closed up by the endof the year and public voting
(47:11):
will be available in January.
So we ask that everybody cometo our organization, give us a
like on Facebook and Instagramand please vote for your
favorite contestant when they'reposted at the beginning of the
year.
Amy Castro (47:24):
Awesome, looking forward to reading those stories
and seeing those photos.
Well, elisa, thank you so much.
Well, number one, thank you foryour service, and thank you for
your service to service membersand our other heroes in not
only creating but running thisorganization for as long as you
have, and I'm so glad that we'vehad this opportunity for you to
(47:45):
come on the show and openeverybody's eyes to number one,
the need, and number two, theservices that you have available
for both service members andboarders.
I really, really appreciate youand everything that you do.
Alisa Sieber-Johnson (47:57):
Well, thank you so much for letting me
talk about my favorite petpassion project.
Amy Castro (48:03):
Awesome and for everybody that's listening,
we're going to have links in theshow notes.
But make sure you do go out andcheck out Dogs on Deployment
and, you know, look for thoseopportunities to get involved.
I think so many times it's realeasy to sit on the sidelines
and say somebody should dosomething.
Who's going to do it?
If you don't do it, you knowyou need to be the one.
(48:24):
Don't wait for somebody else tostep up.
So at least go check it out,see what opportunities.
It sounds like there's lots ofoptions to get involved,
depending upon your interest,availability and skills.
So make sure you do that.
That's my challenge to you forthis week and other than that,
we will see you next week onanother episode of Starlight Pet
Talk.
Thanks for listening toStarlight Pet Talk.
(48:45):
Be sure to visit our website atwwwstarlightpettalkcom for more
resources and be sure to followthis podcast on your favorite
podcast app, so you'll nevermiss a show.
If you enjoyed and found valuein today's episode, we'd
appreciate a rating on Apple.
Or if you'd simply tell afriend about the show, that
would be great too.
Don't forget to tune in nextweek and every week for a brand
(49:08):
new episode of Starlight PetTalk.
And if you don't do anythingelse this week, give your pets a
big hug from us.
Thanks for listening toStarlight Pet Talk.
Be sure to visit our website atwwwstarlightpettalkcom for more
resources, and be sure tofollow this podcast on your
favorite podcast app, so you'llnever miss a show.
(49:29):
If you enjoyed and found valuein today's episode, we'd
appreciate a rating on Apple.
Or if you'd simply tell afriend about the show, that
would be great too.
Don't forget to tune in nextweek and every week for a brand
new episode of Starlight PetTalk.
And if you don't do anythingelse this week, give your pets a
big hug from us.
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