by Alicia deB.The Maddie's Foundation Adopt-a-thon at BACS this weekend was a huge success! A whopping thirteen dogs found their forever homes this weekend, including Trudy, Afia, Duchess, Sparkle, Ziggy, Lightning, Gerdie, Fuji, Reese, Jillian, Papi, Francesca and Kilo! Whew! Now that's an awesome Adopt-a-thon! All adoptions to these wonderful forever families were free of charge, and for each adoption, Maddie's Foundation donated $500 to BACS. This weekend was truly amazing and transformed many deserving dogs' lives forever by giving them a second chance at a life of love and stability. Thank you so much to Maddie's Fund for their incredible generosity! For more information about this great organization and the important work they do for animals here in our community, please visit www.maddiesfund.org. And a heartfelt thank you also goes out to each forever family who changed a dog's life this weekend through adoption. Thank you for making the wonderful decision to adopt a rescue dog. We wish all the doggies and their new families much love and happiness together!
graphic by Alicia deB.
25 comments:
Yay!! That is such awesome news! Thanks for posting.
What about Angel? I saw her being driven off by her new mom, and on the main site it said she was adopted, but then the adopted sign went away but her picture was still there... and now it's gone. I havent been to the shelter since sunday so I wouldnt know. Was it just a problem with the system or what?
Angel was brought back on Monday. Apparently the boyfriend of the new owner showed up at her house and used a key to let himself in. No proper introduction. Angel bit him. She is now in guarantine, all alone counting down to the last day of her precious life. Don't know if she will be allowed to go to a rescue group even if we find one that will take her. I am overwhelmed with grief.
The situation with Angel is devastating. I, too am very sad about this sweet girl.
This was one thing I feared greatly about the massive adopt-a-thon. Impulse "shopping" by people who are not fit to be proper guardians.
If you are too cheap or can't afford to cough up a couple hundred bucks to bring in a new family member, should you really be in charge of a helpless living being?
I hope all the other dogs fared better with their new homes.
The thing about Angel is terrible! She has to be put down?
What a set-up for failure on all fronts. Terrible grief here.
Clearly there are lessons to be learned from this, and it should cause reevaluation and improvement for any similar future events. I hope that Angel does not have to pay the price for it. However, there is no need for a post like #5 that manages to insult everyone who adopted a dog through the adoptathon.
YES! Angel was set up! I walked her with a woman who seemed to understand about Angel's trauma. Despite my warnings about toys and food, Angel was set up as the family's princess--so of course she protected her family (this is not to excuse dog bites, at all).
Another volunteer and I are working on rescuing her.Penny Locke, the wonderful AB trainer who rehabilitated Mallory, will work with her; we are contacting rescue to make sure she can go to her. Please email me for more info; including the heartbreaking photos of her fairytale first two days....We shall save her. Alexandra yurkovskya@juno.com
By the way, I do agree with Joel about the middle of response five...but after days of flogging myself for not being more thorough and insisting on a house check, I do, in a way, agree that there was a sort of rushed, impulse-shopping feel to the event. And a dog like Callie couldn't count toward the count, as she had to be spayed. I plan to write Maddie's and suggest they use a system whereby applications must be emailed or faxed on the adopt-a-thon days--NOT that the dog must leave the shelter the very same day. Then they'd give the shelter and themselves a week to verify. That'd give time for house checks, more thorough introductions, and time to spay or neuter the animals.
Alexandra, that's a good idea and is certainly something to consider. I'm not sure what is practical, what has worked in the past, etc., but incidents like Angel's - even if she winds up being saved - should encourage all parties to think about how we can improve these types of events in the future.
My issue is that new adopters may be active readers of this blog, or may be coming here for the first time after having learned about it while at the shelter. The first entry they see has a comment (ostensibly made by one of the shelter's volunteers, hard to say with the always-popular "Anonymous" authorship) roundly dismissing them as cheap and unfit, simply because they adopted during an event that our shelter actively promoted and participated in. Is this what we really thought of all the people who came out to adopt over the weekend? I would hope not. I'm not interested in getting into an internet war of words, but such blanket criticisms are unfair and inaccurate.
Good luck saving Angel, she's a good dog and hopefully gets another chance!
That is so sad, Angel is one of my favorite dogs. I have never seen her show any kind of aggression, with me she really was an Angel. I even took her to a carnival once, and she was great! I don't know if this would be allowed, but if it would help, my family would probably be able to foster her for a little while once she gets out of quarantine.
-Maya
Maya: please email me and send me your phone number. We may be able to have you foster if a rescue group will take her. We need to talk about care and handling, and an Amichien Bonding trainer would probably work with you. yurkovskya@juno.com
I fell in love with Grendel, who has mange. Because of the contagious nature of the illness, I didn't think last weekend would have been a good time to introduce him to my elderly cat. He simply had too many open wounds to risk it.
Is there any chance Maddie's could give Berkeley Animal Shelter the $500 donation retroactively? I'm still very interested in the possibility of taking Grendel home. I'm sorry that BAS missed out on this donation (aside from the regular adoption fee).
Thanks.
Anne: Thank you for caring for Grendel. This is another issue that would be good to discuss in a constructive letter to Maddie's Foundation (we're still working on getting Angel to a good trainer/boarding situation btw--pls contact me or Barbara for more info). As for Grendel,my understanding was that, although harboring residual scabs, he is NO LONGER CONTAGIOUS. In other words, he no longer has mange; just the effects (so technically I _think_ he could have been adopted that weekend).
But: even if you 'just' adopt him,BACS staff & volunteers (not to mention Grendel!) will be very happy! We all adore him! If the issue is also the free aspect of Maddie's adoptions, I think BACS _may_ be willing to offer a discount. I'm assuming there'll be a home check!And that he's been tested w/cats (can't be too careful, now).
Alexandra: thanks for the reply! I don't mind the adoption fee at all, just sorry it's not 5x what the donation from Maddie's would have been! (I would gladly donate $500 if I could...)
I don't have any experience with mange. The shelter staff did say Grendel was ready to go home and no longer contagious, but I wanted to check with my vet first just to air on the side of safety. They also said he'd probably be good with cats because of his mellow personality, but I'd be willing to have that looked into as well. I know my old girl will ignore him for the first six months in any case. ;)
Out of curiosity, are home checks a requirement for all dog adoptions?
Good luck with Angel! That poor baby was just doing her job to protect her new family.
Alexandra: thanks for the reply! I don't mind the adoption fee at all, just sorry it's not 5x what the donation from Maddie's would have been! (I would gladly donate $500 if I could...)
I don't have any experience with mange. The shelter staff did say Grendel was ready to go home and no longer contagious, but I wanted to check with my vet first just to air on the side of safety. They also said he'd probably be good with cats because of his mellow personality, but I'd be willing to have that looked into as well. I know my old girl will ignore him for the first six months in any case. ;)
Out of curiosity, are home checks a requirement for all dog adoptions?
Good luck with Angel! That poor baby was just doing her job to protect her new family.
Anne: It hit me after I responded that one would want to be careful with open wounds, mange or no mange.Most people with cats simply have their dog-of-interest tested with one of BACS cat mascots, Squirrel, in the lobby.
Thank you for your wishes re: Angel.Yes, she was doing her job, as she saw it. Unfortunately, she misunderstood--and is a liability. for her fans: we are working on alternatives, but as she's considered a liability, and there's some other fine-tuning of the plan involved, there are no guarantees.But we are trying! I've heard there's so much support for her; she does appreciate it!
Generally house checks are done for all pit bulls, and usually by volunteers. It's a lot of work and travel; but maybe we should urge staff to make home checks mandatory for any orange and red dot animals?
And it would be a good idea to suggest some changes in processing applications and dogs to Maddie's, before next year. I was told there were a number of returns, to various shelters, post-adoptathon.
There was an article in the Mercury News about the success of the Adopt-A-Thon throughout the Bay Area:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15334266?
Alexandra: looks like all this Grendel talk got him a new home! Good for him, my dog search continues... :)
Anne, don't give up on him! Were you at the shelter today? I saw his empty kennel, but a staff member told me he's being FOSTERED. So if you're really love Grendel/Grendle -- you and your cat can probably still welcome him into your home.(We have another dog that can't walk far, dear old Bruno; seems he did get a special permission for a bathroom break, and he loves his treats. Rottie or R-mix.)
Hi Alexandra, are you sure he's being fostered? I don't see him listed anywhere....
Anne: That was what I was told, but maybe it was foster-to-adopt or just an error? Best to call 981-6600 to find out. Or come in and check out some other worthy dogs! Alexandra
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