How much is that doggie in the window????

Don't get me wrong, I love where we have taken the adoption center, but It makes me crazy that the words "rescue" and "non-profit" mean we should provide a service for FREE.  Last time I checked "rescue" meant to save and "non-profit" meant an organization is formed for the purpose of serving a public or mutual benefit other than gaining profit for owners or investors.  Guess what folks, one of the richest people in the world has a non-profit called the Bill Gates Foundation?  Do you think that foundation is poor and provides all of it's services free of charge?  NOT!

Anyway, we have some of the highest adoption fees around (yes, there are higher than our $400 puppies and $250 adults) and I wanted to share an email about just that and hope it sheds some light and maybe can be shared with others. 

Here is an email I received today, word for word:

Why are you so expensive compared to the other places? It doesn’t seem like you are doing a justice for the animals by making it hard to adopt?  I saw two dogs on there that I probably would’ve picked up Saturday, had the cost been $85.  I do not know who your clientele is, but I am sure they have DEEP pockets.

Here is my response, word for word:

For starters, all animals here would be dead had we not taken them in.  We also invest in spay/neuter as well as vaccinations.  We also do not euthenize animals that require medical attention such as broken legs, heartworm treatment, parvo, among other things.  Do you realize that a parvo positive dog costs at least  $500 to treat?  That's prior to spay/neuter, vaccinations and care.  We also have rent, utilities, food (50 pounds per day), not to mention staff to care for the animals because although everyone claims they love animals and want to volunteer, there is rarely follow through.  Finally, we receive ZERO funding from any source, state, federal, etc.  The ONLY income received is from adoptions and donations.  That being said, our costs to operate and continue saving lives for one month is minimum $11,000.  So, we could kill animals as many public and private shelters do, or we can continue to make a difference.  We place NO time limit to finding homes.   Not to mention every day people go to petstores for Shih-poos, Cockapoos, etc.,  esentially mutts, and pay upwards of $1,000 to keep puppy mills in business.  While we appreciate you coming to our facility and considering adoption, if you feel saving a life that comes nearly fully vetted is not worth our fees, we encourage you to go to another shelter where you feel fees are more acceptable.  Those animals are just as deserving as ours. 

I hope that this helps you understand why we do things the way we do and we successfully place over 1,000 pets per year and I can assure you our adoptors are of average income. 

Good luck in your search.    

Happy rescuing folks!!!!

Rescues working together

Here at Ohio Pet Placement, we take all breeds, all problems and give any length of time needed for placement.  It is rare that we cannot place an animal.  However, a time comes when you are not being fair to that animal you are rescuing.

Recently, we've become pretty familiar with fellow rescue group Multiple Breed, hopefully it has been as beneficial to them as it has been us.  For only the third time ever in 5 years, we sent two of our dogs to anothe rescue, Multiple Breed.  It isn't because we give up on them, actually, it's just the opposite, we want to give them EVERY chance possible. 

George is now successfully in a foster home after displaying horrible cage aggression.  I hope pleasant time in a home results in many years of unconditional love for him.

Fat Frankie is still Fat Frankie, but maybe he'll lose some weight and if not, maybe the exercise will chill him out a bit! 

You probably won't hear many examples of this type of working together but maybe someday soon it will be the norm.

Thanks Amy.

It's raining Sharpies!!!

You know all you have to do is ask for it!?  Last summer I was on a puppy kick, I NEEDED a Shar-Pei puppy, well two of them!  I was posting on facebook, talking about it, I really needed it.  Well, for those of you that don't know, I got exactly what I asked for!  I not only got a Shar-Pei puppy, he came to me on a rescue call. 

I was having the worst day ever and unlike every other day, I decided NOT to screen my calls.  Well, damn good thing, I had a call from someone that found a pure black Shar-Pei puppy in the road.  Yeah right, can't be possible, it's probably a mastiff or something.  Hah!  Not only was he a pure bred, he was 3 months old!  How does that even happen?  It was the most stressful week ever, because I had to do the right thing, call the police, call the pound, etc.  Well, he soon became officially unclaimed and mine!  I asked, I received!  Yes, I did go out and get my second puppy and they are both growing up happy with my pack!

The thing is, they keep on coming!  Every hotline I open, every email I get from fellow rescuers, Shar-pei and more Shar-pei!  Only the best breed ever!

We take all breeds in at Ohio Pet Placement but if you came through today, you might start to wonder!

Ah well, just wanted to share!

I wanna change my name.....

Are you kidding me people? 

So about a week ago I started getting phone messages about a Sharon that had  "business proposal" for me, wanted to set up a meeting.  Well, I'm a very busy person, and am in the midst of moving an entire pet shelter location.  So, I instructed my manager to get more information, or have the individual email me so that I can make an informed decision as to whether or not I was even interested.  Again, I really can't spend time on things other than arranging to get the shelter moved these days.  Well - how dare I ask for morinformation?!  Email is so impersonal?!  Soooooo, I basically told my  manager to inform this individual that if they couldn't give me further information, I really can't waste the time meeting with them in the near future.

A day or so goes by and WFT?  They call me at the clinic with the same bull shit lines?!  I inform the receptionist of the multiple calls and give her the same answers as before, I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!  Well, turns out this Sharon is looking for a photo album that was misplaced.  WE TOLD THIS WOMAN A WEEK AGO WE HAVE NOT SEEN HER PHOTO ALBUM!  She then goes on the say she would pay us to return it, are you kidding me crazy person?!  We don't want or have your photo album! 

Sharon Hamrick, whom I have never met, has now begun accusing me of steeling her photo album for financial gain.  You wouldn't believe the circles of people talking about this nonsense! 

Unfortunately it doesn't end there.....somone comes into the store today spouting the same nonsense....they want to set up an appointment, show me pictures, ask questions.....seriously smart one?  I'm not an idiot.

So now, apparently I'm being sued because they know I have it, and I'm keeping it for financial gain.....I really want to kick some ass these days!  I guess I'll see you in court crazy people!!!!!

What kind of leader are you?

So I've been bothered alot lately by the fact that a few of our former volunteers have now taken everything they were taught by Ohio Pet Placement and running off and "starting thier own rescue".  I guess I was looking at it like "what the hell", we work so hard and they are abandoning us because they think it's soooo easy and they can do it on thier own.  Well that combined with the crap they stir up at the same time. 

We've done the hard part, we've created the paperwork, the policies and procedures and we have worked out many of the kinks to take rescue to the next level.  We suffer ALOT with the new ground we have tread on.  Why wouldn't we be upset?

Well, I was bitching about it one day and a friend whom I never even met outside of social networking, posted this:

"Crystal - if they can love and care for and save dogs like you do - then the world will be better for you creating all these new rescuers!  There are two different ways to be a leader - people looking up to you and wanting you to lead - or someone stepping on others to get to the top. Obviously you chose the first one. There is great blessing in doing good things well Crystal. Take great satisfaction in that and let the others do their thing. There is no trash talking that can make what you are doing a bad thing. So let it go. Karma will take care of it. Dont let them redirect your focus."

What a tremendous compliment right?  Admittedly it knocked me down a few needed notches and reminded me of the bigger picture, pet rescue.

I am a leader and people will follow me.  Those that branch of and recreate what I started and we built from the ground up are a testament to that.

So rather than wishing you ill will, I say thank you Cosmo's Buddies, thank you Sarah Huska, and thank you to all else yet to come.  Most of all, thank you Joleen for opening my eyes!

Would you come?

Many of you know that Ohio Pet Placement started in my bathroom, basement and garage.  We did adoptions via Petfinder, PetSmart and various other locations.  Then The Animal House came to be about two years ago, and we to rescue to a place it's never been, "THE MALL". 

Basically, we took the stereotypical idea of the "pet store" and only made rescue pets available for adoption, and at near pet store fees.  The foot traffic has been tremendous and adoptions drastically increased with a 7 day visibility schedule.  All great things, no complaints there.  HOWEVER, with the good there is always bad!  Overhead is through the roof, assholes come out of the woodwork and with the increased number of adoptions comes an increased number of unfortunate "imperfect" adoptions. 

Well, now it's time to consider renewing our lease with the Mall.  What if I told you that Ohio Pet Placement and Animal House now had a stand alone building, a nice big area to house adoptables, a huge area to add the service of day care, keep grooming and retail and TONS of land for whatever you can imagine. 

Would you come?

Why rescue's don't do puppies....

At Ohio Pet Placement we deal with alot of puppies.  In rescue, there a plenty of rescues that simply "don't do puppies".  Some groups take the position that "puppies have a chance to get out", which may be true some of the times, they are cute, they probably stand a better chance than many adults.  But there are groups that say "they are just to hard", what does that mean?  Well, i'm going to share my theory with you today.  I think that puppies, so vulnerable to disease, just cost rescues too much money or too much heartache after adoption.  The thing is, I can't disagree with either of those things.  We take in and place alot of puppies, but it doesn't come without pains and heartache.  First the puppies have to survive, depending on the age when you get them, it may not be all that easy.  We vaccinate, we quarantine for 14 today to help reduce the risk of parvo outbreaks and we vaccinate again and make them available for adoption.  So already you have the medical costs of prevention and maintain for two weeks, not to mention the cost of care, food, etc.  Then, you send the puppies to new homes.  While most work out no problem, it never fails that every now and then you send some home after all of the precautions and they blow with parvo.  The stress this type of situation can cause a rescue is off the charts.  We have taken initial precations, we provide new adoptors with information regarding the risk of these types of diseases possibly incubating and not yet diagnosed, and we have the adoptor sign a release for all future vet care, even if resulting from the previously mentioned.  Why is it that when adopting, none of this is an issue, they "love" thier dog, they would pay anything to care for them.  Yet, god forbit it happens, it is instant I'm going to sue you?  While many are just upset because thier new baby is ill and possibly need hospitalized and when they settle down they are fine and realize that we didn't go out of thier way to make thier baby sick, there are those few that insist we are purposely trying to kill thier puppy.  I constantly remind myself that these very few unfortunate cases we have to deal with, there are a few thousand of perfectly successful adoptions.  Any thoughts fellow rescuers?