Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the people and rescues making a difference in the lives of animals. Hi everyone. We are back with Lisa Krohn of New Orleans Bulldog Rescue. To finish up our conversation, she is very well versed in animal rescue and does a bit of everything from TNR to being the vice president of the New Orleans Bulldog Rescue and fostering kittens. Welcome back, Lisa. Do you still do TNR actively

unfortunately, my job does not allow me to, I work during the evening hours, so there is no setting traps at dusk. And then when I get off of work, of course the first thing to be re my responsibility is to come home to let all my animals out. I just can't, I don't have the time at night to set the traps. I started with this job right in 2020 like September. And Rachel and Sue and I trapped almost 500 cats that year together. But after that, I haven't been actively trapping. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time. I'm at work when I need to be setting traps in the best time to set traps is at dusk. I don't have a problem with checking traps at night and checking traps early in the morning. I can't set them so it just. Took me out of the ball game. But if anybody needs traps. I have two that I've loaned out occasionally here and there. I have a neighbor across the street that feeds an eye feed. We get a straggler here and there. That was the last cat that I trapped, was a new guy across the street. A big white and black guy And got him neutered. And besides that, I try to help out where I can, but unfortunately I just don't have the time to actively trap 'cause of my job. But I gotta have a job.

I understand.

Unfortunately that's one of the one thing that I did enjoy doing. It's so much fun to stake out traps and, sneak around at night, your flashlights creepy, but, Rachel would never go out, but man I'll be out there at 1:00 AM checking traps, walking around with my flashlights. She's you're not afraid. I'm like, no, I'm not afraid. I'm like, we've warned these people that I'm coming, that someone's gonna be checking the traps. And, and it's always a thrill when you get a cat that you're going for, and the one thing I could do without is the, part of putting the traps in my car. That's not always fun. Yeah. Because they make us stink.

Yeah.

A lot. And it can be messy, so

yeah. Male cat urine is no fun.

And they're in a trap and they're upset and the one nasty part about doing TNR we learned we put down multiple layers of plastic. Like I'd cut up those big, 40 gallon contractor bags, those big plastic bags that were for yard work. And I'd have my dog, seat cover on, and then we put the plastic down and sometimes we put blankets underneath that. You just protected your, car. And I thankfully did not do the majority of the running around with multiple cats. 'cause I have a smaller car. Sue and Rachel had larger cars, so they were taking most of the animals. But I, pick up a cat in a trap, go check a different location, pick up a cat in a trap, go to Sue's house, fill out the paperwork, leave them on her front porch, she'd wake up in the morning. There's new cats in the trap because, 'cause we were tag teaming it, we'd set all the traps together. I'd check late and Sue would do the early. So it worked out great. We fixed a ton of cats in our our community, but it just never ends. We have a climate here that is, suitable for animals to live and breed 24. 7 365 kitten season never ends, unfortunately. Yeah, I know you know all about that,

unfortunately. Yes.

Years and years ago I fostered kittens here and there for Joan with Spay Mart and once Rachel started with the Jefferson S-P-C-A-I, fostered kittens with her. But I've had kittens plenty of times for Joan. And I'm always the one that reaches out 'cause I have adult cats and I've always done a rescue. So I feel like they need that experience with another cat coming into their house. They're not necessarily staying, but it's like good for them to have that experience, let's help raise another generation, and they get to be the big cats of the house and, show the little kittens what the deal is and play with the babies and, try to sneak there. You'll meet expensive, wet food when mommy's not watching out of the bathroom. They're good for that one too. Yes, I'm talking about you, Willow.

Do you have male cats that take care of your kittens or female cats that take care of your kittens?

It's the male cats that take care of the kittens.

Me too.

Willow doesn't wanna have anything to do with them. Baby D will swat at them. Simon is like, hello, let me groom you.

It's weird. It's really weird because I have two males that absolutely adore kittens. They wanna go in, they wanna go see the kittens, they'll go lick 'em, they clean 'em.

Yep.

If I need a babysitter, I'm,

that's what Simon does

y'all go babysit? And Yes. It's just, so weird because you would think it would be the females and, my females absolutely hate 'em. They're like, get these kids out here.

They're like, oh no, you are not pointing that work off on me, lady. That's exactly what they're probably thinking. Oh, no, Uhuh, my job was done. So funny. Yeah. And for the longest time, I always enjoyed, having male cats. My female cats weren't always the sweetest and they were more reserved. And, I've gone through a bunch of semi feral cats and that we're fostering and decided to keep, because I'm just committed. And, it's completely different from the friendly crew that I have now. I have strangers come in and my Siamese is Hey. What's up? And she will nudge you and paw at you until you pet her. And she's like front and center, in the living room saying hello. A lot of my cats were not that personality. And I actually pulled Willow's litter from J Paws when they were like, 0.46 pounds or something, and foster them through the Jefferson SPCA with Rachel. And with the intent of always adopting the little, blue Point Siamese. She'll be my fourth Siamese. I'm partial to them, but then, two years before I adopted Willow, I also adopted baby D. His real name is Dylan. And he and his sister Kate came into the Jefferson SPCA. It was serious eye issues. Neither one of them had eyelids. It's called agnesis. They're just born without them. And Kate unfortunately passed away having some eye surgery done at 18 months old. And Dee's he gets his eye drops four times a day and I clean his eyes and if we get a little stray hair growing, it looks like it's gonna poke his eye. I just pluck it off just the vet would do. And then, I also noticed that he was having some teeth issues. He's a lanky guy, and I right away knew we had stomatitis. So now we've had all of his teeth removed. That was, that's been over a year now. He just has his little front teeth and he is doing great. He's still a lanky guy with, and he looks a little funny without his eyelids, but he is the sweetest thing. He, sleeps in bed with me every single night and will snuggle up right next to my head. Even. None of my cats really care about the dog. Even Simon, who was trapped by Trap Dat Cat who lived outside, sleeps in bed with the 14-year-old pit bull. She's a great cat dog. She loves the cats. Not so much a good dog with the other dogs, but she loves the cats.

That's funny.

And I definitely trust her with these kittens, but I wouldn't put her in a room with my other dogs. And I think that just goes with the years of experience that I just know and trust this dog is people are like, wait, you trust your pit bull with your eight week old kittens and not your 5-year-old dog. I absolutely do. I've done this a long time and I know that she's not gonna hurt them, and she's not gonna do anything to them. She's just gonna walk around she daintily walks to make sure it's not gonna step on anyone. And she stops when they get puffed and she doesn't, move forward. She's very good with them. I never taught her those things. I'm assuming at. Some point she's just picked them up because I've had her most of her life. She's been with me since 2013, so she's just one of those difficult dogs that never found a good home. Like she's reactive on a leash. She's the dog that you bring into the vet that you have to stand off to the side that has every sticker on her chart, just to warn you, because I can't predict it. So sometimes she's great when we go into the vet and sometimes it sounds like I'm riding a bucking bronco who's screaming in the other side of the clinic. You just never know. It's always an adventure with her. Wouldn't trade any of it.

You have a lot going on. How do you manage the emotional and physical demands of doing rescue work and what keeps you going on like tough days?.

If I'm having a tough day, what keeps me going is knowing that tomorrow's a different day and I can approach whatever issue I had today in a different way tomorrow because if I didn't learn today, maybe tomorrow when I change something, I'll learn or I'll figure out what the best solution is. But thankfully, I haven't been in a position where I had a super difficult dog lately. But I've had dogs where like I left the house and someone touched the front door and I'd come home to escape dogs and feces everywhere. And so it's just doing rescue. I've learned to run the gauntlet as I call it, of emotions much faster than other people. I've lost plenty of dogs doing rescue. I've had to euthanize dogs for behavior. It's never an easy decision. But in the long run, I know that if I can't keep that dog, myself, and personally give it the life that it deserves, then and I can't adopt it out, then what are my options? And the kindest thing to do is, unfortunately you have to euthanize. And that is the worst decision ever to have to make. But unfortunately it is necessary. And doing rescue, you just you deal with the emotions. I get upset, I cry. I try not to regret. That's the biggest one I feel like that I have had to learn to deal with, is to know that I've done everything in my power and I'm at my wits end with whatever's happening, whether it's, a dog in my house and I'm having, aggression issues with, or it's Petey who I cried 45 minutes all the way home across the lake after dropping him off. But the dynamic in my house and the way my house smells is different because Petey is not here with the constant cleanup and the mess. And I love Petey dearly, now that he is not here, it's almost a relief to know that he's where he belongs. And my house was never where he intended to be. Sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's happy, and you want to take all the happy, like I will, high five myself. When I do adoptions, I'm like, all right, good job. And people ask me, how do you move on so quickly? I'm like I never intended to keep that dog. I intended to take that dog into my house. I intended to give it rules and boundaries and structure and find it a home. That person who adopts that dog gets all that information too. I've brought this dog home, I've given it structure with the kennel. I'm telling you, these are the rules at my house to, to help transition the dog to your house. I suggest this is what you do. You can never go too slow. You can go too fast. When you're integrating a new dog or a new animal into your house, you can never go too slow. So we always tell people that we understand you wanna bring your new dog home and you wanna snuggle. The new dog, it takes at least two to eight weeks to settle into a new home and a new routine. If you start giving a dog like what We adopt out these powerful breeds and these breeds that will take a mile. When you give them an inch, you have to have structure. And we use the kennels for that. And I tell people I feed in the kennel, the kennel controls everything. It controls outside time. It controls affection, it controls feeding it, and my dogs get treats every time they get in. They get something, whether it's a high value treat or it's a couple of little rom crunchies, that they love. I'll throw four or five in there. But I do, I. Bigger treats like the Whimsies shoes, and I buy the red barn bargain bags, and I take the hollowed out like marrow bones and I stuff them with pumpkin or yogurt or dog food, and then I freeze 'em. So it gives them, an extra 30 or 40 minutes of work and a nice treat as well. It's about keeping everybody happy so that I'm happy as well. And when I've got a difficult dog, that's when it's okay, how can I outsmart them, keep them in their kennel, what can I do to take the edge off to get them to settle? We, I'm not opposed to giving my dogs drugs to help them learn to react and to settle down. And we get dogs straight outta shelter. I don't know anything about 'em. I don't know whether they're friendly with, cats most of the time the shelter knows that they're friendly with dogs. Sometimes they're not always friendly with people or they react with men or they're shy or, and all these things need to be overcome. And it's just about getting the dog, making an assessment and figure out a plan to get this dog to, tip top shape so it can go on and find another home. A home where it's gonna be able to, live its best life, hang out on the couch, sleep in the bed eventually kind of thing.

It's true though because I find one of the most challenging things about finding a pet a new home is actually people wanting them to just go into their house and they don't take it slow and they expect everything to work out.

Yeah.

There's a lot of truth to what you said because it's not like that. And if you adopt an animal thinking that's what you're gonna do most of the time it's not gonna work out. You need to take it slow for that animal.

Yeah. It take time to adjust. I run a very strict type ship here. My personal dogs are the only ones allowed up on the bed and up on the couch because the dogs that I adopt out might not necessarily be allowed on the furniture. And someone might be like, Ooh, I don't wanna adopt that dog because he jumps on the furniture and I don't want that. And I don't want jumping on the furniture to be the reason why this perfectly, good match dog for your family doesn't get a home. 'cause you don't want it on the couch. So you're in the house, you're in your kennel, you eating in your kennel, I go out to the coffee shop every morning. Usually, I take Cobalt or Susie with me, looks like I'm getting them out of the house. We have actually have an event at Port Orleans that we're taking some of our dogs to and then we'll be there just selling merchandise and just hanging out. I think they're doing a big old dog event, like a hot dog event. And then we'll be there for a little bit, but we've just been taking a break. I haven't had any new dogs, so we haven't been doing our monthly adoption events.

Do you have a website?

We do, it's www.neworleansbulldogs.com. And we also have a Facebook page. I believe if you just search Facebook for New Orleans Bulldog Rescue it will come up. And the Facebook page is usually the most current on what we have in rescue. We make all of our posts and we showcase our dogs on Facebook. And then I believe the Petfinder is usually linked in each of the the showcases that we have. But all of our like surrender forms and our adoption applications can be found on our website. They're just in the drop down list when you click on it. We do feature dogs there, but it is not always up to date with who is adoptable. 'cause it's not interfaced with the petfinder and so they don't talk to each other. But yeah, you can reach us that way. And we, we usually do once a month adoption events. If you are interested in adopting, you must attend an event. Even if you've attended an event in the past, we still recommend that you come out just because it gives you a chance to see literally every adoptable dog that we have is required to come for that. It's just a one hour once a month. We have no set day or location. A lot of times it's on Sunday 'cause that's my only day off. And we, try to pay attention to football games and all the things. And when it's summertime like this, we're having them inside. Usually at a brewery. We've got good friends at Urban South and they'll let us bring the dogs in. Most of our stuff happens after events. We have an event, and then that week right afterwards is when, we vet check and start setting up one-on-one meetings that we don't allow children under the age of 14 at our events because some of our dogs don't like kids and kids can be unpredictable. So to make sure that my dogs and your children are safe we ask that, they don't come to these events. People unfortunately still do bring their children and we just ask them to keep their children, on the side. Or if they're looking at a specific dog that I personally know will be good with children or have seen it, in a setting where children are around, we'll let the children introduce to the dog, but usually it's all. It's all set up individually after the fact. Like you come out to the event, then there's a one-on-one meeting either with all of your family or whatever dog is currently in your home. And then there's another meeting usually at your home to make sure the dogs get along. And then we move inside and do, a drop off a home inspection. And I tell people, I'm like, I don't care what your TV looks like, or I don't care, if your sofa's, brand new or old, shoot my sofa, both corners are torn up from Simon. I just wanna make sure that, your yard is secure and that you have space for a dog kennel. And that's pretty much, what I'm looking for because people have been around and know how to work rescues and they will lie about things like having an outside dog or where they live. Like I've had people tell me they live so and and then I want to drop off the dog. They're like, oh. Oh, we just recently moved. I'm like, no, you didn't. You just recently lied is what happened.

I was recently catfished for a cat. This is no joke.

Oh my goodness. It's funny, but it's not funny 'cause

it's it's not funny.

Don't you have something better to do with your day? You know what I mean? It's come on.

Luckily we caught it.

Yeah, that's the worst one. I feel like I've I'm a volunteer. I work like 45 hours a week, like I work six days a week. It's broken up over six days, but I work six days a week. I don't keep a normal schedule. I go to work at 2:00 PM I'm usually home in between nine and 10:00 PM at night. Not the normal everyday schedule. But I enjoy it. And when people waste my time, I don't like that I have very limited free time. If I don't have control, it would be absolute chaos. And I go to work with chaos. I come home and it's a little chaotic, but usually can manage it. Once I get more than three rotations and yes, I rotate dogs 'cause not everybody gets along. When I get more than three rotations, it starts getting difficult. And right now I've got a good three rotations but that's one of the great things of doing dog rescues. I know my animals, I know what their limits are and I keep them safe no matter what, whether it's in the yard, in the house, at the vet, in public, yeah. It's just, I. That's the commitment that I've made. If I had children, it'd be the same thing. I just accidentally got into dog rescue and the first dog I fostered was a bee hole. She dug a hole in my bedroom floor. I learned real quick that the kennel is my best friend. So they're like, yeah, you gotta keep her in the kennel. I'm like, kennel's. I learned the hard way when my, one of my first dogs ate the windowsill and started eating the walls. We very quickly got a kennel, but I was like, oh, she just got fixed? No, she dug a hole through the carpet to the concrete while I was sleeping in the same room with her.

Wow.

So yeah, crate is my best friend. I learned real quick that Crate is a extremely important tool, especially when I'm getting dogs straight out of the animal shelter because I don't know what kind of dog this is or what kind of experiences they've had in the house or with furniture. And I tell people that when they adopt from me and I'm like, look, I suggest that you keep this dog on the same routine for the next two weeks that I have him on. They eat in their kennels, they sleep in their kennels. When I'm around and watching them, that's when they're loose. I don't know if you leave him loose when you run to the grocery store, if he's gonna take a poop on your couch or eat it. I wanna say that he's not gonna do those naughty things, but I don't know, because when I leave, he's safely and securely sleeping in his crate. And that's, people think, oh, it's a cage. No, it's their safe space. I, it's never a punishment. It's always a positive. They get something delicious. My dogs will run me over to get to their kennels, and half the time I'm you're not even going in your kennel. This is time to, to hang out in the house. And they will still go in down the hallway and act like they're gonna enter whatever bedroom their crates are in. And then when they realize I've sat down, then they just come back in the living room and oh, it's my time to be in the house. But, my dogs enjoy their crates and they, I've got a bed in there and they get fed in there. All the most high quality treats are given in there. And it's, just my experiences over the years have just definitely, solidified that the crate is my best friend. Had dogs that, gave me a run for my money. And the kennel helped a lot to give me more control and to learn that they can trust me because I control everything with the kennel and my house is safe and my other animals are safe. And, most of the time when I'm gone, they're asleep in their kennel and that's what any owner wants their dog to be doing. But maybe sleep on the couch. Rhonda sometimes stays loose, but I don't even let her loose now because of the storms, because I don't want her to go in the bathroom and hide or, decide that she wants to actually knock the kittens down or something. So her kennel is safe for everyone, especially her.

Definitely nothing wrong with kennel training them. It's a good thing to have in my opinion.

Yeah, it absolutely is. And my whole extra bedroom is just, there's five, there's six dogs kennels in there, and if I need to, I can put five more crates in that room. I have the capacity in one room to finagle 11 dogs in there. For my own sanity I don't, but I can if I need to.

What's the one message you would like to leave our listeners with about animal rescue in general?

In general, I just wanna say spay and neuter your animals. But with rescue, just be honest. If you wanna adopt a dog. Be honest. You wanna adopt a cat, be honest. Make sure you spay and neuter your animals. Be responsible and committed. It's not a, oh, it's a cute little kitten. It's a, in 20 years when they're in kidney failure and you need to take 'em to the vet, will you commit to do that? Will you be doing fluids at home for your cat? Will you do the extra, expensive food and the wet food and all the things that your animal needs? There's so many things I could say I just want people to be responsible. Just know that it's a commitment. It's not, it's a cute little puppy. It's a, when your life changes in five years, make sure that there's a plan for your dog. Bulldog Rescue has a safe haven program. We've only had to use it a couple of times, but it is for people like, in a domestic violence situation that need to get out, but don't immediately have a place to go with their dog. We've had a couple come in and we basically foster them until these people get on their feet and can take their dogs back. And then still, occasionally I'll still, Amazon Prime, a bag of food here and there If they need help, I would rather go the extra mile to help you keep your dog than rehome your dog.

Absolutely.

Maybe that's what I should have said.

Absolutely. I absolutely agree with that. I would rather see people ask for help than just rehome their animals.

Yeah. Or get in over their head and then have to like, go bring their half dead dog to the shelter, in a last ditch effort for help. Whether the dog survives or not is up to what's happening at the shelter at the present moment. If they can, get the vet care that the animal needs or if it's just a lost cause. One of my neighbors, just the other day told me that the neighbor across the street, a couple houses down, one of their dogs died and they're like she'd been sick. I'm like what'd the vet say? And they're like they didn't take her to the vet. I'm like, that's just insane. It's, my dog misses a meal. I'm like, something's wrong. You're going to the vet.

That's crazy.

They let their dog die. Like they didn't take her to the vet. I'm like, just flabbergasted. I have a whole credit card for just my animals. If I can't afford what needs to be done, I've got that security blanket there for a reason, accidents happen. Animals need proper care to, to live a good, healthy life. And some of those things are unpredictable. Believe me, I know anyone who owns an animal should know that animals get sick. Just like people, you need to buy pet insurance or you man up and you pay the vet. But if you're smart about it, you get a puppy from, a, a reputable breeder or from a rescue, and then you immediately get pet insurance. Most of mine unfortunately come in with medical issues, so pet insurance was never a good idea for me because it would, disqualify the preexisting condition, which is the condition that I would be taking them to the vet for, right? Unfortunately it doesn't always work in everybody's favor, but. We do what we gotta do no matter what. Yeah. I will eat ramen noodles so I can buy somebody's meds or I will dog sit for free, or cat sit for free. Or anytime I have anything extra, I'll always try to like, give a little bit of here and there to on Give Nola Day and things like that to rescues that I don't even work with. I give my time to, bulldog rescue and I give my time to the Jefferson SPCA and anybody else that asks me for help, if there was with a rescue, that's what I contribute is,, my volunteer time. I don't always have the funds to spare, but if I do, I will definitely, do what I need to do. I've been buying some of my own little kitten supplies, 'cause I know, the Jefferson Feed has a ton of kittens. I know what that costs to run, so I've been providing some stuff for my own kittens and some fosters do that and some fosters don't. But a way that I can get back, is to help with the kitten stuff. And, I buy my own dog treats and my own dog food. So it's just, bulldog Rescue paying for the dogs that are technically living in my home. Rent free huh Rhonda. But yeah, I don't know any other way to live my life other than to helping with dogs and cats and, if I have the time to do TNR or to help out where I can, I did the shelter neuter return for years to try to get the proper numbers to get that best friend grant. And then we got that grant and those girls were here for three years and then they're gone and then we're still in the same boat.

Yeah, it'll get better one day. We just need to get more people on board with the TNR

But yeah, when is one day, I've been doing this for 20 years.

It's amazing the amount, that's amount of work that you do though working with all these groups and it's really admirable too.

Thank you

A lot of people, there's a lot of ego involved in animal rescue sometimes. And, so you don't always see people helping other groups because of that ego thing. And so it's very admirable that you do as much as you do.

I try. The animals shouldn't matter what rescue that they're with, just as long as I have my heart in the right place, and that's where I'm at. I needed something to brighten My day after Trouble was, unfortunately found deceased and I wanted kittens. So I went out and volunteered to foster, and now I'm just laughing and giggling at my three little corn chip boys. Because they're definitely a hoot. They're, yeah they're the corn chip boys. They've got the Cheeto, the Dorito, and the Frito, and I call 'em Frito Burrito and Cheeto Burrito and Dorito Burrito. They are a kick. I definitely enjoy having kittens in the house. It's a lot of fun. You get to do all the cutesy little things and then they find another home. My friends are like, you're gonna keep one. I'm like, no, I'm not really planning on keeping a kitten. Like I love Dorito, I really like Cheeto and Frito and I'm not keeping three kittens. We're not keeping kittens. It's not always the easy decision sometimes, especially when you put a lot of extra love and care. 'cause someone gets sick like Dorito, it just builds a different bond, and I have learned to, to know that, if I build a special bond with these animals, that I, that just means that I have to keep in touch a little more and it with whoever adopts 'em. And I still get, text messages and we still get emails and things when our dogs unfortunately pass away. And, people donate things all the time. When they lose animals, and that's unfortunately a sad part about it. But the good part is that a lot of those people come back again and adopt again, so they're saving another life. And, it's just, rescue is becoming the popular thing to do, but unfortunately we still just don't have enough foster homes and enough money to save them all. I just shake my head. 'cause my family's from the Midwest and animals are treated differently. They're more like they serve a purpose down here. Their purpose is puppies and kittens in, in the Midwest, it's like the dog is out there with the cattle. You don't see loose dogs or loose cats and stuff like that. It's just a different mentality of the type of animal and the climate that nothing stray could live in negative 70 degrees when they get a snowstorm. It's just not possible. You can't even be outside for more than a couple minutes. It's the whole society down here in the south, they just don't think that spay and neuter is important. For some reason, I don't get it. Or oh, my dog's not gonna get pregnant. My dog's not gonna get out. Yeah, all those things happened, I don't know. It's frustrating to talk about it.

It is.

I don't see an end in sight unfortunately. 'cause I still run across people today. It's, we're in the 21st century and they don't understand. And I don't understand how, at this point in our life and in society, in the way that, you know, domesticated animals are treated that people still have that mentality and it's gotta start from somewhere we need to start educating like in the schools now or something. We used to do advocacy programs, for events at schools. We've been to a couple of times, with Bulldog Rescue, where they were having like an environment event and they invited our dogs. And that was a lot of fun and it was good to, Teach the kids. I'm a nanny. All three of our kids, know all the rules to ask to pet a dog. And, we don't, feed our dog all these random things. We don't hit our dog. It's so frustrating. I could talk for hours about it, When you do rescue as long as I have, I've got some stories. Even Michael's man, you got some stories. I'm like, I know, because every dog has a story and I can't remember people's names, but I can tell you the dog and I can tell you the dog's story. Like the lady that I'm gonna meet with for the new Frenchie is I know who she is, but I remember her dogs before I remembered her.

It's funny. I'm the same way.. I remember kittens that I fostered like 10 years ago.

I know. It happens to us too sometimes when they send emails, they're like, oh, here's an update so and and they're like, did you foster this dog? I'm like, oh yeah, I fostered him. His name was Judge. Because people change their names on stuff. It's you just have to remember. Occasionally it takes me a minute, but most of the time, if I've had a dog for any significant amount of time in my home, I can immediately remember them. I might not remember who adopted them. The phone the contact that I added will tell me the person's name with the foster dog's name next to it,

Uhhuh.

And that's usually how I remember their people's names is 'cause I have it in there under the dog's name. So I can communicate. And I've met so many people and then I've adopted dogs to judges and lawyers and real estate agents. And, I've had dogs that were down here in the military that lived in Washington state and New York City and all over the country. I even shipped merchandise to Sweden one time. It was super exciting. It was super cool. 'cause I handle all the PayPal orders. If you order something from PayPal, it gets shipped, by me. I have all the merchandise here. We, don't have a ton right now, but we just do t-shirts, can coolers every year. We do a big ticket item, but it's just a calendar. We're one of the only rescue groups that does a yearly calendar. We have done 'em for years. I will never let Michael stop doing the calendar. It's a great fundraiser. We always make our money back and then some, and people love them. We put them out and all the Jefferson feeds and they sell out and we have to bring more. A couple of our vet clinics sell 'em. You can always buy 'em online. It's a lot of fun. We get a photographer, we do pictures. Most of the calendar has alumni in it. And basically you donate your fee and then your dog gets into the calendar, and then you get the professional pictures from your professional photo shoot. And that's how we handle our calendar. It's a way for us to make sure that we have enough money to print them, to be honest. And it's a good fundraiser for us and people seem to enjoy it because every year we, usually get all 12 months to alumni from the previous year or anyone actually. We send out a massive email for, any year that you've adopted. If you would like to be in the calendar, you can, like Max, his mom is a a retired judge, and he is been in the calendar every year. And I asked Michael just recently, I'm like, is that boy still around? He is he's still kicking. I'm like, all right. He's getting old. He's gotta be 14 by now. And he's not a little dog. He's some sort of like. Pit bull and bulldog mix. He's super cute, but he's like a big blockhead

uhhuh.

He's got floppy ears and the docked tail, but he is like a 80 or 90 pound dog. He's not little. He's solid. I fostered him and his mom's mom actually just recently adopted a dog. And I pulled Trixie from the L-A-S-P-C-A, she had no hair. You couldn't tell what color she was. She was like a four or five month old puppy. She was just a baby. And she, didn't walk on a leash. She had mange so bad. She was disgusting. Those are one of those dogs, you're like, I need a foster home like tomorrow for this dog. Because she not only needs a lot of work, meaning bathing and, antibiotics and, but bulldogs can smell in general, but when you've got a yeast infection all over your body from head to tail and you have mange, imagine what that smells like in your house. It's not fun, but that's something you commit to. I knew when I was getting her that this was gonna be a lot of bathing. But I had a foster home who doesn't have any other dogs. And then she ended up keeping her and I was like, all right. It's always fun when our fosters keep a dog and then still want to continue to foster. Of course, I gotta put that out there because if you keep a dog and then you don't foster anymore, then I'm like, oh, I lost a foster home. But if you if you keep a dog and keep fostering more, yes. High fives, that's what I love.

Yeah, that is absolutely the best. Thank you for talking with me today. I enjoyed our conversation.

Absolutely. I did too.

I'll have you come back on and we'll just do dog stories.

Awesome. Sounds like fun.

If you are enjoying our show, please consider leaving us a donation. A hundred percent goes to our animals. And that's all the time we have for today's episode. If you are in animal rescue, or if you know someone that has a story that should be told, please contact us. We would love to have you or them on the show Thanks for listening, and please join us next week as we continue to explore the world of animal rescue.