Healing Hearts and Paws: The Emotional Journey of Animal Rescue

Sharing pet stories that inspire and empower others to help animals in need. Joining your host, Julie Marty-Pearson is Amy Castro, founder of Starlight Outreach and Rescue. Together, we weave through the emotional narrative of animal rescue. We remember the pets that have carved out special places in our hearts, and Amy walks us through the turning points that propelled her from a volunteer to the helm of her own rescue organization.

This episode isn't just about the pets we've loved; it's about the complexity and responsibility that come with caring for our four-legged friends. She spotlights the importance of TNR programs and spaying/neutering to manage populations, sharing the story of Frenchie, the cat who represents the countless kittens born to feral mothers, and how we can intervene responsibly when we come across these vulnerable litters. From the challenges of returning unadopted dogs to shelters to the understanding of when to say no, we explore the full spectrum of emotions that come with volunteering and fostering. We leave you inspired to find your unique way to contribute, be it through fostering, volunteering, or simply spreading awareness. And remember, by subscribing and leaving a review, you help these stories reach others and contribute to the ever-growing community of animal lovers and advocates.

Amy Castro is a professional speaker, author, and pet industry expert who works with small businesses and large corporations to develop leaders, build great teams, and help both provide best-in class service to their customers. She's also founder and president of Starlight Outreach and Rescue, a 501c3 nonprofit animal rescue in the Houston area and the host of the rescue's podcast, Starlight Pet Talk. She lives on a 7 acre "rescue ranch" with her daughter kelsey who manages the day-to-day activities of the rescue. To learn more, follow Amy’s podcast on her Website, and follow on Instagram and Facebook.

Starlight Outreach and Rescue was founded in 2017 after the tragic death of 14-year-old Emma Starlight Hyde. They have a five-fold mission: to suppor

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers, welcome to the Story of my Pet podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:11

I am Julie Marty Pearson, your host, proud fur mom, pet lover and all-around animal advocate. I'm so happy to have you here to listen to the incredible pet stories that I have collected from around the world. I hope you enjoy this episode and I can't wait to share this pet story with you. Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers, welcome to another episode of the Story of my Pet podcast. I am your host, as always, julie Marty Pearson, and I'm very excited to be episode of the Story of my Pet podcast. I am your host, as always, julie Marty Pearson, and I'm very excited to be here with a new guest to introduce you all to.

Speaker 1: 0:52

Today I'm going to be speaking with Amy Castro. She is a professional speaker, author and pet industry expert who works with small businesses and large corporations to develop leaders, build great teams and help both provide best-in-class service to their customers all so important. She's also founder and president of Starlight Outreach and Rescue, a 501c3 nonprofit animal rescue in the Houston area, and the host of the Rescue's podcast, starlight Pet Talk. She lives on a seven-acre rescue ranch and her daughter, kelsey, who manages the day-to-day activities of the Rescue. Oh, so much fun stuff to talk about.

Speaker 2: 1:37

Hello, amy, thank you for being here. Hi Julie, Thank you for having me. I've been excited to talk to you. This is going to be a five-hour episode, I'm sure.

Speaker 1: 1:46

It'll be a miniseries in six parts. Luckily for you guys, we've already been talking. Amy and I are doing what we call a podcast swap. She just interviewed me for her podcast Starlight Pet Talk, and now she is coming here so that I can interview her about all of her incredible rescue work, and so I'm really excited for this conversation, for you guys to get to know Amy and also learn a little bit more about what animal rescue life really is like. As we often do here on the Story of my Pet, we like to start off in the beginning. Amy, were you always a pet lover? Did you have pets as a kid?

Speaker 2: 2:29

Yes, I have always been a pet lover and yes, I had pets as a kid. I can remember, and I want to say I was four years old, we had just moved to a new house and my dad's business partner who, my dad, worked in New York City, his business partner lived in New York City showed up with this leather weird box and out sprung this orange tabby cat. Little did I know the cat was probably feral, or at least borderline feral. His name was Snippy, and a day did not go by when that cat didn't bite or scratch me, but I adored him and so from then on it's I don't care, I love you anyway and you will be my friend.

Speaker 1: 3:10

The tale is old as time. They may bite us and scratch us, but we love them anyway. That's right. That's right. Sounds like he prepared you for a life in animal rescue. Yes, he did.

Speaker 2: 3:22

He did. Early on, I realized how, when to avoid a cat, when he was telling you enough was enough, or at least I tried to.

Speaker 1: 3:30

That is some really important information. I think people don't realize you got to read the animal's body language and do what they're asking you to do. I'm sure you do a lot of that. Yes, have you always been a cat lady, or do you? Are you a dog mom too? Are you just happy to have any type of pet in your life?

Speaker 2: 3:47

older the ease and charm of a smaller animal like a cat or a smaller dog. We recently just had a 150-pound Great Dame with a broken leg. Well, he was healing. That was at my house and I realized that is a lot of dog, but as a young kid I like the bigger animals and horses. I've always been a horse girl too, so anything I can take, anything that's around that needs my love, is going to get it.

Speaker 1: 4:26

I understand we had a rescue possum at one point, so I think we are each other's people in that sense. There you go. So we talked a little bit about your rescue Starlight, outreach and Rescue. So can you talk a little bit about kind of the process of getting that started, why you started and what the purpose is?

Speaker 2: 4:45

Sure. So when I started, people always have always said, oh, you should start a rescue, because I'm always taking in and helping animals, and I was volunteering at my local municipal shelter and had been for several years when I got a text message no-transcript. These kind of things happen to me, but immediately I knew I was going to start a rescue. I was going to call it Starlight Outreach and Rescue. I had the vision of what the logo was going to look like. That's how weird it was that it just had to be done, and so that was in October of 2017. And by December we had our 501c3 paperwork and our incorporation done and everything else it was a mission-driven start for sure Sounds like it.

Speaker 1: 6:14

That's amazing, I think that a lot of times I think in rescue and volunteering we get inspired by others Like wow, they did that, I want to do it. Or sometimes we lose someone or we lose a pet. That kind of ignites our we want to help more. So it sounds like that's really you were doing the work already as a volunteer, but that experience really pushed you to start the rescue Right and I forgot to mention Emma's middle name because her brother had asked to name the baby.

Speaker 2: 6:43

and they said, yes, well, he wanted to name the baby. And they said, yes, well, he wanted to name the baby Starlight. And they were like, yeah, oh, how about the middle name? So Emma's middle name was Starlight and that's why it's Starlight Outreach and Rescue, that's an amazing tribute.

Speaker 1: 6:56

But also you wouldn't think necessarily that was named after someone with such a unique middle name. So I love that and I'm sure a living legacy would mean so much to her. I hope so. I'm sure it does. Anybody who is an animal person, an advocate, a volunteer, all of that, anything like that, would mean the world to them. So that was your push to officially start the rescue. When you started, did you have a focus in mind of who you wanted to help, what type of animal, or were you just getting set up and then see where you went?

Speaker 2: 7:32

No, that's a good question. I hadn't really even been had thought about this, but we really started off focusing on helping that particular shelter where I was volunteering. So it started off on a small scale because and many people may not realize this when they either take an animal to a local city shelter or pick up a stray animal that all shelters are different. Ours happened to be a pretty good one in the grand scheme of things, but from the standpoint of fostering animals that can't stay overnight in the shelter, like baby kittens or medical treatment, most cities and counties don't have budgets for medical treatment for these animals and so, unfortunately, they end up being euthanized. So the original focus was to foster animals that couldn't be left alone at the shelter so that they weren't euthanized, providing medical treatments and care so that animals couldn't be euthanized.

Speaker 2: 8:24

And then we expanded and I knew in the back of my head that the whole point of calling it Starlight Outreach and Rescue versus just Starlight Rescue was that I knew that reaching out to beyond that shelter, to the community, was going to be a part of our long-term mission, because education and helping people on a one-on-one basis, I think, is the key to animals not ending up in shelters and rescues in the first place. So now we do it. I wouldn't say we do it all, but we do work with local shelters. We do take animals in straight up as strays. We do help owners with their pets. So it's an education, is another big facet of our mission with their pets.

Speaker 1: 11:01

So it's an education is another big facet of our mission. Yeah, and I think in the animal world rescue shelters education is key because so many people have pets and they have no idea what animal rescue is, how shelters work and how each shelter is different depending on where their funding comes from, and all of those things that I have learned myself since starting this podcast and getting more involved. That education is key because people just don't realize the ripple effect of a decision they make about their own pet can impact so many things. Right? So you talk about outreach. So what way? What exactly do you guys do in terms of outreach to your community?

Speaker 2: 11:36

So we do. We do public presentations, so I'll go to the library and do a presentation that's open to the public. One of the popular topics that we end up doing is what to do when you find baby kittens, because too many times people will come across a little bundle of kittens in there. I've had them come out of wood piles. I've had them come out of people's recycle bins, on a pile of rags in the garage, and immediately people look around and say, oh, they're abandoned. The moms I don't see the mom. But what they don't realize is mother cats don't hang out with their kittens all day long and they may not need the rescuing, but what they do is once they pull them and take them to a shelter they've condemned is a strong word, but it is a strong word condemn them to whatever that future is going to be. And shelters will often euthanize them because they don't have round-the-clock staff to take care of those. So we end up with those in rescue, and it is a round-the-clock job and it is a labor of love. You've done it, I know, but you know doing it times a thousand is gets to be a lot, and so it's so much better to just leave them where you find them. So we do things like that.

Speaker 2: 12:39

We do a lot of one-on-one consultations for lack of a better term with people who will call looking to surrender a pet, and my first question, if they don't make it quite obvious from the beginning, is why do you want to give up this dog? Well, it's doing this or it's doing that. And then the next thing I know an hour has gone by with me talking about problem solving and troubleshooting, and I'm not saying I've won them all, but I certainly have had a lot of people that have been like, oh, I'll try that or, oh, I hadn't thought about that. So that's part of the outreach is the education piece and then also financial outreach. We find that there are wonderful pet parents who, for whatever reason, they're going through tough times. Somebody lost a job, they've lost a home you know their home and they're now struggling to provide either basic care or extended medical care for their pet. And although I can't pay somebody's vet bills for the rest of their lives, there are times where I can do a fundraiser.

Speaker 2: 13:34

And one quick example was a gentleman that had called us. He wanted to surrender his dog because his dog had happy tail. And if you're not familiar with what that is, it's when a dog and it was a pity and I know from the fact I've got a blind pity in my house right now that that tail gets going hard and fast. If it whacks you in the leg it hurts. And so this dog was such a happy dog and wagging his tail that he would whack it into the walls and his tail literally split open and would bleed, and it was. Then it becomes a chronic condition with blood flying all over the house and the gentleman didn't want to put his dog outside but he could not afford the surgery because basically the solution is to amputate the tail because but after that repeated injury it has it had to come off. And so you know, we did a fundraiser in 30 minutes. We raised the $500 or $600, I think. It was to do that surgery so that man could keep his dog. And he still has his dog and his kids still have their dog.

Speaker 2: 14:28

We've also had animals that have gotten hit by a car and it's like the people are there when somebody calls me and they're willing to surrender their pet so that the pet can have a chance at a better life or a life at all willing to surrender their pet so that the pet can have a chance at a better life or a life at all. That to me. I'm going to go out of my way to help you.

Speaker 2: 14:41

It's a little bit harder when somebody's I'm moving and I can't take my pet. Really, what apartment building could you not find that wouldn't take a pet? I have a little harder time with that. I don't say that, of course, but if you're willing to give up your pet for its better interest, I'm going to try to help you. So that's another element of outreach that we do. We also do trap-doodle-return where it's legal around us for kittens, cats that are community cats, like you mentioned. In California we don't really have that and, as a matter of fact, in many municipalities it's actually illegal to have cats at large, very unlikely to be enforced because nobody will ever claim that's their cat. But we try to help reduce those cat populations by spaying and neutering the cats and then returning them to where they came from.

Speaker 1: 15:23

Yeah, tnr is so important, no matter what your situation is in your area. I had mentioned to her that in California cats are considered free roaming, so shelters cannot take them in as strays because they're not considered such. So they can only take cats in if they're sick or injured or, as like you mentioned, kittens who are too young to take care of themselves come into the shelter system. But unfortunately, because of that, we have rampant communities of feral cats in a lot of areas and trap neuter return is so important because, gosh, you have a handful of cats in one area. That's going to become hundreds really quick Hundreds, yeah Well.

Speaker 2: 16:00

And people, the poor people who are trying to feed and care for those cats as best they can. It's always some nice person who starts off. Oh, this kitty wandered into my yard so I started feeding it, then it brought a friend, then it brought her husband, then it brought her significant other, cousin, whatever it is. Next thing you know they've got 50 cats they're feeding and then they're breeding like wildfire and it gets out of control really fast.

Speaker 1: 16:20

So yeah, a lot of times I think people don't realize how young cats can be impregnated. They can be six months old and be pregnant, and that's actually really dangerous. And one of our cats, frenchie, our middle child at the time, at right now she was actually the baby of a feral that hung out in our yard a lot and then she moved her litter, but unfortunately Frenchie didn't make the trip, didn't?

Speaker 1: 16:43

make the cut she got stuck between our fence and our neighbor's fence, oh wow. So here comes little Frenchie coming out. Once I opened the fence and, yeah, now you all know how that story ended. We heard her at first, we knew there was a mom. We waited, we watched. We heard her at first, we knew there was a mom. We waited, we watched. We didn't see the mom again for a whole 24 hours. She continued to cry. We're like, ok, we got to step in and help her because she can't take care of herself. But I think that's an important thing no matter what the situation in your area is when it comes to cats, if you find a litter of kittens that are obviously too young to be on their own, don't just grab them and go. So what would you say to someone who finds a litter of kittens in their yard, in their area? Some tips of what to do and what not to do right away. Well, I think identifying about how.

Speaker 2: 17:31

Obviously you're not going to know the exact age for kittens and I won't waste time going into all the at this age this happens or whatever but you can certainly go out on the internet there's plenty. Even if you just search images, there are a lot of great charts. It'll show you. This is what the kitten would look like and this is about how old it is, and based on the age, you can usually figure out a newborn. Anything under a month old, anything under two weeks old probably needs round-the-clock feeding. Beyond that it gets to be. It's like a human baby, right. As they get older it spreads out a little bit further.

Speaker 2: 18:02

So, being able to estimate the age and knowing, like you said, if that kitten was teeny, tiny that you found and it had been 24 hours that's a long time for it to go without eating and if mom hadn't come back by then you need to intervene like you did and you did the right thing. But one of the things that I find really helpful that I tell people to do is just take some flour whatever kind of flour you have in your house and put a ring of flour around where the kittens are and then go away because mom's unlikely to come. If it's a stray or a feral cat, she's probably not going to come just moseying up. Because think about it from her perspective If she makes a beeline to those babies, she's showing predators exactly where those babies are and as far as she knows, you're a predator Right. Put that flower around, go back in the house and then wait again a proportionate amount of time based on the age of the kittens, and then if you don't see any little paw prints in there, then yes, you might consider taking them in.

Speaker 2: 18:55

But consider too at least in Texas, consider too what you're going to do with them once you do that. Because I know I was naive before I started volunteering. The very first cat that I found, that kind of started my whole fostering process was a kitten I found and I thought, oh, my vet has rescue kittens there in her lobby, I can just go drop this kitten off. And folks, it doesn't work like that and you'll be surprised how many times you'll be turned down by a rescue or even shelters, depending upon where you live to take that animal. So you might become that animal's caregiver and now you've taken that responsibility. So think about that for sure.

Speaker 1: 19:32

Yes, I've seen that happen in my area at the shelter. I worked there part-time for about six months doing adoption events for them, and some of that before I got started. I would sit in the front office and help, but I would observe what they were dealing with and a lot of people would come in with a cat or a kitten and they'd be like well, how long have you had it? Well, I started feeding it and I had it for three days.

Speaker 2: 19:52

Okay, well, legally, that cat is yours now it's the same in Texas, three days and it's yours.

Speaker 1: 19:57

You have to be aware of that, obviously, but you also have to be aware that when you're taking a kitten or a litter of kittens you've found, you've done your due diligence. Mom hasn't come back, whatever it may be. I think this also you mentioned is when you take them to a shelter. Most shelters cannot care for underage kittens because one they don't have staff 24-7. So most shelters like mine and I think yours is those kittens have to go immediately to foster, otherwise they could possibly be euthanized Right? Could you talk a little bit about your experience with being a part of that kind of process and how your rescue helps or what people need to understand better about that?

Speaker 2: 20:36

Yeah, well, what's interesting now is as far as how this whole process works. It's so different than the way that it worked a couple of years ago and this could be a whole nother episode talking about the no kill movement. But the concept of no kill is great. I would love it if a day would come along where animals healthy, adoptable animals were not euthanized in shelters. The dilemma in Texas is the. It's just there are too many.

Speaker 2: 21:02

And so what shelter? What our municipal shelters are trying to do? Nobody wants to be the bad guy. That is like you referred to, a kill shelter. So everybody's trying to either be no kill or achieve a level of live release which is generally going to be over 90 percent. So 90 percent of the things that come in here go out here alive.

Speaker 2: 21:21

The ripple effect of that is, in order to do that, what shelters are now having to do is tell you, no, they can't take those kittens.

Speaker 2: 21:29

Tell you, no, they can't take your grandma's dog when your grandma passed away. And so now you turn to rescues. Well, we're now taking in all the animals that they're saying no to, plus the strays on the street, because even in Texas I'm still shocked about this that many of our municipal city shelters in the Houston area. If you call and say hey, there's this German Shepherd running up and down my street or whatever kind of dog it is, they'll say we're full, we can't pick it up, so it's left to roam the streets and get hit by a car or whatever happens to it. Or you end up responsible for it as the person who found it and I get a lot of actually very angry people that will call me and they'll say I tried calling the shelter and they said they wouldn't. I pulled over on the side of the road and picked up this dog and I'm thinking to myself I hate to say this, but I'm thinking that's her first mistake, because it's not a mistake.

Speaker 2: 22:16

It's just so awful that we have to think that way, I know, but it's like the shelter's not going to take it. The rescues are full and over and bursting at their seams, and good luck with that. This is tough.

Speaker 1: 22:27

This is a very important conversation because I know, just before I met you and talked to you, that Texas has a lot of the same issues that we do with overpopulation and crowded shelters and stray dogs and all the things. Yeah, and people hear this no kill and they're like, well, why aren't you no kill or aren't you no kill and why can't we be no kill? And they just have this idea of what that means, and so I can from my own experience where I live. There are three shelters in my county. Two are what we call kill shelters, because one is run by the city and one is run by the county.

Speaker 1: 23:01

Therefore, they are mandated. They can only hold so many animals at one time. So what happens is, if there's nowhere for them to go, they have to be euthanized to make room for the new animals coming in, which they have new ones every single day, yeah, and so that's why they have to be called that, because they're only able to save so many. We have a third that is a SPCA. That is no kill, but, like you said, they are no kill because they can say no to whoever they want to.

Speaker 2: 23:27

That's why they're no kill, no-transcript think it's interesting to me for people who will say, well, I only want to adopt from a no kill place and I'm like you should be looking for the kill place. That's where you're saving a life You're not saving, Come to. I will tell people flat out go look at your local shelter. If you haven't checked there first, and then, if you don't find what you're looking for, come back to us at the rescue, because these animals that are here are not going anywhere ever Like. They will live here for the rest of their lives.

Speaker 2: 24:31

Now it may stop me from bringing in more animals, because I can only put so many animals. Even if I stack them to the ceiling. There's, like you said, there's still a line more animals that probably need to come in. But yeah, the whole no kill thing is a. It's a sticky situation and it's very much up to, like you said, interpretation.

Speaker 2: 24:51

It's easy to be no kill. We've got facilities around here, large ones that will only take owner surrenders. No strays will not take any bully breeds or even anything that looks like a bully breed. Well then, that does make it easier for you, because those are going to be easier to adopt out than the ones that are poor. I can say all kinds of bad things about the municipal shelter where I worked at, and that's why I don't name it, but what I will say is it's hard to be no kill when you're mandated to pick up those strays that people call about Like you have to. That's the law, and so where are you going to put it? Somebody's got to go. It's unfortunate, so they've got to go out the door one way or the other.

Speaker 1: 25:31

And obviously the first ones to be euthanized if they're very sick and they can't. They always look at injury and illness and sickness and things like that first. They look at behavior. Obviously, if animals come in that spit someone or whatever, but I think a lot of people think that's all that are in shelter.

Speaker 1: 25:47

There are amazing hundreds and thousands of amazing dogs in shelters everywhere that have ended up there because they were lost, because their person didn't take care of them, because they dumped them when they were moving or whatever. Or it was a breeder who was trying to make money. No one bought the puppy, so they dumped them on the street. There's so many ways they end up there. Oh yeah, but I think what you're saying is my shelters, the ones that have to take in strays they're full of pit bull mixes, german shepherds, huskies, all these dogs that are big dogs that take a lot of time and training and cost a lot to feed. That's why they end up there is because people get over their heads and they can't take care of them, or they're a breed that people think are bad just because of what they look like. That just stacks up against them more and more of the shelter being able to adopt out?

Speaker 2: 26:35

Yeah Well, and rescues, rescues face the same challenges. There are a lot of rescues. Rescues are a funny business and people can be. I don't know if it's a combination of competitive judgy with each other, whatever it might be, but you'll see some people complaining about a certain rescue because they only take in little fluffy dogs or they only take in this, and I never thought much of it until, as you know, as we've gone on with the rescue and you get to the, as somebody is requesting for you to take something in, one of the thoughts is going to be how quickly can I turn this animal around? How long is this?

Speaker 2: 27:10

The cat with the ringworm? I've got an entire building. It's a small building, but I've got an entire building that is being occupied by now by one cat and her five kittens because they have ringworm. And normally I could probably put 15 animals out there. I didn't know they had ringworm when they first came in and I used to take in anything and everything. But then you realize when you do that I'm now condemning 14 other animals because they're it's a mom and baby, so they're only in one kennel out there. But now I can't put 14 other animals in there. So I have to say no and leave those animals on the street. And it's weeks and weeks that this mom and her babies are going to be there, whereas if they were healthy and they didn't have ringworm, I could put them out with my other cats in my other cat room and then I'd have room for 15 animals in there.

Speaker 2: 27:55

If you're smart in rescue, I think a lot of rescues get themselves in over their heads, but I try to be smart and realize that, yeah, I might not be that person that is helping a thousand animals a year, because we're a very small rescue, but I'm going to do a darn good job of helping the three or four hundred and doing right by them, because that's what I can manage. You want to give me another thousand fosters? If I get another thousand volunteers that want to come and take those pit bulls into their houses, great. But since I have none that will take dogs right now, they're all in my house. There's only so many I can have here.

Speaker 1: 28:27

I think that is so important. First of all, it's a domino effect, depending on who you're taking in, what their needs are and how much it costs, and the needs that they have. But also, so importantly, what you're saying, because I've heard this from so many people I know in rescue, where I live and other places is fostering is key.

Speaker 2: 28:44

Yeah, it's huge.

Speaker 1: 28:45

Rescues survive and can save more animals with fosters. If they have no new fosters and adoptions are slow, obviously you're stuck. You can't move more animals in. Can you talk a little bit about how fosters work with you and what that's and why it's important for you to have them?

Speaker 2: 29:03

Yeah well, I think one of the things that and I'm sure there's probably a lot of rescues that are like this, but one of the things that I think we do that makes fostering easy which sort of boggles my mind as to why I don't have more fosters than I have is that we provide everything. If a foster calls me up and says they want a certain type of nipple for a baby bottle for the babies that they've got, I will have it on their porch the next day. Our rescue. We don't believe that the foster, they're already giving their time, their love, their energy. We don't want them to have to spend money out of their own pocket and so we'll provide everything that you need. I also think that we do a really good job of determining what the level of commitment is going to be time-wise and matching that to you and your schedule, and so I'm never going to leave a foster with. I told you it was going to be two weeks, but now you've still got this animal six months later. Now, if you want to keep the animal, but once that two weeks is up, I'm going to call you and say would you like to continue to keep the animal, because obviously we haven't found an adopter or it still needs this medical treatment. But in order to be able to do that, I have to leave a spot here at the rescue ranch for that animal to come back. If you decide, you did your two weeks and God love you you did what you said you were going to do and I appreciate that, and so I think that's something that rescues do. That hurt themselves sometimes is that they don't plan accordingly and so they tell somebody, hey, julie, it's going to be two weeks, and then they leave you stuck and that sounds terrible, stuck with an animal, and now you have to cancel your vacation or you've got to pay somebody to come and babysit it while you're gone. And then you think twice before you do it again the next time around.

Speaker 2: 30:38

We try to provide our fosters with everything, everything that they need. I also try not to give any really heavy duty medical cases, especially if I think the animal might pass away to fosters, because a lot of people I've had that happen before, not even intentionally. I had a lady that one time took a litter of kittens and they passed away one by one over time and despite going to the vet and everything else, and she never fostered again, and I get it. The whole dying thing is really tough. So I think, making it as easy as possible, we provide all training that the person needs.

Speaker 2: 31:10

I'll literally deliver the animal to their house. Once I get used to it, then it's like more hey, can you come pick it up? Or I'll drop these kittens off and you take them at the door. But if it's somebody's first time doing bottle fed kittens, for example, I'm going to make sure that you get that training and I'm going to show you how to do it. Make sure you have all your supplies so that helps, but still we don't have enough, especially on the dog front, for whatever reason.

Speaker 2: 31:32

So fosters are the key and I think there's a lot of motivation for people to foster. If you find the right organization to foster with, I think you need to. As much as an organization will make you fill out an application and maybe go through an interview or whatever their process is. I think we need to do, as volunteers do, our due diligence in investigating the organizations. How does that work? What happens if I need to give the animal back, asking lots of questions? What's provided so that you know that you're getting in with a reputable rescue that's going to support you in that process. I think that's an important thing for volunteers.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Yeah, I think that's so important. Not only getting to know the people who work in the rescue, like yourself. Speaking to other people who have fostered for them is a good way to get a sense. Did they take care of this? Did they respond to you right away? Because I have heard of people fostering and then they're like left in the lurch. They have this animal, they're not responding, they don't have what they need and that's like you said. It's not going to make them want to foster again. So it is important to set your fosters up for success and it sounds like that's exactly what you do and anyone considering fostering investigate the shelters, the rescues, whoever you're considering, learn what you can yourself, ask the right questions and just get yourself prepared, because those animals need you. But we want to set you up for success so that you come back again and not the opposite.

Speaker 2: 32:52

Exactly and also thinking about. Sometimes fosters, especially with their first couple of animals, get super, super attached. So I always try to encourage individuals and telling their children for those who have children that are going to be involved in the process I said just tell them that this is Miss Amy's kitty cat and you're going to watch Miss Amy's kitty cat for two weeks while she's out of town, or these puppies are, so that they don't. It's a little bit easier to give them up because the whole foster fail and I know there's a nicer word for that people have come up with but basically a foster fail is when you take in that foster and then you fall in love with it and you decide you want to keep it. The dilemma is, on one hand, great, I got an adoption. On another hand, great.

Speaker 2: 33:32

I lost a foster, because now you're preoccupied with your own puppy and this pipeline can get bottled up and backed up pretty quickly if people just adopt everything that comes through their house. So it's important to think about it as you're part of the pipeline. You're just part of this process of getting that animal to its forever home, not being its forever home.

Speaker 1: 33:54

Right, I think that's so important. I think a lot of people fear, like well, they're going to want me to keep it. Actually, no, we need fosters to, like you said, be the middle point from the rescue to the forever home. If you're considering adopting and you want to do a foster to adopt, those are also available too, from rescues as well as from shelters. A lot of times shelters will say yes to a foster, to potential adopter, because that still gets one cage open at the shelter and they know you're considering it. But you want a test drive sort of situation and sometimes you need that if you have other pets. You want to see how they do, because how especially a dog, how animals behave in shelters is not actually how they are. They're in a very different situation.

Speaker 1: 34:37

So, yeah, fosters are so important, but I think, like you said, if you really want to be a foster that's going to continue to help, you don't want them adopting everything that comes Right. I would never tell somebody.

Speaker 2: 34:48

Yeah, I would never tell somebody no if they truly wanted to adopt it. But I know that when I first started volunteering at the shelter and I thought it was a great rule it was told to us right at orientation that you may not adopt anything for the first six months of volunteering. And I don't know that six months is a magic timeline. I think it's more of a don't fall in love with the first thing, you fall in love with kind of thing and what I have learned, having I have personally fostered and I'm not necessarily even counting the 25 or 30 cats that are in my cat room. I'm talking about when I had them in my house and I'm personally providing the day-to-day care.

Speaker 2: 35:19

I fostered more than 4,000 animals and I remember the first ones, the 4,000 animals, and I remember the first ones. The first ones were basically named after the chipmunks and it was near Christmas time and whatever else, and I remember those kittens and I remember thinking how am I going to ever give these guys up Because they're so special and you know what? There's been hundreds of so specials along the way, even to this day I'll have somebody come through. I just adopted out a French bulldog and it was like I think I might need to keep her because she's so special. And yes she is. She's super special and she's probably even getting more special love and attention at her new mom's house than she does here. And guess what? Tomorrow there'll be another super special. It's amazing how many wonderful animals there are that just touch your heart. And just when you think you couldn't like or love anything more, here comes this other guy or gal and it's pretty amazing the animals that you get to have in your life when you foster and volunteer in this way, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 36:15

I know having done dog adoption events. There were so many dogs that I was like, oh my God. I want to take you home and having to take them back to the shelter after an event and they weren't adopted, it just broke my heart to put that sweet dog back in a cage and know uncertain of their fate.

Speaker 2: 36:31

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:32

Luckily I have a husband who can say no to me. Yeah, because if I hadn't, I probably would have adopted several dogs during that time that I connected with. We took out time and time again. They were amazing dogs, they were so sweet. We took out time and time again. They were amazing dogs, they were so sweet. Inevitably I knew I wasn't the place for them, no matter what happened. That we have to learn to say no, no matter how much we want to help. And if fostering is where you can help, but short term, and you can do it when it works, just realize that's a huge impact. You just have to find your place in the world because I think, like you said, it can be so overwhelming. You want to save all of them, but you have to do what works for you.

Speaker 2: 37:08

Yeah, and with most rescues, I'm sure with all rescues. If fostering, if you feel like I just couldn't handle that, then don't foster. Do something else. Do their social media. I have people that come out Actually, I've got two, I would love to have seven so only one person had to come out once a week that comes out here to the rescue ranch and takes care of the kitty cats here. So they don't have them at their home, they don't have to have someone transporting them. It just it allows me to focus on the other animals, because we've got horses, we've got donkeys, we've got the sick animals. Just volunteering at a facility, volunteering at events, like you did, that's a huge help. There's so many jobs that could be done and the more that we spread those out, the more it allows the people who are running the rescue to focus on the day-to-day running or the future of the rescue. Where are we going? That kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 37:55

Yeah, I think it's so important because rescues are, it's all through donations, it's all through volunteer time that if opening your home to a foster isn't what's going to work, like you said, go to their facility and help. Help them with social media, help them with newsletters, help them with calling, whatever it is. There's so many ways that you can help a rescue and if you're not sure, just contact them and say I want to help, but I can only do this and they'll be like great do it.

Speaker 2: 38:25

Yeah, I'll give you a list of things.

Speaker 2: 38:27

We've got people like we've got a lady that her and she gets involved sometimes in other things, but her primary volunteer is volunteer job is to keep an eye on our Google forms when the volunteer applications come in, and then she sends a welcome email and then she follows up on their training and then when they get ready to go, then she passes them to me and I do my part.

Speaker 2: 38:43

And we've got a lady that follows up on spays and neuters to make sure those appointments are happening, for because sometimes we adopt out animals that are not old enough to be neutered, but we don't want to hang on to them for five months, so we get them into their home, but we want to make sure they get spayed and neutered, and so we've got a lady that follows up on those appointments if they get missed, or something like that, to make sure that they happen. So there's a lot of jobs that don't even take a lot of effort. But, boy, it's just one extra thing for me not to have to remember or to stay on top of, because, like you, I wear multiple hats the podcast, I've got a business, I'm running the rescue. It's a big help.

Speaker 1: 39:15

Yeah, I think with animal rescue there's always something else that could be done and they don't have time for or whatever it may be.

Speaker 1: 39:21

So just ask. Just many rescues like Amy's have volunteer forms on their websites or a little contact us and fill out info, let them know and if you don't hear back from them right away, don't worry. Sometimes it'll take a couple of weeks, depending on how busy they are and how much help, but they'll get back to you and they'll let you know how you can help them, because they all need something, trust me, definitely. So, as we're coming to the close of our time together, I want to first say thank you for sharing your experience and sharing some really great info and education for the listeners. But in this last few minutes, if there was one thing you wanted people to know about the world of animal rescue right now, what is something that you would want to put forth to people, either a way they can help or what you really want them to understand about animal rescue and what's going on in the world I would say two things, because one is geared towards the person who's not necessarily going to physically get involved in rescue.

Speaker 2: 40:18

But you know, just if you love animals, you know, find out, find a local rescue, find a local shelter and support them in whatever way you can. If it's financial, great. I love my check writers, I love my Facebook donors We've got them from all over the place. If you can physically get involved, even better. But do you know, look for an opportunity to do something to show the love to those animals, because that's what helps keep rescues going. Animals, because that's what helps keep rescues going. Otherwise, it's very easy.

Speaker 2: 40:47

For those of us who are doing this and living this, it really takes over your whole life, which kind of transitions into my next piece. For those people who are either involved in rescue or thinking about it is that you think it's going to be like this activity that I do in my part time. But when you decide to get deeply involved in rescue, it really becomes the primary thing over everything else. And that can be a good thing or a bad thing. And I think one of the things that you can do to maintain your physical and emotional health and to keep the rescue going is to learn when to say no and when to put limits on your activities, because I know for us we've had times, and it was probably post-COVID.

Speaker 2: 41:27

My husband passed away from COVID in 2020. And after that it was like I don't know. We just were a little out of our minds, I think, to a certain degree, and my daughter was really geared towards we need to bring our numbers up, we need to help more animals and we need to look better. Look like we're growing and she'd be out at our fence and we live on a dead end, dirt road, taking animals over the fence at two in the morning and completely overwhelming ourselves, and so you can't live like that. So you have to learn to create some parameters, and we did. We literally created some guidelines as to when and what we can take in so that we can keep going, because otherwise you just burn out.

Speaker 1: 42:04

I think that's so important because I've heard it from so many people, I've seen it myself, I felt it myself. I'm sure now is real and it can happen really quickly in animal rescue because, no matter how bad this day is and how overwhelming it is, tomorrow there's going to be a new one, and tomorrow there's going to be more, and they're going to need fosters and you're going to need this, and I think boundaries are so important. It's very hard for people in animal rescue. Because you love animals so much, you want to help every single one, but, like you said, if you burn out, then you're not helping any. That's right.

Speaker 1: 42:33

So I think one thing is to prepare yourself for that, but I also think it is to realize why we need to support animal rescue workers and shelter workers, because they are doing it day in, day out. They get no break from it. They are the worst of the worst every day. So give them some space, appreciate what they're doing for your community, help them any way you can. Like you said, if you can't do it in person, one thing social media Well, thank you, amy. I think you've given us some really great tips, really great information to hopefully inspire more people to get involved with rescue, to help by fostering or volunteering, and the more the merrier, as we all say, definitely. And thank you, amy, for sharing your story of getting involved in rescue and what you've learned, and just thank you in general for everything you do to help save animals on a daily basis. Rescue workers are amazing and I appreciate you so much and I just want to come visit you and pet your donkey because I love donkeys.

Speaker 2: 43:33

I've just become obsessed. I've got three Even better yeah. No, and thank you for doing this show, and I know you do so much for animals as well, so thank you for what you do.

Speaker 1: 43:56

And thank you so much for having me on the show to be able to share our story. Thank you, my friend, for being here and listening to this episode of the Story of my Pet podcast. I hope you were inspired and touched by this amazing pet story and I hope you come back to touched by this amazing pet story and I hope you come back to listen to more episodes soon. Make sure you don't miss any new episodes by clicking subscribe wherever you are listening to this podcast right now. Want to help the podcast grow? Then hit rating and review wherever you are listening to this podcast. Every review helps get the podcast in front of more people and heard by more listeners. Thank you so much for being here and much love to you and your pets.