We're changing it up this week and have a WHOLE HOUR for you! That's because there's so much crazy shit to discuss ;)
This episode is about all the stupid things people say and do- some are naive but others are just mean! There is some cussing in this one since we're quoting the fine people in our public...
We are sure you will be surprised, shocked and will laugh plenty too. This is rescue as real as it gets.
Our featured Adoptable Roadie of the week is Billy Talent- a handsome lover who can't wait to cuddle in your lap!
Original music by Matt Setter and friend Sean!
Original content by Matt Setter and friend, Sean!
We're changing it up this week and have a WHOLE HOUR for you! That's because there's so much crazy shit to discuss ;)
This episode is about all the stupid things people say and do- some are naive but others are just mean! There is some cussing in this one since we're quoting the fine people in our public...
We are sure you will be surprised, shocked and will laugh plenty too. This is rescue as real as it gets.
Our featured Adoptable Roadie of the week is Billy Talent- a handsome lover who can't wait to cuddle in your lap!
Original music by Matt Setter and friend Sean!
Original content by Matt Setter and friend, Sean!
Hey, this is Pate with Motley Zoo Animal Rescue. And I'm Jme, and this is our podcast Rescue Shit. Today's episode is called The Stupid Episode, and it's called that because it is dedicated to all the stupid things that people have done and said to us... To all the stupid people out there. This is for you. No, we love everybody, but some people say some really dumb things and we just wanna share with you because honestly, I think most of the time people wouldn't believe the stuff that people say to us. Right. So I'm gonna start out with we've gotten our first complaint about the name of our podcast. She obviously has not ever spoken to me because this is seriously fucking tame. Well, the funny thing is, is that Bryan was like,"Well, you must have to edit Patty quite a bit". And I was like, actually, no. I think I'm the one that has sworn the most and I haven't had to edit Pate at all. And he's like, wow. I was like, yeah, I don't know. She controls herself when we're on on the air. I can thank Carla, Marie and Anthony for that, for having me on the radio so that when there's a microphone in front of my face, my brain. Starts filtering. You know to be on your best behavior. Well, I mean, I talk slower and yeah, and then my, my brain kind of targets specific ideas instead of tangenting like I normally do. So I can think of one thing that people tell us that really does surprise me. We do have a$5 fee for processing people's information, and that means it's$5 no matter what. Mm-hmm. And that$5. Ensures that our time is being used to either adopt an animal out or raise money for that animal. And you know,$5 is less than a cup of coffee. But$5 seems to entitle a lot of people to a dog and they get really mad if we don't give them a dog and they've given us$5. I'm really surprised because if, if we would give out dogs for$5, like we'd be standing on the street corner just handing out dogs. So, I mean, right? Like... Yeah.$5 rehome a dog. So that isn't the mean, jerky stupid that you know. No, initially, but it does surprise me. I, I think it's really dumb that people feel entitled to a dog because they've given us$5. Well, or they're entitled to a refund. And I'm like, how many cars or whatever have, or even apartments and things like that, that you have to pay for them to look at your application. And they're not always going to approve you but you've already paid the application processing fee, and that's not a problem for you to do that and get denied by an entity versus a nonprofit for freaking five bucks. Yeah. I'm sure that it's not pleasant to have to pay out those fees and not get what you want. But it shocks me the number of people that do actually ask for the$5 back, because I think that's really, honestly pathetic. Well, I think it's pretty petty. Yes. But because first off, people want what they want. Right. And if you don't get the dog that you want, that you have never met, that you've seen a picture of. I mean, I get it. I like fall in love with pictures all the time. I mean, why do you think I have a freaking house full of freaking puppies, axle, who's sleeping, by the way? But anyway, I mean, I get it. You've fall in love with pictures, but I mean, that's reality versus expectations. And you can't expect to see a picture of a dog and it's gonna be readily available because you want it. What if someone applied for that dog before you did? That doesn't mean that we're not going to approve you for another dog. And maybe that dog just guided you to your actual dog. Right? Well, nevermind the fact that we did what we said we would do for that$5, right? We did. We looked at your application. Yeah, we looked at your information. We did what we said we would do. The money's been spent, and when I say the word pathetic, I think petty is the better way to describe it. But to me it's like an honest, visceral reaction. I'm disgusted. That people would ask for$5. Yeah. Especially since, I'm not made outta money, but if I see someone like on the street, I might just pop'em a five. So we're people on the street asking for money? You know what? I thought about it before, I mean, when Gerard was having his surgery, that was gonna cost us thousands of dollars. I was like, I wonder how much money I could raise with a sign on the street with his brother. I think this is one of the worst offenses of stupid that we've ever had. So we sent out a newsletter that was talking about Baby G's situation and how unusual it was and how expensive it was, but that he was gonna be okay and someone wrote back,"Fuck Baby G". Oh yeah, that's right. And I was like, dude, and I, I'm gonna punch you in the throat. I looked up the guy cuz I was just so floored. It was an 80 year old man. Wow. And we had approved him to adopt a dog and they lived like on the other side of the pass. So we had approved him. The last thing he heard from us was, congratulations, you are approved to adopt. He never said anything after that. The only thing he said after that was, fuck Baby G. Exactly. And like I was just like, wow. I had a lot of choice things that I wanted to respond to him with. Yeah. Better go to the doctor cuz your dementia is showing and um, some other things like that. I ended up deciding, because I'm not petty, that... You're not me. I decided that no answer would be better. Yeah. Because, well, what the hell was prompted that? Right. Like that had nothing to do with us. Right. I don't know what prompted that at all. I mean, they gave us crickets and then the next thing they told us was to fuck off. And to say that about a baby dog is just, there's really, you have to be a special person to do that. Yeah. And then obviously, you know, we had approved him for another dog, obviously not G, but the fact that, you know, he's showing his true colors. And as much as we try to screen our applications, sometimes we'll get a shocker and we'll be like, wow, we totally dodged the bullet on that one. That was one of the other things I thought about saying to him like, boy, I'm really glad we didn't find you a dog. Yeah. But again, I didn't say anything. I thought that would be better. Yeah. I, and I, yeah, I mean, and, and I do that a lot cuz like on Instagram and Facebook, sometimes people say stupid shit and. And you know, they wanna be a troll. They want attention. And my thing is like your life is so miserable that you have nothing better to do than make nasty comments about something that does not really affect your life. But you are so miserable, you have to share that misery. And I'm like, you know what? I don't need the drama. I don't need a part of it, I'm just gonna fucking block you and I'm gonna hide your comment and then be done with it. I mean, who hurt you, right? Maybe you are like alone and miserable in your life and I, I feel sorry for you. So Yeah, that is exactly what I ended up coming to terms with is that this guy just, something's wrong with him and I can't help that. Yeah. So some people respond with some really choice words, right? Yeah. I mean, we, we've gotten emails that, you know, people don't get what they want and, they just get fixated on one animal and they don't read the instructions that we send to them. that tells them about the process, how the process works. And that, we can't guarantee what you see is what you're going to get, especially if it's an extremely popular animal.So yeah, so someone did not get the kitten that they wanted and... Which they tried not paying the$5 fee on purpose. Right. And they're like, just give us this cat. And so they signed their email,"Sincerely, suck a dick". And then what did I say to them? You're like, yeah, because that makes so much sense. We're terrible people just trying to trick people into giving us their life savings. It couldn't possibly be that as a volunteer team, there are many moving parts and our volunteers aren't omni, um, omniscient. I said omnipotent. Thanks for helping us dodge that bullet though. Go abuse someone else with your$5 because we literally are not paid to take such treatment from anyone. Thanks. I don't spend time writing emails anymore like that. That was a while ago. How many years ago was that? Probably like six or seven years ago at least. Yeah. Like we just don't even bother now. I don't, don't. Suck it sunshine. No. But that's when I used to do more application emails too, and. I would say... And then you're like, I don't want the abuse anymore. Right. Honestly, that is the hardest part. So for the volunteers that do our applications, I give them so much credit because they are on the front lines dealing with people who, I can't believe the shit that they say to these volunteers. But when you actually do know the animal and you know, at least they're just kind of processing data, that's how they see it. And they don't take it personally. But I used to take it really personally. Right. Yeah. And I would get very upset. Any time back then that I thought about quitting, it was because of the people and the way that they treated us and that I just couldn't deal with those kinds of people. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you get so many self-righteous people that you know, I mean, Do you remember there was one guy? No. We're called stuck up self-righteous rescue. Yeah. Playing God or something like that. One guy, I wrote him back like on a review and he's like, I love that you're getting so upset, or something like that. What he said was really rude, and I was just like, you know, you shouldn't talk to people like that or whatever. And you know, we, we are just trying to do this, whatever. Mm-hmm. And he was like enjoying the fact that it upset me. Mm-hmm. And so I just erased all my comments and left his nasty things up there. The only thing I said was, I'll just let the spotlight shine on you. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Because he, he really like it. It's sad. It's sad that people will go to those lengths. Speaking of cantankerous people, sometimes we're immature. You know, sometimes you gotta have fun with what you do, right? Well, you just have to put them in a category so we know who they are and if it comes up again... So We actually, so we label, we've got labels in our emails and one of our labels is actually"bitch". But then, subset. Yeah. Yeah. And then you did a subset of"bitch/ dumbass". So basically stupid bitch. And then, and then I did a subset of"fucking moron", bitch witches. Now I gotta see like who we call the... I think there's an asshole one too, to be honest. There was another guy who I had actually written an email to him. Mm-hmm. Answering a question or, you know, customizing Yeah. The template. Yeah. And he wrote back, just flew off a handle that he was sick of automated responses and... I'm reading that right now. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. Because cuz he, he wanted, he wanted a phone. And, I'm sorry, maybe I'm being self righteous, but I don't have time. And with the hearing loss that I have, I can't always hear on the phone very well. And then, sometimes I find myself shouting. Mm-hmm. You know, I just don't like the phone cuz sometimes I'm a little bit more abrupt than my emails, if that's believable. Well, the other thing is, is we don't have 15 minutes to do something that takes us 30 seconds. No. Obviously we have 15 minutes per this guy. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Let's, let's read this one. I just remember he went crazy. Oh yeah. He sent several emails and because he did get an email cuz he was in interested in one of our Belgian Malinois puppies(Oh, that litter). The Belgain Malinois Shepherds. Yeah. That was the worst litter that in terms of how people treated us and how angry people got, no one's ever been angrier than that. Right. And, and the thing is, is like you people don't understand if we do not adopt a Belgian Malinois to you, it is because I can't say it's not a personal thing because it is kind of personal because if you're a first time pet owner of your own, and okay, fine, you're raised with German Shepherds, that is not the same. No. And we're trying to spare you heartbreak, agony, and we're trying to save the life of the dog. This is not a dog that most people actually want when they get it. Not to be rude, but you cannot handle it. Go look in all the Instagram things. There's this one lady on Instagram called Malligator mom or Malligator lady. And I mean, there's a reason why Malinois was are called Malligators because they are gonna bite you. Yeah. They will bite you. I mean, even Gee and Frank. Mm-hmm. You know, they use their mouth a lot. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so they're not great for most people. Yeah. I mean, they are perfect for Schutzhund training. They are perfect for bite protection training. But that is not the average person. No. And that's, they're also bomb dogs and police dogs but... They're working dogs. Again, not the average person, not a family with seven children. We'll go into that one in a minute. Yeah, they're not a companion dog unless you are going to be training them. They are a working dog. And to work, you have to train them every bloody day. I'm anxious to hear what this guy had to say. Okay. Anyway, so yeah. So he got an application that you know, it was our like general application email that we sent to everyone, but it was personalized with a paragraph explaining Ralph, right and t he Malinois breed in particular, and the instant reply was that they felt that the way we were doing this, the application process was counterproductive. And the last thing is"you are asocial big times". I am an introvert, so he did have me there, but not Jme. So, I mean, one of us, he got right, but, and, and then he followed up again with another email saying that we dislike standard computer generated replies. You should have called and made a human animal contact. You suck. Feeling bad for the animals you control, shame on you. And, Jme replied that it was a human generated message and, explain that we prefer to use email as it allows multiple volunteers to respond to inquiries throughout the day so that it can be, more timely. More efficient. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then we would take your advice under consideration. And then again another email from him, because we didn't call him. He's like, you just don't get it, do you? You still do not wanna talk. Just freaking texting. It's automated. It's not automated because it was, you know, you have to type an email. But anyway, he said, screw you. So, okay. I'm glad we didn't talk to you on the phone, dude. For reals. But I mean, I get it. Like if our process doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work for you. We cannot please everybody. Well, going into the shelter, then go into the shelter and get an animal. But wasn't that during the pandemic And then he couldn't go in there anyway? It was 2020. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody was gonna respond the same way. I mean, it's the freaking pandemic. You can't just go everywhere. And we don't have a paid receptionist. We don't even have a volunteer that can sit there and answer the phone. And this is the thing that I guess I really want people to understand about the phone, is that we can't give you an answer. 99% of the time the question you are going to ask the person at the other end is not going to be able to answer because it is so and so available. I don't know. I could spend 10 minutes looking at the emails, seeing where the application process is at for other people. Pate could be emailing someone as I speak, Right. Setting up meeting. It happened before It has! Setting up a meeting. And so the minute we say, yes, they're available, they're not gonna be. Right. And, I took shit for that because I dared say... Yeah, you did. From my research that took me a few minutes, that an animal was available, and then I immediately apologized and I gave them the$5 back. Right. Because I'm sorry, the animal instantly wasn't, but that's typically what it is. It would take us 10 minutes to half an hour to track down the answer. And at that point it's just a waste of our time. We cannot give so much time. Yeah. To people who have casual questions. We have to spend the majority of the time on the people who actually did the application and gave us the$5 and we only have so much time in a day. Right. And we only have so many volunteers. Yes. Again, we're not a shelter with paid staff. No. And we have so few volunteers that when someone goes on vacation or gets sick Oh, it's like a crisis. Well, yeah, we're backed up by a couple weeks. Terry never leave me. Yeah. Or Jennifer Yeah. And Heather like... No, Heather doesn't do enough. Joking, Heather joking. And some of the volunteers have asked to stop doing it because of the way people talk to them. Yeah. Just be nice people. So these people are like tough as nails and they're on the front lines dealing with these people who are just angry Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then there's other people who I think come to us and we must be the first organization that they've talked to, and they have all these things to say about how much our adoption donations are. Mm-hmm. And the application process and... Oh, oh, remember we got an email from someone saying, your adoption amounts are ridiculous. You need to look at this organization and their adoption amount. And it's like, dude, It's a shelter in like a rural country, not rural country, like a rural, um, county, state, whatever the hell. Well, and if they're an animal control agency funded by government funding, and if they're a private shelter, they probably have legacy donors that have given a lot of money over time to subsidize that cost for you. It's not free. It's not like it costs them less, it doesn't cost them less at all. They just have someone else helping pay for it so that it's not so expensive for you. Right. So there was one lady who, I think this is the same lady actually, and I wrote her back, a very thoughtful response. And she sent a card with a donation of$50. Mm-hmm. Because she was like, I am so sorry. I had no idea and I should not have said that. Right? Yeah. And, and, and there are wonderful people like that. Obviously there are wonderful people out there or we wouldn't adopt any of our animals. And we have wonderful adopters. We have wonderful applicants, we have very patient people. We have very understanding people. But I really think that you either love us or hate us.(That is) I don't think there's any in between. No. That is, it's probably me. I make you hate us, but you know... That is absolutely true. If you look at our reviews,(yeah) we have one stars, or we have five stars. I think there's one or two, three stars, but it is hot or cold, and that's the way it is. But someone gave us a one star review because they went into the cat room and the cats had just taken a stinky poop. And it was between shifts so there was no one, in the room. Mm-hmm. And so she went in there and it smelled poopy. And her one star review was, we should be shut down. Right. Because it smelled like poop. Right. And I was like, that's a little harsh. And I explained that it was between shifts and that the person that was running the desk had cancer at the time and actually wasn't able to deal with the litter boxes. Yeah. Due to the concern of toxoplasmosis. No, no, no. You wouldn't even let me in the damn cat room half the time because in case I got scratched. Yes. Yeah. Well, and so we had a reason that you couldn't take care of it at the time. So I, I did like use that as part of the response because it was the truth. And so after that... No. Then she jumped onto her boyfriend's account. Yes. Yeah. And made another one. And then tried to make herself look better. Yeah. And I was like if you are so worried about the way the animals are treated, you could volunteer and come in and be the one who scoops the poop. Mm-hmm. And makes sure it doesn't happen. And after that, I made a sign that said here are the bags, here's the scoop. Yeah. Either call someone and tell us that there's a stinky poop. Yeah. Or here you can do it yourself.(Right) And sprinkle this, litter stuff(Right) that makes it not smell. Yeah. So I purposely gave permission to people to take care of it. Right. Because if we didn't know, like help. Right. Yeah. And she didn't like that either. Well, no, she didn't because people wanna complain, but they don't wanna be a part of the solution. So going back to that Malinois litter. We have never had such hostile people ever, as for that litter. But you know what I, I think it was a combination of Malinois and fricking covid. Because it was 2020. I guess I just couldn't believe that that many people wanted malinois. That that many people even knew what they were to want them? Yeah, they saw John Wick. So this one woman wrote us and was complaining that she had been turned down by like seven or eight organizations to adopt simply because she had seven children. And we thought, well, that's dumb. Not that she had seven children. No, but that, but they denied her for that. Right. And her application looked really good. We approved her. Yeah, it was fine. But she wanted one of the Malinois(that's not happening) and that's where we decided that's not a good fit. Right. Seven children and Malligator well don't go together. And no power breed experience. Correct. So she didn't have the experience. She had seven children. And we were happy to give her any other dog, but she wanted a Malinois. Guess who got the one star review? The people who approved her and were willing to adopt her. Mm-hmm. But didn't wanna give her the Malinios which was never gonna be a good fit for her family. That one really, really got me because she didn't give one star reviews to the other organizations that turned her down Exactly. But the ones who actually interacted with her instead of blatantly just like, oh hell no g ot the one star review. Maybe you shouldn't have interacted with her. No. And that, so isn't that my biggest fault? Yeah, because you see those one star reviews and well, you've gotten better, but you would be so upset by them and then you would call me or you would email right away and be so upset. And I never cared. I'm like, do I know you? No, I don't know you. Do I care what you think about me? No, I don't. I mean, my biggest fault being that I try that, I try and talk to people.. But that's cause you care. I do. Yeah. I do care. And I mean, I care too, but not to the same extent. No. But I care about giving a thoughtful response. Yes. And I care about trying to help them understand where we're coming from. Right. But the reality is, is the harder I try, the worse it gets. But do you know what's funny is like your,"What Would Jme Do"? emails used to be a lot more effective before Covid. Yeah, that's true. And then now people are just like, shut up, Jme. Yeah. Like, no, just gimme what I want. Well, and the other day, I remember when I wrote one and I was kind of in a hurry and I didn't use the template blocks. So we have this email system that helps us create template blocks for the things that we respond to most often. So we can type in a situation and the template will come up and it will give us some of the things that we commonly say. And I always customize that. Right. Anyways. But this one day I decided I was in a hurry and I wanted to get a response to her before I went out, and it came out a little blunt, but I was basically just like, right now you're the only one that can help this dog. Right. And you really need to try and reconsider these things and we can help you do that. And I gave some suggestions and she just went off. And she was basically like, you are saying that I haven't done anything. You are saying that I'm not trying hard enough. And I was like, I am not saying any of that. That that would be your guilt of filling in the spaces. Right. Yeah. But she wouldn't let it go either. And I was like, and I just kept saying, I'm very sorry, that is not what I intended. Right. I will use the template blocks for now on, and I will not stray from that. Mm-hmm. Because apparently that tone or whatever(mm-hmm) it wasn't like a go get'em tiger. Which is what I intended it to be. Right. It was... It's like, you can do this. Yeah. And no, so, no. Yeah. Because you send the, you can do this email and, and I'm the one who's like short sweetened to the point. Yeah. And the thing is, is that sometimes when you are short, sweet to the, okay, maybe take that sweet part out. But if you are short and to the point like, no, no running around the bush, what is that? Beating around the bush. Yeah, like there's no beating around the bush. Like I'm going to like straight up tell you, this is how it is. I do that too. I just try and give them suggestions that are useful, not just the answer. My answers are long. Yes. And Pate's are short. Yes. I mean, people are gonna like get their inflection no matter what you do. Right. Sometimes that is the fault of the emails. Yeah. Is because people interpret... Internalize it. Yeah. Yeah, But 99% of the people actually do thank us for those emails(Right) because we responded in the first place. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of rescues can't, or won't or don't respond. Right. Or they don't say nice things when they do. Mm-hmm. Because they are tired. They are exasperated, they are frustrated. Yeah. They had a bad day. Yeah. Well, and it's a lot of bad days when animals are dying all over the place and people keep trying to give you more. I think our theme song should be Bad Day by Fuel, because seriously, we had a bad day again. And, and that happens a lot in rescue. Yeah. And I think people need to take a step back and realize that as well. Well, compassion fatigue is real. Yeah. That's a big thing. And you know, for most people in this line of work, it's over the animals. It's over the animal cases. It's over the animal care. It's never for me about the animals. I always feel empowered when I can deal with the animals because I can change something, I can make something happen. My compassion fatigue is over how people treat us. So there was another guy he wanted one of our lab puppies. I mean, it wasn't anything special and... Labs are special. He didn't wanna do the application. And he started trying to bribe us and he was like, I'll pay you$1,500 for this dog. Yeah. And he started telling us how he was in the military and he's like, I paid$5,000 for my dog before and I'll give you$1,500 right now to take this dog. And, and I was like, do you think telling me that you paid$5,000 for a dog is a sign of like... Intelligence? Strength or, or that, I'm gonna be impressed by that because to me that sounds really, really dumb. Yeah. Because you can get a good one for$500, which it wasn't even that at the time. Well, especially if it's a companion animal. Like why do you need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a companion animal that you don't even know if they're gonna be healthy? Right. That's a lot of money to gamble on a question mark. Yeah, and I guess some, somehow he thought we would be impressed with his ability to spend a lot of money on whims, I guess. But I mean, he was literally trying to wheel and deal over a dog, and we were just like, yeah, no. Especially the more he tried, the more it was just like, No, like just do the application, man. It's not that hard. Right. Well, and yeah, and then I totally get turned off by bribes. Oh gosh. So do I. I'll just, yeah, my brain just clicks down. I'm like, Nope. Next. Is there something lacking about yourself that you feel that you can't, you know, pass? I think it's more that they can control people, that they're used to getting what they want with their money and it, that is just the exact opposite of how to work with someone in rescue. We wanna know why you value the animal. And putting in some time in the paperwork is just a little part of that. Mm-hmm. Don't throw your money around and try and bribe, rescues. It wouldn't work for us. I mean, maybe It might work for some. Maybe it works for other rescues. But yeah, don't do that. Something else I find interesting is that when people are denied an adoption for one of our policies, they ask us why we don't tell them in advance. The reason we obviously don't tell people in advance what our policies are is cuz we don't wanna be lied to. Right. We want you to tell the truth. And so if we told you what our policies were, you would lie,(right) and get the animal. And they actually think that that's reasonable. And yeah, those are the people that get the most mad. Yeah. I remember one time, there was a applicant who adopted a one-eyed kitten from us. We had specific policies in place and they did not follow those policies. And that kitten was killed and then they applied for another animal. And this time it was another family member who applied and Didn't even mention that they had adopted from us before. So when I called them out on it, they were like, how dare you? And I'm like, what? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. How dare you for lying to me. Mm-hmm. And you know it was intentional because they had a separate relationship with our organization. Yeah. Over a period of years. Mm-hmm. And so this person was intentionally leaving that part out of the story. Right. And yeah. How dare you, we miss that cat. Well, we miss it too.. Obviously not because you put it peril... And we missed it before you even lost it, because that's why we told you not to do whatever you did. Mm-hmm. And so that one really gets me is like, well, why didn't you give me the answers to the test so that I could have passed? Right. And I'm like, um, yeah. Yeah. Someone asked me the other day what are your requirements for adoption? Mm-hmm. I just tell people, we want know about your lifestyle. We wanna know about what you want to do with the pets, where you live, what your experience is, and then we'll find you a pet that fits. I'm not gonna give specific policies, but if they say, oh, do all your dogs have to have a fenced yard. I'm like, no, we don't have any blanket policies like that. No. We may have specific policies, but not blanket. And if we do say a fence yard is required, it's because that dog in particular requires it. Right. I think another of my favorite, relatively common comments is that they want a house broken puppy. Oh Jesus. Eight weeks old. And they want it housebroken. No, no, no. We've got a three month old puppy and they're like, that is ridiculous. Why is that puppy pooping in its crate? And I'm like, I don't know. Maybe cuz it's only 12 weeks old. Ooh, this one's one of my favorites: I wanna know more about this dog because I want to know if it's a good investment. Oh. And I'm like an investment? Yeah, an investment of my time and my money. Like what, what's the, what are you investing? Like investments are supposed to yield a return. Is it a 401k? And my typical answer is, Like children, pets are money pits. Mm-hmm. But they make you rich in other ways. Right. I mean, looking at it like it's a car. Mm-hmm. Or like it's an appliance or something that's gonna appreciate in value. Right. And then the same would go for when people want to surrender and they'd like us to pay them at least part of what they paid for it, their investment in the dog they bought from the breeder. Yeah, no. Whether they're asking us or someone else, they just need to get part of their investment back. Right? Yeah. And that really bothers me. Well, some of the shelters are like, no, no, no, no. You're paying us for you to surrender your dog. Yeah. Well, they're like, we want the best home for the dog, but basically we want the person who's gonna pay, not the person who's the best fit. Mm-hmm. And we don't want to give it to a rescue because we need our money back more. Right. They are conflicting because they want money more than they care what happens to the dog. Right. But at least they met them face to face. Oh. Someone else said that. They're like, no, I don't wanna surrender to you cuz I need to meet these people. And I'm like, for what purpose? Yes. Oh, remember when they wanted control and they wanted to be able to have visiting rights. Yeah. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't have that control over people. No, we are not gonna put anyone in that position. Mm-hmm. But yeah, she was like, I need visiting rights and I'm not gonna do it. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, another thing is, is that we've got people that surrender their animals because they just don't want to invest the time. They don't want to. It is too much work. It's too, you know, they're, they're too loud. We moved into an apartment. He's too big. He's too vocal. I don't have the time to train. I don't have the time to exercise. I don't have time for this dog. Well, how about I got my dog's ears cropped. Oh, Jesus Christ. And Tail docked. But I can't afford to neuter him and I can't afford training. That one happens a lot too. They're spending money on. Superficial things. Yeah. And they say they can't afford the things that really count. Yeah. And we've had people that surrender and then a month later they're like, no, we want our dog back. And I was like, we don't just take dogs from you. Mm-hmm. We give you several, several, several options in guidance in keeping your dog. There couldn't have been any less than 20 emails that went back and forth over that, over time, over a period of surrender three months before they surrendered the dog to us, and then they still wanted it back even though. Yeah. Yeah. For what reason? We gave you so many opportunities not to surrender your dog. You could have never, ever surrendered your dog. I mean, I had someone who just recently wanted to surrender their dog, who was resource guarding, blah, blah, blah. And the breeder didn't wanna take it back. The breeder knew that they were surrendering the dog to us. And I was like, no, no, no, no. You sound like you really care about your dog. We can help. I will meet you, and your dog, and, you know, we'll, we'll see what the situation is. And I met the dog and I told them what they need to do. Like the whole family needs to do it. And, you know, training's very important. You got lucky with your first dog, but this one needs to have firmer control or whatever because... Well structure, just structure in general. They need boundaries. Yeah. And really that's most dogs, but some dogs will take advantage of it. Yeah. And if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile. And that is true for people. That is true for children. Right. That is true for a lot of things. You can't blame the dog for that. They're gonna do what gets the results they want. That's what everyone does. Yeah. it's a matter of training. A lot of people just have a dog and they just think it's gonna be good. Mm-hmm. You know? Well, especially cuz they bought it from a breeder. Right. And they know they have all this paperwork. Yeah. Yeah. That means it's gonna be a good dog and(the breeder) don't have to do anything. The breeder said... we breed therapy dogs. And I was like, dude, no you don't. You breed a prophet. Like, you know. So what happened to the dog that they wanted to surrender? You visited it and... We had a meeting. I told them what to do. I emailed them what to do. Haven't heard back from'em. So I'm assuming, Hmm. You know. I didn't even get a thank you. But I don't work for thank yous. Fortunately. We don't have time for that. That's really kind of unheard of for us to be able to give time to people that are not invested in us either. You know, like, yeah, but... But I don't want your dog. Right. We're trying to spare anyone taking this dog and having to euthanize it. Yeah. So for us, You know, keeping a dog in a home. Mm-hmm. I mean, that is our job. Usually it's keeping our dogs in the homes that we've put them in. Yeah. But you know, any dog at this point that can stay in a home is gonna be better off because the minute it leaves it's potentially going to be euthanized, especially right now. But I mean, who does that? No one else does that. No one else goes out of their way and offers all these things. They're just like, I can't take your dog. And whether that's said nicely or not(Mm-hmm) that's, that's all you get most of the time. Right. But yeah, we don't get thanked very often. Thank you for my lunch that you didn't get me today. I know. I was like, now I've set a precedent. She's gonna be mad that I didn't bring lunch for her. Good thing I ate. Yeah. But we don't need each other's validation. And that's part of why we work together so well is that we just wanna trust each other to know that we're gonna get the work done and we don't need any pats on the back. Mm-hmm. They're nice to get. I mean, it is nice when a volunteer says, you know what, I bet people don't thank you very often for what you do and how hard you work, and it's true. I thank you for that. I didn't. Cause we don't need another dog. I didn't know about that story and I appreciate that you took the time to do that. Well, you forwarded it to me and I was like, ah, I don't know. We don't need your dogs. No. If you, if you can work with your dog and keep your dog, we're gonna help you with that. Obviously if she wanted more ongoing training, we have trainers, we have, in-home sessions and we are starting to do, some group sessions and, one-on-ones and things like that. We will help in that regard. But it was just a meet and greet and I was just like, yeah, we don't need this dog. And you obviously love your dog. So here. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There was another person didn't wanna train the dog. The dog was already a year old and they lived only a few minutes from our training center and they were thinking about rehoming it. And I said, well, why don't you bring the dog to training? Cause they weren't hurting for money either. Right. Why don't you bring the dog to training? We can show you how to help manage this dog. Mm-hmm. So that you don't have to give it up. They refused to drive the less than 10 minutes. They said they were too busy, but then they wanted all the control. They even wouldn't even bring the dog to the facility for an evaluation. They insisted that we had to go to their house. I'm like, we can't do that. Yeah, no. We don't have time for that. Yeah. If you want help, you come to us. Mm-hmm. Like well show us that you want help and we're happy to help. We're not gonna cater to you. This dog was completely unsocialized it. It ended up being evaluated because one of our trainers ended up going over there. And was like, we don't wanna take this dog. Mm-hmm. It didn't need like major help, but it needed anything from them. Mm. They were one of those people who had made a lot of demands and then did nothing and wanted us to completely cater to them. And I was really surprised. Mm-hmm. And it was a friend of a friend and I just told the friend, I was like, I'm really sorry, but this isn't how it works. Right. That person knows this isn't how it works, because they had fostered before. Right. And she's like, I just really wanna help this dog. And I was like, I don't have any fosters. If they would bring it to training(mm-hmm) then I would get a better feel(mm-hmm) of whether or not we can fit this dog in somewhere. And maybe it's not as bad as we think or maybe we can help it improve so quickly that they don't want to(yeah) give it up. We have a litter quitter program where we take a litter of animals, whether it's puppies or kittens, and then we, spay and neuter the adults in the home so that there are no more litters, hence litter quitter, cuz then the litter actually gets spayed and neutered as well before they get adopted. And there's no more litters from this particular... Well, we don't wanna see five animals for everyone we save. Right? Which is what would happen if we didn't spay or neuter every animal we come in contact with. Right. And then, so someone who wanted to surrender their kittens, a litter of kittens to us like years ago. And it was their third accidental litter. So we said, Hey, we have this litter quitter program. We will take your kittens and then we will spay the mother, and the person refused saying, no, that's cruel. But having kittens upon kittens I mean cats are not like dogs. Dogs will go into heat twice a year. That's only twice a year compared to cats who, when we have kitten season here in Washington, when the ground is no longer freezing, they start going to heat, and cats can actually start going into heat when their kittens are six weeks old, and then have continuous. Kittens upon kittens upon kittens. Well, and what is cruel about it? It's not cruel to constantly have homeless kittens that you're trying to find a home for when you know animals are dying in the shelters? That just doesn't even make sense. That to me is like when people tell us that brothers and sisters know better than to breed. We got two puppies that were like six or seven months old, maybe eight months old, but old enough that we were shocked that they hadn't had a litter. And I must have said that to them, or something along those lines. And they're like, what do you mean they're brother and sister? They know better. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like she really believes that. She really believes that animals know that they're brother and sister and that they shouldn't breed. Yeah. No, not at all. Hello. That's what are hoarding situations, they're pretty much all inbred, you know? Yeah. That is definitely the start of a hoarding situation. Right. But they felt that it was too cruel to spay the mother. It was not too cruel to let her deplete her system with continuous litters and possibly get mammary tumors. And even worse, pyometra a life-threatening condition because of so many, so many kittens. Well, and that's something that we see actually a lot. I've never met a dog over the age of seven that doesn't have mammary tumors, because they weren't spayed at an earlier age. And a fair amount of dogs get pyometra. Mm-hmm. And it's an infection in the uterus and it will kill your dog and it will just randomly happen and it costs thousands of dollars at that point to deal with it and spay your dog. Right. If people spayed their dogs, then that wouldn't happen. But I guess I just wonder what they're waiting for. And, I don't know why anyone can deal with the being in heat all the time either. Oh gosh. Especially cats, right? Because they're so loud. But I mean, kind of like the dogs today, I mean, the cats are so loud. Yeah. The dogs are being special today. Super special. Pyometra is basically a puss filled uterus. And what can happen is that it can actually burst. And that's when it becomes life threatening because all this pus, all this infection is throughout their body now. Yeah. Instead of contained. And there's no way to tell if it's going to happen to your dog or not. And every time an animal has a litter that endangers them as well. There's a lot of things that could happen from having a litter. And is that woman gonna take the cat to the vet and take care of it if it is struggling in childbirth? I was gonna say during labor and you know, the answer is no. Yeah. So that's really, unfortunately, that's really sad. And we, and we've seen quite a few pyometra cats more so than the dogs. We still get some dogs, but a lot of cats we get have pyometra. So this isn't really stupid. I guess it's just kind of a little shocking or, hard to believe that people don't maybe understand that this is not how to go about things. But there was a dog that got loose and when it came back, its eye was falling out. Mm. And the vet said it was$400 to remove the eye, which is actually really cheap. That is, yeah. For enucleation. And I understand that there are families that can't pay that, but so they said, no, we can't do that. Euthanize the dog and the vet was like, mm, no and called us, which happens a lot. We removed the eye and was in the process of healing. We were ready to find him another home. And then one of the family members came back and asked if they could have the dog back. And I was like, I'm sorry it's really unfortunate, but we can't give you the dog back. You know, in the whole scheme of things,$400 isn't that much. Right. That it would be worth the dog dying over and just, the whole cycle could be repeated. I understand that they love the dog, but it was our job at that point to put him in a home where he would never again face death for something really so simple. Right. I mean, I think maybe they think we are stupid because remember how we had the one dog who was hit by a car and she needed surgery. The ER called us and so we fixed her, but then they had a friend email for an application. Ah, I do remember this one. Yeah. Yeah. So they were basically trying to get the friend to adopt the dog so that they could get it back and without talking to us, without anything. And there have been situations where the family couldn't afford the surgery. Right. We did the surgery... We did that with the dog who needed the amputation or whatever. Yeah. The dog literally jumped off the couch, broke its leg. And the family didn't have the money and so they were crying and upset. And they surrendered it to us. Mm-hmm. We did the amputation and then they came back and said, Hey, we raised some money. Right. Can we have the dog back? And I was like, hell yeah. Here you go. Yeah. And it wasn't even all of the money, they just raised it. But they tried. Right. They raised a portion of it. Mm-hmm. And we gave them the dog back because we don't wanna keep a dog that someone loves. Right. But that family could have raised money instead of trying to cheat and have someone else adopt the dog to get it back from us... Which is what they did. That whole subterfuge thing. And even the friend didn't say that they knew the other family. We found out. Yeah, you were sleuthy. I don't even know how you... I know because I'm awesome. I kind of like made targeted questions of like, why, and I mean, they even had a friend from out of town. It was very, very... Just really sketch, sketchy, conniving. Like why? Yeah. Yeah. Very conniving. Like... Like, geez... The thing is it sounded like you drove over your dog. Yes. That was actually the clincher that they backed over the dog! Yeah. So they, and the dog should have known better than to be in the driveway. The dog should have known better. That's right. That's what made that one really, really special. Just, yeah. You know, what I find funny is when people color coordinate, I mean, you get people wanting to surrender because they got new furniture and the animal no longer matches that furniture. So when they shed you, you can see that white hair on a black sofa. That's really happened. Yeah, it has because people are materialistic I guess, and we have applications that they want a light colored dog because they have light colored carpet. They have, you know, whatever. And I'm like, so you're telling me that for 15 years you are not gonna change your furniture? You're not gonna change your carpet? No. They're telling you that they're gonna give us the dog back when they buy new furniture. That's what they're gonna tell you? Yeah. No. Then the application answer becomes the surrender reason. So Do we have that on there? I don't think for, I don't. We should just throw that in there just to trick people just to be like, what? I know. Trip'em up and they'll be like, wait, is this, are they for real? Yeah. No, we are for real. What is your surrender reason? Change my furniture. Yeah. Okay, so remember when we took some dogs from a hoarding situation, the woman contacted us and said she couldn't take care of the dogs anymore. And that dog bit you, when you went to get it out of the crate at the vet? Yeah, but then we spayed and neutered the dogs. Oh, she lost her shit when you spayed that dog. Yeah. She didn't want us to spay the dog. I think because she... She wanted to breed it again. Yes. Cause that's what she was doing. Yeah. She wanted it back. Mm-hmm. And she was mad that we had spayed it. Yeah. But that was the whole point. That was why she, part of why she gave us the dog. Mm-hmm. But then she regretted it and she started going off about our car. And how we spent all the money on the advertising. And you're like, no, that was all donation lady. Yeah. And then she went off on my boots. I have these boots that are like motorcycle boots and they have all these, studs on'em. Mm-hmm. So they're like really sparkly metal. And she's like, in your$600 boots, I wonder where all the money's going. And I was like, oh lady, but, but yeah, she started taking like personal stabs. Yeah. And trying to get us to, to. I don't know. Insinuating that we were embezzling or something. Right? Yeah. And I, I remember that situation because she had quite a few of these dogs that she bred, like these choodles or something like chihuahua poodle things or something. What she was with it. Yeah, she was, I can't remember, but she was trying to make a new breed. Yeah. And it was a hoarding situation. I mean, you went to the house. It was... It was bad. It was like funky town. Yeah. And we took the dogs out. And I remember like, cuz normally I never take a dog in the parking lot, but something was up with the crate or something that I, I opened it. Yeah. Maybe she had pooped or something. I don't remember. Yeah. It was unusual that you grabbed the door of the crate and. I think actually you just grabbed it to pull it forward so that you could get it out. And she, she got you through the crate door? No, no, no, no. The, the door was open, but instead of being in the back of the crate, she lunged forward and grabbed my hand and drew my hand into the crate. Yeah. And I let her, you know, because like, what am I gonna do? Like pull my hand back and get a deeper puncture? Yeah, you were like, she just bit me and then I see your hand, like the blood is just pouring out on the ground. And I was like, holy shit. Like, she really, did she really? Yeah. That was a hardcore bite. And because it was a hoarding situation she was not socialized and I mean, the lady didn't even give two shits. No. Yeah, she didn't, I told her that, that, you know, this is a doctor you had serious, you sent to the Yeah, yeah. You, you made me leave the vet. Mm-hmm. Both you and the vet. Mm-hmm. Were like, you're going to urgent care. Mm-hmm. And I was like, it is just, Just a bite and you're like, no, pretty bad. Like, there's blood everywhere. I'm like dripping. Just dripping. It was dripping everywhere It's the little dog's man. And that dog ended up not being that bad. It wasn't. She was. She wasn't adoptable. That's why you gave her back. Oh, you're right. She was not adoptable. No, but she was But she was with you. She was with me. You're right. She was not adoptable. And actually one of the kittens crawled out of their crate, I don't even remember how crawled under the door of the bathroom and into this dog's crate. And they were sleeping together. Wow. And I remember thinking like, oh my gosh. So lucky. Lucky that you did not get eaten by this dog. Mm-hmm. But you're right. And that's one of the few times that we have given a dog back to somebody. Yeah. Because... But we made sure she was spayed. Yeah. Because we didn't want to euthanize her. Right. But she was not adoptable. And so we thought, fine lady, we'll give you your angry bity dog back. Yeah. I mean, and we've been bitten by dogs before, but not, I mean, and it's not like we go looking for or expecting bites. That was pretty, But that was a very, very severe bite. I mean, if that was like a kid's face or something like that, I mean there was no, no, and it wasn't even it, like I said, it was exactly, yeah. It was completely uncharacteristic of the situation. Yeah. And, and anything that we'd ever seen before. Yeah. But yeah, dogs rarely surprise us. Mm-hmm. And that one was pretty shocking. Yeah, that was, yeah. That was crazy Town. While we do try to screen our applicants so that we get forever homes, sometimes people do slip through the cracks. I mean, you, you've got people who can really do great tests, who are great testers,(or some) I was not one of them, but... Sometimes they're lying to themselves. Yeah. But then there's just the people that just surprise you, right? Yeah. And, and you think it's a good family. They have another dog, they've got great vet history, and then, you know, six years down the road they're like, Hey, the dog barks too much. We wanna get rid of it. And we wanna rehome it through a different organization. Yeah. Which doesn't make any sense because our contract says, no, the dog is with you or with us. Mm-hmm. And you're telling us,(right) so why would you try and re-home it through a different organization? That one really blows my mind. Yeah. And then for barking. You got a puppy and now it's six years old and you never trained your dog not to bark. Sorry that's on you. We didn't give you a quote unquote defective dog. Well, and what's wrong? How can they not love the dog and think that there's something they can do to fix it or want to fix it after six years. I mean it almost seems like an excuse for some other reason. But I mean, the truth is, is that sometimes it really is that dumb. Yeah. It really is for such a dumb reason that you are just dumbfounded. Dumbfounded cuz it's dumb. You're just dumbfounded. Gobsmacked. Gobsmacked. Stupid is, there you go. Okay. Stupid is as Now see now. Now I just as stupid as, as stupid does. Yeah. That one I was gonna say, as FARs Gump says, stupid is as stupid does. And that is all the time we have for stupidity today. I'm Pate. I'm Jme. And we are Motley Zoo Animal Rescue. And this is our podcast, Rescue Shit. Rock on. Rescue. On.