Rescue Shit
Go behind the scenes with Pate and jme from Motley Zoo Animal Rescue. Learn about rescue, pet ownership, dog training, volunteering, fostering, and more- plus, hear the untold stories of the animals as told by this dynamic duo who have been partners for almost 16 years.
Despite the name, this is not an explicit podcast though the content is geared toward adults to learn in-depth about their pets and the world of animal welfare.
Rescue Shit
Looking back (on why we disappeared)- and (literally) building our future!
Learn what went on over our year off- and how we're shaping things for the future!
Original music by Matt Setter and friend Sean!
Original content by Matt Setter and friend, Sean!
Hi, I'm Jme.
Pate:I'm Pate.
jme:We are Motley Zoo Animal Rescue
Pate:With our podcast Rescue Shit. We still need, we really need to get that squeaker.
jme:Yeah, we do. We took a bit of a hiatus from our last season. Part of it was because I was going away to Africa for a few weeks, and then For me, I was kind of in a yucky headspace as well. I don't know, I wasn't feeling very good.
Pate:Lost your way.
jme:I did! I lost my way. And so we took a break, but, Patty was Pretty busy with, uh, why don't you tell them?
Pate:Well, I didn't go away on vacation. Didn't you go to Costa Rica as well? Africa and Costa Rica last year?
jme:You're right? I did go to Costa Rica and Thailand actually.
Pate:Oh, yeah. Okay. So yeah, so she was busy traveling. Meanwhile, I was stuck in bed. Cancer came back. So, my PSA to anyone, One thing that you learn about breast cancer is that there's so many different types of breast cancer. It is out of control how many different types of breast cancer there are. And I've learned that the hard way in another PSA. Well, not another PSA. The actual PSA is when you have breast cancer, just get rid of them. Get rid of both of them. just do it. Because if your risk is one out of eight women. Actually, I don't know what the rate is for men, but men get it too, but the rate for women is one out of eight women will get breast cancer. And Jme knows four people, that, and I know three, no, I know four too. My sister has a friend, but anyway, when your risk is one out of eight, and then you get breast cancer. Then your risk is what one out of four by then or whatever your risk is like super high for it to come back It doesn't always come back. But statistically you're gonna get it. So When the surgeons tell you oh, you only need a lumpectomy Like they told me the first time I had cancer. I had triple negative breast cancer, which is the rare aggressive form of cancer And the only treatment is chemotherapy. So I got high amounts, high amounts of chemotherapy. And after that, you do radiation and you have surgery. And, Instead of telling me hey, why don't we just get rid of everything because you're statistically high of getting it back No, they're like, hey, you know what? It's just the tumors. We'll take them out. You just need a lumpectomy. You're good You know in five years if it doesn't come back in five years, then you're golden So guess what you're number four and a half it came back, but I shouldn't say it came back because it wasn't the same breast cancer, but it was cancer in the same breast. And this time we did do a bilateral mastectomy even though my surgeon said, Oh yeah, you only need one. I was like, seriously, seriously. So, I became one out of eight. Then I came one out of four and the surgeon was still. Oh, you only need to remove one. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, just just get rid of it all. That's my PSA to everyone and Then I just I made the decision I just didn't know right and when you have cancer And you know, we love our insurance companies, right? They kind of give you a time limit You have to make a decision quickly of what you're going to do. You can't take the time to see how you feel, how you heal, anything like that. You have a time limit of if they're going to cover reconstructive surgery, you know? Actually, I don't even know if they do anything like for mental health, uh,
jme:I have no idea.
Pate:Yeah, I, I, because I never really went that route, but anyway, I had, Christi, one of our board members, Her friend had reconstructive surgery, loved it, did great. My sister's friend had reconstructive surgery, loved it, was great. And the thing about Christi, her friend did get the bilateral mastectomies. But then She didn't like how she looked, felt, I have no idea. I, I didn't talk to Christi's friend. But, she ended up getting reconstructive surgery later. However, the insurance company that I had, you have a year to, you know. And then the thing is, is like, once you get bilateral, you have to make that decision. Do I get expanders now? Otherwise, it's not going to happen, and you're not going to be able to do all that within a year. I can't even remember when I was diagnosed. But then, we thought that surgery was going to be, later, like in the summer.
jme:Yeah,
Pate:And they were like, nope, you're coming in. You're coming in in April. So I feel like it was only a month and they're like, you're coming in.
jme:It was like February or March. Yeah.
Pate:Yeah, and then so
jme:You had suspicions before then but it was February or March.
Pate:With the actual diagnosis because then you had to get the MRI you had to get the All that fun stuff, all the testing, you know, before the official diagnosis. And then when you got the official diagnosis, then it was like, okay, then we're having surgery. And then that recovery did not go well at all. My body hated the expanders, but I was like, you know what, you know, it'll be fine because then when I have reconstructive surgery, it's my own tissue, all that fun stuff. It's not going to be fake. Yeah, so lesson learned for me. You know what? You should have just been like, Yep, just do it. Bilateral mastectomy. I'm all good. Not, not gonna deal with this stuff. But, you know, who knew how I was gonna feel. Am I, am I superficial? Like, am I going to miss anything? Am I? Whatever. And I should have just been like, you know what, Pate, you're really not that superficial. And you know what? They have fake bras that no one would even be able to tell. But anyway, um,
jme:Well, I wouldn't say that you're superficial or anybody is superficial for wanting to try and, you know, preserve what you have and, and, you know, feeling normal or, or whatever. I think the unfortunate part is that they don't really tell people how dangerous it is, how painful it is. And, and they make it seem like it's not a big deal. And it is. And that's the part that I think is, it's too bad because they're, they're not giving enough information and I think if more women really did know the danger and how, how painful it is and, and whether you have to have multiple surgeries after that or whatever, you know, because from my side, I've met more people that regret doing the reconstruction. So, You made a choice and it didn't work out because you had to have four surgeries and, you know,
Pate:In a month,
jme:It should have been one and it was four and your life was in jeopardy, all of those times and, and so I, I think that they just, they minimize the severity of it. And I don't really think that's right. It's understandable why you, chose what you did. And it's just too bad that for all that you went through that you're, you haven't ended up with the result that you hoped for.
Pate:Right. Yeah. It's actually a worse result, but whatever. I woke up the next morning after the first surgery, no, actually after the second surgery and, Leo,. The physician's assistant or whoever. He's a great guy. And, he, he came up and he's like, you know what Pate? He's like, girl, these, he seriously said girl. He's like, that's why he was awesome. And he's like, girl, most people when they have complications it's within 24 hours. He's like, you didn't even last 24 minutes. So that was awesome. And then I had to be in the hospital for longer while they, uh, checked up on me. So, you know, and if, if you ever in the hospital, you don't ever sleep because they're constantly waking you up. Good thing about me is that I can sleep through anything. so I guess I was a really good patient but then they sent me home thinking, okay, I'm out of the woods or whatever. And the first night I was fine. I mean, as fine as you can be after surgery. And my sister and my mom came to visit to help take care of me for the week after surgery. I didn't even get a week with them because I was in the hospital. And then when I came out of the hospital, I have to say that Airbnb had like a raised bed.
jme:Oh, cool.
Pate:That was, I don't know, that was like the best thing ever, cause it, you know, it was really hard getting out of bed. I got out of the hospital Thursday. And then Saturday morning, I called up my husband Garry, and I was like, You need to get the dogs ready, you need to, you know, come down here now. I am having complications, and I have to go back to the hospital. And of course, you know, he's full of questions, and I was like, I haven't even called the doctor yet, because I know, That I'm gonna go back in the hospital. So you just need to get your shit together and come pick my ass up And then after I got off the phone with him I called the doctor and my sister that was there and The doctor wasn't on call, but then the doctor called the doctor my doctor who then called me and I got my doctor to cuss Cause she's like send me a picture. So I sent her the picture and she's like, Oh shit. And I was like, I know. That's what I'm saying. And sure enough, you know, I went back in the hospital. And then I had to, get that side taken out. And, And I don't know, because I did talk a lot when I was under anesthesia.
jme:Yeah, you, you said take the other side, but they didn't believe you.
Pate:Yeah. I don't think that they thought I was coherent enough to actually mean it. And I, I fricking meant it. But then I had to wait. for what, two more weeks? To get the other side out. Cause I was like, dude, I don't want to be lopsided. I can't deal with this. I'm very, I don't know. Is it my OCD? I don't know. But I was like, I can't, I can't. I was like, you gotta make me evenly flat, I guess. And then I'll just go and wear those fake bras where, you know, if I feel like I need to look a certain way, right? But. Anyway, yeah, so, so that's what I did this year instead of podcast.
jme:Yeah, it was quite a, quite a time. And the mastectomy was more than you envisioned. Also, I remember, you know, we were telling Pate she had to take a month off and that she wasn't allowed to really work. Except a little bit on the computer. For a month and she was like, no, no, I'll be fine in a week And I was like, I hope so, but I don't think so. It unfortunately really that was shockingly ass kicking, you know for you and Everybody rallied and we all supported you or whatever. But yeah, it took a toll like more than you thought it would.
Pate:Oh, yeah,
jme:And then obviously this, Reconstruction, not going well took a toll and so, you've really spent the whole year just not feeling great and Yeah, so it's good to you know Start the new year off.
Pate:Yeah
jme:fresh and I have a different mindset as well. Things are still really rough in our industry, but, we like doing the podcast. It's really fun for us. And, and so we just thought we'll start it up again and see where, where it can go this year.
Pate:Right. Share some stories, share some information.
jme:And I guess we could then Maybe because we're like halfway through one episode, so we could probably use the other half to talk about the future the future So moving forward
Pate:With a new mindset.
jme:Yes one of the things that we're bumping into is the cost of veterinary care has gone up so significantly That we're paying like three times as much for everything that we ever had done And it's really pretty unaffordable on the scale that we were operating. So we've recognized that, in order to use our budget wisely and, since donations also have dropped and not increased, we're not able to grow the vet budget at this point. So we have decided that while we are still rescuing animals we're going to have to be more discerning about the animals that we rescue, which is really hard. But we're going to focus on education, we're going to focus on teaching, we're going to focus on training, and
Pate:Helping keep those animals in their homes.
jme:Yes. We have a training program that is really robust and pretty unique. For not only just a rescue but for how successful that we are at rehabilitating animals. So we want to share that with other people. So we're gonna try expanding our training and our board and train and, that kind of stuff to other organizations so that the impact we're making is amplified, for every person and every dog we can, help not just within our own group.
Pate:Right. One of the things about the rescue world, that I've seen, is that sometimes rescue organizations aren't friendly with each other, you know? Many organizations kind of forget that we have one goal, one goal, and that's saving lives, right? And it's not about our personal Vendettas against each other or prejudices against each other or anything like that or I'm gonna try to one up you, It's not a competition between the rescue organizations. Like, we should be helping each other out, in different ways and communicate and I have to say that, Here in Washington, we, we actually do a pretty good job of that with like, Some organizations, we've got a good relationship with Saving Great Animals. Jacintha, if you say otherwise, I, you know, I don't know what to say. But, we've helped each other out and we, we talk. And I think it's, it's great that, to have that kind of communication, right?
jme:Well, and especially between rescues and shelters because, even if rescues can get along, sometimes there's the vilification of the shelters because they might be euthanizing and in Washington, we're really lucky that, while they do need to euthanize animals in our state, it's not as often as in some other places, but that we also have a very collaborative relationship so that, No organization is sitting empty while another is euthanizing. The problem right now is that every organization is full, and there's still four or five times as many people trying to surrender animals. So we're trying to rescue more animals with less money, with less interest from the public for adoption, for fostering, for volunteering, And there's a variety of reasons for that. But, as you can imagine, just about every single person is overwhelmed, anxious, struggling maybe financially. There's just a lot of human problems happening right now that are making it, so that, you know, the animals are just kind of suffering the consequences of all the human issues. There are solutions, but no one's really looking at them right now. As we wish they would, like funding, grantors, they're just not looking at it as much as they are the human issues.
Pate:Right. I mean, and there's nothing wrong with looking at human issues, right? Because everyone has passion. And if we were all passionate about one thing, there wouldn't be a lot accomplished, you know? That being said, however, when you have billionaires who are only looking at humanitarian issues, you, you kind of have to open your mind, to the animal issues. Because if you are trying to do housing, for battered women and things like that, you should definitely open up that housing to help battered women leave. abusive homes Knowing that they can take their dogs.
jme:Yeah, a lot of women actually stay Because of the pets because
Pate:I shouldn't say just dogs. I mean,
jme:Yeah, but a lot of the women stay because of the pets And you know when we're in a crisis in animal welfare and animals are being euthanized left and right in general across the country because there is no place for them to go it's very unfair and Kind of cruel, to say I'll help you, but you have to basically euthanize your animal, or I can't help you. I can't help you find a place. I can't help you find a job. To try and ask them to sacrifice someone from their family, it's not really right. And you can help both the pets and the people and you don't have to make a choice between them. It shouldn't be a choice, but a lot of people think it is. You get to choose one or the other. And I don't see it as that. I think that there are options, but people aren't looking at them because they just assume, of course, you can't deal with your domestic violence situation if you have a pet. And, you know, sometimes the pet is the, the whole source of comfort.
Pate:That's your lifeline.
jme:Yeah. And their lifeline to stability and we have quite a few people actually lately that have said that they're having mental illness issues and they can't take care of their pets and I'm like, well if we could help you with training because they do cite behavioral issues in the animal if we could help you with training, would you be able to keep them because You know sometimes when things are rough Mentally, your animal is the stability for you. And obviously, you know, I don't know their situation. I can't say, like, what's going on in their life. But, I think the general idea of mental health issues is broadening as well. And a lot of it is anxiety. And, if you can't handle your pet because you have just discovered you're schizophrenic and you have to go into the hospital, that's one thing. But if you are stressed out and having anxiety and panic attacks, like that's a whole other thing, right? So there's a spectrum of things, but in general, it's almost expected of you to give up your pets. to help yourself. And we would like to change that.
Pate:Right. It shouldn't be either or. I mean, you're already stuck in a hard place, so it's going to be a rock and a hard place. Help myself. And
jme:At the expense of your pet.
Pate:Yeah, exactly. Um,
jme:And. Likely their life because there is no one else to take them right now.
Pate:And you know, and that's the thing is like they shouldn't have to have that kind of decision and then. So that they may stay in that situation because of that,
jme:Right? And that's where we really want to help and a lot of times it's because the dog is behaving badly Let's say so, you know, they need help with training or whatever I understand I'm not a psychologist But you know something that gives you a source of stability when you have a mental capacity breakdown or mental illness breakdown. Sometimes having that thing to think about, that thing to get up for, that thing to do is actually really helpful. Sometimes like when they talk about homeless people and maybe they shouldn't have pets or, or whatever, those people take care of their pets often better than they do themselves, which isn't good or right either, but they, are only here because they are taking care of their pets. And that, you know, that's something that we should be able to help with, not, just take animals from them.
Pate:Right. Cause if you want to be humanitarian, you have to help that homeless person who's on the street, maybe they can't even get a job because who's gonna watch their dog When they go on a job interview.
jme:Well, and do you remember we had a situation like that where we were asked to watch Somebody's dog at daycare so that they could go to some job interviews And they didn't have to leave their dog in the car because it was summertime right and we helped them with that sometimes though the problem is that the dog has behaviors that are, you know, an obstacle for daycare, and that's where we want to help them. In all, we feel like the most impact we can make is not taking in more animals, because every organization could take in, you know, three to five times as many animals, if they really could, if there was space. And, and we're still going to have a huge problem. So, you know, from our perspective, we're trying to come at it from a different angle and the shelters can try to, you know, keep up with the volume. Whereas we're going to try and,
Pate:keep them in their home.
jme:Yeah. Divert the flow of even getting to the shelter so, we're developing some training programs. We're developing, some ways that we can have other volunteers Fosters come and work with us so that we can teach them more about how to help their dogs and in the foster homes that they're in
Pate:To make them more adoptable if they're having any behavioral issues and the behavioral issues are You know, it's a gamut of things. We're not talking like aggression maybe there's a little bit of reactivity. They might pull on a leash, they might, bark at another dog or whatever.
jme:We're talking about adoptable dogs.
Pate:Yeah, yeah. And then we're making them more adoptable.
jme:Right. But there are people that want to surrender and their dog isn't adoptable. And that's where we have to really focus on, your dog isn't gonna make it. If that's the case, like you really just need to take them to the vet yourself and, and hold their paw and, you know, you have to make that choice. But the other option is we can help you with training and, yes, you're going to have to be committed to it, but nobody's committed to your pet like you are. And especially right now, there's no trainer that's going to take on a dog without a family behind it. There's just too many animals in need right now. And, you know, this isn't even talking medical cases, I feel like we've been asked to take a few medical cases, but I feel like we haven't been asked to take as many medical cases as behavioral, or just, you know, like I got this dog, like a German shepherd or a Husky, and it's not really a right fit for me. Yeah, unfortunately, the breeder. told you a lot of things and you wanted to believe it and
Pate:you bought it. Yeah, or you went on Craigslist or like, Oh, I feel like I want a husky without researching the breed and their needs. And
jme:there's a lot of that right now too. But much, I feel like there's a lot less of, I can't afford my pet. than I can't afford training for my pet. And there's a difference. And so when people say I can't afford training, that's when we're trying to step in and be like, well, here, you know, we want to help you with that. But I feel like in our area, it's a little bit more affluent and you know, people tend to have tech jobs and things like that. So they tend to have a little bit more disposable income. And I feel like the surrenders around here seem to be more for, convenience, like mismatch, like unrealistic expectations than I can't afford my pet and I'm homeless. There's a few of those, but you know, it's kind of one extreme or the other, right? But I have heard a lot about why people aren't adopting right now. And most people are citing the cost of vet care, so that's a significant reason why adoptions have dropped so much. We cannot afford to pay 800 per pet to get them spayed neutered and ready for adoption, especially when our Adoption donations cap at 600 or for a dog or 150 for a cat.
Pate:Right, especially You know, even if we go to Spay and neuter places. We still will automatically lose money.
jme:Cause it's 150 for the cat spay or neuter. And then that's all we're getting. So
Pate:That's just the cat spay or neuter. That's not the vaccinations. That's not the, if they have any health issues, which, if you've worked with kittens, they are sickly. I mean you think, oh look at this like huge feral cat colony. It's like, you know, you know what maybe one of That litter will make it. I mean the mortality rate of kittens is extremely high And I mean Even with us, we are very successful. But at the same time, we do, we can, and we have lost an entire litter of kittens, due to illness. No matter what we've done, you know. But, but that aside, 150 just for the spay and neuter, you're not, And we could be spending 1, 000 on a kitten, for example, and only 150 is, is recuperated because we're not for profit. But if we could break even, that would be great.
jme:Well, and before, donations used to make up the difference.
Pate:Yeah.
jme:It is no longer the case. Donations are not making up the difference. Right. So we're finding that we have a deficit, and it gets more and more significant the more animals we rescue. So, you know, in this regard, Shelters have vets on staff. They should be the ones that are focused more on the medical side. And then the rescues can give them a discounted vetting price. And then take the animals into their homes for re homing. And then it's kind of using the best of both systems. The best of what, each organization is good at. And it's compounding their effect and their amplification of their impact as opposed to we're all kind of doing a little bit of the same thing and Yeah, but rescues just can't afford to compete in the veterinary industry right now.
Pate:Not in the u. s.
jme:No, and we've had to take a serious look at at how we're going to proceed and we do feel that because we have such a strong training program, because we have such strong, systems too, even how we train our volunteers that's stuff that we can share with other organizations so that we can help them strengthen their infrastructure and their capacity to help animals. And then through that, we will have a greater impact together in our animal welfare system.
Pate:Right. You know, what's funny is that I saw one of the organizations that we've worked with in Mexico So a dog that was up for adoption Flew to the US from Mexico and They found out there was something wrong with the dog's hip or whatever and it was actually cheaper For that dog to fly back to Mexico and get the hip surgery and then fly back to the U. S. than it was to just stay in the U. S. and get that hip surgery here.
jme:That's ridiculous. I was wondering about that because I did hear about that story and knowing that it actually is cheaper to do all of that rigmarole instead of just taking care of it here that that just tells you what kind of state our veterinary systems are in. And, it's a crisis in the veterinary industry too. And, you know, inflation and I mean,
Pate:The corporate, buying out the mom and pops, and Yeah, it,
jme:Everything is getting to be, un affordable, unacceptable, and just plain prohibitive. Mm hmm. We'll see how this progresses, you know, throughout the year, but I'm not imagining that donations are going to increase anytime soon. So we have our work cut out for us that we have to really work on infrastructure and sharing our knowledge. And, this is the year that we're going to try and, try and raise some money to improve our, our facilities too. which that's alone is going to be a pretty big challenge. We have some, functionality issues where we, we are not actually able to utilize our property and our facilities as, as we need to. So we need to upgrade some of the utilities and we actually need to build some things. We don't really have a place to train right now That's not our party tent, which is hot when it's hot and cold when it's cold And so we you know in order
Pate:a little bit more climate controlled
jme:Yeah, and in order to really expand our training opportunities too, we do need to have a place that's more comfortable to train.
Pate:For the community, I mean we can do our board and train here with those limitations, but we want to open it up to the community as well.
jme:Yeah, well and you can only fit five dogs, and that's kind of squishy with five dogs. So, you know, a class with five dogs isn't a lot. Either, so you have to do more classes to accommodate everybody but we're, we're looking at all these logistics and we're coming up with solutions and, and we have, a lot of hope for this year, but it's definitely going to be the first year where taking in animals isn't the first answer.
Pate:Not that we're not taking in animals. We are, but that is not, you know, like last year. Or the year before it's like, okay, we adopted out this many dogs. So and cats I do we do like cats. I just in in the habit. I'm surrounded by dogs So I'm in the habit of saying dogs a lot. Yeah, even though We actually adopt out more cats than we do dogs because we take in more cats than dogs and we've got a great cat team, but nonetheless before it's like, okay, we adopted this many number of animals this year So next year, let's you know, let's increase that let's do that. And that was our goal, right? And now our goal is yes, we're still rescuing but we want to Keep those animals in their homes. We want to help other Organizations make their, you know, quote unquote behavioral Dogs more adoptable and obedient and and better able to live in a human society
jme:Well in that same amount of time energy and effort and funding we could help, like, let's say five animals, but if we're working with a bunch of different rescues and shelters, we could have, we could help 50.
Pate:It just won't be on our number at the end of the year when, when we have to, when we look at grants and they're like, how many animals did you save? Well, I'm like, okay, directly or indirectly, right?
jme:But this is something though that we do, we are going to keep track of the numbers. We are going to have. A specific program and it is very targeted and measured, so we will have metrics to show our impact. It just is very different that it's not all about collecting them and taking them in and, and us being the first line of defense in their care. The organizations that we're working with will be the first line of defense and we're the secondary support where we are going to be, helping them because we have such a good training program and such a robust system that not every organization can do that. Most organizations can't train their dogs at all.
Pate:Or they don't, you know, like, I mean, I mean, for example, like, we have all these dogs that came from California to Seattle Humane. And I mean, are they trained? Are they not trained? I don't know. I mean, a lot of them got adopted out like right away.
jme:Well, really though, training was never a focus of rescue when it's probably the one of the most important reasons that an animal will succeed or fail in a home. We are always focused on medical care, getting them all the medical care that they need. That is an obstacle, but a dog that is well behaved is a dog that will be tolerated for some medical things more than others. A dog that is not well behaved will be given up for its medical reasons, but it's really not the medical reasons that they gave it up. we realized, during the pandemic that, wow, training is really where it's at and training is as important as the veterinary care and the food and the water and, and no one really sees it that way or can address it the way that we are and do. And so that really, was an eye opening time period for us, and that's when we really started focusing on training. And now we have such a good system. And really we don't have enough dogs of our own to use it on, because we can't take in more dogs without more fosters. We can't take in more dogs without more funding for veterinary care. But we have people, and we have time, and we can train. And so that's what we're focused on now is sharing that capacity without actually growing our animal numbers.
Pate:There's a family that's coming to us for training. Their dog,, is a little bit reactive, a little bit of a resource guarder. But they got her from a shelter. She came from Texas? I don't know. She came from out of, out of the state. And one of our shelters in the area took her. and had her in the shelter for a week. So you don't even really know their personality, anything like that. A lot of dogs are still kind of like shell shocked and things like that. Um, that quickly, you know, that soon in the shelter, nothing against that. Um, nothing against the shelter in that regard, because you know, the, the idea is, to have a kind of like a transitional safe haven for dogs so they're just moving them out, moving them out, making room for more because people won't spay and neuter their pets. But you know, I had to throw that in. After one week in the shelter, they brought her home. You know, she was a little nervous, bonded really strongly with them. And then. You know, like we said, 333, this is summarizing, like short summarizing, three days to get used to the people in place, three weeks to get used to the schedule, three months to actually feel at home. So once she started feeling like she was at home, then she started showing some behavioral aspects of this is my house, this is my people, this is my space, and she's great with her people. Not so great with other people. But you know what? They are committed to her. They love her. And, and we are helping them with training. They're wonderful people who are not giving up on her. They love her.
jme:But they would if they didn't have the right resources because, you know, a lot of people also go to like five different trainers and then naturally give up and say, okay, I need to surrender.
Pate:But my trainer,
jme:yeah, we just came to us. You wouldn't go through this musical chairs of different trainers either. Well, and I'm really pleased that someone that wanted, they found a dog in their yard, and they said he's really nice. But they're like, you know, we have cats. We are not really sure about introducing him to our dogs. We're not in the place to keep him. But, you know, he is really great, he just needs some training. And I was like, well here, talk to this guy, and I said we can't take him, but, you know, talk to this guy and see if you can't work past these issues because, you know, she did sound like she really liked him and if those things weren't obstacles then she would consider keeping him. First of all, she came back and said, Wow, I'm really impressed already after, you know, just one session. And second, she said, you know, We are still questioning whether or not we can keep this dog, but what if we fostered him? So, here they are trying to fix the problem, in their home with this dog that they found. And, and that's what we need. We need other people to become those rescuers. Other people to become those people that are committed to that dog, to helping that dog become adoptable, and finding a place for it, right? Once they realize they can't just, you know, turn around and give it to the shelter because there's no one available, they were like, Okay, well we'll start working on what we can work on and that is training. So I think that's something that we could entertain is the idea that they're going to be fostering this dog and we can help promote it and find it a home. But they're committed to the housing and the training. So, one of the issues that we're having at, at our, property is that we don't have any indoor space for training. So we really do need a space that's climate controlled where we can gather and work together with our dogs. So it's one thing if our staff and volunteers agree to be out in the cold, our foster dogs or whatever, but it's a whole other thing to have a class when it's, 40 degrees out and rainy and everybody in the class is freezing and then they don't want to pay attention or whatever. So
Pate:hands get really cold.
jme:Yes. So we've made due, for the last almost three years with a training tent. And, it is showing its age. And it is going to be a harder thing to replace because it's a bigger area. Right now it's a 20 by 40 and that's actually too small. So, so we need a bigger place, but what's even more, pressing right now really is the washroom. And that's where we do laundry and dishes. And
Pate:the grooming for the dogs.
jme:Yeah, dog grooming. Yeah. Baths. Mm hmm. The building is dilapidated and it is pretty much getting ready to fall down any minute. So we are kind of in a race to figure out how to fix it, sorry, how to replace it because there really is no fix, no fixing it. So, we're trying to do that. We also have some Fence poles that are really weak and we need to replace the fence immediately And so everything is kind of priority one and yet it's really expensive So what we got quotes from basically twenty to forty thousand dollars for the fencing
Pate:which is crazy
jme:That's a lot
Pate:so crazy.
jme:Yeah, and We're looking at some trailers, like office, mobile offices. We're looking at shipping containers. We're looking at a few different options, but we're still looking at like a 30, 000 problem and we need to raise some funds to be able to fix that. But the good thing is too, that, especially for the washroom is that Fixing it and expanding to our grooming area. We can actually increase our revenue. Why don't you talk about that?
Pate:We can offer the grooming. Mm hmm. Yes, our grooming has been extremely limited to Baths, right? So baths, brush, brush blowout, nails once we get this building we can actually have a devoted grooming room that does include the bath and actual, you know, get your dog's hair cut.
jme:Well, and one of our skilled staff is a groomer and that's her other job. And so this is the first time too that we've actually had that, built in capacity. We've tried it with some other groomers, but it didn't really work for various reasons. But we still need the place where we bathe them and where we dry them and whether or not we're actually, you know, adding another service to our repertoire, we still need, build it and they will come. We still need the place for that to happen.
Pate:And then, finding grooming for your dog in a timely fashion, is, you know, something that is in high demand, especially with all these doodle owners. Nothing against the doodle owners, but I just had to throw that in there.
jme:Well, but we had a problem too where the dog like pawed somebody and because it scratched the groomer, the rules of their business, which is a corporate business said they can no longer accept that dog. So it's like to find groomers that can help us with rescue dogs. Especially for, a dog like Niall that had such high needs for grooming such frequent grooming needs. It was almost impossible. And, when you have that grooming opportunity, it's really important. The other thing is that, we can, teach other people to become groomers just like we're teaching other people to become trainers and and our our program is set up to expand and provide opportunities for people in the community to change their careers or you know for
Pate:Or give them just knowledge for themselves. Like what if you have your own dog that you know that requires a lot of maintenance, like coat maintenance, then then you get this knowledge and you can help.
jme:Well, and so we're not only giving our volunteers a path of growth and opportunity, we're creating revenue through it, and we are also, you know, giving people potential new career paths. And, the opportunity for our volunteers to eventually become staff, to do the training, to do the grooming, that's our goal is, if all our volunteers wanted to go on this learning path. They don't have to though, like they don't have to. You can, we've had plenty of people go through the dog apprenticeship training program but they do use their skills out in the world. And sometimes they are, taking on their friends, dogs as clients and things like that. That's what we need. We need more of what we're doing. And so everything we're focused on this year is to create more of what we're good at and more of what we're doing. The other idea that we have for offices like we really don't have an office. We're in this little log cabin, which is really cute but it's a I mean, it's also where the staff is supposed to be able to eat lunch.
Pate:And, but, but I mean, also it's really cute, but look at us. I've got two sweatshirts on what we've got, like our, like,
jme:yeah, it's not warm in here.
Pate:We have a heater, but it's not.
jme:No. And yeah. And so the staff is supposed to be able to come in here and eat lunch, but not when we're, And, you know, so we don't even have a place to gather the two of us just to, to do this podcast, but that's, you know, easy enough to do. And then, for our t shirt press, that takes up a lot of room at my house and so does the inventory for our shirts. And that's something that we need to straighten out and, and have a place for and have access so volunteers can actually learn how to print. And stuff like that. So losing Redmond, was very difficult for us, losing that, that space and the opportunities that that provided. And we're not trying to, you know, replicate it per se because the environment is very different. We are out in the woods here. It's not right in the middle of town and, you know, so we can't do the same things.
Pate:We can't do daycare.
jme:No, but, but we can do a modified version of that, where we'll take care of your dog during the day. We're not going to be, in a. Indoor room and playgroups, but we can still take care of your dog during the day while you're at work during the week So we're you know, we're creating new programs and we're getting out into the community of Monroe And we are you know, we are about to join the Chamber of Commerce and in that way We can really connect with our community. We were not Redmond based anymore we're really Monroe based and
Pate:Our cats are still Redmen.
jme:Yeah, that's true. And we don't have anywhere for cats to be, and it would be kind of cool if we could have a place for cats and people could come and visit some of the adoptable cats, especially because when the cat fosters go away on vacation, it's really hard to find people to help them sometimes. So, it would be great, if we had a, A little room where we could use that as some, temporary cat fostering and stuff like that. And then we have the barn, which, we need to work on and, organize. Is that right now?
Pate:Yeah. And right now we can't, I mean, it's not suitable for us to have any livestock.
jme:No, not at the moment.
Pate:So no goats? No, no. Little.
jme:No, and that's a different entirely different fencing problem to like not included in the aforementioned fence issue But yeah, the facilities are showing their age they were built 12 years ago and we only took over a couple years ago and they are showing their age their wear and the infrastructure of the utilities and stuff needs to be upgraded as well. So, right. Yeah. That's a bunch of stuff you can't see, but you know, right now we don't even have a real bathroom that works.
Pate:Yeah, that's true. Because the barn bathroom decided to, yeah.
jme:So we have a porta potty and
Pate:That's why we need the washroom.
jme:Yeah, so it it will be our bathroom I did forget to mention that though that it'll also have a bathroom So, having our staff and volunteers having to go to a porta potty all the time or our clients It's really not ideal and it's actually pretty expensive. I'm a little surprised at how expensive it is so we need to move forward from Making do to actually being fully functional, and we can do that in phases, but we need the support of the community. And, I think still a lot of people don't know we're here.
Pate:Right. Yeah.
jme:They don't know all the things that we do. It's funny because I find when I tell people what we do, I'm always telling them like about the training and the boarding and, and all these things. And they're like, but don't you adopt animals? I'm like, Oh yeah, we do that too. Like that, that to me seems like the obvious thing. So sometimes that's at the end of my list of all the things that we do.
Pate:Right. Right. Cause yeah, cause it says Motley Zoo animal rescue. So do we really need to talk about the adoptions? We thought that was a given, you know,
jme:but that's really part of the draw for most people is that they want to find a pet, but we want to be that place where we can help you find the right pet and we can help you take care of that pet throughout their life, especially for dogs and dog training and dog boarding. And we can be a resource and a relationship that you rely on for the lifetime of that pet.
Pate:Right, and then I just want to say also with the training that I know there's a misconception that rescue dogs are damaged dogs And yeah, we do have some damaged dogs. I mean Ryan got attacked by his mother Ryan Reynolds is not going to be a Quote unquote normal dog because he does have neurological issues, but I mean we've got Jason Momoa. I mean, he is a sexy little Akita and there's nothing wrong with him.
jme:No, he's a great dog.
Pate:I mean, he's healthy. He's trained, you know, we've actually had other Akita owners come look at him to get a second Akita and realize that their Akita is just not up to par. But, um
jme:I know, they're always like, can we trade you? And we're like, no. But we recognize too that their dog does need work and does need help and it wouldn't be a good fit if their dog is gonna, teach Jason some bad behaviors.
Pate:Right.
jme:And that's how it works. They don't, the good behaviors don't rub off. It's always the bad behaviors that do.
Pate:Right. But this is not a, Damaged dog. So when people go say, and I see this all the time, they're like, well, you know, You shouldn't get a rescue because they're damaged and you really need to go to a breeder So, you know who their parents are and it's like you you realize that your ethical breeders They're not that easy, and they're going to be very expensive. And, instead of spending all that money on a breed of dog that you're not going to show, that you're not going to work, you just want a family pet, then you take that money, the thousands of dollars that you would spend on a purebred dog, you can get a shelter puppy and raise it with the right training and socialization.
jme:Well, I hear that a lot. You know, they, people will say, oh, he's a rescuer. She's a rescue. No, that's a stupid excuse. That doesn't mean anything. And I understand that people are trying to show their compassion and, in some ways tolerance for their dog and their love for their dog, but it really perpetuates a terrible idea that if you buy, you will get what you want and if you rescue, you're getting a gamble. It's the other way around. Right now, especially.
Pate:Yeah, where do you, I mean, where do you think these rescue dogs came from? I mean, obviously they're not from, you know, ethical breeders because they wouldn't be in the shelter, but the fact that people are breeding, that people are willing to spend thousands of dollars to get a certain look or whatever, but not invest to have their purebred dog trained.
jme:Well, it's like being house poor, right? You can have a million dollar house, but you're not able to tackle the upkeep, or getting a sports car and not being able to buy gas. Like, this is what it is for most people that spend all the money to get the dog, and then they have nothing left over to actually live with the dog. The lesson is don't bankrupt yourself buying a dog When you can get a rescue dog for much less where the organization has invested in their well being, their health, and you can then afford to actually invest in their care and training as you are going to need to do no matter what kind of dog you get.
Pate:Right. Exactly. Because I mean the thing is, is that people who purchase dogs to show them, are investing in them. Because you have to pay to get them into the shows. If you are working them, you're doing competitions. You are working with your dog. You are training them. So those dogs are going to have different behaviors because they are being worked with in different ways to either get used to handling for shows or, getting trained to do a specific task, right?
jme:Well, and a lot of those, um, a lot of those dogs have breed traits that are contradictory to having a harmonious life with a pet, a family pet, a family pet. And that doesn't seem to deter people. And yet that is one of the top reasons why animals are overflowing the animal welfare system right now is because they can't live with the dog that they bought.
Pate:Huskies.
jme:Yes.
Pate:German Shepherds.
jme:The, you look like you're in a spotlight.
Pate:And you are gone.
jme:I'm dark. What is going on?
Pate:The sun.
jme:Well, I guess we can't rely on this kind of lighting either. All right.
Pate:Yep. That's what we're learning.
jme:There's always something. Always something. Podcasting can never be simple.
Pate:That's hysterical. Mm hmm. I'm like, ooh.
jme:Yeah, you're on stage.
Pate:I know. And it's not good lighting.
jme:No. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Well, we're wrapping this up. I'm Jme.
Pate:I'm Pate. Remember, if you have any topic that you would like us to discuss to, you know, just like banter about, or you want to find more information about, then drop us a line
jme:at rescueshit at motleyzoo.Org.
Pate:This is Pate.
jme:I'm Jme.
Pate:And this is our podcast Rescue Shit.
jme:Rock on.
Pate:Rescue on.
jme:Yay!
