How We Helped Dogs in 2012

Way back when my little Wayward Dogs project began, I started this blog to chronicle the lost, stray and abandoned canines I encountered.

I’m quite happy to report that for a second year in a row, those experiences did not occur frequently enough to warrant daily posts. In fact, I hardly ran into any wayward dogs on the streets in the year 2012!

That, of course, meant I had to fill in the days with posts about other things, including other people’s awesome dog projects, including:

• Missouri’s Puppies for Parole program
• How Rose Brooks Center helps battered women, children and their pets
• How Conservation Canines are helping to save the whales (my other favorite animal)
• The Yellow Dog Project

Then, there was the KC Pittie Pack…

KC Pittie Pack & Friends at Loose Park. Photo by Fido Fetch Photography.

Emily from Our Waldo Bungie and I came together in 2012 to create a co-project of our own.

We founded KC Pittie Pack & Friends, a walking group designed to help people socialize their pets in a structured environment. In its first year, KC Pittie Pack:

• Gained almost 100 members through our Meetup group
• Held 27 Meetups around Kansas City
• Was recognized by local newspaper The Pitch as Kansas City’s “Best Way to Tame Your Wild-ass Dog”
• Brought out a whole bunch of bully breed dogs for National Pit Bull Awareness Day
• Outfitted our supporters in awesome hoodies and T-shirts

Fundraising

In 2012, I also used this blog as a platform to generate support for local animal welfare organizations.

My awesome blog readers helped me:

• Run my first 5K and raise $250 for Wayside Waifs
• Raise over $300 through a raffle and shopping event benefiting Midwest Adopt-a-Bull

And the year was not totally devoid of “wayward dogs.”

Of the handful of lost dogs I encountered, the three I was able to assist appeared when I was en route to work:

• Malakai - A gorgeous and sweet husky dog who was stopping traffic on a very busy Kansas City street.
• Tara – I knew my neighbor’s elderbull was never supposed to run around the ‘hood by herself.
• Cotton – A hunting dog I totally failed to blog about. Rather than taking him with me, I turned back toward home. Cotton’s ID tag had a phone number, so I left a message on his owner’s voicemail that his dog was safe and how to reach me. Then, I went on to work. Within 20 minutes, Cotton’s uber-relieved-sounding dad called him, so I told him where to go pick up his pup.

Foster Dogs

The fact that very few stray doggies followed me home in 2012 was actually a really good thing, considering at the beginning of the year we still had two formerly wayward dogs under our roof – Minnie and Charlie Machete - in addition to our two forever dogs.

No kidding – four was too much for our little house and the humans inside it.

Fortunately, by May, both fosters were adopted. But the reprieve did not last long.

Less than a year after he originally arrived in our lives, Charlie Machete came back – by way of a shelter in Omaha.

We still don’t know exactly why he ended up behind bars, but we are grateful Charlie Machete’s adopters never changed the contact information on his microchip. Because they didn’t, the shelter called me, and Zach was able to make the three-hour drive to bail out our big black foster dog, who was otherwise on the list to be euthanized.

For now, he remains with us – when he’s not playing with his friends at Kennel Creek Pet Resort – and is available for adoption through Midwest Adopt-a-Bull.

Influencing Others

Although I haven’t proven to be a very successful dog foster mom, I’m proud to say that, through networking, I was able to help some other dogs find forever homes in 2012.

Sometimes I feel funny about the fact that I am the girl who almost daily posts sad pictures of dogs desperate to be adopted. I know this habit annoys some of my friends, but I keep doing it for a good reason: Sometimes the sharing pays off.

Because I helped my friend and fellow Kansas City pet advocate Nicole get the word out, these two dogs landed in forever homes in 2012:

• Mia, a beagle/husky mix was adopted by my coworker
• A black lab puppy was taken into a foster home that adopted him

My constant fretting about wayward dogs also seems to have had an effect on Zach’s and my mothers.

In 2012, both of them made successful efforts to apprehend and return home lost dogs in their own neighborhoods.

I have also noticed that generally in life I am becoming the person others turn to when they have questions about dogs. That sure feels good, and I always try to help if I can.

Here’s hoping for more successful efforts on behalf of dogs in 2013!

What was your biggest accomplishment for dogs last year?