Hi all,
I hope this is the correct forum for this, I've only just joined!
I discovered the "Dogs in Danger" web site the other day, on which kill shelters can list the dogs they'll have to put down soon (mostly for space reasons):
Dogs In Danger
I'm sure some/many of you will know the site. I know it is impossible to save the vast majority of these beautiful dogs and as a full-time University teacher/scientist SINK (as opposed to Double-Income-No-Kids) living in super-expensive Santa Cruz, I'll also only be able to contribute a drop in a bucket...
Still, I want to try. Punkle and I are best with border collies and I saw at least five border collie Xs (aged 7m, 1y, 1.5y, 2y, 5y; 2F, 3M) that are an easy drive away from me and are SCHEDULED TO BE PUT DOWN IN LESS THAN 5DAYS!
We are relatively new to CA (and the US) and I wanted to ask you for things I'll have to consider when I try to perhaps/hopefully/somehow find places for them in 501(c) no-kill rescues... So far I've been thinking of:
1. telephone the kill shelter to confirm the information + find out whether
paying some money could prolong the grace period (unlikely
?)
2. i also want to find out from them whether any of the dogs has particular
issues (although when you read their listings at Petfinder they sound
supersweet and I heard that sometimes/often it's nothing but bad luck)
3. telephone all the rescues I can find that are nearby (e.g. by ZIP code
searches at Petfinder and Adopt-a-Pet; this will reveal the names of
some organizations in the area) - the problem there is that most likely
these organizations would already have taken them if they could...
again, hopefully money might help but money is not =space
4. telephone the Border Collie rescue North California, hoping that they'll
have a list and/or recent contact with other organizations that I could
telephone, perhaps a bit farther up North (since we're a bit farther up
North)
5. email all my friends - though nomatterwhat, I don't think we'd be able
to foster them properly, i.e. keep any of them for more than emergency
duration... with my work I don't think I even qualify as a long-term
foster home. (I will adopt a 2nd one next year but Punkle and I are
planning to return to Scotland for an extended period of time and so
it can't be before Fall 2010.)
6. start telephoning around wildly if (as has to be anticipated) all this will
still not help much... and hope hope hope that somehow I'll get lucky
and find the five individual temporary spaces somehow -
then drive down and pick them up if, miraculously, I managed to do so.
Please do share any experience/advice and pointers you may have for me,
time is so so short!!!!!!!! Specifically, I'm wondering:
- whether there's a risk that many charities/rescues will only accept dogs
from their local area (even if they had space and I went to pick them up)?
- whether you may have a shortlist of rescues/forums/networks whom
you would suggest I telephone first?
Thank you so so much - and yes I know this is probably that reflex that
hits everyone who finds that website, or a similar one. And if I did this
more often than once ever 8 weeks or so, I'd surely lose my job and I
couldn't risk this... and it may just be a coincidence that I saw these few
dogs (and can you imagine what heartbreak it'd be if I could only save
some of even this subselection of five - I could never host them all, not
even for a short time + there are laws in CA that one is not allowed to
have more than three I believe).
But I just have to try. Maybe it will have been these few doggies lucky
day when I found the site, that one of them looks quite a bit like my
Punkle... only she's only 1.5y old (apparently she likes to play hide&seek
with toys, just like we do) and is sentenced to death in 5days if I cannot
manage to find her more time.
Thank you!!
UPDATE Thu Jul 30:
* I managed to buy reprieve for one of "my" five, baby CARTER in Delano,CA
by paying for him being neutered. Glenda, a wonderful person volunteering
at the shelter phoned me immediately when I emailed & I learned that neutered
animals are practically never put down and also much easier to place in no-kill
rescues (except if there's a huge problem). Perhaps not a heroic way to help,
and I feel bad for selecting him nearly-randomly but hopefully he got lucky for
a reason - he was scheduled to be put down in 4 days!, now, in a few days, he'll
be neutered and hopefully that'll help him get adopted/rescued...
http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/dis...petid=13545399
The other four are at the Tulare dog shelter, I'm still working on them, fingers crossed!
Advice on how to help save dogs in CA, please 
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