Establishing boundaries with any new animal is important. There are behaviors and tendencies that will only cause misery and strife in even the best relationship. At the end of the day, we as pet parents just want what is best for our pets, and what is sustainable for our families.

But what are the appropriate behaviors and habits with your pets? How do you find the most reliable tips among the millions of YouTube videos and how-to articles online? Who do you trust to make the best relationship between you and your pet?

Surprisingly, the answer is YOU! Evaluating the limitations of your family, home, and lifestyle is more than enough information to decide what is appropriate for your pet. The key to making these decisions comes down to answering one question:

What do I want my relationship with my dog to look like?

The rest truly is a choose-your-own-adventure book of possibilities! Of course, there are many possibilities of how you can explore answering this question. Some dog parents want a dog that will walk on a loose leash and will ignore all the outside stimuli while on walks. Some want a dog that can walk beside them safely off-leash while on a hike. Some want to be able to sleep with their dog in bed at night.

Some just want to be able to spoil their babies with stray crumbs of cheese and bread while making dinner in the kitchen and don’t mind the growing moan and droning of whimpers and begging that comes from it. (Yes, that person is me, and I’m not ashamed!)

At this point, dog owners, new and old, type the usual “What do I do” questions into Google. But I counter with the same question as before: What do YOU want to do? Dog trainers are paid to drop their experience and knowledge on you, but those trainers don’t live in your home. They don’t know the importance of sharing a couch and a bowl of popcorn with your pooch. And that’s okay, trainers by in large are trying to help you find THE TRAINER’S version of an ideal dog. If you spend enough time and money into listening to them, you will get that, THEIR VERSION of a perfect dog.

Make no mistake, many trainers have the experience and knowledge that is worth following. But if you don’t mind a dog sitting at your feet during dinner time, then who is someone else to tell you you’re wrong?

My best advice for all dog parents is find balance. Our girls sleep in bed with us and share the furniture because we like them to. We prefer dogs that are cuddlers. To balance that, we have made sure to teach them independence and have made a conscious effort to stave of separation anxiety in not only our girls, but also all of our fosters (either through kennel training, exercise, or other distraction methods). We can strike a good balance between love and independence, depending on the situation, and have put in the years of work to move seamlessly between them.

Let me also be clear, having control over the relationship with your dog does not mean you get to ignore them and only care for them at your convenience. Many animals we transfer in from around the country come from places where people think it okay to chain a dog to a tree and only interact when the dog needs food. That is never an acceptable way for a pet to be treated, and you as a pet parent still have a responsibility to regular care, training, and attention. If you don’t want to invest time and effort into a pet, then please don’t bother.

In the end, no matter what the YouTube trainers try to push on you, the relationship between you and your dog comes down to you and the limitations within your life. Enjoy the time you have together, and enjoy a cuddle from time to time! The world is a scary place, we’ve all earned to be spoiled.

“I wish I could do what you do.”

With every rescue introduction, we are confettied with praise and well wishes. Every animal lover dreams of a world where animal shelters are empty and all the animals have a proper environment to live and thrive. With every ASPCA commercial comes the waves of “if only I could give up everything and truly help.”

Resilient Hearts started with that mantra. “Every animal deserves a forever family.” Every domestic animal that we can save, we want to save. We WILL save. We will be the final piece of a decades long mission by hundreds of groups around the world to FINALLY solve the never ending puzzle that is the homeless pet crisis. We will be the solution.

I wish I could tell you that starting an animal rescue was as simple as walking down the street and taking in a bunch of stray animals and easily uniting them with loving forever families. Honestly, if it was that simple, we probably wouldn’t have a rescue. I wish that was the case.

There are loads of ways to help existing animal rescues in your area. From volunteering and fostering to grant writing and graphic design work, there are literally hundreds of ways that everyone can help their local rescue. But I suspect you aren’t here to learn how to help an existing organization. I’m guessing you’re here to start your own rescue, and I’m here to give you a few things to think about before you start.

Why do you want to start a rescue?
What are your motives in starting a rescue? Think beyond the typical “because I want to save animals.” Simply wanting to save animals will not be enough to help you ride the late night vet visits or the failed adoptions. Your connection to rescue needs to run deeper than simply wanting to save animals.

Each member of the Resilient Hearts team is a rescue parent, and we have all been in the trenches seeing the horrors of shelter life and the toll it takes on animals. We have spoken to other welfare workers who have broken up hoarding situations and coached recent adopters through hard decisions on whether they should keep their new dog. We are here to educate and support the humans as much as the animals, and aim to do as much prevention as actual saving. Our mission runs deeper.

If you can’t find your “why”, then you won’t be able to last in the hard times. Trust me, I have spent too many hours and shed too many tears to let anyone get into this without true expectations.

What’s your structure?
Will you be foster based? Are you going to run a shelter and board animals awaiting adoption? Do you know the difference? How you structure your organization will go a long way to establishing how to fundraise, how to market, and house your animals. Imagine if you are taking in an emergency litter of kittens, where are you going to house them? Will you have a team of fosters waiting to care for them, or are you stuck caring for them in your bathroom?

What is your fundraiser stream?
I don’t imagine very many people reading this are eccentric millionaires looking to pour some good karma back into the universe (if you are, email us!), so a big question you need to ask is where is your money going to come from? Few of us are sitting on big piles of cash, but I feel safe assuming that more of us aren’t sitting on an endless contact list of people willing to dump streams of money (again, if you do, email us!). Where will the money come from?

Running a rescue involves spending time engaging and recruiting donors to fund medical emergencies, food costs, and administration across the board. Donors are clutch for any nonprofit that wants to survive. It is impossible to make it without fully engaged and satisfied donors.

How will you engage them? What events are you planning? How often will you post on social media? How will you manage your email list? And how will that time fit in with everything else that you have to manage?

Who are you saving?
What is your focus? Are you going to save feral cats from a local industrial area? Are you transporting dogs from overseas meatpacking farms? Are you rescuing retired race horses?

See how a choice here can greatly influence the direction of your rescue? Now imagine being someone who tries to take the whole lot of animals on at once. How would you make that work?

Knowing your focus will go light years in deciding when and how you will set up your rescue. Dogs and cats require a house and a family, while horses will require pasture and a stable. The need is much, much different.

What are your local laws?
Briefly put, local laws are really important when establishing any business, let alone one that involves keeping animals. In Seattle, the rules say you can’t have more than 4 dogs living in your residence. If we want to run a rescue and save a significant number of animals, we will need to either find a number of houses to help, or get a shelter permit to open a place to board your animals. Add in all the paperwork needed for establishing a proper business, including taxes, and you’ll have your hands full!

Find your why
You’ve sat down, written a business plan, figured out which animals you’re going to save, established your structure, and checked all the boxes with the paperwork. But have you found your “why”? When you have a house full of medical needs dogs wandering around in diapers that need medications at 3AM and your day job requires you to be in the office at 6, what is going to keep you breathing? What will give you the motivation to wake up each morning and say “today will be worth it”?

If you can explore your soul and find that answer, then maybe you can pull this off. Keep your mind and heart a priority, and dig deep to ensure that you are starting a rescue for the right reasons. Only then can you truly make a difference.

Two different animal hoarding and cruelty cases have been reported in the past week in the Seattle – Tacoma area. 36 dogs were seized from a home in the Midland area last week, the second time authorities have taken animals from the same home. On Thursday, over 200 animals were seized from a hoarding situation in West Seattle and are currently in the care of Seattle Animal Shelter.

I imagine your response is the same as mine. “How can people do this?” “How are people allowed to do this?” I have moved through all the waves of emotions over the last 48 hours, and my heart truly hurts for any of the animals that were harmed in these cases. But I am not here to play keyboard warrior and start lashing out. There are enough comment threads out there with basement vigilantes saying all the harsh words from behind their computer screens. I am not going to do that, and I implore you to use this article as a way to turn your anger into action.

How can you help? Here’s a handful of ways:

DONATE and FOSTER:
Organizations like Seattle Animal Shelter and the Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County bear the bulk of the burden in these seizure cases, being the first option to care and re-home all of these animals. When taking in the animals from West Seattle, SAS put an immediate call out to fosters and donors for open homes and supplies to help offset the immense need.

The simplest way to help is to financially donate to an organization when they have a large, sudden intake. Even $5 can feed a dog for a week, so don’t discount every penny that you may be able to offer. It may be cliche, but every single donation adds up.

Have some time and energy to spare? Signing up to foster with these organizations puts you on an emergency list to take in last second animals, and allows organizations to say yes when they are faced with these large influxes of animals. No one is ever going to make YOU say yes, but it makes a rescue organization feel good to know they have options (trust me). Plus, you get a lot of good karma in return!

DO YOUR RESEARCH:
I am not going to tell people to ONLY adopt from a rescue and avoid breeders. I know how unrealistic that is, and you can “rescue” an animal and still be contributing to a backyard breeder. Instead, I beg you, no matter where you get your animal, do your research. Here are some things to look out for:

• Rescues and shelters will most likely have a 501(c)3 status, especially if they accept donations. You can look up any nonprofit organizations status by a simple Google search.
• Reputable breeders will have paperwork to show the lineage of their dogs. At the very least, you should be able to meet the parents if you are getting a puppy.
• Every place that tries to give you a dog should also be open to showing you how that dog lives. If they scoff at you, take it as a sign. (Author note: I have worked in a shelter that had multiple facilities for different kinds of animals, and only one adoption location. I know it happens, but I still find it sketchy.)

BE AWARE:
Hoarding situations can exist for a long time before anyone notices. Be alert. It is possible to request “Welfare Checks” on situations where people appear to be either hoarding, or abusing animals. If you see something, say something. And keep a log of when you report things, to keep a running timeline of events. These may become important if someone is caught.

REDIRECT YOUR RAGE:
Once again, I implore you to keep your rage off the message boards, and redirect them towards someone who could do something. We all know that we have some major elections coming up (VOTE!), and your opportunity to demand change starts at the polls. Researching where your local politicians (City Council, Mayors, etc) stand on animal cruelty is a great way to vote the right people into office.

Once politicians are in office, it is up to us to pressure them to change laws around animal cruelty. Imagine if every Facebook or Twitter comment launched aimlessly into the ether was instead sent to the office of your local official. Imagine flooding the members of your City Council with the realities of hoarding and cruelty cases. Harnessing your rage into an email and sending it to someone who can actually change the law is a much better use of your energy than aimlessly typing away on a message board. REAL CHANGE STARTS WITH YOU!

News feeds are flooded with miserable updates on a minute by minute basis. Things can be very overwhelming in times like these, where the world feels like it is collapsing. But we in the animal welfare community have the ability to change and support the organizations and communities in charge of dealing with these animal cruelty cases. There are a lot of options for anyone to take. Now it’s on all of us to be better.

Who’s ready to quit Tinder (and Bumble and Hinge and all the rest) and find true happiness in the wild? Online dating is a drag, and has only been made harder in the times of the ongoing COVID pandemic. There has to be an easier, less stressful way to meet your match without swiping through hundreds of strangers.

Fostering a pet is a perfect way to make a serious difference, while also avoiding all the misery of wading through your DM’s. Not convinced? Well, here are 10 of the best reasons to give up swiping and start fostering today!

1) Will Move at your Pace:
Not sure you want to commit to a long-term relationship? That’s okay! Fostering an animal offers many flexible options, from hanging out for a cup of coffee to becoming roommates for a few months. Fosters are simply thankful to finally have a comfortable couch and a steady stream of love to count on, and they will not pour undue pressure on you!

2) Always Punctual:
Tired of sitting at a bar, sipping on your third drink, still convinced Mr. Wednesday Night will come walking though the door? Your foster pet will be more than happy to welcome you at the door, and meet you at the table for all of your dinner dates. No more needing to awkwardly explain to the waiter that your date is just running 45 minutes late.

3) Won’t Ghost You:
Speaking of, what ever happened to Mr. Wednesday Night? Was it the awkward story of when you split your pants during the middle school play? Was it the broccoli in your teeth? With a foster pet, you’ll never have to worry about broken message threads. You’ll wake up every morning knowing exactly where you stand!

4) Always Interested in your Hobbies:
Crochet? Video games? Stamp collecting? Your foster pet will love to sit for hours and listen to the history of your 1852 lucky penny. Those loving eyes would love to hear more about the boss on level 18 of your latest RPG. Heck, they’ll even sit with you!

5) Would Love to Meet your Friends:
Forget about Becky’s tendency to drink too much chardonay on a Tuesday night! Your foster will happily velcro to every ear scratch and will soak in all the extra attention! And if you want to take things a step further, you also won’t have to worry about taking your foster home to mom!

6) Zero Expectations:
Marriage? Babies? Who needs that kind of pressure? Many foster programs (including ours) allow you to end your foster time whenever you have to. You have complete control over the length of your foster’s stay, and the only thing the pet asks for in return is your care for however long you can be together!

7) Down to Keep Things Casual:
The weather is getting colder, and sometimes all we want is a warm body to cuddle through the night. Guess what a foster can do? They would love to join you for some cuddles and ignore all those simply commitments.

8) Will Join for Every Netflix Binge:
Did we mention your foster will be down to keep things casual? Find a new show that you are about to waste your weekend? Grab that blanket and bowl of M&M’s and let the shows roll! Best yet, your foster will even let you pick what you watch!

9) Sincerely Means, “But I only want to Cuddle”:
Stop worrying about all the funny business! If you haven’t figured it out, your foster will love to snuggle up on a cold night and not leave you guessing about their intentions.

10) Emotionally Available:
Until now, we have talked about zero expectations and moving at your own pace. But what if love strikes? What if you want your temporary foster to become your forever pet? Great! Adoption is a wonderful and welcomed outcome to all of our foster placements, and we can walk you through the process of making your foster a permanent member of your family!

BONUS: You can foster a pet safely during COVID!
Resilient Hearts goes through many safety protocols to make sure you stay safe and healthy! Don’t worry about meeting in a crowded coffee shop or trying to yell at each other through masks. Fostering a pet is a safe way to make a difference and find companionship during these uncertain times.

Interested in fostering with Resilient Hearts? Sign up is easy, and there are plenty of flexible options to fit every lifestyle. Visit our foster page to find out more!

Stay up to date with Resilient Hearts by following us on Facebook and Instagram!

Let’s start by saying the obvious: 2020 has been a terrible decade. From the raging fires across the world to the social unrest to the most important election in our lifetimes (VOTE!), a lot of hope has been lost and a lot of cynicism has taken hold. Unless you started the pandemic rich, you’re most likely suffering through more and more impending uncertainty around your income and rent payment. The shit keeps piling on, and we haven’t even talked about COVID. Life is hard.

But behind clouds is a ray of light. The movement to stand up for social justice, volunteers pouring out to help those in need after another round of tropical storms, and the historically low numbers of animals in shelters during the pandemic all give a glimmer of hope. Many are turning inward to find ways to heal and help a world that has been scarred for centuries. Many are trying.

What does this have to do with dog shit? Walking down the street with our dogs, it isn’t surprising to see a steaming pile of feces on the grass, left behind from some other neighborhood dog. Queue all the Nextdoor complaint threads about how dog owners are ruining the neighborhood by not cleaning up after their dogs! Insert the fingers pounding on keyboards in Facebook groups about the disgusting mess that is “constantly” left behind from neighbors who just don’t care anymore. The world, as noted above, has gone to shit.

What none of these flowing outpourings of rage ever acknowledge is that sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes people forget to carry a bag (god knows I do). Sometimes a mother is juggling three dogs and a stroller. Sometimes a disabled neighbor is trying to get home with their therapy dog because the rain started and they forgot a cover for their wheelchair.

My point is that sometimes things happen, and with all the ongoing shit storms that we are experiencing as a society, the least I can do is clean up some random dog shit. I have the privilege of having the money to buy ample amounts of poop bags. I have the privilege of having two functioning legs. I have the privilege of time, attention, and no toddler pulling on my arm.

And I have the privilege of being there myself, looking around aimlessly as my own dog squats to shit in a parking strip in front of a house, the homeowner’s eyes burning a whole in my chest as I stand their helplessly with nothing I can do. I know the embarrassment that comes from not being able to clean up after my pet.

Why do we have to make a big thing of this? Why can’t we show enough compassion to clean up a pile of dog shit when we’re already bent over picking up another? Why do we have to unleash a belligerent tirade against our neighbors for something that, in the end, they may not have had any control over?

And maybe you’re not comfortable bagging up and disposing of a dog’s shit. Cool. That’s awesome. But there are still options to help. First, you could redirect that internal disgust towards your neighbors into an email to your local neighborhood groups or community legislature, asking them to install more garbage cans, or install poop bag dispensers in your local parks (this would be a huge help in my neighborhood, nudge nudge Seattle Parks). I promise, if everyone who complained on Nextdoor would instead turn their disgust towards their local representatives, there would be more options for clean up.

Second, for those more inclined to get thrifty, you can craft your own dog poop bag dispenser. It’s easy, quick, and you can encourage others to add to the bags as they are able. Again, you make the bags more available, and you won’t have to clean up any shit!

There are options to help. In the end, though, we need to learn to be helpful and compassionate towards our neighbors. All of us are wading through a mountain of shit, why do we have to pile on?

Follow along with Resilient Hearts on Facebook and Instagram! Resilient Hearts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and 100% of donations go towards rescuing animals from high kill shelters across the US and uniting them with their forever families in the PNW. If you would like to donate, please visit our donations page.

Go check out your Instagram feed, and guaranteed you know someone who has acquired a puppy while in quarantine. “How cute!” you squeal, jealous that Jill from fourth grade has a fluffy new golden-doodle puppy to snuggle and play with. You watch the pictures pile up, liking and commenting on every new outfit and selfie of the new proud parents. “I could absolutely take care of a puppy,” you exclaim, furiously Googling for local rescues and breeders trying to locate that one fluffer-noodle that is going to steal your heart. Staring through your cuteness-goggles, you know for sure that everything is going to be perfect!

I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m here to drop some truth. Adopting a puppy sucks! Think burning your hand on a hot pot and stubbing your toe on the counter kind of suck, but after you accidentally stepped in a mud puddle that was a foot deeper than you expected kind of suck. Only the puddle has tiny needle teeth that constantly need to bite any and every inch of exposed skin it possibly can (but we’ll get there).

Puppies are blank slates. They know nothing and often times can’t even walk a straight line. Keeping a puppy’s attention is like expecting a 5 year old baseball player not to chase butterflies in the outfield. It’s unreasonable. How are you supposed to leash train a being as fragile as a dry leaf on the sidewalk. Leaf? You mean the most funnest thing to chase ever? Yup, you lost your puppy.

Okay, but puppies shouldn’t know how to walk on leash. I’ve talked about that. And they really are adorable when they pounce on that leaf …

Fun fact: Did you know science has proven that if your puppy needs to pee, they will select that area closest to, but not on, their pee pads? It’s true. Also, a survey of 6 recent puppy parents says that a puppy is guaranteed to pee inside either just before going for a long walk, or immediately after you return from one. I’m just reporting facts people. It’s basic statistics. You know who has to clean up all of those messes? You! How did we get here?

AND THOSE TEETH! Why is it that baby animals are equipped with the most finely sharpened daggers that they instinctively know to latch on to every bare patch of skin? Covering yourself in 4 hoodies and doubling up on pants won’t help. So, um, I’m told.

Oh, and you’ve slept enough for the next several years, right? Puppies have an internal clock that works on the exact opposite schedule of everyone who adopts them. Again, it’s science. A puppy in North America is acutely in sync with the rising and falling suns in Australia. It’s amazing, check it out sometime.

All of this is assuming you can even FIND a puppy. Resilient Hearts has adopted out 28 puppies to date, and every family has told us how long and difficult their search for a new puppy was. Simple fact is, there are a lot of suckers out there just like you that are competing for the right to sleepless nights of puppy pouting and the lingering dread of the smell of puppy poo wafting up from the floor. Shelters and rescues alike are tapped out on puppies the minute they become available for adoption. Suckers I say, all of them.

I have to ask: Jill, how have you not pulled all of your hair out with your puppy yet? What, your puppy has figured out how to potty in the grass consistently? It only took a week of training? Puppy classes have lessened her biting? Yes, but … no, you’re right, that pic of her with the leaf on her head is adorable. Wow, the rescue you worked with has been helping out with training tips, too?

You do seem happy, I guess maybe it was worth it? Oh, yea, sure, I’m up for a selfie.

COVID has taken it’s toll on all of us, and here at Resilient Hearts, the pandemic shut down has prevented us from welcoming any new groups of dogs since Valentine’s Day. But after 7 long months (Weeks? Years? What day is it?), we are happy to be welcoming five new dogs this week!

All five dogs are coming to us from Houston, TX, via our new friends at Three Little Pitties! Three Little Pitties is an all breed rescue group that pulls animals from the Houston area and connects them with adopters, fosters, and rescue groups here in Washington and Oregon. They have been working tirelessly for the last couple years to relieve the overcrowded Houston shelter system, and have helped hundreds of animals find their forever families here in the PNW! We are so excited to be working with them!

But let’s be real, you’re here to meet our new arrivals! Let’s not delay anymore!

Meet Willow! Willow is a sweet, loving girl. At around 2 years old, she’s the perfect cuddle dog at about 45-50 lbs. Willow has a shaky past, as she was seized during a hoarding/fighting ring break up back in May. She was used specifically for breeding, kenneled all the time, and luckily escaped some of the more horrific things.

With all the cards against her, Willow was saved and proved her resilience. Despite all reasons not to, Willow LOVES people! She does well with others and is fairly submissive. We will be putting Willow in foster care to provide her with some basic training and routine. We can’t wait to meet her!

Meet The Golden Girls!

That’s right! The sassiness will not be contained with these four lovely babies! Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Rose unite once again to bring endless laughter, love, and joy to the PNW!

All four babies will be spayed, chipped and vaccinated while they stay in wonderful foster homes here in Seattle! Keep an eye out on our social media for more about their upcoming adoptions!

Interested in finding out more info about our adoptable dogs? Please email us at resilientheartsanimalsanctuary@gmail.com for an adopter survey! And keep up with all of our latest news by following us on Facebook and Instagram!

If you have been following along at the RHAS Facebook page, then none of this is going to come as a shock. But just in case you’ve been missing out …

THE PUPPIES ARE COMING!

August 21st, we’ll be welcoming in two 5-month old shepherd mix pups. RHAS is stoked to be accepting these pups through our partnership with Project Freedom Ride, a rad organization that connects shelters in Texas and Georgia with rescues in the Pacific Northwest and, as of October 2019, the Northeast!

By all accounts, these pups are incredibly loving, playful and affectionate. We are eager to have them settle in and start meeting potential adopters in Seattle!

You may be asking yourself, what are these cute muffins’ names? Well, we don’t know yet! In an effort to fundraise, we’ll be raffling off the chance to name these nuggets at our kick off event August 31st! If you are in the Seattle area, please come check out our event at Ounces in West Seattle from 1-4pm. We’ll be drinking pints of a Stoup Brewing IPA and snuggling these cute pups!

If you’re not able to attend our event, but still want a chance to name our pups, please consider donating here! Raffle tickets are $1 a piece, so we’ll make sure you get your name in the fishbowl!

Many thanks to all the support we’ve received from the Seattle community so far, we are over the moon to be starting our journey rescuing animals!