Written By: Mallory, Volunteer

Today was the first day of an adventure that myself, and many others, have been waiting to start for a long time.  Months ago the process of planning this trip began and, since then, we’ve  all been waiting with anticipation for this day to come.  I hope you enjoy hearing about some of the highlights from our first day from my point of view.

 Transport:  Our first assignment on our first day was to meet for transport in Little Rock.  Each week somewhere between 15 and 25 dogs are transported on the rescue road from Arkansas to New England where they will find their FURever homes.  Usually, Last Hope volunteers and fosters pick up dogs in New England but today we had the unique opportunity to see what things are like on the other side.  We arrived in the early hours of the morning to see Arkansas fosters already waiting with their pups.  Transport comes with a lot of tears and some fosters were already getting teary-eyed.  The Arkansas fosters are just amazing because they see these dogs at their worst in the shelter, rescue them and welcome them into their home, only to have to load them up and send them on their long journey to New England just a few weeks or months later.  Thinking about this made me realize, more than ever, how important the work we do in New England is.

The Arkansas fosters go through so much to save these dogs and then they have to let go of them and trust that we will take care of them on the other side.  After lots of petting, holding and loving on the dogs, we watched as they were loaded into their crates on the transport RV.  The people who drive the RV were kind enough to allow us to board the RV and check out the inside where the dogs are each organized into their own crate.  Seeing the dogs in their crates brought tears to my eyes as I realized how hard it must be for their Arkansas fosters to see them scared and unsure of what was happening.  I hope that in some small way having us at transport and seeing how much love we already have for these dogs made it easier for the Arkansas fosters to send their dogs on their way to us.  We cheered and waved goodbye as the RV began its journey and I thought to myself, “I can’t wait to see these dogs again in New England and help them find their FURever homes!”

North Little Rock Animal Control:  Our group had the task of buying some leashes and food to donate to local Arkansas shelters and then we were on our way to our second stop, North Little Rock Animal Control.  Since we had stopped for supplies, our group didn’t have too much time there but we got a nice tour of the facilities.  Although it was hard to see such sweet dog faces behind bars, I was encouraged to see a whole area of the facility designated for dogs that had already been claimed by rescue organizations.  I was also excited to hear that Southern Paws Transport and Last Hope had already committed to saving several of the dogs there!  After this good news, it was time for us to our next destination, Warren.

Warren:  Warren was a small shelter and our group was just stopping by there before our next assignment at Pine Bluff Animal Control.  Our other group of volunteers would be staying at Warren for the afternoon to work on some projects they needed help with. I immediately gravitated to one of the puppies at the shelter there.  I had the joy of being able to get this puppy out of his cage and let him run around in the grass on his leash! It was amazing to see him get to frolic around and just be a puppy!  Before too long, our group had to leave to go to Pine Bluff so I handed the puppy off to some other volunteers who gave him a bath.  Later, I saw pictures of a pen the other group of volunteers had built and that same sweet puppy was off leash running around happily!

Pine Bluff Animal Control:  Our last assignment of the day was at Pine Bluff Animal Control.  We were excited to receive a warm welcome from volunteers and staff there, they even made us a sign and gave us goody bags!  Being at Pine Bluff was a fantastic experience because we got to spend a lot of time there and I feel like even though were only there for the day, we were able to help a lot.  The shelter staff, particularly Officer Stewart, and the volunteers do an amazing job with the limited resources they have and they were so very appreciative to have us there to volunteer.  We spent hours moving dogs out of cages, giving the dogs baths and getting photos of the dogs.  Getting good photos of the dogs is so important and really improves their chances of getting adopted.  While the dogs were out of their cages, volunteers thoroughly cleaned their cages and set up fresh water bowls for them.  After baths and photos, we gave the dogs a chance to run around and gave them lots of cuddles and love.  Normally, this busy shelter has a limited number of volunteers (that have other jobs and commitments!) and staff so there is only so much work they can do. However, with such a large group of volunteers, we were able to help them out a lot! What amazed me most though was the dedication of staff and volunteers there.  This is an area of Arkansas that has a lot of dogs, mostly strays, so this shelter has a very high intake of dogs.  Despite this, Officer Stewart and the staff and volunteers there have been able to reduce the kill rate at this shelter from 100% to around 20%!  It won’t stop at 20% though, they want to keep reducing it everyday until every dog can be spared.  I just couldn’t get over how amazing these people were and how much they cared about these dogs.  I just wish I could go back every week (or every day!) and volunteer.

With such rewarding experience on our first day here, I can wait to see what new experiences tomorrow will bring!

 

It’s so much fun to be writing Last Hope K9 Rescue’s first official blog from 36,000 feet in the air!

29 LHK9 volunteers (who have each paid their own way) are on our way to Little Rock, Arkansas for our 3^rd annual service trip to give volunteers the opportunity to see where the thousands of dogs we’ve helped find FURever homes start their journey. The North/South connection between LHK9, our “sister” organization Rescue Road, and our partner shelters in AR has become such an amazingly strong and close knit group. The individuals involved have become family even though we are 1,300 miles apart and only see each other once or twice a year. When we talk to family members, friends, co-workers, or even people we just met in the airport or on the plan, everyone is so happy to hear the details about our organization as a whole and certainly about this trip. They love hearing how we are an all-volunteer run organization with little overhead costs, and at only 3 years old are able to save approximately 1,000 dogs in a year. We are all VERY proud of the organization we’ve built..

As we like to say, “it takes a village”, the 30 individuals who volunteer up to 40 hours a week as coordinators on top of their day jobs are only the beginning. None of what we do would be possible without the ever growing and crucial foster network, who are the backbone of the organization. As we don’t have a brick and mortar facility, we simply couldn’t survive without our fosters. Then, there are the approximately 400 active volunteers who help process about 500 adoption and foster applications a month, volunteer at weekly events, train our dogs, and transport the pups to and from events…just to name a few. To sum it up, we have one hell of an amazing volunteer network that keeps this train running and each volunteer contributes to saving the lives of thousands of dogs.

So what’s this trip all about? Well, there will be some great “socializing”…don’t think we won’t find time to have fun! We have to get to know our southern family better, right?! More importantly, we will be visiting the nine shelters from which we pull our dogs and work with the rescue shelter leads and AR volunteers to not only bathe, vaccinate, medically test, and temperament assess the dogs in their care…but where allowed, we will also be leaving a little LHK9 touch on each shelter. At some shelters we’ll do landscaping and painting, at another we’ll remodel the dog bathing area. The biggest project of them all will be at a completely outdoor shelter with no protection from that brutal AR sun; we will create a structure to keep direct sunlight off of the dogs.

It will be both a physically and emotionally draining week for everyone involved…but the lessons we’ll learn and the understanding we’ll gain by seeing where our dogs’ journeys begin will only make us stronger and more passionate in what we do. Thank you so much for your support thus far, and we hope to continue to receive your support in the future as we continue our journey to find FURever homes for as many helpless dogs in need as we can. Throughout the week we’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on our progress, so please be sure to check back here as different volunteers will blog about their experiences from their point of view.

We are excited to begin using this platform to further educate our followers on the important work that Last Hope K9 Rescue (LHK9) does. Our hope is to feature various “guest bloggers” from within our organization to be able to show different perspectives from so many integral people: coordinators, fosters, volunteers, adopters, and our partners in Arkansas. From stories of heartbreaking rescues, to happy endings, to the frustrations many rescuers feel when trying to explain their passion to “non-rescuers”, to the struggles many of our fosters face and the valuable lessons they and their families learn, we hope this blog will be eye-opening for our readers.

Keep an eye out for our first official blog post!​