It's our loudest rallying cry to date - Keep'Em Home (and out of overcrowded animal shelters). We held six large free clinics in 2014 and worked steadily to assist families throughout the year with support and resources for their dogs. The learning curve for this work has been fast and furious: Knowing when to help. Accepting our limits. Forming strong alliances to get the job done. With each new public outreach event, we get better at listening to our community and learning how to be an effective support for under served dog owners and Good Samaritans. And with each connection we make, we believe the dogs gain a little more stability in a topsy turvy world where a shortage of affordable housing, training and veterinary resources can push dog owners to make painful surrender decisions. It goes without saying this project would have four flat tires without the help of amazing volunteers, veterinary partners and donors like you who breath life into this work.

In 2014:

430 families met with our team for specialized help and services.

120 dogs received a free spay/neuter surgery. 

221 microchips were distributed. 

100 families attended our Pit Ed classes. 

Sign of the Times: Up to one third of the families who requested (correction: begged for) spay/neuter surgeries during our events owned small dogs, particularly chihuahua or chihuahua mixes. We did our best to accommodate the so-called 'non-pits,' but there were always more dogs-in-need than we could help, and in many cases we were unable to locate no or low-cost providers to send them to. We joke that the small dogs need their own Nut Truck and troop of helpers. Can that be far behind?

Social Media to the Rescue:  Being a microchip provider comes with the added job of answering calls about found dogs whose chips trace back to our events. We welcome the opportunity to intervene in these situations since many animal shelters are not able or willing to make owner returns (RTOs) a priority, and unclaimed dogs face uncertain fates including euthanasia. We worked to locate and successfully reunite 15 families with their lost dogs in 2014, often holding the dogs for safe keeping at the Rescue Barn until owners can be found. Social media has been important tool in these efforts, allowing us to share alerts, search for dog owners and fish for leads on dog friendly rentals for families who are in between homes. In response to the public discussion surrounding an affordable housing shortage for dog owners, community minded property owners started contacting us with news when their dog friendly apartments open up.  We're encouraged to see the seeds of solutions to some traditionally stubborn urban challenges just starting to take root.

The Nut Truck (pic) purred away at sites all over Oakland this year. Each time we went out, Dr. Noe from Well Pet Veterinary Clinic and the volunteer RVTs completed an average of 15 spay/neuter surgeries while our team serviced dozens with other kinds of help. Many of our outreach clients have been reluctant or unable to fix their dogs, but the convenience of the mobile unit and the opportunity to discuss the procedure with our team and be with their dogs before the surgery and during recovery opens an impressive number of doors. One dog owner likely saved his dog's life with his on the spot decision to neuter.  'Kush' presented with testicular cancer once Dr. Noe started the surgery. She was able to remove the entire tumor and his relieved owner went home with a newly healthy dog. A great day for all! Above: clients wait in line at a BR free clinic in July
 

Goal 2015. We plan to hire a manager for the Keep'Em Home project in the new year so we can broaden our focus and reach more people and dogs. 

Location, Location. Always on the search for new places to hold public outreach events. Please contact us if you know of sites in residential areas (Oakland preferred) that can accommodate our spay/neuter van and team of change makers. (Details) Thank you! Contact LINK

< Click on our Keep'Em Home logo to meet some of the people and dogs who inspired us to power up this project. 

We offer three ways to donate. Please consider giving a tax 

deductible gift to help us push this boulder up the hill in 2015 

for the dogs and the people who call them family. Thank you!

EIN Number - 94-3397172

We haven't seen this many cruelty survivor dogs in our program since the Vick case. We can thank the people behind the enormous federal raid (the #367 dogs) for this influx. We met each of these faces during two separate trips to the southeastern US. Ten of us worked to assist the HSUS with daily care in the temporary shelter for the #367 dogs, and three of us later flew out to assist shelter workers with a special group of dogs in Mississippi.  Now in CA, all but two of the dogs we accepted - Gwennie and Chiquita - have been gobbled up into permanent homes. We're indebted to the volunteers and foster homes who helped with these dogs. Not unlike the Vick dogs, each 'bust dog' needed patient coaching to help them adjust to a much bigger world than they were accustomed to. Supporters cheered them on through some of their challenges via the facebook pages of Monkey and Melvin.

Where are the dogs coming from?

Twelve American Pit Bull Terriers and one husky-something mix (Preston!) came to us from the southeastern US, five dogs came to us as unclaimed Oakland strays or from families in crisis in Oakland, one pit mix came from a cruelty/neglect case in San Francisco, five came from Contra Costa Animal Services, a nursing mother and four pups came from Yolo County Animal Services, and one silly boy came to us from Hayward Animal Services.  

The Happiest Trail Blazer of 2014

 

 

Life at the Rescue Barn

 

The Rescue Barn is humming along and continues to provide a restful shelter-style environment for the dogs' recovery.  

        

Just for fun. Musical duo 'Tiny Home' serenades the dogs. Filmed at the Rescue Barn.

Our favorite addition this year was a multi-level kid's play structure affectionately dubbed 'Dog Mountain.' Thanks to the generosity of BR friend/donor Carla Morgan, we were able to supplement some of the climbing equipment we already had in place with some added fun and challenges. It's been especially helpful to shy dogs who need to build physical confidence as they recover from past traumas. 

No one has used Dog Mountain better than Molly, who was initially so shy she had to be coaxed and sometimes carried just to move her around. Playfulness brings its own kind of healing, and after weeks of bonding with new dog friends and receiving volunteer support, Molly walked a little taller and soon found her bravado. She demos her fun in this fun little video tour of the Rescue Barn:
 

 Rescue Barn Tour

Goal 2015 - Now almost five years old, the Rescue Barn has seen a lot of dog traffic and is starting to show some wear and tear. In the new year, we plan to hunt down some salvaged hardwoods to redo our dog worn floors. We can't wait!

Our second annual Rescue Jam brought bright minds from around the country together for two days of presentations, demos and round table discussions at the Rescue Barn. 

One of the most popular topics this year focused on using the Harm Reduction model as an effective approach to animal welfare work. Eliza Wheeler from the Harm Reduction Coalition rocked 

the house, and has dozens of new fans now digging through materials from this discipline, which calls for a balanced, non-judgmental approach to providing resources in order to secure incremental and small but forward moving changes. We are so there. More on the Jam

We offer three ways to donate. Please consider making a tax 

deductible gift to help us push this boulder up the hill in 2015 

for the dogs and the people who call them family. Thank you!

EIN Number - 94-3397172