Kris was always the go-to person here when people had unwanted dogs. They dropped off puppies in the middle of the night at her Canine Center, where she was offering boarding, grooming and selling pet supplies. The overhead at that location finally became too much and they had to close. The new property, while smaller, was a gift from an inlaw. But things haven't come easily to K&K, as you'll see in this email she wrote yesterday to our organization.
Outreach is part of their efforts, too. Every morning they drive out into the desert to leave food for the feral dogs living there. Often unwanted dogs, even puppies, are abandoned in the desert to fend for themselves. And they don't limit their kindness to the four-legged needy. Here's their story:
We are not actually even open yet but we have had dogs just pouring in. In the past four days we had 7 puppies dumped/dropped at our new lot... The good news is that six of the seven pups have been adopted! (The remaining pup, a female, is pictured here) That doesn't always happen so we are very happy about that. December typically has the highest adoption rate.
This is our current situation. We have several dogs in the shelter besides the one pup. We do not have adequate staff and are not in a position to hire anyone at this time. We have one young man that is basically stuck there 24/7... Most days we have no one to cover for him and at this time we have no one else to cover the night shift. I hate to burn him out and I can see that is coming VERY soon.
Kiko and I also sponsor a church in one of the little towns here. We are doing our best to get over there and do the food bags and that kind of thing so we have been running back and forth doing that.
...I guess our most pressing need at the moment is finding someone who would be interested in just hanging with the dogs for an hour or two at any time of the day. They wouldn't need to do any work other than playing with the dogs. At least that would give all of us a chance to eat a normal meal at least once a day. We are trying to walk the dogs twice a day as well. We have one lovely couple who have been coming everyday and taking them on their afternoon walk. We had never met them before but are certain they are angels.
As far as the construction of the center goes, we are trying really hard to get organized right now. It's just total chaos. We didn't expect to be found out until we were ready to start taking dogs again but the dogs always manage to find us...
When we have water we will need to pour a slab for the washing machine that just died a slow, painful death.
Our neighbor is requesting that we build a block wall to seperate us from him. He has been very supportive and is in fact, our only source of electricity. However when someone goes behind his building it upsets our dogs and they bark quite a bit. We do our level best not to allow the dogs to bark and disturb anyone. This is the reason for the 24 hour staff. Everywhere I look there I see things I need to get done. I think we are already so tired it's hard to determine what to do next.
We do not have power, water, or sewer yet. It's sort of like dog camping. We have had several people drop bags of dogfood off and for that we are deeply grateful. We don't have everything we would like to have for the animals but we are doing our best to meet their basic needs. We care very deeply for the animals and know that there are so many more who are in desperate need of care. We have several stations in the desert and surrounding areas and at this point I am going out at daybreak to feed and water... I hope to be of assistance in getting the spay, neuter, and vaccination clinic going when we are settled.
Tune in tomorrow...
Tune in tomorrow...