Dunedin residents K.K. and Cathy Schultz like dogs. So much so that when their friends at Home At Last Pet Adoptions in Homosassa asked if they'd foster a couple of dogs until homes were found, the couple ended up adopting the animals themselves.
Now the Schultzes have three dogs and a nonprofit rescue operation of their own, Dunedin Doggie Rescue. The couple have room to house just one to two foster canines at a time, and they know the sooner they find homes for them, the sooner they'll be able to rescue another from being euthanized.
The Schultzes founded DDR last September. They work with a network of other all-volunteer rescuers around the state, like Home At Last and Bradford County Paws, to save dogs in rural areas where lack of space, resources and awareness lands many dogs on a three-to-five-day death watch.
"It's scary, the number of dogs put down," Cathy says.
KK explains that in rural areas people tend to let their dogs run free. "Unfortunately, when they don't come back, [the owners] don't look for them. They consider them disposables." Animal control, often the province of sheriff's departments, is not the same as animal care, he says. "Only rescuers working in the area can save the animals."
Not that bad pet-owner behavior is limited to the sticks, Cathy said. Just last week a woman in Largo found two "fully intact" (not fixed) cocker spaniels running wild through the suburban neighborhood. The Schultzes heard about the spaniels and put out a mass e-mail to find the owner or a temporary home. The Largo resident ended up finding the owner herself, but it was "not a happy ending," Cathy says. She's sure the dogs will be back to running the streets soon enough.
The Schultzes are IT workers by day, with rescue taking up most of their nonworking hours. Their family includes mutts Batzy, Little Jerry Seinfeld and Chewy, along with their current foster Bailey.
The route from rescue to adoption is a complicated one, says K.K. "Working out transport plans is like event planning."
When a transporter finds a dog or cat days away from euthanization, she e-mails a snapshot of the animal all around Florida and South Georgia seeking interest from foster homes. Kristy Dickens, executive director of Bradford County Paws, has been a major supplier of dogs to the Schultzes from her area in northeastern Florida. She will drive the dog halfway to Dunedin, then pass the animal to another driver who takes it the rest of the way. "That's how dogs move around the state. Everyone helps one another out," K.K. said.
The Schultzes then take the rescued animal to the vet for shots and spaying or neutering ($125-plus) that they must pay for themselves. DDR partially subsidizes the costs with the $75 adoption fee and fundraisers, such as last October's Dog O' Weeny Barktoberfest at the Dunedin Brewery.
Once a dog is deemed healthy, it's then socialized to make it a more desirable candidate for adoption. Pictures and a description go out on the DDR listserv, and for added exposure, K.K. and Cathy take the dogs to the Dunedin Brewery, to the beach or to the Friday night movie in the park. "Our niche is to take dogs to bars and beaches," K.K. said. Prospective owners can meet the critters and maybe find love at first pat.
Average turnover for a foster dog is two to three weeks, but two dogs recently at the Schultzes stayed for three and four months. A pit mix named Stella took six months to place because of the bad rap the breed has acquired.
"The biggest problem any rescue has is coming up with fosters to care for the dogs," K.K. said.
There's a 100 percent doggie-back guarantee once an animal is adopted out, but thorough preparation means that only a few bounce back. A potential adopter takes the dog for a one-day trial, followed by a home inspection by K.K. If all checks out in the pup's favor, the potential pet owner may then request a three-day sleepover. The dog is returned to the Schultzes afterward, giving the adopters ample time to consider whether or not they want to commit to giving the animal a home.
The Thrift Store for Paws recently opened in Dunedin, yet another local business that's supporting the cause. "It's a big community of dog lovers here," Cathy says. (DDR's website, dunedindogs.com, nicknames the town "DogEden.") "It works so well because we are a small community. I just hope we don't run out of people who want dogs."
Word-of-mouth is now DDR's best advertising. Last month K.K. asked Dickens to give him Rusty, a coonhound that had been in foster care for six months without any possibility of a match. K.K. placed Rusty three weeks later. So far, K.K and Cathy Schulz have placed 20 dogs.
The next DDR event is Cinco de Paws on May 5 at the Dunedin Brewery, which will to try to recoup the over $1,000 spent on DDR's most recent success story, Babu. When Babu was rescued, he had such a bad case of heartworm that he had to be given an arsenic derivative to cure it. Babu was adopted out quickly, but the debt of his vet care still hangs over the Schultzes. Bailey will be there, too, with a wide grin and wagging tail, hoping to be success story #21.
For each Curiouser profile, I ask the subject to tell me whose life he or she is curious about; the answer determines the person I'll be talking to next. The Schultzes told me they were curious about people who dispose of hazardous waste for a living; in the next "Curiouser," I find out.
This article appears in May 2-8, 2007.