Uncomfortable Conversations
June 14, 2021
Tails from Heaven presents uncomfortable conversations with Dawn Brown, Co-Founder from Rescue Me of West Virginia, and our beloved Fausat Odebe-Bergey.
Fausat is the owner of Tails From Heaven, a compassionate Pet Counseling Service.
This interview between Fausat and Dawn Brown of Rescue Me is so viable in the lives of not only animals, but the people who love them as well.
The video is attached below within this blog.
Fausat Odebe-Bergey
Interview with Dawn Brown of Rescue Me in West Virginia. It's a 501(3)C facility serving Jefferson Morgan and Berkeley Counties.
Dawn Brown: Listen! The biggest myths, is everybody thinks it's hard to adopt from a rescue, and it's not. We're just looking for the best home for that dog that we can possibly find.
So, if there's five people who put in applications, you know only one can be chosen. It's going to be the best
home that specifically fits that dog.
Photography from pexels.com
You know that a dog may have special needs like a six-foot fence. Or it may have medical needs. Some people get a little upset and disappointed when they don't get the dog that they choose first. But just keep watching. Keep watching our page. Keep watching other rescue pages, you will find your soulmate sooner or later. Just takes a little time and a little research.
Fausat Odebe-Bergey: Awesome. As an animal lover, such as yourself, and caretaker, what are the recommendations that you would give to somebody who's looking forward to adoption?
Dawn Brown: I would say, you know, do your homework. Go out and investigate and research the rescue that you're looking at whether it be us or someone else we welcome anybody to talk to any of our past fosters or adopters, just want to make sure that that facility is legit.
I mean there's a lot of people out there that call themselves 501 C 3's and rescues. But a lot of them don't have the animals, best interest at heart. So, you want to make sure that that rescue is doing what they're supposed to be doing. Taking care of their animals to the fullest of their ability. Which means vetting them, until everything is totally medically done, before they're adoptable. We do an adopt foster to adopt program that they have to foster first. That way it helps, then it's going to be the right dog. So we give them a period of time, through the medical, and even if, the dog has no medical. It would still be at least a two week foster to adopt program.
Faust Odebe- Bergey: Wow, that's amazing! That's a great amount of time to get acclimated to their new environment as well as the potential adopter or foster to get acclimated to the animal.
Dawn Brown: That’s not always a fast process you know some dogs may be in medical care for two months, three months. I mean we've had some, you know, Henry was in medical care was one of our first dogs we pulled, since we got this building. I guess probably we rescued Henry in December, late November, early December. Henry was just adopted last Saturday.
Faust Odebe- Bergey: Wow!
Dawn Brown: So you never know. I mean some dogs don't need as much medical care. We tend to pull a lot of medical cases. That's what we do, our dogs that are risk for euthanasia. So you never know what their health. But we vet them from A to Z. Everything one hundred percent before we allow them to be adopted.
Fausat Odebe-Bergey: As a rescue Ranger, what are some of the hardest parts about letting go? when your foster finds that perfect home?
Dawn Brown: Well, they're all, to me they're all kind of like my own. You know you get them in, you get attached to them. No matter how much time you spend with them. They all have their own little quirks. Things that are true to your heart so anytime we see him go, you know, it puts a little touch on our heart. It's never, good bye for us. Our motto here is we try to be a little different than a lot of other rescues. We stay in contact with that owner for the rest of that dog's life. We don't just adopt him out and goodbye you're gone. I mean, we always ask our adopters to send us pictures a couple times a year. So we can put it on our page and show our followers what's going on, and see how the dogs progressing. That's a way for us to keep track of the dog as well. so we don't just don't adopt them out and their gone. Their always in our hearts, and they're always close by. We always have the right to go visit anytime we want.
Fausat Odebe-Bergey: That's amazing. How long have you rescued?
Dawn Brown: I got into the rescue business kind of on my own. A little bit first and you know, I was just helping people who were re-homing or needed medical care. But in 2018, before that I started with Friends For Life out of Berkeley Springs. I started helping them with some fundraising, small stuff. But I wanted to do more! Then I met the girls from Rescue Me. It's been since 2017.
Faust Odebe-Bergey: Now that we've been on lockdown, thanks to C19 (COVID19). Has there been a rise in re-homing and if so, what does Rescue Me of West Virginia have to do with that?
Dawn Brown: So, in the beginning, that's what we thought. There would be a lot of people. Because people were financially in trouble. Everyone wanted to adopt a dog. Everyone was home, so it was a perfect time to adopt a dog. So, our shelters were empty at many times. There were many times that there were no dogs in the Humane Society. That was wonderful! That's what we love to see. We would pull from other areas, just to get dogs here to be adopted. Because not all areas were that way. There's other areas that were just totally overpopulated. And we'll never have an empty shell for both of those dogs back with Humane Society.
Faust Odebe- Bergey: Wow!
Dawn Brown: So that's really discouraging because, they kind of have a lot of time with them. So they should be trained and acclimated to their homes. I would like to say to people, that just because you're going back to work, it doesn't mean you have to bring your dog back! There’s you know, options. And, you know people who can come in and walk your dog. Or if they have a potty issue crate them. You know, if you don't want them, potting in in the house there's other areas and things that we can help you with. We want you to be able to keep your dogs. We don't want you to re-home your dogs!
Rescue Me is a 501 (C) 3 facility, working tirelessly on behalf of the lost, wounded discarded animals.