The project.

Dogs can rescue the world

Rescues need rescuing. I met so many kind people volunteering and they feel defeated oftentimes. If only we could save volunteers too. I just want it to stop. Like Sharknado, blow it up from the inside!!! Insert everyone's eye roll when I say that. 

In 2016 I started taking notes and sketching ideas. I never had any idea what I was going to do with them, but I was inspired each time I heard someone say, "I wish I could save them all."

Me too.

My first thought: Dogs can rescue the world. A phrase that just kept running through my head. I wrote it down. The thought was if we can get the dog and cat population under control, I can give more time to veterans, seniors, and another causes close to my heart: like foster children. Certainly other people felt that way too? Dogs can help rescue the world.

Notes turned into entries. Entries turned into ideas that kept me thinking about it more and more. I'd see stories and hear people's comments and concerns. I started sketching more. At one point I decided I would go to a craft store and make it a real art project, buy bling and denim, and painting markers. Sell it on Etsy? Create mixed media collages for others? No. Started drawing dog heads. So many ideas. I wrote them alllll down.

I just kept moving forward. Listening to inspirational speakers, getting ideas, talking to people who knew more than me. How can I use this information? Called a lawyer, got a free consultation over the phone. What's my best route? Set a launch date, I've been sitting on this too long.

Get the domain.

Set a goal date. National Rescue Dog Day , May 20th!!!!9 MONTHS AWAY!!!! (at the time). Babies are born in that amount of time, I can do this!

One thought lead to another. New notes were in my phone, on my iMac, everywhere I go I see a reason that inspires me: frustrated volunteers, nervous dogs that hate the noise, sad dogs that want to play, old dogs who live out their days in a kennel/cage, dogs that don't know where their owner went, great dogs that get overlooked. The need for donations and fosters is constant. More funding is needed, more volunteers, money for surgeries, and... someone to clean up alll the poop.

I started creating a bunch of website designs, trying to get the message clear. What was the message?? Simple. Clear.

The plan.

The Rescue Dog Project is an awareness campaign with a variety of ways to advocate to end the strain on shelters. I've combined my graphic design experience with my passion for dogs to provide communities with their own campaign materials to get the word out.

Shelters are full.

Like the STOP LITTERING campaign, people still throw their trash out the window, but maybe there's less trash because of the campaign. Keep the message in front of people. Change future generation's habits. There's a lot to figure out, but for now:

• We can slow down or stop future breeding

• Stop buying from hobby breeders/backyard breeders/puppy mills/friends on Facebook and even mall stores. It would make a healthy dent!

• Designer dogs aren't helpful either, especially since it creates unhealthy trends.

• Adopt instead of searching for a breeder. Search rescue databases for the breed you love, they have all the shapes and all the sizes. Goldendoodles get surrendered too, and pugs and schnauzers and great pyrenees, any dog.

SPEAK for them, any way you can.

People are all different and we all have our own way of helping, and it all matters! I wanted to come up with a way for individuals and groups to advocate nationwide.

• New awareness campaigns quarterly

  • Download posters, social media graphics to share.

• An advocacy store – wear the message.

• Put a sticker on your car.

• Create a community that will support, uplift and inspire volunteers and fosters.

• Create a place for people to share ideas how to advocate.

• Hang posters in veterinarians, offices, bar bathrooms, community centers, anywhere the message can be noticed.

• Hope to change a buyer's mind.

• Hope to change a breeder's mind.

Dogs can rescue the world.

If we do the work, reverse the cycle, people can surrender dogs for no fees, because there is room. Right now fees encourage dumping or abandonment. When there is room, there will be time to work with and train animals and get them ready to live in a home, not a prison cel. More paid employees. We can use trained rescues to help children, veterans, our seniors – and our animal volunteers can feel more hopeful. Maybe dogs won't have such a high rate of return and maybe we can take dogs with us to rescue the rest of the world.

And make rescuing a dog a yearly tax write-off, would ya?!

Fantasies? Maybe. Maybe not! What if in 3-5-10 years we begin to see less dogs in rescues by encouraging people to think before breeding, adopt until this crisis is over. I love purebreds too, and the designer mutts are very cute and beautiful, but rescues need us. (and they are pretty cute and beautiful, too.)