2011 - A Year in Review  

Directors Report

Growing Pains 

In 2011, we have had some Growing Pains here at Oodles of Doodles Rescue Collective. But we continued to persevere and grow our small NJ rescue into something we can all be proud of. Kelly, Becky, Adrienne, Connie and Lisa joined us as Full Time Foster Partners this year and together we were able to rescue over 100 dogs from rural Southern shelters, bring them to the Northeast to find their Forever Homes. Jeannine, Mary H., Elizabeth J. and Jo, all helped to foster sweet dogs needing rehoming in their areas and all are now in loving homes. Our Partnership with Chrissy at Helpless Furry Hearts Rescue in South Florida saw three dogs pulled and vetted from Miami’s terrible shelter system and all are finally Home. I look forward to a continued friendship and successes in 2012.

Our Partnerships with PAWS of SWVA and Toni Klemko’s Highway to Heaven Road Warriors Transport has been our main sources of growth. We tagged, vetted, transported, fostered and found homes for 52 SWVA dogs in 2011 and we look forward to our continued success and friendship in the coming year. With Toni’s transporting expertise, Oodles of Doodles tagged and Toni’s Road Warriors transported, 63 kill shelter dogs up to us in NJ to find homes. I met every transport and every dog and each one came off transport happy and waggley. That says a lot for how wonderful The Road Warriors are. (Toni, Carla, Gail, Stacy – we can never Thank you, enough!)

Erin Silks of Rural Shelter Transports and James at K9 SOS Transports also transported 10 SC, NC, MD, and KY dogs up to us away from Southern Death Row Shelters and made it possible for them to live with love, safe for the rest of their lives.

TOGETHER, all of us, saved 148 dogs in 2011 and that is something I am very proud of.

Elizabeth of Gunn Dogs, Shannon of IDOG, Terri of Poodle Rescue of Vermont, Judy at The Doodle Messenger and Sue at Toy Poodle Rescue, all have been my sounding boards, my confidants and my advisors this past year. There were a few times I wanted to give up and stop spending every waking moment doing this, in the past 2 years. But their advice and counsel kept me going and made me want to keep going. Thank you!

Our Rescued Dogs 

Our dogs come to us primarily through shelters in the South -- Norton, Greenville, Adams, Camden, Cherokee, Edison, Frankfort, Franklin, Leflore, Nicholas, Ravenna, and Whiteville Shelters, are just some of the rural Southern Shelters we have pulled from in 2011. Most of these shelters are over crowded, yet dedicated to saving as many as they can. All have dedicated volunteers, who send notices, post pictures, pull tagged dogs, get them vetted, into foster quarantine for the required 14 days, meet transport and see their dogs off to their new lives, here in the Northeast.

We are one of many Northeast Rescues who form a lifeline to these shelters and their dogs, and we respect all of the hard work and heartache they endure each day. We have developed a very close working relationship with many of the people at these shelters and have found them to be caring and responsible rescuers -- they work hard so that we are able to comply with laws and regulations, fulfill our Mission Statement and bring healthy dogs to families in our rescue areas.

This past year also brought us a huge number of requests from local owners asking us to help them surrender and rehome their dogs because of the economy, changes in financial and living conditions and other reasons. We have even had other rescues, veterinarians and shelters call on us for help. Sixteen beautiful dogs were accepted into our rescue program because of our foster home network and we are able to help. This assistance helps to relieve the burden on our local shelters, keeps confused dogs in loving foster homes until a permanent home is found and keeps dogs out of the shelter system.

Our Listing Service 

Our website, Adoptable Listings are a vital part of our mission and we cannot forget to mention Sue, Susan, Denise, Jeannine, Harriet, Laura, Renee, Denise A., Deb, Tanya, Kary, Linda and Joanne – who have been invaluable to keeping us up and running this past year. I appreciate all your help tremendously. We have found, listed and highlighted over 1000 beautiful Poodle-mix dogs in 2011 and while we cannot truly know how many were saved by our efforts, I know in my heart that it was a great many. We will be celebrating our Third Year of Service in a few weeks and it is mainly due to our listings that we have experienced such growth of our members. We passed the 3000 mark just after Christmas in our website membership.

Our Rehome Service

Another new service we began in 2011 is our Rehome Service. One of the saddest things, we never want to see, is dogs advertised on Craigslist or in a newspaper, “Free to a Good Home.” We know that there are reasons why a family might have to give up their family pets, especially in this economy or changes in life, but to try to ensure the least amount of disruption to the dogs, our Rehome Service allows the dog to stay in the home they feel most comfortable in, while their owners work together with us to find the “Perfect” re-home. In 2011, we successfully helped to rehome 45 dogs through this service. We were able to help to bring shots up to date and even aided in getting several dogs spayed/neutered before adoption. We offer this as a free service to Rehomers and only ask they give a small donation after the adoption is completed, to enable us to keep the service free and continue to help with vetting needs of our rehomed doodles. We hope to continue this service into the New Year as we feel it is a vital service to the Doodle Owner Community and to adopters.

We are here for the long term and I look forward to a fantastic 2012!

Lynne Fowler, Director

Oodles of Doodles, Inc. Rescue Collective

Fuzzy Paws of NJ, Inc.