Shelter Me

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- Hi, I'm Paula Abdul.

In this episode of "Shelter Me," you'll meet incredible people who share a love for animals.

- Go!

- [Paula] First is an adoption event for senior dogs.

Yeah, they may have silver in their fur, but there's gold in their hearts.

Then we meet a police officer who takes homeless pups on ride-alongs to introduce them to potential adopters.

- Well, this guy right here is gonna adopt this dog today.

- Now, all of these incredible people have one thing in common, love, love for animals and love for helping others.

Please enjoy "Shelter Me" Love Stories.

(inspiring music) (group cheering and applauding) (gentle music) (bright music) (dog barking) (dog barking) - One, two, three, go!

My name is Erin Stanton.

I am the founder and run Susie's Senior Dogs, an organization that promotes the adoption of homeless senior dogs.

- East Valley, too?

- We're East Valley, yeah.

- [Erin] We're having the first-ever senior dogs only adoption event in Los Angeles.

We are going to be hosting the senior dogs from the city and county shelters of Los Angeles, and we expect to have, you know, anywhere from 50 to 100 adoptable dogs in attendance.

- Handsome.

- This is August.

He's from the Downey Animal Care Center.

He's about 10 years old, I think, and we're just here hoping for the best home we can get for him today.

(gentle music) (people chattering) - So this is Rincon.

He's at the East Valley Animal Shelter.

He came in as a stray.

- What I'm most proud of about this event is that all the shelters participating were open admission shelters.

Los Angeles is a really big city with a lot of stray dogs, you know, owner surrenders.

These dogs are sitting in these shelters lingering.

So the fact that we could do an event that was specific to the open admission shelters of Los Angeles area was exciting for them and for the dogs who don't always get that spotlight.

(calm music) - Seniors make some of the best dogs in the world.

And this is Cookie.

She's about 10 years old, and we are hoping that she gets adopted today.

- This is Delayla.

She was turned in by her owner at 14 years old, and they didn't give a reason other than that she was too old for them.

(gentle music) - Today is the first time we've had a strictly senior adoption event, and as you can tell, there's just a multitude of senior dogs.

All they want is someone to love them, to make them feel safe, and then they'll be your best friend for the rest of their lives.

(dog barking) - So leading up to the event, we've been talking to all the shelters that are gonna be in attendance.

(gentle music) Typically, these are the dogs who nobody wants.

These are the most overlooked dogs at their shelters.

(dogs barking) So what are some challenges that you face adopting senior dogs here at Harbor Animal Shelter?

- Well, a lot of our adopters are coming in looking for puppies, you know?

So our senior animals get overlooked.

We get a lot of rescues that are dedicated to senior animals, but not enough adopters.

And Cookie's 10 years old, and she's gonna be going.

(dog barking) And then down here we have Finnegan.

- [Erin] Hi, Finnie!

(dogs barking) (gentle music) - When I told 'em about we're gonna do this event for seniors, all the employees started, "Oh, this is my favorite.

Oh, this one's, this one's good.

Finnegan, Finnegan has to go," you know?

So everybody's excited about it.

I hope that all the animals that I'm sending all get adopted.

(laughs) (inspiring music) - Oh, look how cute.

(laughs) Finnegan, oh, Finnegan, oh, I'm obsessed.

Look at his smile.

- And I live in the neighborhood, and we came to the park, and so I'm all for it, and I think it's great.

And I commend everybody who organized this event.

He's been sitting here this whole time.

It's so cute.

(people chattering) - They're homeless for the moment, right?

But they're just pets.

They're just like your pet at home.

They just don't have a home right now.

They sure would love one.

(calm music) - So there is a senior dog adoption event at Cheviot Hills.

It runs from 10: 00 until 4:00.

And tell me about this guy.

- Orville is eight years old, and he is also a senior.

He is mellow, but he loves pets and scratches.

And we have many, many, many other animals that will be joining us there.

- [Host] Awesome.

Let's find them happy homes!

(calm music) - So the thing with senior dogs is sometimes they get overlooked at shelters.

So it's events like this that I think help promote these guys.

(calm music continues) He's just looking for a nice, mellow place to call home.

- Yeah.

- What do you think?

- I think he's the one, yeah.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

I'm ready.

You're ready?

- All right.

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, he's so great!

- Bye, Orville.

Bye, Orville!

(calm music continues) Well, thank you guys.

Yay!

- I know, it was just love at first sight.

I was looking at other dogs, and she just jumped right up on me and was loving on me.

So, yeah, I like her.

(laughs) - This is Lily Rose.

- [Shelter Staff] And that one's Taylor.

- She is eight years old.

She came from South Central, and she's now at the West Valley or West LA Animal shelter.

(calm music) (car engine rumbling) - A lot of times, you know, when you are looking at shelter dogs, you'll see a lot of dogs who are behind bars.

They look, you know, terrified, not exactly, you know, a dog who looks like they might wanna come home with you.

There might be barking.

They are trembling.

But then once you get them outside of the kennel, they're super affectionate, and you know, just really a lot of them wanna crawl in your lap, go for a walk.

- Delayla is a shepherd mix.

She's been in our facility since November, very long time.

She was surrendered by her owners.

- You can tell she's kind of nervous.

She's shaking a little bit.

- Definitely, she's one of those dogs and you can always tell when they have 'em a long time, they're in a home and then suddenly they're here.

- But as soon as we got her outside the kennel, I mean, she's just so much happier and much more lively and you know, enticing to somebody.

You know, she wanted to be out walking.

And so she's another one who I, you know, really hope that doesn't have to go back to her kennel at the end of the day.

(gentle music) Delayla, is this your big day?

Delayla, are you getting adopted?

- Our neighbor who's with us spotted Delayla, so we went to check her out.

And of all the dogs we met today, our dog, Lincoln, took the most interest in Delayla, so he's got a new sister.

- Delayla's gonna have a great home.

She's gonna have companions, especially some her own age and her energy level.

It's always a great find when you have a perfect match like that.

- We know that senior dogs are hard to adopt out, and we have the means to take care of them and wanted to give a home to dogs that need it.

(gentle music) - I said, "Oh, I'm not gonna take one home.

I'm gonna come look."

(laughs) But I fell in love with her.

(laughing) - Lady is, I'm very happy to see her going home.

She's been at the shelter for a while.

- [Adopter] Say, "'Cause I'm adopted now."

- [Martha] Ready to go home!

Ready, baby girl?

Here's Lady.

- All right.

Thank you.

- Bye.

You're welcome.

- Lady!

- Senior dogs are great.

They show a little bit more of their personality opposed to in a kennel where there's a lot of dogs barking and it's a little bit sometimes overwhelming for them, and they kind of hide in the back, and they don't show as well at, say, as some type of event like this.

- I've gone to many shelters and walked up and down, and it's concrete, and the dogs are shy.

Here you get to see their personalities.

You get to interact with them, and it's just, I think it's better for the dogs, and it's nice for them to get out, too, you know?

Come on, Lady, let's go home.

Let's go!

(whimsical music) (dog barking) - So I heard you're adopting Finnegan!

- Yeah, I am.

- [Erin] So what made you choose this cutie?

He's actually a personal favorite of mine- - Oh, yeah, really?

- Because I met him while he was at Harbor Shelter, his smile, his signature smile.

- Yeah, I think it's that, and he's so snugly, you know, and he is so sweet and social.

- Is he your first senior dog adoption?

- He is my first.

He's my first dog adoption.

- Oh, my gosh.

- Yeah.

- So exciting for you.

- I know!

- You got so lucky!

- Yeah.

- We'll get this ID tag.

You're not an ID number anymore.

(Erin laughing) (dog barking) - There's no denying a face like this.

- You get also a free pet exam at a veterinarian.

- Okay.

- You just call them up, make sure they accept this voucher.

- I don't think we've had that many adoptions for senior dogs in one day in a long, long time.

- We hope that more people come out to these events, so we'll be having more of them, so check us out.

(bright music) - It's official.

Now you're not a shelter dog anymore.

(inspiring music) (group laughing) - A really cool part of the adoption event was dogs that had been in the shelter for many, many months, and they were loved by shelter staff and volunteers, and the fact that a lot of those were able to get adopted and go into rescue today was really exciting that they didn't have to go back to the shelter.

(dog barks) - I know.

(dogs barking) - Bye!

(dog barking) - [Erin] That's our main goals is that we can find really great placement for these adoptable senior dogs.

(inspiring music) (gentle music) (birds tweeting) (train bell clanging) (dogs barking) - In Wisconsin, animal population numbers are growing every single day.

The Wisconsin Humane Society annually places more than 13,000 animals a year, and about 2,500 of those adoptions are here at our Green Bay Campus.

(dog barking) - Good boy.

- [Angela] Unfortunately, in a shelter environment, dogs often act much differently.

(dog whimpering) Dogs are more shut down in a loud environment.

They might get really frustrated and jump and bark.

(dog barking) But as soon as you bring them outside of the shelter, they're a different dog.

(upbeat rock music) - Good boy!

(Teddy panting) We'll go out and be sociable today.

(upbeat rock music continues) I'm a patrol officer in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and I created this program called K9 for a Day where I take dogs from local shelters out in the community to try and get them in front of as many people as I can to give those dogs an opportunity to be away from their shelter environment for the day in a more realistic human interaction environment.

Hi, guys!

His name is Teddy.

- Teddy?

- Teddy, yep.

He's from the Humane Society.

- About two years ago, officer Joel Zwicky approached us about taking dogs out in the community during his shift, and it just was like wildfire in the community.

- [Parent] I think I saw you on Facebook.

- Okay, that could be.

Yeah, I use social media a lot.

- [Angela] People love Officer Zwicky, and the dogs benefit from additional marketing exposure.

- Even if you don't think maybe that you want him, maybe you got a friend or family member looking for a dog.

- [Angela] Whether it's somebody who's interested in adapting or maybe fostering, and just spreading by word of mouth that shelter dogs are awesome.

- Good boy.

I try to look at shelter dogs as dogs that are just currently, haven't found their perfect home, but we're going to find those perfect homes, and that's why the idea of K9 for a Day came to pass.

Hey, we're back!

- Hey.

Hi, Teddy!

(dogs barking) The Wisconsin Humane Society mostly receives animals from surrenders, so people in the community who can no longer care for their animals, unfortunately.

(gentle music) - Green Bay is a city of roughly over 100,000.

Of course everyone knows the Green Bay Packers, and we're famous for that, but we got a very welcoming community here for animals.

I mean, just the fact that we have at least three different animal shelter and foster organizations in this one town, it definitely means that we've got a great community support here for adopting animals.

All right, you ready?

We're heading over to Bay Beach Amusement Park.

(bright music) (children shrieking) I knew this was gonna be busy today.

- Yeah?

- A lot of people and a lot of kids.

Let her meet you.

- [Adult] He seems really well-tempered.

- [Adult] Oh, you are a sweetheart!

- [Joel] Good boy.

You're very patient.

- Hayden!

- Yep.

This dog is over at Humane Society, so he needs a home.

(children shrieking) This is Gotti, and he's out here looking for a home, so we're just giving him a little social time.

- [Adult] Oh, he's so adorable.

- [Joel] He was left in a hotel room.

- No way!

- Yeah, they just found him when they went in to clean the room.

Owners had just left him behind.

Try to get people to take pictures with him and share it on Facebook and things like that so that he gets a little more exposure.

- One, two, three, cheese!

Good job, thank you.

- If I can give you a piece of paper that has all his info and how he gets adopted, if you would share that picture.

- Absolutely!

- That is gonna help so much.

- I would be happy to.

(upbeat rock music) - Gotti is a fantastic dog.

He's a fantastic ambassador for his breed.

And not only is he an ambassador for his breed, he's an ambassador for the other dogs at the shelter that didn't get to ride with us today.

Because even if Gotti isn't the one that gets adopted today, one of its brothers or sisters at the shelter may be the one that's getting the advantage of Gotti putting in the time with me and going out and getting the word out about the shelter in town.

I've always been kind of an out-of-the-box thinker.

I do things a little differently.

Like, a beautiful day like this, I'm gonna get on a skateboard and patrol on a longboard.

(static hisses) - [Reporter] Skateboard Cop Joel Zwicky, a 10-year veteran of the force, is out of the patrol car.

- He doesn't fit your standard mold of a police officer.

- [Joel] I did change my footwear to just some Vans.

- [Reporter] His passion is even earning respect from the hard-to-please teen crowd.

- It helps connect with people, and I don't know, I think about things a little different.

So K9 for a Day kind of spawned out of the fact that I have three dogs at home that are all foster and shelter adoptions.

It's a family passion.

Myself, my kids, we've probably had 50 foster dogs ourself at our home, and so I know how many dogs in the community there are that are still waiting for homes, and I thought, "This is gonna be a perfect pairing."

(calm music) (locker slams) I guess my program is just kinda like a day in police work, period, 'cause you never know what my day's gonna be.

I may get a real quiet day, and we may be able to just go out on foot and walk around town and meet people and do things.

And the radio may decide at some point, "Nope, hey, you've gotta go to a five-car accident on the bridge," and that dog's gotta come with me.

They're along for the real deal.

I want another dog today if you have time for it.

- [Angela] Oh, yes, we do, definitely.

- [Joel] All right, let's do it, round three.

- So this beautiful girl is Hazel.

- Okay.

- And she is just a wonderful dog.

At first, Hazel is kind of like a wallflower, but as she starts to warm up, she really is a very affectionate and friendly dog, and she's just gorgeous.

- All right, thanks, everybody.

I've been doing K9 for a Day for three years now, this is my third year, and we keep seeing more and more positive feedback from the community.

Do you wanna meet this puppy?

This is Hazel.

Do you have a puppy at home?

- No.

- No?

- I have a fish.

- You have a fish?

- Two fish.

- Two?

- Yeah.

- Good girl.

- She's a year-and-a-half-old Shepherd mix, and she was a surrender just recently.

Okay.

- That's all about her.

- All right, I'll tell 'em to be waiting on your telephone call.

(laughs) - Thank you.

- Thank you.

- I think it's totally awesome.

I think it's a great public service.

The dog is beautiful.

They deserve the attention.

And the officer taking his time is just commendable.

- People seem to really, really like seeing me outside of the police car, walking around with the dogs.

I think it makes police officers a lot more approachable.

(water splashes) (Joel laughing) As the police department, sometimes we can be intimidating.

We look very official, or sometimes we're viewed as punishment, and I don't want that perception.

Shake.

I want people to understand that we're just people, too.

- [Photographer] So look at me.

Hazel!

(camera clicks) - Social media is really the real traction of the K9 for a Day program.

Thank you.

- Four shots of espresso in there.

- (laughs) Four shots, all right.

Oh!

- Enjoy.

- Whether it's the people that are meeting the dogs or myself hosting pictures, that's just gonna travel so much further than I can travel on foot with the dog.

- I'm gonna post a picture of myself, Officer Zwicky, and the little dog Maisie.

She just is highly amusing.

- And I push that out on my social media.

That gets shared by the police department, by all the other people that follow that, and just from the few spots that we hit yesterday, that dog has got over 4,000 views.

This is the first time that I've had her on a leash.

This is the first time I've attempted video at work.

And now, recently this year, I'm experimenting with making short videos of the dogs to try and really showcase these dogs off to get people a better understanding of their personality.

High five.

See, Hazel's got all these tricks, and we didn't see them for about the first hour.

I couldn't get her to sit down, but now this is her.

This is her personality coming out 'cause she's settling down, and her real personality's coming out right now 'cause she's at ease again.

That's what we like to see.

That's what we like to show.

A lot of people would be intimidated to come up and talk to me if I was on my own, and what's so great about this program is we get to break down that wall between us and the community, too, because they literally wanna know what's going on, because what I'm doing doesn't fit the mold.

If I'm walking a chihuahua down the street, that doesn't, that is not police work.

Something funny's going on there, and they wanna know what's going on, and they wanna come up and meet the dog.

And then I get to introduce myself and try to create a relationship so they can say, "Hey, Officer Joel.

I saw this or I saw that in my neighborhood, and this gave me concern," when they might not know their police officer and might think, "I don't wanna bother anyone."

But because of this program, these dogs break down that barrier.

- We saw you down at Bay Beach with Gotti earlier.

- You did?

You guys saw me at Bay Beach today?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Awesome.

- We got a picture with you.

- We came here, and we were looking at Gotti, and we thought, "Well, she might be a little too big for our family."

And then we ran into this sweetheart here, and we were looking at Gotti, but then we fell in love with this one.

- Sure.

- So we decided to take her.

- That's awesome.

I'm so happy this happened, guys.

- So are we!

- Yeah?

- We are, too.

- Super happy.

She's super sweet.

- Yeah, it's hard to put into words how happy that makes me feel.

You know, Gotti's still in the shelter.

I don't think he will be for long, but because of the work that he did with me today, another dog has got a home today.

(calm music) Lincoln has been with a family for most of his life, just recently in the shelter.

Today we're heading over to John Dewey Academy.

It's a local school, ages sixth grade up through high school, and this is gonna be a fantastic opportunity for Lincoln today to get to meet a whole bunch of kids at different ages in a great environment for him.

I think it's gonna be a great fit.

Hello!

Hi, everybody.

- [Student] Police dog.

- I'm Officer Zwicky with the Green Bay Police Department, and this is not a actual police dog, but Lincoln here is a five-year-old yellow lab, and he comes from our local Humane Society.

With Lincoln being five years old, it's always a little tougher for adult dogs to find homes, 'cause everybody at first thinks they want a puppy.

But I'm telling you right now from experience, I foster puppies, (laughs) and this one already knows how to go potty outside and knows how to fetch, knows how to drop, knows how to sit, knows how to do all this stuff, so.

- [Students] Aw.

- Can I just have you pass that around?

Give those to parents or weak aunts, whoever might be soft in the heart because that's the best way for this dog to get adopted.

- Aw.

- Hi, puppy!

(calm music) - Lincoln's the first dog that I've ever taken to a school in town, and it's a great thing for the kids to see because I think every human being has some sort of a motivation that they want to make a difference.

They wanna help somebody that can't help themselves, and we've got kids learning how cool that feels at the end of the day.

I guarantee he had no idea his day was gonna be like this today.

- Oh, yeah.

- This is really good.

It's a fantastic feeling that maybe no other thing on earth can do for you.

I could keep Lincoln all day and drive around for eight hours and not make the impact that you guys are gonna make with those pictures and things that you're gonna share.

So that means the world to me that you guys are putting in that effort to help me out and help this dog out today.

- [Group] Let's get Lincoln adopted!

(gentle music) - As a police officer, the unfortunate truth of it is, a lot of times when we do get called to do stuff that gets us out of this car, we're dealing with difficult people.

We're dealing with difficult situations, and all those things can take a real toll on an officer and make this job pretty tough.

So when I have a dog with me, that day is the best day that they're gonna have all week because they're out of their situation, and so they're happy about it.

And that energy is just something that I get to take advantage of, too, and it makes my whole day great.

Good boy!

(car door clicks) - [Person in Cap] That is a beautiful dog.

- [Joel] This is so sad.

The family moved and couldn't keep him, and- - [Person in Cap] Really?

I'm gonna take him in a heartbeat.

- You are you serious?

- [Person in Cap] I'm dead serious.

We'll fill out the adoption papers for him.

- This guy right here is gonna adopt this dog, today.

He's gonna fill out the papers.

- We're gonna do a two-for-one today.

We're coming to pick up a stray cat we found living in our boat, and after two weeks, nobody claimed it.

So we get the cat, and we're gonna take two for one.

We're gonna fill out the adoption papers for this puppy right here.

- I love it.

- Yeah, I love it, too.

I just, I walked in, come pulling in, and I'm like, "That is a beautiful dog."

- Yep.

- I'm gonna go, we're gonna go sign some papers for you, Lincoln, yeah.

(calm music) Oh, I can fill it all out?

- Okay.

(calm music) He's being adopted.

- Congratulations.

- Yes.

It's almost as exciting when we brought you home.

- Oh, oh, funny.

- This guy, you know, every animal needs a good home.

- Yep.

- And they're gonna need to be a family member is what they are.

(inspiring music) - I can't describe how cool that feels at the end of the day when that all falls into place like that.

If I had one thing I would love to say to every person, just find your passion to make a difference.

I'm not telling everyone that they should bring dogs to work.

I'm not telling everyone that they should get on a skateboard and patrol on a longboard.

If that's not you, don't do that.

But find something that is you so that you can show people your human side and your passion.

And I guarantee whatever that is, you are gonna find those people that are passionate about that same thing, and they're gonna connect with you.

And if everybody does that one thing, only good things are gonna come from that.

(inspiring music) - Petco Love Lost.

A national lost and found pet database can help, using image recognition technology.

So every pet can be back where they belong.

- Oh my baby - Home with the families that love them.

Petco Love Lost.