Rescue Warrior: Jan Todd

Many people the rescue world knew Jan Todd long before I did. I certainly knew of her long before I met her. She became known to me in November of 2010 when she fostered Pookie, a chow mix with a terribly sad story.

Pookie was chained to his overturned doghouse with a cinderblock placed on his head and set on fire. He suffered extensive burns, including those to his nose, ears, and eyes. Pookie spent an estimated 11-12 years living at the end of a chain with little human or canine interaction. Of the minimal interaction he did receive, nearly all of it was negative. Pookie’s owner put her house up for sale but left the dog behind. A neighbor reportedly committed this horrific crime against Pookie, who had been left chained in the yard of the empty home.

Once Pookie was released from the hospital, he went to live with Jan and her husband, Charlie, who cared for Pookie during his recovery until he was placed in a long-term senior living facility where he could run and play with other dogs to his heart’s content, a freedom he’d yet to experience in his 12+ years.  Jan started a Facebook page to raise awareness about Pookie’s plight and continued this page through Pookie’s stay at their home, his golden years at Friends for Life Forever Farm (which has since, unfortunately, closed), and still runs it today. “Justice for Pookie” has morphed into a Facebook page highlighting many aspects of rescue, including fun updates about the current canines, both adoptees and fosters, in Jan’s life.  

Sometime in the last few years, Jan and I began interacting more frequently at various rescue events, of which she is often a guest. In 2017, my friends and I began planning the first annual Whiskeys for Whiskers (which I will explain further in a later post). After attending the first year’s event in 2018, Jan approached me about joining our team, and I happily said YES! Since then, I’ve had the honor of calling Jan my friend, not “just” a rescue acquaintance. With her long reach in the local animal welfare community, Jan quickly became valued asset on the W4W planning committee as well as a great sounding board for my crazy ideas, both professional and personal.

When I decided to start Ava’s Mom, I knew I wanted to highlight some of the incredible women I have met during my twelve years in rescue. Twelve years seems like a long time, but I am a babe when it comes to the experience and tireless work of the community around me. I knew that Jan would be my first Rescue Warrior interview (if she’d so accept, which she obviously did) since I’d long admired her.

Jan started her journey into animal rescue after retiring early at age 40. She’d always had a passion for animals and knew that lending her hand to all the paws in need would be the very thing she needed to fill what used to be her working hours. She began as a pet therapy volunteer with Greenville Humane Society and continued that for 22 years until the program was shut down three years ago. She still does therapy on her own, although the current pandemic has put a temporary pause on her efforts in that area.

In addition to therapy work, Jan also fosters dogs, having had about 150 come through her home since she began. Jan doesn’t shy away from the tough cases, and patiently conquers both physical and behavioral issues so that each of her fosters can go on to live a beautiful life with a loving family.  As if that wasn’t enough, she can be found many Saturdays transporting dogs from Greenville to another location, often as part of a longer transport chain, to help get dogs to rescues in the northern states where they have a need for adoptable dogs.

Although her level of involvement in different aspects of rescue has varied over the years, she states that what hasn’t changed is her main goal, which is “to help wherever there is a need; helping to save one life at a time.”

I wish I would have known Jan when I started in rescue over a decade ago. I asked her if she had any advice for new people in the world of rescue and she made the most simple and profound statement: “there are no perfect rescues or shelters.” I was stunned at the amount of drama within the rescue community at first. Just as with anything else, there are lots of differing opinions, practices, methods, and schools of thought, especially when it comes to housing, training, quality of life, and distribution of funds. Ultimately, the endgame is the same. We all want to see animals in good homes while being loved and kept healthy. Even with the same goal in mind, the humans running the show do have flaws, as most humans do. However, as Jan states, “most try to do the very best they can” and suggests doing research to get the facts, not to believe everything you hear, and to learn to trust your gut about the inner workings of the organization(s) you wish support.

Outside of the rescue world, as I have intimated in a prior post, the general community is unaware of the depth of service provided by the people and organizations in rescue. I know I was quite clueless. Patience and education are key when you are faced with adversity with the general public. As an example, Jan discussed the public perception of adoption fees and how ‘expensive’ they seem to be. Jan says she tries “to explain to people not all dogs/cats come into rescue needing only vaccinations and possibly spay/neuter.  Many are severe medical cases that cost the rescue thousands of dollars for that particular animal.  These cases are animals who would not survive if rescues had not taken them in.  So, it’s a balancing act when it comes to the cost of each animal.”

As for the future of rescue, Jan doesn’t see an end to the tireless work of the rescuers. In fact, during this current pandemic and the resulting negative economic impacts, rescues are hurting more than ever. Families with reduced income are facing unbearable decisions of how they will keep their animals fed and vetted, resulting in more owner-turn-ins, and in extreme and unimaginable cases, animal abandonment. Most non-profit organizations rely on their supporters for financial stability and when their supporters are financially unstable, it impacts the donations. Fundraisers have been mostly cancelled since March of this year, further decreasing the ability to feed and vet the animals in their care. Jan hopes, as do I, that everyone is able to stay afloat during this difficult time and knows that her trusted rescuers “will continue to save as many lives as possible.”

The Alphabet Soup of Rescue

In a previous post on the “Ava’s Mom” page, I mentioned that I stumbled into the world of animal rescue and welfare after adopting my first furbaby, Apollo. When I started there were tons of terms that I didn’t understand, at least not in the context of this new world in which I had involved myself. One of the hardest things for me was the acronyms. I love acronyms. I use them all the time. (OFC, you probably do too. LMK if you are OTW to google those. LOL!) I often make up my own just because I am too lazy to type whole words, much to my friends’ dismay.

But I digress…back to the topic at hand. Lots of times I had no idea what people were saying in texts, social media posts, and emails. Being shy, it was sometimes hard for me to ask people what they were saying, so I spent lots of time trying to figure things out on my own. Maybe you’re new to this world as well, or maybe you are Facebook friends with rescuers who seem to be having coded conversations with one another and you’d like to know what they’re saying! Whatever your reasons for needing to know, I compiled a cheat sheet for you. This is by no means a complete list. 

OTI (Owner Turn In) – This is the act of an owner relinquishing his or her pet to a shelter or rescue organization voluntarily. You see this term a lot when an independent, non-open-admission organization is determining whether or not to take an animal into their program. Not all OTI’s are alike. While the pet may legitimately belong to the person with whom the rescue is conversing, sometimes all is not as it seems. Bitter exes, for example, have been known to “rehome” a pet who does not belong to him or her in order to hurt their former partner.  It’s hard to believe but we’ve seen it…way more often than you could possibly imagine.

HW (heartworm) – Heartworm disease is transmitted by mosquitoes and is particularly prevalent in warmer, southern US climates. This disease is exactly what it sounds like. Mosquitoes transmit larvae into a dog and then the larvae develop into worm-like organisms that live in the heart causing a host of complications up to and including death if not treated. Heartworm treatment is incredibly painful and terribly hard on a dog’s body. Heartworms can be prevented by administering an inexpensive monthly chewable pill prescribed by a veterinarian. Unfortunately, some dog owners, whether irresponsible or just uneducated about the disease, don’t do this. Most commonly you will see “HW” in conjunction with a + or – behind it, meaning a dog proves either positive or negative for heartworms when tested. A HW+ dog has the disease and must be fully treated before adoption is possible. Not only is treatment hard on the dog, it’s very expensive and puts quite a burden on a rescue’s resources. Many dogs in rescue come in as HW+.

UTD (up-to-date) – A pet that is up-to-date usually means he or she has had all vetting appropriate for the animal’s age. If a rescue is approached about taking in an animal, the first thing they ask is usually if that animal is UTD. If this information is known and vet records can be provided, it gives the organization a base with which to start the animal’s treatment.

BSL (Breed-Specific Legislation) – Breed-specific legislation refers to laws put in place to target a certain breed or breeds of dogs. In today’s world that generally means Pitbull-type dogs, but it has covered, and in some places still does, other breeds deemed “dangerous” such as Dobermans, Rottweilers, and German Shepherds. Generalizing attributes by maligning an entire breed or breeds by calling that breed “dangerous” is irresponsible and, well, dangerous. This gives people a false sense of comfort by inferring that breeds that are not covered under BSL must not be dangerous. Every breed, every individual dog, can be dangerous, just as any breed, any individual dog, can be sweet and kind. Just as with people, each dog needs to be judged based on his or her individual attributes and behaviors. 

TNR (trap-neuter-return) – TNR is the practice of controlling community or “feral” cat colonies. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Cats and kittens are trapped, taken to a veterinarian for basic medical care, spay/neuter, and other testing, and then returned to their colony. Some organizations will work with cats and kittens who appear to be friendly, or less feral, if they have a foster or shelter who can house the animal. The caretaker of the colony then feeds them to keep them from becoming nuisances to local businesses and neighborhoods (if they are regularly fed, they are less likely to scrounge for food in dumpsters and outdoor trash cans) and monitors the them for additional medical needs.

These are all the acronyms I can think of as of this writing. Drop me a line at avathepocketpittie@yahoo.com if you can think of more. I could probably do another whole post with the ones I’ve forgotten.