Why Rescuer's and Fosters End Up Quitting

 

 

Having been involved with rescuing for near 40 years now, I must say I have seen a lot of things.

 

I have rescued everything from kittens, puppies, raccoons, possums, parakeet, chickens, and so much more. My survival track record speaks for itself and much is documented on Facebook.

 

I have had exactly 3 bad experiences with rescues, three! I thought the worst of which was in 2018, when I lived in Bakersfield and connected with a rescue that seemed to care, actually provided for the kitties but then I learned they had been FEATURED on a show about hoarders on Animal Planet. I watched it and was mortified at what I saw! 

 

In 2018 I fostered a total of 28 kittens over the course of the year. Of those 28, 21 survived and are in their furever homes.  Leo is still with me today and he was my first foster of that year!

I have NEVER dealt with a rescue like Daisy's Paws before though. When I met Robert Kellerson, after reaching out to that rescue in hope for help with 6 dogs abandoned on my property, he spoke like the rescue had been around forever, had a long track record of doing right by the animals - said ALL the right things. Robert also made a few "grand" offers. He asked me if I would like a seat on the board, spoke about a 10 year lease for 3 acres of my property - even took a picture of the area we spoke about calling it "The New Home of Daisy's Paws". 

In previous posts I have detailed what has occurred, so I will not rehash that here. What I am disgusted about though is that some people are trying to make me out to be the bad guy in this situation. I reached out for help with the dogs because I wanted them placed with fosters. Robert suggested getting kennels because there just wasn't enough fosters available, according to him. Claimed the kennels were ordered, another thing that never materialized. 

It seemed that no matter how hard I begged for help, their rescue didn't care. All I ever got was excuses and empty promises. When I finally realized they were NOT going to provide for the animals here that were "supposedly" under their care I went on an online campaign to find help for them. 

I posted in Pitbull groups trying to find fosters, other rescues ANYTHING that would get these dogs with someone better able to physically care for them. I had many replies, lots of advice but no real solutions. I finally got connected with a Barstow Rescue, who has existed with a great track record far longer than Daisy's Paws has existed. They were angels in all of this!

With their help food was obtained and a helper arranged to take some of the physical burden off of me. You cannot imagine how difficult it is to have a bad hip and foot and have to pack 5 gallon buckets of water to dogs - ensuring each dog has a minimum of 15 gallons in this heat! 

Robert never once asked how ANY of those dogs were, or the kitties. His only question about an animal was about the pregnant chihuahua. He wanted to know if she had her pups. Robert was on speaker phone last night SUGGESTING that the pups should be picked up too - not a peep about the mom. So, what I heard and understood was that he wanted to remove the pups from the mother - who is doing a wonderful job taking care of her own pups!!!! Why? Because, for a rescue,, pups bring in the most money.

It is my belief that Robert did not want to fool with the 6 pitbulls, even though he wanted the glory of saying his rescue stepped up, because Pitbulls are so hard to find placement for. Especially ones that cannot be around other animals.

I have a long, well documented string of messages with Robert and then the Rescue, begging for help. Robert KNEW the issue about me having difficulty handling daily care due to my disabilities. When those pleas went unanswered, I then took pictures of my feet and how they had literally split open - sent  them to the rescue, only to be told my medical problems were not their concern. Um, gee, my medical problems were WHY I reached out to the rescue for help in the first place!!!! 

So, I kept doing their care, over exerting myself and running on sheer exhaustion for over a month. Barely anything else got done around here except making sure the dogs had plenty of food and water. By the time I was finished with that I was too sore too do much else. I do have one video on Facebook detailing what it took to do this, including having to drive buckets of water to the dogs placed on the outer part of the property.

Was I over extended? Yes! I was told many things that never came to pass. Like, mama kitty, that was supposed to be short term. Robert had originally told me 48 hours. Like everything else Robert said, I learned it was a lie. In messages with the rescue I was told supplies had been ordered. None of which EVER made it to the animals and then yesterday whoever was doing the chatting with me on the rescue's official chat tossed out a number just under $122 of supplies they provided for ALL of the animals they had at my place.

More than that came out of my own pocket for meds, for tube feeding, for wet food, for dog food, for raw meat to get protein on the emaciated cats. Other people donated far more than that as well! So, who really was being responsible for the care? I was online begging for help when Daisy's Paws decided to ignore repeated pleas for help. I spent hours upon hours looking up pitbull rescues, reaching out and then replying with no success. I even reached out to Pitbulls & Parolees, still waiting to hear back from them! ALL of which is documented in text, Facebook messenger, and posts I made online - easy enough to prove.

Robert KNEW I was not in a financial position to support the dogs. Robert knew I was NOT in a position to take on vet care for any animals except my own - one of which has an auto immune disorder and asthma and requires breathing treatments. So, when they ghosted me, giving me all sorts of excuses, what else could I do but go online and ask for help from other sources?

It was funny how they ghosted me until I got so fed up I blocked their Facebook account, but NOT their phone numbers. Only then did Robert reach out with a demand. They were NOT interested in the animals UNTIL I got so tired of listening to their bullshit that I chose to block them on FB and move on to find the animals help elsewhere. 

It is a relief that they finally picked up the sick kittens they had here, even if Kristina tried to argue me that the kittens were not under their care. It will be a relief if they actually pick these 6 dogs up like I had asked them to when I first contacted them. Being disabled I could not care for them AND handle a ton of things that got out of control while I was down with a foot injury and then 2 foot surgeries on the same foot in a year and a half. So, what got out of control waited because my body only allows me to do so much.

I had hoped to be farther along in renovating my 5th wheel by now. I have been gathering the materials for a couple of years now. But, that got stalled because I could not care for the dogs AND do the heavy duty interior demolition too. Ripping the carpet out of THIS motorhome was also stalled for the same reason. I have brand new flooring, in boxes just waiting for me to install it. 

But, that is off track. After dealing with the total bullshit I have been through with Robert over the last 8 weeks or so, I can fully understand why fosters are damn near impossible to find. Who would want to risk going through all of this again? Who can a foster actually trust? Why would we risk having our trust violated again? 

A foster typically signs a contract with the rescue. In that contract the rescue agrees to provide everything, food, medicines, vetting etc. The foster agrees to provide housing and let the rescue know if there is a problem. In my case it is all documented in messages that my end of the agreement was kept. 

Now I have learned that Robert has made a complaint to the shelter about how the pits are being cared for on my property. Did he forget I reached about all the text messages begging for help AFTER the rescue supposedly stepped in to care for those 6 dogs? 

Really? This is the precise reason good fosters walk away and are not able to trust again. Now I have to go make some calls so that the people these complaints have been made to can review ALL the messages of me begging for help with the dogs that were abandoned here. More bullshit Robert has done out of spite when he is forced to step up and honor his end of the rescues agreement!