The Daily Peeve / Rant

[iris lilies]

Re: dogs and rescues (interested to hear iris lilies' perspective on this)

Our rescue dog passed away a couple of weeks ago and we've been trying to rehome stuff that's still usable. Chuck & Don's (regional pet store chain) took back the bag of dog food we had just opened; they donate opened bags to local shelters. Some items, like Kongs, were too used to pass on, I think, and the opened bags of treats were either composted or tossed. But we have a toy or two, her slow-down bowl, her leash and harness, some coats, blankets, and heartworm meds which could be used by other dogs at the rescue (all smaller breeds) so I emailed the rescue from which we got Dog -- both the foster and the person ostensibly in charge of the operation.

We heard from the foster right away. She's moved out of state so she's no longer associated with this rescue. We have yet to hear from the person in charge. It's been almost a week. Not even a quick one-line "Gee I'm really swamped but yes, we're interested." or "Sorry, we can't take used items." This reminded me that we tried one other time to donate unused toys and clothing and heard ... crickets. Same person. I thought that was a one-timer but now I'm not so sure.

I understand most (all?) rescues run on a shoestring. I realize everyone associated with them has a source of income that demands their attention on a regular basis so I didn't even expect to hear from the foster so quickly. I also know that a lot of shelters/rescues are started by people who are 100% heart and 0% business. But is this de rigeur for contacting clients who are offering usable free stuff? Nevermind transacting the business; even just acknowledging clients? I'm thinking of waiting till Monday and then offering these items to another shelter/rescue. Reasonable?

You can’t generalize about rescue organizations from contact or lack of contact from just one of them.


Drop them off at a shelter.


We get a fair amount of “stuff“ from people, and it’s good, and we generally make use of it. We are very aware of the public relations aspect of accepting donations no matter what the donations are. We take them with a smile and a “thankyou” and an offer of a tax letter.


When our rescue director was hit by a car,I stepped in to do some of the grunt work. One of the first things DH and I had to do was to go to someone’s house who was moving. They had saved tons and tons of stuff for what they thought would be useful for dog rescue such as bedsheets, blankets, T-shirts, as well as items made for dogs. We filled the entire SUV. That was a bit much and it took me a week to sort through it, some of it went in the trash.