Entertaining and compelling real-life stories. The author is successful
business, real estate, and media entrepreneur Dick Kazan.
Published on September 27th, 2016
Sherri Franklin: A godsend to old dogs.
Sherri Franklin
Sherri has always loved animals and lived that love by volunteering at
the San Francisco Animal Shelter.
There, she saw that nearly everyone wanted puppies and that older dogs
were seldom adopted.
"Most of them would end up getting euthanized," Sherri told CNN. "They
didn't stand a chance compared to the puppies."
"I could feel their hope draining and my hope draining with them."
Sherri knew she had to do something about this, and what she did will
touch your heart:
In 2007, in her home, Sherri started Muttville, a nonprofit
organization which rescues old dogs from shelters, and finds loving
homes for them.
Often, the homes are with senior citizens, people who may not have the
energy to care for a young dog, but who need a dog's loving
companionship.
Muttville now has its own facility. It receives about 150 inquiries a
week from shelters and individuals seeking to place their elder dogs,
and has placed more than 3,800 dogs into loving homes.
Now with a network of over 100 foster families, Muttville is saving
even more dogs.
What happens when a dog arrives at Muttville?
"Every dog that comes in sees our vet. They get de-fleaed, de-wormed,
they get their vaccines and microchipping," Sherri told CNN.
"And then we go a step further, doing full blood panels and
urinalysis."
"We do that all in house now, which has just saved us so much time and
gotten the dogs ready for adoption so much quicker."
Muttville also has a program for terminally ill dogs.
"We call it Fospice that's hospice and foster mixed together. Every
once in a while, we get dogs that have a terminal illness or
untreatable disease."
"Muttville stays committed to every dog that comes here. We find them
homes with great families, and we cover the cost of palliative care for
the dog until the dog passes away."
At Muttville, they have many repeat adopters.
"They want to give that dog a special home, special love. And when it's
time to say goodbye, it's always hard," said Sherri.
"But you got to share that part of your life with an animal that gave
you unconditional love. Nothing beats that."
Editor's Note: To see heartwarming 2 minute, 20 second videos of
Muttville in action, please click here, here and here. To visit
Muttville's website http://www.muttville.org/.
In the next KazanToday: A man responsible for rescuing millions of
people.
