Hotdogdr

29/10/2026

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I’ve been in animal rescue long enough to believe that one of the biggest challenges we face isn’t the animals. It’s the personalities of the people trying to save them.

And I say that as someone who loves rescue people.

We have people with enormous hearts, strong opinions, big emotions, different philosophies, and an incredible amount of passion. All of those things can be wonderful. They can also make working together unbelievably difficult.

I’ve seen people spend more energy fighting over who gets credit than celebrating the animal who got adopted. I’ve seen good ideas dismissed because someone didn’t like the person who suggested them. I’ve seen disagreements become personal, assumptions become facts, and people become so focused on being right that they forget what we’re actually trying to accomplish.

Somewhere along the way, rescue can become about territory, control, recognition, and whose feelings were hurt.

And the animals pay for it.

Here’s something I wish more people understood: You can be a wonderful person who loves animals deeply and still be difficult to work with. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

Loving animals doesn’t automatically make us good communicators, good teammates, or good leaders. Those things require self-awareness, humility, accountability, and the ability to hear something we don’t like without turning it into a personal attack.

Not every disagreement is disrespect. Not every decision you disagree with is an injustice. Not being included in every conversation doesn’t mean you’re unappreciated. And someone having a different opinion doesn’t make them your enemy.

We ask animals who have experienced unimaginable things to learn to trust, adapt, and coexist. Yet sometimes we, the humans responsible for them, can’t manage to do those same things with one another.

The irony is pretty remarkable.

Animal rescue is emotional work. It should be. But our emotions cannot be allowed to run the organization. We owe the animals more than that.

We don’t all have to like each other. We don’t have to agree on everything. We don’t even have to approach rescue the same way.

But we do have to remember that the mission is bigger than any one of us.

Because at the end of the day, the dogs don’t care who was right in the meeting, who got the credit, who has been volunteering the longest, or whose idea it was.

They just need us to get our act together.

The animals are the reason we’re here. Our personalities shouldn’t be the reason we fail them.

25/10/2026

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There's a shift happening in animal rescue, and I don't think enough people realize how serious it's becoming.

We're facing an animal welfare crisis that affects everyone, yet very few are actually involved in addressing it.

There are more animals needing help than there are homes, fosters, or rescues able to take them.

We've made animal control the villain for euthanizing animals when they run out of space. But they're doing what they were created to do: take animals in, protect public safety, and manage the constant intake. We condemn the decisions while ignoring the circumstances that force them.

We treat animals like disposable commodities and expect shelters and rescues to deal with the consequences.

But overcrowding isn't the only problem. The entire rescue model needs to change.

State reporting requirements and many grant criteria focus heavily on intake, adoptions, and shelter pulls. We've been conditioned to measure success by how many animals we move through the system instead of how many we prevent from entering it.

What about the animals that never entered a shelter because someone helped with a veterinary bill? The unwanted litters prevented through spay and neuter programs? The families who were able to keep their pets?

Those numbers should matter just as much.

Meanwhile, rescues are expected to survive on donations, volunteers, foster homes, and personal sacrifice.

Animal welfare is real work. It requires time, training, experience, and accountability. We need sustainable funding that allows organizations to establish paid positions instead of depending entirely on unpaid labor.

Volunteers are important, but they cannot be the only foundation of a system that animals depend on for their survival.

And we're already seeing what happens when that system stops working.

Rescues are shutting down because there isn't enough help. Volunteers disappear overnight without warning, leaving the animals, expenses, and responsibilities on one person. Fosters burn out, donations slow down, and the people still standing are expected to somehow do more.

Even within rescue, competition, criticism, and poor cooperation make an already difficult situation worse.

We've also created an environment where saying no to another animal is treated like a failure, even when an organization doesn't have the resources to properly care for it.

We cannot keep expecting a handful of people to manage the consequences of an entire community's choices.

We need stronger penalties for animal cruelty, abandonment, and neglect, with actual enforcement. Responsible breeding regulations. Affordable spay and neuter programs. Resources that help people keep their pets. Local governments taking an active role. And funding that supports prevention, not just intake.

We need better cooperation between rescues, animal control, veterinarians, and local governments.

And we need to rethink how we measure success.

Are we actually fixing the animal welfare crisis, or are we just the Band-Aid that allows everyone else to avoid taking responsibility for their choices and actions?

I'm not suggesting we stop rescuing animals. There will always be animals that need somewhere safe to go.

But rescue cannot continue being the primary solution to a problem society refuses to address.

I don't believe the future of rescue should be about building more kennels, finding more fosters, or expecting existing organizations to continually expand.

We need a sustainable animal welfare system that includes prevention, professional staffing, reliable funding, and community accountability.

Volunteers will always be important, but an entire animal welfare system cannot depend on volunteer availability and personal donations.

At some point, we have to recognize that animal welfare is a public responsibility, not just a charitable cause.

-Jessica kicklighter- The Underdog Project

14/10/2026

After many many try outs and many many calls, i finally decided to go back to my roots in Scandinavia where technology is at it highest and found the solution for elmos very bad hoof. The shoe was donated to us and the special glue i had to order via Amazon. Yesterday the shoe was put on Elmo and we now wish for the best 🙏🙏🙏

12/10/2026

10/10/2026

Just a normal washing day 🤦

13/09/2026

Happy Sunday to all of you ❤️❤️❤️ from all of us in the shelter

02/09/2026

TEXT AND PICTURE BORROWED:

💔 THIS IS WHAT RESCUE FEELS LIKE. 💔

Look closely at this image.

Look at the animals surrounding me—each one waiting, hoping and silently asking to be chosen.

Look at the computer filled with messages.

Look at the people pointing fingers, shouting opinions and judging every decision from behind their screens.

Then look at the one person sitting in the middle of it all, holding onto one dog while crying over all the others she cannot reach.

This is rescue.

Rescue is not only the happy adoption pictures, wagging tails and beautiful transformations you see online.

Rescue is lying awake at night thinking about the animals you had to leave behind because every kennel was full.

It is opening another desperate message when you already know you have nowhere for the animal to go.

It is looking into innocent eyes and knowing that love alone cannot create more space, pay another veterinary bill or magically produce another foster home.

It is choosing which emergency you can help while knowing another animal may suffer because you simply cannot do both.

And that hurts in a way I cannot fully explain.

Every animal matters to us. Every plea stays in our minds. Every face follows us home.

When we say we cannot take another animal, it is not because we do not care.

It is because we care so deeply that we are already carrying more than our hearts, bodies, facility and finances can hold.

But instead of people stepping forward, too many step back and place the entire responsibility on someone else.

Someone else should foster.

Someone else should adopt.

Someone else should donate.

Someone else should transport.

Someone else should open another kennel.

Someone else should save the animal.

Then, when that “someone else” cannot perform a miracle, people point fingers at the rescue.

They criticize.

They accuse.

They tear apart the people who are already crying because they could not do more.

Some people spend more time typing angry comments than it would take to share a post, donate a bag of food or offer an animal a temporary place to sleep.

Even rescues sometimes tear one another down when we should be standing together.

Imagine if we helped with transportation, foster placement, food, medical care and networking instead of criticizing one another’s decisions.

It belongs to the entire community.

If everyone carried just one small piece of the responsibility, one person would not have to be crushed beneath all of it.

One person can foster.

One can transport.

One can donate $5.

One can share a post.

One can volunteer.

One can adopt.

One can offer encouragement instead of cruelty.

One rescue can reach out to another and say, “We cannot take this animal, but how else can we help?”

That is how lives are saved.

Not through judgment.

Not through excuses.

Not through competition or cruelty.

Through kindness, compassion and people choosing to work together.

Before you point at the person sitting in the middle of this image, look at everything surrounding her.

Look at the tears.

Look at the animals she cannot reach.

Look at the pressure coming from every direction.

Then ask yourself:

Am I adding to the weight—or am I helping carry it?

Because rescue is already heartbreaking enough.

The people fighting to save these animals should not also have to survive being torn apart by the very community they are trying to help.

Please—be kinder.

Step forward.

Stop waiting for someone else to do it.

Work together.

Support one another.

Because while people are arguing over who should help, innocent animals are still waiting for someone to actually do it. 💔🐾

22/08/2026

Hoof trimming and Elmo couldent stop kissing the poor guy 🤣

19/08/2026

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