Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe - how rescue dogs are selected. 

While useful for a game of tag to figure out who is "it", this children's counting rhyme is not how we select our rescue dogs. 

Through the years that hart has worked diligently to build relationships with individuals who live and work in our target communities.  Because our Field Volunteers are in the community everyday they are able to monitor the dog population and identify which dogs need the care and attention of rescue.    Our Field Volunteers are critical to hart's ability to provide dogs in need a new start. 

As an organization, we are very proud that members of our rescue community have identified the dog overpopulation problem and that we are working  together to make a difference.  Dogs are identified as in need of rescue for a number of reasons - a dog might be picked on by other dogs, a dog may have an injury, a dog might be hanging out near a dangerous roadway, a female might be pregnant, a dog may have been owned but left behind when the owner left - the list of circumstances goes on and on. 

As soon as there is a vacancy in our network of foster homes, a dog that has been identified as in need of rescue is secured by our Field Volunteers and is transported to hart's care.  There are variations on how this happens.  At times our Field Volunteers will transport the dog right to hart, other times we assemble a team of volunteers to help secure and transport the dog.  All dogs that come into hart's care have consent to be rescued by a member of the target community or surrendered by its owner.

hart is proud also to partner with other rescue organizations and shelters to provide the community relief by rescuing numerous dogs simultaneously.   We are constrained by how many active foster parents we have at any given time and because of this we are not able to take all the dogs that need rescue into our direct care.  With resourcefulness and cooperative efforts we work with other rescue organizations to give a new leash on life to rescue dogs through the year. 

The reality for any rescue organization is that there are more dogs that need help than our resources can support.  We always have a wait list of dogs that are in need of rescue.  We wish that we could help them all right now.