Soul Touched by Dogs

Welcome to the Soul Touched by Dogs
Podcast, the show for dog lovers who

see dogs not as toys or tools, but
wise souls worth our respect and care.

I'm an Herrmann, and I'm your host.

I talk to poor some humans, people who
do great work for dogs and their people.

So come and join us for
today's conversation.

Anke: Hello and welcome
back, I have to say.

Kathy, I'm delighted
to have you here again.

Kathy: I am delighted to be here.

I love what you're doing,
Souls Touched by Dogs.

How wonderful.

Anke: Absolutely.

And, um, I'm curious to hear, I mean,
let's just start at the beginning.

For people who haven't heard
the first episode with you,

that's, that's been a while back.

Let people know where you're based and,
you know, what's your business with dogs?

Kathy: Terrific.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Anke.

So, for 20 years, what I've really
done is I've helped other rescues get

visibility for their dogs, because it's
just random that somebody happens to

see a post on Facebook, because we all
live on Facebook and Instagram, right?

And so that's the way we get it out.

Pet Finder, Adopt A Pet,
those are very clunky.

They don't really get the message out.

They're hard to search.

You know, the dog is often gone.

It's manual to upload it.

So, for 20 years, what I've really
done is Use my connecting networking

skills to help rescues place their dogs.

And then I've taken adopters
from people that are frustrated

because most rescues don't reply.

They just don't act like businesses.

And so if you have a high value
proposition, what we call like a

doodle or little foo foo dog or
golden retriever, you're going

to get a hundred applications.

And they don't have any mechanism
for going back to people.

Now, if we were in business together,
we'd have an email marketing

system, a CRM, automatic replies,
and they just don't set it up.

And you can't talk to
them about it either.

It's just really frustrating.

It, the business stuff goes
in one ear and out the other.

So I helped place a golden
retriever in the end of 22.

He had been abused, physically abused,
beautiful, drop dead, gorgeous, cream

golden, I love goldens, I love all dogs,
and it went viral with 1, 800 shares.

So my phone is in my ear going ding,
ding, ding all day long, Facebook

Messenger, Facebook Messenger, and
Messenger is also very difficult to work

with, they disappear, they go further
and further down, you can't find them.

Find them again.

If I go searching for Anke, I'll come up
with 8 million Anke's all over the world.

Right.

And so I started an Excel spreadsheet
of all these people that wanted

this dog, but this particular
dog had PTSD and he was big.

And so we had a lot of restrictions.

So I had all these people
that wanted gold retrievers.

And I look at it like a business.

Like I have leads.

I have homes for dogs.

Let's find dogs who need homes.

Right?

And I went to all my rescue friends,
I couldn't get them to focus.

It was like, can you find goldens?

Do you have any goldens?

Have you seen any goldens?

I live on the East Coast.

I live in Westchester County, New York.

There are no goldens out here.

Oh, they're very, very few.

There's only a couple golden
retriever rescues for each state.

They're very specific.

They have wait lists.

They're often not very nice.

And so believe it or not, through a
commodity deal I was doing with a guy

in Texas, I met a guy in Dallas who
was taking dogs off Craigslist Goldens.

He loves goldens and he had applied
to the golden rescue out there

when he came back from Iraq and
they denied him for a silly reason.

So he went on a personal
mission to find goldens.

And so I didn't actually
set out to start a rescue.

I was like, dude, if you
have goldens, I have homes.

And then all of a sudden I'd
done this for 20 years, but I

always had a rescue in between.

Now it was us.

It was like, Oh, we need fosters.

Oh, I need vet care.

Oh, I need a transport to the East coast.

Like how am I getting this
dog to Connecticut or New

York or wherever it was going?

So that's how we started.

We started officially in March of 23.

It was originally called the Golden
Retriever Lovers with Brad and Kathy.

And then we had a formalized,
we got so busy so quickly.

We did 32 dogs in four
months, all Goldens.

And so I built up this humongous network.

We rescue all over Texas.

We've saved 275 dogs in 19 months.

About 60 percent of those are golden
retrievers, so we formalize it into

the Golden Project, but the tagline
is saving those with hearts of gold.

Oh, and just like touch by a soul, right?

Dogs touched by a soul.

I think every dog has a heart of gold.

So we are best equipped because
goldens have been our focus.

We do goldens, we do great pairing
mixes, we do labs, but invariably

I end up with other dogs.

So lately we've been doing
doodles and so we work.

Just like a business, we work backwards.

We get people onto a pre approved
adopter list, and then we find the

dog or match the dog to the home.

Most rescues will post a dog, which
we have some of those as well.

We're just posting and randomly
hoping that somebody sees

the dog and falls in love.

But we know our dogs really well.

We're foster based.

We have 65 foster families
in Dallas, all over Dallas.

And we have transport set up to come
up from Rio Grande Valley, which is

the valley of death for so many dogs.

So Texas is like a third world
country when it comes to dogs.

They don't neuter spay.

It's very poor in many areas,
uneducated in many areas, very large.

Rural areas, ranchers get great peonies,
they don't neuter spay, don't take them to

the vet, they breed, more puppies, puppies
get dumped, puppies get thrown into

garbage pails and dumped in suitcases.

It's just tragic what
we see on a daily basis.

So that's the background
on the Golden Project.

Anke: Wow, that is just like such a,
and I love that you're coming at this

with this business hat because I think
one of the reasons I even started

Soul Touched by Dogs was that I often
saw, you know, rescues, literally what

you're saying, you know, it's the same
in Spain, they just pop it on Facebook

and then, you know, and then pleading
for money and then you've got bullshit

artists hanging off it and, and it all
gets like, people don't trust it and

It's not really run like a business.

It isn't run, it is not well
organized and even it's more an

attitude than a financial thing only.

So it's that, um, so what are
quite, I mean, I love the idea to

like, okay, let me find the, let
me find potential homes first.

Or like you had those and now let's
find them the dogs, which I love

because all of a sudden it's not, Like
the whole perception changes, right?

It's not just like you do, you're kind of
doing the dog a favor or it's this pity

kind of thing, like, oh, rescue the dog.

Now, all of a sudden, the
dog's the prize, right?

And you have to apply for it and
you have to, you know, What kind of

criteria are you looking for when it
comes to pre approving, um, a home?

Kathy: So, good question.

People ask us that, right?

What we really want, Anke, is we
want to know that our dog is going

to be loved and cherished forever.

We want to know that they're financially
capable of something happening, right?

If a dog, a golden especially, is
prone to eating things, right, they're

chewed, they're chewed, they're chewed.

And especially if they're puppies,
and if that sock goes in, it

can twist around the intestines.

And I just talked to an adopter this
morning, and her mini golden dooda had to

be put down at six years old because it
was the second time he ingested something,

and they'd already taken out part of his
intestines on the first surgery, so they

said he wouldn't survive the second one.

So, you know, and they had tried to
be really careful, but three boys

in the house, plus daddy, you know,
all playing sports, and there's

invariably going to be socks.

And, you know, some dogs are
just So, you know, that kind of

surgery can be 3, 000 to 5, 000.

So we want to make sure if they
can't afford our adoption fee,

then that's a flag for us, right?

And if somebody is really well
referenced or friends with somebody

that we know, like another adopter,
and they highly recommend, and they

may be going through a financial crunch
right now with kids in college and

renovating the house, then what we ask
is we ask them to buy pet insurance.

So this way we know that our
dog will be taken care of.

So, so that's one of the big things.

We don't want the dog back, right?

Period.

You know, I don't want to re home a
dog that's very traumatic on the dog.

It's hard on us.

Um, we do do a three hour driving
distance from any board member or key

volunteer, but that gives us 11 states.

Um, and when I do the criteria here
where I live, I live in Westchester

County, so we're little villages,
000 people in each village.

Because I rode my horse for years,
we have 130 miles of trails, I know

so many roads, I know the houses,
so I'm real comfortable, like, and

I'll also have Facebook friends
in common or LinkedIn people.

I have 167 common LinkedIn
connections with one adopter.

So it gives me a high degree of comfort
in terms of knowing who they are.

Once we get out to Texas, it becomes much
more difficult because it's so large.

Just driving within
Texas could be 10 hours.

And once you get out into the boonies,
into the country, you know, you just

don't have as many vets, you don't have
orthopedic surgeons, you know, the closest

one can be 90 minutes, two hours away.

And so if something happens to your
dog, they're not going to be seen.

So those are the things that we look at.

Um, I'm very blessed
in this foster system.

I have these angels, these amazing angels.

I built a private Facebook group.

We don't let anyone in until they are
approved to adopt or foster or volunteer.

And so we built this sense of community.

And so when I put a dog up, we just
recently took a starving dog, it looked

like a skeleton, it was a black mouthed
cur, and she was out on the streets of

Rio Grande Valley next to a dog that
we thought was a golden, who's not a

golden, and she was so skinny, Anke,
you would just cry looking at her.

So I was hoping another rescue
would step in, but unfortunately

everybody works in urgency, so once
we got the dog off the street into

boarding, Then the urgency is gone.

No other rescue stepped up.

So we have a black mouth curve.

So I put a plea in the, in the group.

I put a picture of her and I said,
we're taking Rita off the street.

If anyone can help with
food, she's so skinny.

We need puppy food.

We need stew.

We need, um, de warmer.

And oh my goodness,
people are so generous.

They sent six bags of this very
expensive food that we use and

stew and de warmer and food.

People are just so generous, you know?

So, um, so we have this
wonderful sense of community.

We got Rita up to Dallas,
which is a 10 hour drive.

We have a transport that
comes up on Mondays.

And she has heartworm, both tick
borne diseases, a leper respiratory

infection, parasites, and ear infections.

So, she's already cost us 300 for the
first visit and heartworm will be another

600, spay and neuter and everything else.

So, you know, she'll be at 1200.

Anke: Everything is so expensive, right?

Kathy: Well, Texas is cheap,
cheap, cheap for spay and neuter.

I mean, I pay, I pay under 200 for
spay and neuter here on the East Coast.

The cheapest I can get is 300.

Yeah, so big difference.

It's 1, 100 usually if you're a regular
person going in on the East Coast.

Anke: So if somebody is thinking of
getting into all of this, right, uh, so

hey, well I wanna, and I would imagine
a lot of people sort of stumble into

the whole rescue thing, they probably,
I would imagine you find a dog and you

find another dog and before you know
it you have a rescue kind of thing.

So what is something that like, Anke
Herrmann, Taming the Tech Monster, Anke.

How does one go about setting this up
in this well structured way so that

the dogs aren't just like, you know,
on a list and just with a way there?

Kathy: Yeah, so that's a
very difficult question.

So what we hope to do is I'm working
on some major deals and I hope

to be able to create a foundation
and put tools in it and a primer.

If I actually had a book that
actually said this is step

one, two, three, four, right?

That would have made it so much easier.

I didn't know 501c3.

I'm not good at administrative.

I don't have an assistant, you
know, like hiring an attorney.

Should we do a dual registration?

There's so many, many pieces.

You have to be licensed
in each state, you know?

So what I would suggest, I
was an independent rescuer.

I stayed in between.

I had five of my own dogs all the time.

Lots of cats, rabbits, guinea pigs,
you know, once you're set up for one

thing, it's like, ah, what's one more?

And so I think, um, some people
can get in over their head.

So I would say suggesting, plan
it out just like a business.

How many are you going to take?

Are you going to be foster
based or kennel based?

Are you going to do a specific breed?

Are you going to take from a certain area?

How are you going to adopt?

You know, a lot of this,
I just stumbled through.

We needed fosters.

I started, the guy I started with
could take one dog at a time.

Um, and he works full time and he has
a mouse tracker on his computer so his

boss knows whether or not he's working.

So he can't get up and run
out in the middle of the day.

Um, and so we're very, very blessed
to have these amazing angels.

I mean, we took a dog off death row.

I didn't know she was pregnant.

And this foster way out in the
country happened to be in the city

and saw my post and volunteered
and we had 14 dogs, 14 puppies.

She bought incubators, hand fed them.

So finding people like
that are what you need.

You need to have angels around you.

People that are willing to do the
work aren't going to say, Oh, sorry, I

can't drive at nine o'clock at night.

It's past my bedtime.

Right?

Because we never know when
we have to go pick up a dog.

Anke: So true, so true.

So, you know that book you wish you had?

Are you going to write it?

Kathy: I am, yeah.

We're going to do, actually,
we're going to do a couple things.

We're going to set up a software
directory of all the dog

rescues in the United States.

We're going to require audits.

We're going to pay for the audits
under X, we're going to give them

a discount on audit fees between X
and Y, and then over Z, they'll pay

for it every year, the others will
be random once every three years.

That gets rid of the scam rescues,
because there are scam rescues out

there that take pictures of a maciated
dog, the dog I was talking about,

Rita, take her picture, nobody knows
whether or not they actually have it.

Anke: Yeah, and you see that a lot here
and I know, yeah, I had a, you know, a

project going on in like, well, 10 to
11 years ago and that was a big problem

that you get people who take these
photos and then just go out beg for

money and don't even have the dog or
have no intention of helping any dog.

They just, you know, take advantage
of people who want to help but then

they get burned and then they're not
going to help the dogs that really

need it and that's a big problem.

So, It's a huge problem.

I love that you have that control on it.

Kathy: Nope.

So if you have the financial rating, so
now we have sort of a Yelp rating, right?

And then in this foundation, we're
going to give them actually video

training for their employees,
for their, for their volunteers.

We're going to give them the primer.

We're going to give them access
to things like, I didn't even know

you could buy your own microchips.

We can buy our own microchips for 5.

It's 80 on the East
Coast to get a microchip.

Out in Texas, it's usually 25 to 30.

But they'll only charge
you 10 to input it.

So if I have 5 cost and then 10,
it's 15 rather than 25 or 30.

And when you're doing as many
dogs as we are, it really adds up.

You know, every couple of months
we have another spay paid for.

So that's the, you know, so
that's one of the things that I

didn't know and you can't actually
buy them until you're 501c3.

So, you know, all that sort of stuff.

So we are going to put this out there.

We're going to, my goal is
to make this more efficient.

Because there are so many dogs,
we overlap one another as rescues.

Sometimes we're going after the same
dog, the same dog gets publicized,

nobody updates as to whether or
not it's been adopted or rescued.

And, um, so we do a lot of accountability.

And so I show pictures of the five
dogs that went on transport the

other day, leaving Texas and then
arriving in New York, and then we

The pictures of the happy dogs.

Last week we adopted 16 dogs in one week.

And we've taken 9 in this week.

So we're very, very active.

You know, so we give
accountability for that.

You know, and that's the
thing that's really missing.

Is the accountability.

And you just don't know.

And transparency,

Anke: right?

Yeah, because that's the trust building
and I think that it's always, it always

comes down to trust, you know, just
like you want to be able to trust the,

the, the, the homes or like the people
who adopt it or the people foster.

It's like, yeah, people
also need to trust you.

So it's that, and that transparency
makes, makes all the difference.

I love that.

Yeah, this whole, like, I love how
you put your business hat on to

run this in this, you know, yeah, I
think in that sensible, sensible way.

I don't even want to
say like a tight chip.

It doesn't even feel like a tight chip.

It just feels like, oh,
there's common sense.

There's a business hat on.

There's like efficiency.

There's transparency that actually
makes this so much more impactful,

you know, because I would, I don't,
I have no numbers to compare to,

but like the number of dogs you've
saved in such a short amount of time.

I mean, that is just Mind blowing.

Kathy: I, I think it is a big number.

I mean, the first nine months we'd
done almost a hundred and one of

the other volunteers, you know, was
like, do you know how amazing that

is for a brand new organization?

We weren't even a 5123, right?

So we're running this
through one of my businesses.

So we've made some mistakes along the way.

We've had some learning lessons, you know,
we've only made a couple of mistakes on

fosters, but those have been painful.

We've made a couple of
mistakes on adopters.

Those have also been very painful.

So we learn from that and we
try to get better and better.

I'm again, very lucky
that I have the people.

Um, I think there's some real
potential for AI to be able to

make this process more efficient.

One of the big problems
is posting your dogs.

By the time you post a dog, especially
the way we do it, and put the

bio up, the dog could be adopted.

And so then taking the dog down
and putting a new one up right?

Nine new dogs this week?

That means that we would have to
have bios, all the vet updates,

and everything and we don't get
them vetted until next week, right?

So do we wait until next week?

But in the meantime, I could have an
adopter and if they're local in in

Texas, I could, if they're close enough
and open, they can actually take the

dog and bring it to the appointment.

You know, so there's a
lot of things out there.

A lot of times I have had very
deep conversations with two of

my rescue friends and this just
goes in one ear and out the other.

I could see one at lunch,
her eyes were glazing over.

She's a social worker, right?

And another one, I was explaining
it and she goes, yeah, I

just want to save more dogs.

And they just don't understand
that this would make the

whole process more efficient.

I mean, that's the

Anke: thing, if it's more efficient
then you can save more dogs, right?

So yeah, I don't know, like my little
business, my little business mind goes,

Oh my God, this is how this should work.

So where can people get in touch?

So if somebody goes, Oh, I would love
to run my rescue in a more efficient

way, or I want to get into this, or,
you know, I want to get you in touch

with our local rescue who isn't kind of,
Catching on to like needs the education

and get that shortcut to not having
to figure it out on all by themselves.

So where can they find you?

You know, how can they get?

Kathy: Yeah, so I want to be careful.

I can't spread myself too thin
because running the rescue already

takes a huge number of hours.

I left the house at 7 30 yesterday
and I got back at 8 30 at night, you

know, so I was here for a few hours
in the middle of the day, but we

had a crisis, two crises going on.

So, um, so the Golden Project.

is our Facebook page, which we
have a fair amount of followers

and get more every day.

I have an Instagram page that I started
a few months ago, and I do video every

morning of me hiking in the woods, and
I talk about what dogs, sometimes I talk

about food, natural flea and tick, etc.

We're very holistic.

And the goldenprojecthearts at gmail.

com is our email address, so that
would be the easiest way to reach me.

And I'll obviously pop that in the show

Anke: notes, and it's going to be easy.

I'm going to make it as easy as I
can to find you, but not so easy that

you don't have time for the dogs.

Kathy: Great.

Perfect.

Wonderful.

Anke: Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

I think this is a real, um, this is
this glimmer of hope in that world where

it's easy to get discouraged by so, so
much misery to actually see how things

can be done better and, Save so many
dogs, I think, can only congratulate

you and thank you for coming and sharing
what's been happening in the last year.

Thanks, Anke.

I appreciate you having me.

Have a wonderful day.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for listening.

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That's A N k E at Soul
touched by dogs.com.