Employee Spotlight: Audrey and
Rick Woerter, Dog Rescuers
By Audrey Woerter
You won’t believe this, but I have not been a dog lover
all my life.…. Rick had 3 and I had one and I was not at all impressed
with any of them. I complained about them all the time,
I complained about the hair, the smell, the drooling, the mess
of dog food dishes, etc. But then ….Going through the loss of
an animal changed my life. We lost our dog Molly in 2004, and
as much as this dog drove me crazy with her barking, shedding,
etc. I missed her terribly. Rick and I were devastated. Our golden
retriever Mindy was distraught without her, so the search began
for another dog. I had heard of Petfi nder.com and started searching
for the next addition to our family. I came across many dogs
in shelters all over the country that needed to be saved or they
would be put to sleep in gas chambers, or given a heart stick and
some even taken out back and shot. Rick and I found our next
dog Trey in Ohio. He was a 6 month old pit bull mix. They were
going to gas him soon. We contacted the shelter and a wonderful
rescue group helped transport him to NY for us.
After Trey joined our home, we decided to start bringing
one dog in at a time and have him/her spayed/neutered and try to
fi nd him/her a good home. One dog led to two and so on.
I started fostering for a local rescue for about 2 years.
Eventually, I wanted to branch out on my own. I came up with Every
Dogs Dream Rescue. I signed up on the petfi nder site http://
www.petfi nder.com/shelters/NY793.html and with the help of Jim
Smith we formed our own webpage http://everydogsdream.org/
joomla/. We just recently fi led for our 501c(3), which will allow
donations to be tax deductible and will allow our rescue to apply
for spay/neuter grants, grants for dog food, medications, etc.
We have helped shelters all over the country along
with local families that cannot care for their dogs due to the
economy. We’ve provided dog food, vet care (spay/neuter) or
medications, etc to families that want to keep their pet but are
currently strapped for money. We help a local elderly lady who
has a service dog by taking her and her dog to vet appointments.
Every Wednesday we bring her dog to doggie day care at English’s
Boarding on Route 12 to burn off some of the energy that labs
tend to have!
All dogs in our rescue are housed in our home. We average
between 18-25 dogs and have several fosters that take in 1 or
2 dogs at one time. All the dogs are crate trained, and if they are
not destructive and house trained, they have free run of our home.
Our yard is completely fenced with a 6 foot chain linked fence
which covers almost an acre of our back yard but the dogs are in
and out as they please. Dinner time is open feeding. The 20
food bowls are placed outside on our black top driveway and the
dogs all eat together. It is like musical chairs, they roam from one
bowl to the next, thinking they are getting something special at
each bowl. It is funny to watch.
Now, I know a lot of people are thinking, “how can they
live with all of those dogs and deal with the hair, the mess, the
smell, etc.” First, our home is small, but it is clean. We have a
routine and we just do it. There is no cleaning lady that comes in;
we clean everyday. It is like a regular 8-5 job only ours is 24 hours
a day. Yes, we have sheets on our furniture, vacuum at least
twice a day and steam mop the fl oors. We have decided to stop
purchasing new vacuums and stick to our Shop Vac! Don’t laugh;
with the amount of hair, it does a great job.
It is an emotional roller coaster ride in the world of
dog rescue. We spend a lot of money and time caring for these
animals and we become very attached. It is hard to say good-bye
when adoption day comes for each of our dogs, but we know that
for every dog adopted, one more will be rescued from the high kill
shelters.
All of our dogs are spayed/neutered before their adoptions.
They are up to date on their vaccinations, including
rabies, and we have heartworm blood work done and started on
a monthly heart guard treatment. All dogs/pups are treated for
fl eas and parasites before entering their new homes. Puppies
that leave our rescue and are too young to be spayed/neutered
require a mandatory spay/neuter contract be signed.
Currently all expenses incurred are out of our own
pocket. We do charge a small adoption fee for our dogs, but it
does not even begin to cover the expenses we incur in our rescue.
Many people make donation of blankets, towels, paper towels,
bleach, fl ea medications, shampoos, wire crates, gas cards,
Walmart gift cards, Sam’s Club gift cards, toys, bones, treats, dog
leashes, dog collars and dog food.
We have several Raymond employees who have adopted
from our rescue. Pictured below: Audrey with Riley, adopted by
Jim Smith, Bones adopted by Mike Field and Buddy, adopted by
Kelly and Jim Bushnell.
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