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Special Feature
'Love at First Bark' a great read with ties to New Orleans rescue community
By Sheila Stroup, The Times-Picayune, October 27, 2011 | Reprinted
When I heard that Julie Klam was coming to New Orleans, I wanted to meet her. First of all, she is hilarious. Her new book, "Love at First Bark: How Saving a Dog Can Sometimes Help You Save Yourself," is laugh-out-loud funny, as well as being heartfelt and inspiring.
It is called a "memoir," but it is really an explanation of why Klam feels compelled to rescue dogs, especially Boston terriers, those little black and white pups with the big round eyes and pointy ears. It follows on the heels of her bestseller, "You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secret of Happiness."
There is a moment in one of her stories when she decides she must foster -- perhaps permanently -- an adorable 3-year-old Boston terrier who has been described to her as "fecally-incontinent." Because of her physical problems, the dog has been in and then out of several different places, and Klam feels sorry for her and fears she will never find a real home.
It is one thing to take in an adorable fecally-incontinent dog if you live in, say, a house with a doggie door and a fenced-in yard. Then it might seem almost doable. But Klam and her husband, Paul Leo, and their daughter Violet are living in a New York City apartment on the 16th floor and already have two young pups who can't seem to get the knack of waiting to go until they're outside. Still, she feels the need to help this little dog, and one evening at dinner she decides to break the news to Leo gently.
When she asks him if he'd like to know what she's thinking about, he answers "No." And when she asks him why, it's because he already knows. "You're thinking about the crapping dog, right?" he says.
Right. And the dog she names Clementine soon comes to live with them, with sometimes laughable and sometimes heartrending consequences. I met Klam Sunday when she was in town for a book-signing, and I told her I feel like we are kindred spirits. I wanted to know more about Leo. Being married to a man who has put up with my dog and donkey weaknesses for decades, I know she has a special husband. One of my favorite lines in "Love at First Bark" is this one: "If Paul and I died at the same moment -- in some dog pee-related death, slipping in a puddle and cracking our heads open -- and were buried together, the joint gravestone would read, "They never learned."
The thing is, when you're reading this book, it crosses your mind, just for a moment, that this could happen. Klam describes Leo, a TV producer, as not so much a rescuer as a willing bystander.
"I couldn't do what I do if he wasn't okay with it," she says. "He allows the amount of chaos we have in our life." Besides her family, rescuing dogs is what she loves most.
"There's nothing else I fight to get," she says. "I don't care about things, but if a dog needs me, that's what keeps me up at night."
>> Read More
Main Feature
Pet Adoptions Can Sometimes Backfire. Now Josie Needs Our Help.
June 2, 2011 By Teresa Rowell | Reprinted with permission from Examiner.com
Animal rescuers are usually volunteers, meaning they rescue out of compassion.
They usually operate on donations and, with any luck, grant money.
They spend countless hours caring for as many animals as they possibly can; most while working full time jobs.
When it comes time to place one of their rescues into a home, it means everything to them that it be just the right place for both the pet and the new owner.
They screen potential adopters through interviews and sometimes home visits.
They believe the adopters have come to them because they truly want to add a new member to the family. It may be the heart-wrenching story behind the former life the animal endured. Or, perhaps it was the photograph that captured the animal's personality that just drew them in.
For whatever reason, the rescuer will always make a very prudent decision about the adoption. And, you can believe the heart, which took the animal in in the first place, plays a big role in their assessment of letting the animal go.
So, when an adoption backfires, there is nothing more disturbing.
>> Read More
Features
Events
- Feb 1 from 7-9pm ARNO will be at the East bank Regional Library with dogs and kittens.
- Feb 4 ARNO adoptable dogs,puppies, kittens and cats will be at Petco at 5300 Tchoupitoulas from 12-4 with adoptable kittens and dogs. Get your Valenitine sweetheart: a new dog or cat.
- Feb 4 ARNO adoptable dogs and puppies will hit the Freret Market from 12-5. Rescue magnets and t-shirts free with donations.
- Feb 12th Come out and support ARNO at Barkus. Adoptable dogs will be at the ARNO booth at the pre-parade events. Then cheer ARNO on as we walk our ARNO dogs at the end of the parade!
- More Events
TidBits
New Orleans #3 in Nation for Entrepreneurship
MSNBC recently featured a group of entrepreneurs who are helping Greater New Orleans reinvent itself as a creative economy. While other regions are on their heels recovering from the recession, the Greater New Orleans region shines as a hub of innovation that has proven it is the most resilient place in America.
>> View Video
NEW Shelter Hours:
Shelter Open Every Day
Volunteers Only:
9am-8pm
PUBLIC HOURS:
3pm-7pm
If you are interested in adopting a pet, we ask that you contact an adoption counselor at AdoptFromArno@yahoo.com for an adoption application and an appt. to interact with the pet(s) of your choice. No pets are adopted/released until a completed application is approved.
Help ARNO
ARNO is running CRITICALLY low on donations and more specifically, CAT FOOD, please help us feed these animals. We have a few volunteers to go out in the field to feed, but without any food, their help will be seriously hindered. Please donate so we can buy some food.
Audio/Video
Recruitment Flyers
PLEASE CONSIDER FOSTERING AN ANIMAL.
ARNO has an ongoing need for foster homes to provide animals a safe and loving environment until transport, reunion and adoption arrangements can be made.
Learn More >>
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It Takes a Village (or at least a network)
(February 12, 2011 By Patty Meehan, Best Friends outreach and Network volunteer)
The message came in through the Best Friends Network Louisiana Go Local … there’s a dog, possibly feral, in great need of help in the New Orleans area. The sender of the message, Jennifer Tavernier, a volunteer at a local no-kill animal shelter, Plaquemines Animal Welfare Society shelter in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, described the situation: there is a large stray dog living underneath a house near her work place. The dog has been living underneath this house for three months.
She described the dog: “He appears to be a mix breed, possibly a lab mix, but I haven't been able to get a good look at him because he runs underneath the house. He looks about 50-60 pounds, but definitely underweight. He is not a mean dog, just very feral and very scared of people.”
Immediately the Go Local volunteer reading the message, a Louisiana resident, thought of Animal Rescue of New Orleans (ARNO). ARNO is one of the few rescues in the country that has a program for feral dogs.
Jennifer’s message continued. She had contacted several local rescues and shelters for help, including ARNO. ARNO had agreed to help trap the dog, but there was currently no room in the inn at the ARNO shelter. So the task at hand was to find placement for him at a shelter or ideally a foster home. Jennifer was asking for Best Friends’ help.
The volunteer contacted ARNO’s director, Charlotte Bass, for ideas. Yes, Charlotte said, Jennifer had spoken with Lise McComisky, their feral dog rehabilitator. They were going to try to help Jennifer catch this dog. But they did not have any room to take him in at that moment. Lise had recommended to Jennifer that she continue to feed the dog where he was, until a place could be found.
>> Read More
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Dead in the Water…
Feeling the effects of the oil spill in our heart(June 22, 2010)
ARNO is experiencing a huge amount of surrenders... we now have almost as many pets in foster care as we have in the shelter because people cannot afford to keep their pets. Folks are traveling up to us in Jefferson Parish, the outskirts of New Orleans, in the hopes that our no-kill shelter can take their pet. The shelters in Plaquemines Parish and the St. Bernard Parish shelter are beyond full. Our shelter is no different, but if one goes out we have room to give another a spot.
It is hard to resist the begging, the tears, the pleading of those who have been effected by the most recent disaster to hit Louisiana. Whether fisherman, seafood market employee, waitress, oyster shucker, tour boat operator, or one of the many residents whose lives depend on the tourist and fishing industry in the lower end of our state. Many with new mortgages on boats and restaurants, putting them back into business after Katrina destroyed their income. Can they take another hit right at the beginning of a more-than-active-predicted hurricane season? The effect is creeping north to New Orleans' businesses, with restaurants and hotels cutting back on personnel, large tour groups cancelled, and just what you would expect from 'sportsman's paradise' going to crude oil coated booms. Wildlife, our rare tiny sea turtles and the birds are certainly affected and are some of the most caustic images seen by the public on television.
Pet Retention Program
This is where we need your help. A program we have in place since late 2006, we call it our Pet Retention Program, needs bolstering big time with your donations. This program allows individuals or families who are of low income or currently out of work to retain their pets with ARNO footing the bill for the pet. We provide whatever the pet needs, i.e. food, medical care (maintenance and extraordinary), transportation to and from the vet, dog houses, and even a carrier to make sure they have provisions to evacuate with the pet. The caseworker assigned to the family stays assigned to that family to assure that care is consistent and to know of social services they might need for the human members of the family. We even have a tri-lingual caseworker, so those who speak only Spanish or French fluently can communicate easily with us. The only thing we request is that if the animal is intact, we insist spay/neuter at our cost.
ARNO has served up to 63 pets at a time, and we need to fund and expand in light of the current needs of the community that surrounds us. [We have even made burial arrangements for one of our indigents and found her pet a new home.] To help more, we need your help.
>> Read More
Recent Features
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Amelia, the Rottie —
A Rescue Years in the Making(August 10, 2009) by Lise McComiskey
In November 2008 I was first alerted to a roaming rottweiler who appeared to be nursing. Quite a few people had spotted the dog running across busy Claiborne Avenue...
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Cat Lover Works Like a Dog to Free Feline
(July 5 , 2009) By Sheila Stroup
Sometimes, it takes a village to rescue a cat – and a woman who refuses to give up. Crystal Bell couldn't stand the thought of the sweet orange kitty being sealed in beneath the bank.
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Marcello's Song
(April 4, 2009) —By Michael Groetsch
Marcello is a two-year-old black-and-white pit bull mix who resembles Petey the pup from The Little Rascals. He was rescued by ARNO's Lise McComiskey less then a year ago near a bar in Central City.
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‘Relief’ is the operative word at A‘R’NO
(April 4, 2009) —By Charlotte Bass-Lily
At ARNO when an animal is found by one of our volunteers who work the street trapping ferals or assigned to indigents, or a good Samaritan who surrenders a found pet to us, we go to great lengths to put out notice of the ‘found’ pet...
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More than puppies for the holidays…
(January 1, 2009) —By ARNO Staff
Please allow us to continue to be ‘angels’ to the people and the homeless animals on the street. They need us to recover more than needing buildings rebuilt… they need us for their hearts to heal.