Managing Growth, Working with Other Rescues, and Transitioning Out
These are the final parts — 12 and 13 of 13, that are all linked here. They are about expanding your reach and operations, and how to transition out.
Working with other rescues and managing growth
Now comes the fun part! It’s fun because it’s less lonely, and you get to share knowledge and commiserate and collaborate.
Typically, working with other rescues means asking each other for advice. In fact, as you set up, you should look for a mentor, a rescuer who has been in the business for a few years and has a great client and community reputation. You can and should ask to have a copy of various adoption applications and contracts so that you have something on which to base and adapt your own. You can and should help other rescues out by hosting shared adoption fairs, if the kinds of pets you have are compatible (for example, dogs and cats — OK, cats and rats–not really, rabbits and cats–OK, rabbits and dogs–not really, rabbits and rats–fine, dogs and rats–depends). Any expenses that can be shared between two rescues, such as large orders of food and supplies, will reduce quarterly and annual expenses. Also, sometimes you can share willing volunteers. This would be something that happens organically.
There is one other instance in which you will be collaborating with other rescues: animal emergencies. These tend to be breeder and hoarding situations that are out of control and finally receive an intervention. The collaboration between you and all other rescues and volunteers on the case is allocating all the rescued animals amongst yourselves using a spreadsheet, and arranging the “rescue train.” Sometimes rescue trains, such as the Bunderground Railroad or Freedom Drivers, already exist in your area. Spread the word if you find one, because people who otherwise would not be involved in pet rescue often are happy to help with a leg of transport, if it gets an animal into a safe house! Collaborate on these big rescues. They are extraordinarily rewarding. Fair notice: up in the “housekeeping!” warning I gave above, I mentioned “sudden influx situations.” This is what I’m talking about. At the peak of my rodent rescuing, I had 30 rats when I had a mama and her 11 babies; after I got out of rescuing, I was the way-station between the Maritimes and Ontario, when a 100+ rat rescue took place — and yes, they all stayed at my house overnight, in about 20–25 different cages (there were a few volunteers to help).
Collaboration with other rescues is also a key to your managing growth: your limits are as hard as the number of foster homes you have, and you cannot take in all requests. Foster homes are your key to be able to grow and take in pets. Foster homes need to expect to keep a pet for at least four months. Sometimes the new home appears right away, but what happens at a high enough frequency is “foster failure” — when a foster home adopts its rescue pet. This can result in the foster home going offline. The only other solution that I found for managing growth was by increasing the advertising in alternative venues. An advertising campaign was likely to result in one adoption, or one new foster home, or, thankfully, both at the same time.
The only other equivalent respite that I, as a rescue, had, was when an elderly or sickly pet died. You do your best to provide them a good quality of life, medication for ailments, and comfort in old age, but you actually get used to death, and come to treasure when you knowingly have a few weeks to be with your little one on the way to their demise. Animal rescue fixed my relationship with death, as a matter of fact. I was a puddle of tears and snot with my first rescue death; I got that experience several more times over the course of many little lives, however I learned for the most part to take joy in having righted a wrong or just been there for a pet in need, and seeing them through the rest of their short lives (rats live 2–3 years; rabbits live 8–12). A philosophical attitude towards death has been beneficial to me when it comes to the loss of people, as well.
Final words: on Transitioning Out
There will come a time where the work has exhausted you and you feel the need to move on in your life and projects. This is a good sign: You have served honourably and recognize when it’s time to pass the torch to someone else.
I cannot give clear advice here on how to find someone to replace you at the helm of your organization, as I did not find myself a replacement and I just shuttered the doors (but not the website, so I still advise strangers on the internet from time to time). Nevertheless, once you have built up an organization and turned it into a machine for saving lives, the best thing you could do is pass it on to the next willing volunteer General Director. This means it’s time to call upon your online communities, your collaborating rescue community, and the general public.
Do a basic preparatory documentation of your processes and details like websites you use, passwords, financial information, Dropbox/Google drive etc, so that should someone serious ask, you can give them a positive impression of what it takes to take it over. Once someone is truly interested, do a thorough documenting of your work, so they can step in and make changes once they are familiar with how things are done and why.
Donate all your supplies, toys, and extra equipment to the next rescue: paying it forward is the currency of rescue. You may sell cages online if you had before to make up expenses, but only up to the point where your expenses are covered. Be generous after that, as others surely have been with you.
If your foster homes are attached to you, meaning their relationship is with you more than with the organization and the types of pets, then prioritize getting these pets into adoptive homes as you transition out. You can also shift them to foster homes that are more committed to the organization and types of pets. And you should guess: if you don’t find another foster home, then you become the de facto foster home. Since you accepted the animal in, it makes sense that you be their final destination in absence of an adopter.
If you find no replacement, you must shutter the rescue and make it clear, online, that you have closed doors. Remove yourself from the community not completely, but on a day-to-day basis. Check in once a week or so, and continue to appreciate what others do. Maintain enough ties to keep tabs on the pets that you helped out; you may need to help them out again, or their adopters may be one day in the position of helping (when they want to adopt again, you can be the go-between). Leave everyone with a smile on their faces, in the best possible way, and obtain professional references for the work that you did — yes, I am serious! — and go and get some rest. Congratulations on a job well done.
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Good luck with your rescues!
Best regards,
Jane
