If you haven’t noticed by now, I love dogs. Even more, I love rescue dogs, and all groups and people dedicated to rescuing dogs. Jersey City-based non-profit organization See Spot Rescued is one of these fantastic groups, and I got an opportunity to sit down with founder (that is, superwoman) Zarina Mak this week to find out more about what they do, how you can help, and what you should know as a hopeful adopter. Some of the dogs in the photos below are available for adoption, but the See Spot Rescued website and Facebook page has the most up-to-date listings.

 

 

 

ER: How did you first get involved in rescuing dogs, and how did See Spot Rescued come about?

ZM: I got involved accidentally. I did not want to start a dog rescue organization; I simply wanted to adopt a dog. When I was looking, I found that it was a really hard thing to do despite the overpopulation of homeless dogs out there. Rescue organizations would fail to call me back or to update their information on availability. I would find a dog that I liked and email or call right away, only to find out that he or she had been adopted months ago.

I didn’t want to go to a shelter, because I felt like I would just want to take home anyone and everyone. I think that everyone should be able to find a dog that meets their lifestyle, their activity level, and their experience with dogs, and that’s what See Spot Rescued aims to allow for. I got involved as a volunteer with the person that I adopted my first dog from, who told me about the terrible conditions that a lot of dogs are in, especially down south. I stopped buying things like Starbucks coffee and expensive jeans and started paying for a lot of dogs’ medical bills and boarding and transport out of my own pocket, and helped to match the rescues with their perfect homes. I learned a lot in that year, and eventually went off on my own to start See Spot Rescued using the contacts at shelters and vets that I had made during that time.

 

 

ER: How has See Spot Rescued changed since it began? How has it made connections in Jersey City?

ZM: It started out from one person’s effort who wasn’t sure what they were doing, and four years later, we’re an organization that has rescued and adopted out over 1,100 dogs with many amazing volunteers. K9dergarten has had a huge hand in our growth. When I first started, I went to them and told them that I had four dogs that I needed to board while I worked on finding them homes. The owner, Marc Donmoyer, wanted to help right away, and agreed to board the dogs for free in the spirit of loving dogs. These are fully-vetted, healthy dogs.

That proved to be so successful, and that’s how See Spot Rescued really got started. We went from four dogs, to ten dogs, to fifteen dogs at a clip, and we established a schedule with them of dogs coming up, being boarded, and getting adopted. As See Spot Rescued began to grow, a lot of the dogs were adopted locally in Jersey City, which has been great and has felt like a real community effort. Every day when I walk down the street, I see See Spot Rescued dogs—and since we name our rescues after celebrities, I always refer to them by their SSR name! In addition, Larissa of Downtown Woody’s Grooming Salon has groomed our dogs for free, and Hound About Town and Fussy Friends always help us out by donating food and passing on discounts.

ER: Where do See Spot Rescued dogs come from? How much do you find out about them before adopting them out?

ZM: As we’ve grown, we’ve expanded our reach of where we save dogs from. It’s really important to us that we pull local dogs in addition to dogs from the south. We rescue many dogs from the Newark shelter, which has been an incredible place to work with and allows us to come in and assess the dogs with our trainer to determine which will work well in the SSR program. One of the biggest markers of community support is that when we pull dogs from Newark or other nearby areas, we get so many people who come out to foster. We need local fosters in order to be able to save dogs from our shelters. While we vet our dogs, the local fosters also help us to determine the dogs’ needs and personalities before we begin adoption efforts. No matter where our dogs come from, they go immediately into a foster home for several weeks while we vet them thoroughly, and then into doggie day care at K9dergarten to socialize them.

 

 

ER: What sorts of things does See Spot Rescued have the greatest need for?

ZM: Towels are one of the biggest deficits that we have because we tend to put a lot of bedclothes together for our dogs, and sometimes they get ruined. There’s always a constant need for things like that. Toys are fantastic, and monetary donations are also really great for us. We have a PayPal donation link through our website that people can use, either for one-time payments or regularly scheduled monthly donations for any amount.

People can also email us if they’d prefer to write a check directly. We have a very strict buying process for the supplies for our dogs, so we don’t accept food donations because there are only about four brands that we buy and that our dogs are eating. We purchase absolutely 100% American-made, grain-free premium food for them; we buy exactly the kind of food that I feed my own dogs. I feel really strongly about that, because a lot of times these dogs have been malnourished and have never had strong immune systems. As soon as we get a dog, we put them on the best kind of food possible so that they can start feeling healthy, strong, happy and playful.

ER: What types of things do donations and fundraised money go toward?

ZM: All of the money that comes into See Spot Rescued—100%—goes to the dogs. We are a legitimate 501(c)3 non-profit organization, we’ve been approved by the IRS and the federal government as such and every donation made to us is tax-deductible. We spend over 60% of our funding on top-of-the-line vetting for all of our dogs. We have never denied vetting for a dog due to lack of funds.

We’ve had dogs who have gotten hit by cars, gotten into fights with other dogs, needed hip replacements, you name it and we’ve paid for it. We’ve done more than five leg surgeries, eye surgeries, treated numerous cases of heartworm with three-month treatment plans, and we pay for all of it. We pay for boarding and transport for the dogs, vaccines, and again, the premium food. Collars, leashes, harnesses, dog beds, anything that you can think of that a dog would need, we buy, and we buy the best. We definitely look for value and discounts, and we let people know that we are a rescue organization, but we also think that our dogs should look good (and smell good!). We buy a lot of our collars from small suppliers on Etsy, and have custom See Spot Rescued adoption vests that are hand-embroidered by an Etsy seller. We want the dogs to wear what we’d want our own dogs to wear—and to show that there’s nothing wrong with rescues!

 

 

 

ER: What do you want people looking to adopt dogs from See Spot Rescued to know about your adoption process?

ZM: We don’t do same-day adoptions, so people who have their eye on specific dogs who are scheduled to be at an adoption event should fill out an application beforehand. We do private meetings (at least one hour long) for people looking to adopt a dog to make sure that there is a good fit and everyone, including kids, are comfortable. If it’s not a good match, we can approve you for another dog that we have or put you on a waiting list for the next group of dogs scheduled to arrive. We’ve had fewer than 20 returns in over 1,100 adoptions, and we attribute that to our thorough adoption process. One question that we get a lot is about our fee, which is $450.

I’m happy to address this. The fee is the same for every single dog—it doesn’t matter how old the dog is, the size of the dog, or how much we have spent on the dog. There was a dog that we had that had vet bills in excess of $8500; she was taken out of a shelter and had neurological issues requiring an MRI. Regardless, she was adopted out for $450. We totally understand that the fee is more than other local organizations might be, and definitely more than your local shelter. The thing is that we don’t receive any local tax dollars to support us; we don’t receive funding like a shelter would. The fee of $450 helps us to remain a self-supportive organization and continue what we’re doing to save as many dogs as possible. It’s the cost of spaying or neutering the dog, vaccines, transport, boarding, training, and really good food. For some dogs, the cost might have been a little bit less, but for most of the dogs the $450 is on par with or even below what we’ve spent on them. We understand that people have budgets, and we always recommend that they go to a local shelter like LHS or Newark. For people who do adopt from us, we require that in the event that it does not work out—whether it be five hours, weeks, months, or years later—the dogs have to come back to us and we won’t give you a hard time.

 

ER: I know that you have some celebrity supporters?

ZM: So many people have helped us to get the word out and have been great friends of the organization. Andy Cohen, Todd Oldham, and feature film director Spike Jones have adopted their dogs from us and have all been hugely supportive of the organization. Andy’s dog Wacha shares our dogs via Twitter (@TheRealWacha), and Todd shares our dogs via Instagram. We have a partnership and deep friendship with Lena Dunham, who continues to Instagram our dogs every Monday afternoon and regularly donates to us and helps us with events. She’s even mentioned us on the Tonight Show! Even celebrities who adopt from us follow the same adoption process as everyone else, though.

ER: Do you stay in touch with adopters after they’ve taken home a dog?

ZM: We provide a tremendous amount of after care for dogs that are adopted out from us, and are always available via email to answer any questions that adopters may have. We also created a Facebook group called See Spot Succeed, which is only for fosters, volunteers, and people who have adopted from us. It’s a great private community where the single common denominator is a See Spot Rescued dog. People post photos, advice, and all kinds of questions about training, food, and behavior to help one another out. It’s been really sweet to see, and it’s really taken on a life of its own.

 

 

ER: How can people get involved with See Spot Rescued?

ZM: Getting involved is super easy. People who are interested just need to email us at seespotrescued@gmail.com, and we’ll send them a volunteer or foster application so that we can get a sense of what they like to do. Fostering is a huge help to us. We have people who have fostered 25 or more dogs, which has been great. The typical fostering time is two to three weeks, although sometimes dogs have to stay longer than usual depending on treatments or surgeries that they may need. As far as volunteering goes, we always need people to check references, do home visits, walk dogs, and come out to help with adoption events. Even administrative things are a huge help. There are no time requirements for our volunteers; we want people to help out as they can and as they want to, no guilt-trips. We want our volunteers to remain interested and proud of the organization. Making sure that they know that they have the freedom to give only as much as they can give is a big part of that. Another huge help is spreading the word about us on social media, such as going on Facebook and sharing and liking our posts and following us on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

Check out See Spot Rescued and their latest adoptables on:

Email: seespotrescued@gmail.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/seespotrescued

Instagram: @seespotrescued

Twitter: @SeeSpotRescued

Tumblr: www.seespotrescued.tumblr.com

Donate, get involved, or ADOPT from this fantastic local organization!

 

–  Erin