 in the studio. I'm Bonnie Shea, and today we have Linda Pallagi-Lyn visiting us from 3R Rescue, a wonderful dog rescue organization in winters. Welcome, Linda. Nice to see you. It's great to be here. Wondering who this is that we have visiting us today. This is my little friend, Keiru. And Keiru came to us from a rural shelter in the Central Valley, like many of our dogs do, except he was a little bit older. He was rescued when he was just a little puppy in the shelter. And he's very special because he was born with some little defects in his front legs that don't enable him to walk too well. And so that's how we got the name Keiru. He came to us and was supposed to be put up for adoption and became such an inspiration for everybody at 3R Rescue that we decided that he would stay as our goodwill ambassador. Nice. So he looks a little bit like a kangaroo when he's down on the ground, right? Yes, he does. Yeah, his front legs, he was born without a forearm. So it doesn't enable him to stand up like a normal dog. So he walks down. But he doesn't know there's anything wrong with him. And he's in great health and a happy boy. Perfectly happy in your household. He is. So can you tell us more about 3R Rescue's story? What the 3Rs stand for? Sure. The 3Rs stand for rescue, rehabilitation, and rehoming animals in need. And our program was founded about almost five years ago now in Winters, California. My husband and I made the decision to start the rescue after about 20 years of working with other rescues, taking many difficult dogs that didn't have a second chance unless they came to us. And we were able to work out some behavioral issues and let the dogs de-stress on the ranch and realize that they could have a second chance at life. Did you ever imagine that this is what you would be doing in your life? No, not at all. Not at all. My husband and I have always loved animals and have always taken rescues. And the ranch just seemed like the perfect place for dogs to be able to come. And we're happy to be able to do something like this. We're about 420 dogs in a little over four years. Oh, my goodness. So when you say ranch, you have a big piece of property? We have a piece of property in Winters that's a very old piece of property that has been there only two previous owners that we know of. And my husband and I have had horses and cows over the years. And it's just a real good, quiet place. It backs up to some various foothills and wonderful ranches around it. So it's a great environment. Thanks. I'm wondering how dogs end up at 3R, how you find out about dogs that need to be rescued, and then how do you decide which dogs to rescue and how many? Yeah, so that's a seven-day, week, 24-hour day process. We're connected now with many networks of rescues and shelters throughout California. And we get pleased daily for people who want us to take their dogs. My heart is with the Central Valley shelters from Fresno down to Bakersfield. There are very rural shelters that have little or no support. And the kill rates at some of these shelters are 80% to 90%. So many of our dogs even come from the kill room there. And we're very fortunate to have good volunteers with boots on the ground down there that help us to evaluate the dogs and see if we could do good by them in our program. How many dogs, you mentioned a number, maybe your total number. But how do you decide how many dogs to rescue? Yeah, again, it depends. As of this morning, we will be taking a litter of four puppies from the Lodi area that were left alone and overnight at a shelter. We also do wagon trains. And we work with partner rescues from out of state. And those groups of dogs can be anywhere from 10 to 20 dogs. And they're evaluated in that way. So the number per year, it goes up and down. And it depends on the need. We also just helped with the Stockton hoarding case, excuse me, where 105 dogs had to be pulled out of a home. And we took six dogs from that. So how many do you have at 3R right now? About 24. About 24. Is that kind of a typical number? Yeah, we have fosters that work with us. We have UC Davis students. And we have a couple retired folks that foster for us. So the number of dogs that we take is directly proportional to the number of volunteers, which are critical for the program. Do you focus on rescuing any particular breeds or types of dogs? We are not breed specific. We do small to medium sized dogs and some large dogs. We try to be very careful to evaluate each individual dog to make sure that we can do right by them in our program. And so really, it just depends on the individual dog. And then if we can't take dogs, we work with our network of partners. There are some breed specific rescues that can do a much better job than we could. So any type of dog just depends on the need. Yeah, yeah. So can you describe the process for us a little bit? How do you determine the best fit between a dog and a person who wants to adopt a dog or a family that wants to adopt? Sure. Well, it's been said by a couple of our adopters that our adoption process is more difficult than buying a home. Not intentionally. Our adoption application is pretty thorough. And the reason for that is so that we can work with you, the adopter, to find out what your lifestyle is and what kind of dog you're looking for. Once you've filled out the adoption application, there may be a brief phone interview so we can talk to you about not just the dog you are interested in, but other possible dogs that might be available. Once that's complete, we set up the meet and greet. And that, to me, is one of the more critical and telling parts of the entire adoption process. We look at not only the connection between the humans and the dog, but we look at the dog's connection to the human. And that's very, very important to us. They say that a dog picks their people. We see this over and over again. Yeah. So what advice would you give someone who wants to adopt a rescued dog? Patience. It's about patience and time and being willing to learn. You never know the background with a dog that's been rescued. We keep our dogs as long as we can so that we can find out what we need to know about them. But being willing to learn and work with them is really important for success. What things does 3R Rescue do that you think are special or unique for a rescue organization? I think the most unique part of 3R Rescue is our rehabilitation process. And as I mentioned, way before adoption is the rehab piece. When a dog comes in to 3R, we already know a little bit about them, but you never see the entire personality in the shelter. So as soon as they get to 3R, they're evaluated. Is that OK, Kay? They're evaluated for medical, emotional, and dietary needs by our team. And then we're very, very fortunate to be surrounded by a great group of subject matter experts, such as veterinarians in fields like nutrition, holistic medicine, surgery, even epidemiology that help us with our controls at the facility. And then each dog would have their own protocol developed. And we may have as many as five to seven diets going at the same time, depending on that dog's needs. And the other critical piece to our program that I believe is a little bit different is many of our dogs, a high percentage of our dogs go to dog training. And we're very fortunate to have a trainer here, right in Davis, Casey Wallace, with Laughing Dogs Academy, who generously gives of her time and our dogs go to school every week. Our UC Davis student volunteers write up the notes from those classes. And then it's brought back to the ranch and the volunteers at the ranch follow through with those protocols. And then each dog is re-evaluated each week. So that's how we really try to diligently work with our dogs to get them ready for adoption. So the training is unique. I've never heard of that before, taking all of your dogs to training. We have our 3R van, and there are nights that we load up as many as 10 dogs to go. And we have three different classes that we might attend throughout the week. So it really varies. The puppy classes get exciting. So you mentioned volunteers. You're almost entirely a volunteer-run organization. We are. And so our volunteer team is amazing. It's a real cross-section of people. We have, of course, I've mentioned the UC Davis students that are animal behavior, animal science, pre-vet. But we also work with our local high schools. We have students doing their capstone projects or special projects. We have retired professionals that work with us. And in the last two years, we have some disabled veterans that work with us. And I'm very proud of that. So it really takes a large volunteer force to make it happen. You never have enough volunteers. And when people ask, is there anything I can do, there's always something. I will put you to work. There's always something you can do. And people can find out more about that on our website or call us. We'd be happy to talk to you about volunteering. So related to things that people can do, I know that you have a fundraising event coming soon called Pause at the Park. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, absolutely. We're really excited about it. It's our first gala that we will have, hosted by the owners of Park Winters. It will be champagne registration while you look at the silent auction items available, preceded by an amazing sit-down dinner by the executive chefs at Park Winters. And dessert provided generously provided by Freeport Bakery. And then, of course, the all-important live auction with trips to Italy available and other places like that. This is our, we're really excited about this because this will enable us to not only sustain our programs but possibly expand our programs into other areas. So that event is coming up on November 5th. And there's information on your website about it. So in addition to donating, is there anything else that people can do to help through our rescue? Yeah, spread the word. And I have to say that there's three components of just about any non-profit organization. Cave is checking out. There we go, babe. The donations that we always critically need, but the adopters, we have some amazing success stories that our adopters become volunteers, and they become donors. And then, of course, the volunteers become adopters, and it becomes an amazing family. And so I think whatever you choose to do to help us, it's welcome. And I believe you have a wish list on your website. We do. We'd like to have donated. There and on Amazon Smile. We're an Amazon Smile member, so if you go on Amazon, yeah, we get a donation there as well. Nice. To wrap things up, could you share with us perhaps another heartwarming story, like this one about Keiru? Yeah, we have a story from a couple years ago where we were going on transport down to the Central Valley and we were slated to take seven dogs. And that evening, I saw a plea come out for a litter of seven puppies. And so I said, no, we can't do any more. And the next morning at 5 a.m., the plea was still out there, so I asked my husband if we could take more. And he said, sure, what's one more? And I said, what about seven more? And he said, absolutely, seven pups. And they all survived and all got amazing homes. Wonderful. So many terrific stories, and I know you have more successful stories on your website. We do, yes. We do. So people can look there to hear some more wonderful stories. I wanna point people to the 3R Rescue website where you can find the stories, you can find the wish list, you can find more information about the fundraising event that's coming up on November 5th. Right. And we have photos. And we have photos. We forgot we had a few photos. We could show of more puppy dogs. Yeah. So that photo is a pair of border collies that came to us that were a little bit older guys, Bonnie and Clyde. And that's Pelos. Pelos is a real special case. He's a 10-year-old Chihuahua that didn't know he was 10. Yep. All right. Well, I wanna thank you so much for coming today, Linda, and thank you for all the amazing work that you do. It's been a pleasure hearing more about 3R Rescue and anyone interested in knowing more or interested in adopting from 3R Rescue is welcome to look at the website or give you a call. Yes, absolutely. Wonderful. And with that, we conclude in the studio. I'm Bonnie Shea, and I thank you so much for joining us today.