Lost Our Home Pet Foundation » Media Stories

Halfway house caters to four-legged homeless

Ashlee — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:25:10 +0000

Gilbert Realtor Joe Palazzolo who also owns Modern Design Painting and volunteers for Lost Our Home Pet Foundation, has donated about 50 hours to help renovate a 1,500 square-foot home in northeast Phoenix that will be used for a halfway house for abandoned pets. The home is scheduled to be open in about two weeks.
East Valley Tribune

Volunteers are putting the finishing touches on a new halfway house scheduled to open in about two weeks. But it’s not for law breakers who need to make the transition back into society.

It’s a home for pets who need to be placed in a transitional residence because they have been abandoned by their owners who lost homes to foreclosure or who currently cannot afford to keep them. The halfway house can provide a place for the animals to stay until their owners settle into a residence.

The Lost Our Home Pet Foundation, a no-kill pet rescue organization with numerous volunteers throughout the East Valley, works with realtors who discover abandoned pets confined in backyards or empty homes without food and water. The group received a former rental home in northeast Phoenix about three months ago to use as the pet halfway house. The house was a donation from its owner who no longer wanted the house.

Lost Our Home, a two-year-old nonprofit organization. has experienced a 25 percent increase from about 75 calls and emails a month six months ago to about 100 reports a months currently from people reporting pets being abandoned or from pet owners who need a place to foster them, according to Mesa resident Jodi Polanski, executive director of the foundation.

“It’s a huge problem in the Valley, and it hasn’t stopped,” Polanski said of pet abandonment due to foreclosure.

The 1,500-square-foot, three bedroom single-story house being fixed up is the first facility the no-kill rescue group can work from instead of its volunteers fostering pets. When the home opens, it will have an on-site caretaker and will be able to house up to 10 pets, five dogs and five cats, including those that need to be rehabilitated from being malnourished or having fleas.

“It’s definitely a nice feeling for everybody to actually have a home that we can work out of,” Polanski said. “It makes it easier on the volunteers. To us, every pet is a child, and when we find them a home, it’s like kissing your child goodbye. You feel sad and happy at the same time because they are going away, but you know they’re going to a good home and they’re going to be fine.”

In the last 18 months, Lost Our Home has found homes for about 700 pets and provided 100,000 pounds of dog food to pet owners in need and currently the organization’s members currently are fostering about 100 pets with the majority of them being cats, Polanski said.

So far, Joe Palazzolo of USA West Realty of Chandler, who owns Modern Design Painting in Gilbert in addition to volunteering for Lost Our Home, has donated about 50 hours of painting, upgrading electrical wiring and repairing cabinets at the halfway house. Mark Craig of House Facts Home Inspections, has been making sure everything is up to code.

Palazzolo, who has been involved with the foundation since September, said he has heard stories about abandoned pets from other volunteers in the group, one of which involved a cat that had been locked in the closet of a home for so long it was beginning to eat the drywall.

Another dog was malnourished to the point that he had to be euthanized, Palazzolo said.

“I have two dogs, and I can’t imagine leaving them behind,” said Palazzolo, who has a chihuahua and a miniature Doberman Pincer. “It’s crazy what people do. I don’t want to see any pets euthanized for any reasons other than bad health. By people contributing help on this home, every little bit has helped.”

Other donations the foundation has received for the home include a new garage door from Sun Devil Garage in Tempe, gallons of paint from Sherwin Williams, and a power washing of the property from Jim Cooney of Grime Busters in Phoenix.

But the work on the home is far from over.

Lost Our Home hopes to find someone willing to donate services to place a 42-foot long concrete wall in the backyard to replace a deteriorated wooden fence, and someone willing to install an HVAC system in two small rooms of the house for better ventilation.

Although Lost Our Home recently has received a large donation of dog food, it is completely out of cat food and is in need of pet food donations, Polanski said.

Lost Our Home did not want to release the address of the forthcoming halfway house because the group does not want people to drop off pets at the home unsolicited, Polanski said.

Instead, people who need to place a pet in the home or who want to donate pet food or services can call (602) 230-HELP (4357) or email info@lostourhome.org. The foundation’s Web site address is www.LostOurHome.org.

Source:East Valley Tribune

Examiner.com – Help Amelia

Ashlee — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:56:51 +0000

Amelia is a ten-month-old puppy. She is a happy dog that adores people with the tremendous amount of love she shows; so much so, she hides the pain that she is in. Ameilia was born with a condition known as hip dysplasia. She was rescued from a home that was foreclosed. Her former owners had left her with no food, or water except for a swimming pool covered with two inches of green sludge. She was able to roam the streets because the yard was not fenced in. She stayed close to home just in case her family came back for her, but she was left alone until she was rescued.

With hip surgery, Amelia has a chance to live a normal, healthy and active life from the help of the community. AZ Lost Our Home Pet Foundation needs to raise $2900 for this surgery that she deserves. To see a video of Amelia please visit the following link (Amelia). To donate to her surgery, select the donation link and specify that it is for "Amelia" in the memo line.

Reported by Examiner.com

AZCentral: Groups take on challenge to help ‘foreclosed pets’

Ashlee — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:36:23 +0000

When life got bad for Rocky's owners, it got even worse for the 12-year-old Queensland heeler The people he had lived with for 10 years moved from a Chandler house they could no longer afford into a small apartment that did not allow pets. Rocky was abandoned in the back yard. .

Rescue groups said the same thing is happening to hundreds if not thousands of other Valley pets, as their owners hit hard times.

The Lost Our Home Pet Foundation, which recently placed Rocky in an Ahwatukee home, says calls for assistance from people who can no longer afford their pets continue to increase as the Valley's foreclosure rates remain high.

"There are so many more pets in need than there were even at the beginning of the year," said Lost Our Home president Jodi Polanski, a Mesa resident. "We are just overwhelmed."

One of the the group's most recent rescues was Rocky, who was more fortunate than many other so-called "foreclosure dogs."

He was fed and played with by neighbors for at least three months before someone reported his situation. He did not appear to be in bad health when Lost Our Home took him in.

Two weeks ago, Rocky went to the Ahwatukee home of Tammy and Howard Teeter, volunteers who also are professional dogs trainers that help the group's "foster families" take in displaced pets.

Lost Our Home, which is based in Scottsdale, has rescued about 400 dogs and cats in the last year, Polanski said. All were left behind by owners with financial problems, she said.

Both Lost Our Home and Ahwatukee-based RESCUE, another group that places unwanted pets with new families, say no one has solid numbers detailing the magnitude of the problem.

"Unless the owner states 'I've lost my home and can't care for my pet,' we have no way of knowing why a dog or cat ended up at the shelter," said Jennifer Berry, director of RESCUE, which takes pets on shelter "kill lists," rehabilitates them and finds them new families. "Most of the dogs and cats we save have an invisible past."

RESCUE is an acronym for Reducing Euthanasia in Shelters through Commitment and Underlying Education.

Rescuers also can't say for sure why someone would leave a pet behind in an empty house instead of finding a new home, although they suspect the motive is often financial.

"Leaving a pet at a shelter can cost money," Polanski suggested. "And people sometimes think of pets as something disposable. But I really don't have an answer to that question. If I did, we could solve the problem."

Polanski could spend her time telling stories few people want to hear:

A story about more than a dozen cats locked in an apartment and going weeks without food or water because no one knew the owners had walked away. Or one about a foreclosure dog that had to be euthanized because tics consumed much of its blood before it was found.

Instead, her focus is on now finding foster homes where pets can stay temporarily while they recover physically and emotionally from being abandoned - and on placing 130 dogs and cats that have recovered for adoption.

"Maybe Ahwatukee is not filled with foreclosures but it is filled with potential foster homes," said Howard Teeter, the volunteer who helps train pet foster families. He and his wife Tammy own Wiggles and Wags K-9 Training LLC, an Ahwatukee-based dog training business.

Tammy Teeter said being a foster parent for an abandoned dog is not as hard as it might sound - even for people who already have a houseful of kids and pets.

Like blending step-children into a new family, the pets need clear rules and regular schedulea. Too much pampering is actually discouraged, Tammy Teeter said.

"People tend to dwell on what the dog has been though and how bad the situation was ," she said. "But if you just treat them like a normal dog they will thrive."

Source: azcentral.com

ABC 15: Chandler neighborhood bands together, saves abandoned dog

Ashlee — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:04:11 +0000

CHANDLER, AZ -- The story of pets being left behind when homeowners have to leave is all too common these days.

So when a family in one Chandler neighborhood left their dog "Rocky" behind, neighbors stepped in to help Rocky out.

"The dog is innocent, the dog just is here and he needs help," said Richard Vedas, who lives across the street.

Vedas made sure that Rocky had food and water, and he searched for a no-kill shelter that could take the dog.

It turns out that if you call about a dog, you have to actually own the dog for a shelter to be able to come and take the animal.

Eight-year-old Monse de la Cruz, who lives in the neighborhood, also helped take care of Rocky.

Every day after school she would stop in to see him.

"I'll play with him and then at 6 o'clock I'll feed him," said Monse.

It took almost five months before Vedas was able to find The Lost Our Home Pet Foundation.

Lost Our Home specializes in rescuing animals who have been abandoned.

"Just a great feeling, you know, to know someone else cares," said Vedas.

Now Lost Our Home will take care of Rocky's veterinary needs and set him up with a foster family until they can find someone to adopt him and give him a forever home.

"He's a very lucky dog," said Tammy Wilson Teeter, owner of Wiggles and Wags K-9 Training. "If the neighbors hadn't been taking care of him, he would not be here today."

Teeter, who is also on the executive board for Lost Our Home, also provides evaluations of rescued dogs to determine what home would be best suited for the animal, and will even offer free training for any of the animals that are rescued by Lost Our Home.

"(Rocky's) an old dog, we just need to teach him some new tricks," said Teeter.

Now that Rocky has been rescued, the neighborhood is relieved, and thankful for what Lost Our Home does.

"I'm happy for Rocky now," said Monse.

Source: abc15.com

See Rocky's rescue here:

Pets Often Left Behind as Homes Foreclose

Ashlee — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:58:44 +0000

As homeowners continue to lose their residences to foreclosure, a Valley-based pet rescue organization is forging ahead in the hope of finding homes for furry family members that have been left behind.

Since January, members of the Lost Our Home Pet Foundation said there has been an increase in the number of pets left behind at abandoned homes. The group’s aim is to get them into ones that are occupied where they can be cared for.

The foundation said calls reporting pets in need have averaged about 140 a month since January — up about 20 a month compared with calls in 2008. About half of those calls involve foreclosures, said Jodi Polanski, a mortgage lender who is the president and founder of Lost Our Home Pet Foundation. Most of the pet abandonment is throughout the East Valley, she said.

The rescue group’s mission is to rescue, foster, heal, adopt and advocate for dogs or cats that have been abandoned or left behind due to foreclosure or eviction, and to help families find options other than leaving the pets unattended in the foreclosed homes.

Last year, 23 pets — 15 puppies and eight dogs — were left behind and eventually rescued at one home in Gilbert, Polanski said. More recently, a beagle mix was found abandoned in the backyard of a Gilbert home in the Coronado Ranch subdivision and was rescued, Polanski said.

“It’s been kind of like a revolving door,” Polanski said of the organization taking in the abandoned pets. “Pets are really my passion. We want to help pets that also have been affected by the economy and help them avoid euthanasia. We can’t take them all in, but we take the ones in the most desperate situations.”

Polanski said as people are leaving homes they’ve lost to foreclosure, they are just leaving the pets outside. The pets often are discovered by realtors, she said.

Lost Our Home Pet Foundation, which will reach its one-year anniversary on June 28, does not have an office or facility to house the abandoned pets and solely consists of volunteers who foster the animals until someone gives them a permanent home.

Currently there are about 150 pets who need homes, pretty much evenly divided between cats and dogs, Polanski said.

Overall, the Lost Our Home Pet Foundation has about 35 people who take in the pets, 30 volunteers and 40 who help with food donations. The rescue group also has a financial assistance group that provides money for emergency veterinary care for the pets, and spay and neutering services.

But empty homes aren’t the only places where people can leave pets behind.

Rosie, an orange 2-year-old tabby, has taken up permanent residence on the patio of an apartment occupied by Sarah Moore and her husband, Tracey. The cat, who resides at Country Club Verandas apartments, 1415 N. Country Club Drive in Mesa, now has been abandoned twice in less than a year.

The cat first was abandoned in July 2008 when the family that owned her moved out, and again after the second owner moved about three months ago, Sarah Moore said.

“I think it’s awful,” she said. “I don’t think anyone should be left behind. She was a part of a family, and now, she isn’t.”

Source: The East Valley Tribune

ABC 15: Dentist Chain To Help Homeless Pets

Ashlee — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:52:15 +0000

PHOENIX, AZ -- The Lost Our Home Pet Foundation is known for rescuing pets that have been left behind in foreclosed homes that have been abandoned.

With Phoenix being among the leaders in foreclosures, the number of animals being left behind is almost more than they can handle.

The foundation has come up with a unique way to bring attention to the overcrowded animal shelters.

They have teamed up with Bright Now Dental and are putting digital picture frames in the lobbies of all of the dental chain's offices.

The program, called "Frames for Friends," displays pictures and information about all of the animals in the Lost Our Home shelters.

"Because there is such an influx of pets, not just the foreclosure pets, but there are so many pets being relinquished due to the economy, the shelters are getting full, there's just no way to get all the word out,” said Amie McGraham, a volunteer with Lost Our Home Pet Foundation. “You can put their pictures on a website, but this is just a better unique way to get the message out about the animals."

The people from the Avondale Bright Now office have seen a very positive response to the pictures, and have said that they know of two patients who were persuaded to adopt a pet from Lost Our Home.

Source: ABC15.com

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ABC 15: Valley Pets Fight to Survive

Ashlee — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:42:07 +0000

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The Arizona Republic

Ashlee — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:35:08 +0000

Scott Craven from The Arizona Republic wrote a wonderful piece on the foundation of Lost Our Home. Click here to learn about our early beginnings and whats to come for Lost Our Home Pet Foundation

Channel 12 News- Summer Surge of Abandoned Animals

Ashlee — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:07:59 +0000

Channel 12 news ran a segment discussing animal abandonment during the summer months. Animal shelters in the valley are already overwhelmed by the influx of pets due to the economic crisis, but it is feared the issue will only get worse throughout the summer. Check out the article featuring Lost Our Home here.

ABC 15 – Furry Friends Food Bank

Ashlee — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:01:48 +0000

ABC ran another story on Lost Our Home. This segment specifically featured our Furry Friends Food Bank program. Check the story out here