Speaker 1: Hey, this is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2: It's all behaved with Arden Moore, this show that teaches
you how to have harmony in the household with your pets.
Join Ardna. She travels coast to coast to help millions
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America's pet edutainer Arden Moore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Oldhay Show on Pet Life Radio. I'm
your host, Arden Moore. Okay, pet pals, you are about
to witness a life saving story. It's full of resilience
and never give up hope. Now, I've been in the
pet world for more than twenty five years, and I
must say this tale we are about to share is
one of the most powerful I've ever heard about on
our show today. To tell this story are Rachel Bellis
from the organization Peta and Hannah Caldwell, a dog lover
who lives in West ponm Beach, Florida. What's their common
bond a dog in desperate need of rescuing named Rusty.
So please welcome to our show, Rachel and Hannah and
of course Rusty. Welcome, ladies and.
Speaker 3: Rusty Ni hi Ardan, thanks so much for having us,
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: So we're going to get this what is this tale
that we're about to tell? Hang on tight, We're going
to let you know, but we've got to take a
quick break, so you know the drill. Sit, stay, We'll
be right back.
Speaker 2: Time for a pause for very ones, Actually sit and
stay all behave. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 2: Pets on Petlifradio dot Com. All behaviors back with more
tail wagging ways to achieve harmony of a household with
your pets. Now back to your fetching host, America's pet
ed You, Jayner Ardenmore.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Old Behave show on pet Life Radio.
I'm your host, Arden Moore, our special guest from Rachel
Vellis and a cool chick lady from West Palm Beach.
Her name is Hannah Caldwell and their common bond is
about a rescue effort for a dog named Rusty. I
want to back up the bus a little bit and
start with you. Rachel. PETA is an organization well known.
You have had a lot of challenges trying to help animals.
What makes the Rusty story so special?
Speaker 3: Well, as you probably know, Arden PETA is an international
animal rights organization with more than nine million members and
supporter worldwide, throughout our entities and through our world headquarters,
which is located in Norfolk, Virginia. We have a program
that goes into underserved areas of southeastern Virginia northeastern North
Carolina where services are limited and we help out people
with their animals, whether it's free, spain nouter services. On
our clinics, we deliver doghouses, We deliver straw bedding in
the winter, which is what we're doing right now. We
provide flea prevention, fly strike, medication, deworming. We help folks
out with vet care for their animals. We deliver food, treats,
anything that you can imagine for companion animals we have
in our vans. And Rusty was one of the thousands
of dogs that we visit every day, three hundred and
sixty five days a year. Our field workers are out
there and he was captain a pen, he was on
a chain, and we had been visiting him for about
ten years.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, let's that sink in everybody. You have
been making visits to a dog chained in a backyard
pen for ten years? Yeah, it's incredible. And we have
several cases like that where we have been visiting for
several years. Our goal is to obviously improve their.
Speaker 3: Lives as best as we can, but also to hopefully
get custody of those dogs or cats so that we
can find a home where they can you know, live
inside and be part of the family. So Rusty was
just one of those, you know, wonderful cases where we
had been pushing in a very gentle way with the owner.
We had a lot of trust with her. Chris the
field worker had a good relation and.
Speaker 1: Say his full name, he needs a shout out.
Speaker 3: Yes, Chris Kluge. He is wonderful. He is one of
our senior field workers. He has a lot of experience,
and he had this, you know, very good relationship with
Rusty's former owner. And when the day came and she
decided that she you know, her life circumstances had changed
and she could no longer care for him, she called us,
which is what we ultimately always have over the years
of building relationships and helping these animals, that if there's
an emergency, if they can't take care of them anymore,
that they will always call us and we will go
out in the middle of the night if we have
to to get these animals.
Speaker 1: So I have a question what was the reason given?
And I'm not making her the villain We don't know
her whole circumstances, that she never let the dog in
the house and always kept Rusty tethered.
Speaker 3: It's a question that we ask ourselves a lot. Why
would you have a dog if you're just going to
keep them outside and not let them indoors. We see
so much of.
Speaker 1: This, and really we help.
Speaker 3: Most are these changed or pen dogs that are outside,
and people have different reasons for having these dogs. Whether
it's a cheap alarm system because the dog will bark,
or they breed them and they make a few bucks
off of the puppies, or that they've grown up having
dogs outside and they think that it's okay. The big
dogs are outside, the little dogs are inside. But believe me,
we have seen plenty of Yorkis and Shahuahuas on chains. Okay,
now that's.
Speaker 1: Good, So you finally get the green light. Now how
did you connect with Hannah Caldwell from West Palm Beach.
Speaker 3: So we got custody of Rusty. We put him in
foster care, and we send out email alerts to our members.
We post sometimes we have on our website the animals
we have available for adoption. Our shelter is a little
bit different from regular shelters, and so I believe, and
Hannah can correct me that she saw a post or
maybe an email alert that we send out I saw
on the website.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about you, Hannah. You live in West
Palm Beach. What kind of work do you do?
Speaker 3: I'm an executivissist. Then, okay, so you love dogs?
Speaker 1: Right? Did you love dog grew up with them growing up?
Do you have any other pets besides now Rusty?
Speaker 3: No, Rusty's mainly bet Okay, I grew up with Rusty.
Speaker 1: What happened? I mean you're reading this? What catch your heart?
Speaker 3: I mean, definitely his story.
Speaker 5: I've, like I said, I grew up with rescue dogs,
so I always knew I wanted to rescue a dog.
Speaker 3: I just felt like the timing was never right.
Speaker 5: You know. Before I was in a condo and I
was like, I didn't really want a dog in a condo,
and I always wanted like a little bit of a
bigger dog, not a smaller dog. My condo only allowed
smaller dogs. So anyways, I grew up with a dog
that kind of looked like Rusty.
Speaker 3: Really, I was like obsessed with it.
Speaker 5: I mean, he's still alive. He's just my parents' dog.
And so when I saw Rusty, they look identical.
Speaker 1: What's that dog's name? Please don't say Rusty.
Speaker 5: They look identical, and I was just like, I like
had an instant connection, just like reading about a story.
Speaker 3: And then how cute he is on top of it.
Speaker 1: What was that dog's name? What is your dog? Your
parents' dog's name? Bentley? Bentley? Yea, How old is Bentley?
Speaker 3: He's ten?
Speaker 1: Is he like a black lab mix too? Or no?
Speaker 5: He actually is like a mix between a blue Healer
and blanking right now, that's what it's like, three different things.
But he's a chow chow, lab, Rottwiler and beagle, I think.
And then like it's other things too.
Speaker 1: That's called a canine cocktail. What do you think is
Rusty's genetics?
Speaker 3: No, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: Oh say again, Rusty is what do you say, chow chow?
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's like thirty percent chow, fifteen percent lab, eight
percent Rottweiler, and like five percent beagle and then the rest.
Speaker 3: Is like two percent hot steeves like raindom stuff. How
much does he weigh thirty five pounds?
Speaker 1: He looks bigger.
Speaker 5: No, everyone says that like in pictures he looks bigger
than they see him in person. They're like, oh, wait,
he's like smaller than I thought. I'm like, yeah, he's
like a medium sized dog.
Speaker 1: I would like to do that during the holidays so
I can eat a lot of good stuff and everybody go, oh,
he looks smaller than you are. So all right, you
read about this, it's on the pedal site. What made
you say this dog? You said, well, kind of reminds
me of my childhood dog a little bit, and talk
about that.
Speaker 5: I mean, obviously he was adorable, remind me of my
childhood dog where I was just like I always knew
I wanted the black dog and I was as cute
and then his story I always, like I said, I
knew I wanted to rescue a dog, and I have
like a soft spot for older dogs, Like I think
when dogs age, like they become so cute and like
so sweet and so I definitely just is just everything
about him, Like I was like, this is like the dog,
And I've never.
Speaker 3: Felt that way about like reading about a dog.
Speaker 5: I mean, like this is the dog, like I really
really want, Like I emailed pet right away, and I
like refreshing my email.
Speaker 3: I was like, are they gonna email me back? Like
did someone else get him?
Speaker 5: Like I was like freaking out, like texting my mom
was like someone else has to have him.
Speaker 1: And she's like, calm down, you're good, but a little
slack and the leash. And for those of you tuning
in right now, she is in her home and behind
her sleeping very restfully and safely, is who Rutty? All right?
All right, we're gonna find out how this tale keeps
going after we take this break. So sit stay, We'll
be right.
Speaker 2: Back time for a walk on the red carpet. Of course,
all behave We'll be backing up lash right after these messages.
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give them ten dot org.
Speaker 3: Let's talk past.
Speaker 1: It let's done petal headline.
Speaker 2: Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Everybody did Stephen Whooper are relying you to always listen
to Ardenmore on ob Hay, the best show on pet Live. Y.
Speaker 2: We're back from the lot. Just check the paper and
we had our record showing at the box, the letterbox
that is now back to Ohbhay, here's Arden.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the O Behave show on pet Life Radio.
I'm your host, Ardenmore, and I'm telling you every one
of us has known or experienced the opportunity to rescue
a pet in need. I have a cat named Rusty
and he was found in a dumpster in Georgia as
an orphan kitten, rescued by Samantha Martin of the Amazing Acrocats.
And you just see the gratitude in these animals when
they realized they got home. So we'll start with Rachel.
So now you have Peter has custody of Rusty. You
have your fieldworker, senior field worker Chris, and logistically where
was Rusty? And Hannah lives in West pom Beach, Florida.
Speaker 3: Rusty was in a rural county in North Carolina in
our service area. So it's one of the counties that
we serve, and so we sort of work in about
a two hour radius of our Norfolk office. Sometimes we
go further if we have to. And we brought him
back to the office. We immediately put him in foster
care with a pete staffer and then began the search
for Rusty's new family. And we have somebody who handles
the adoption process, and she spoke with Hannah and I
think immediately you know, was this is a yes. And
Chris drove Rusty down to West pom Beach to his
new home.
Speaker 1: How long of a drive do you know how that was?
Speaker 3: I think it's about thirteen hours.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But he did go with another staff for one of
our videographers and so they split the drive. But it
the video is so cute because they stop in different
states and take a photo with Rusty, and I mean,
it's just it's amazing. I think this was just a
match made in heaven. We're so happy for Rusty, We're
so happy for Hannah. And you know, we always encourage
people to always adopt, never go to a pet store
or breeder. They're just amazing dogs that are waiting for
loving families and shelters and you know, every time somebody
goes to a breeder, to a pet shop, they're you know,
they're ruining the chances of a shelter animal to find
that loving home. And so this is just a wonderful
story about adopting a rescue dog.
Speaker 1: So, Hannah, what day did you get Rusty? I knew
you would know the date all right, set the same?
What time of day? I mean, were you having you know,
flip flops and your belly? What was going on when
you knew Rusty is gonna be living with you?
Speaker 3: I mean I was like so excited.
Speaker 5: I think like the second they told me he was mine,
I was like ordering dog food, ordering all this.
Speaker 3: Stuff that I was gonna need for him. Like I
like went overboard with everything. I was like ordering toys.
Speaker 5: I was like, I only know if he loves toys,
like he's just gonna have them here. I mean, I
was just so excited. I remember like the first time
I saw he was just like wagging his tail waiting
at the door, you know, and it was just like
he just came in here and it was just like
it was like his home already.
Speaker 3: You know. He fit in like perfectly right away.
Speaker 1: And do you live. I guess you don't live in
a condo anymore.
Speaker 3: No, I live in house.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so you can have a big dog if
you was right.
Speaker 3: Of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So do you think the bond was instant?
Speaker 3: Oh, one hundred percent? I mean, at least on my end.
Speaker 1: What was it tell me?
Speaker 5: I mean, like, he's just such a happy dog, and
like I just feel like right away he pretty much
trusted me, and I trusted him, like I got like
the vibe. Obviously he wasn't gonna bite me or anything
like that, you know, and I really wasn't worried about that.
Speaker 3: But I mean it was just loving and trusting for sure.
Speaker 1: If you deal with a lot of dogs and cats,
you can read them. What was to read you got
about Rusty?
Speaker 3: Rusty was one of our favorite dogs, one of our
favorite field dogs, as we call them. He was always
such a happy dog, always so happy to see us.
A lot of dogs are not that lucky when you're
kept on a chain for years. You know, there are
studies that show that dogs who are chained are almost
three times as likely to attack as dogs who aren't,
and that's because they are forced to eat, sleep, go
to the bathroom, everything in this tiny patch of dirt.
Their life is the length of the chain that they're on,
and they become possessive and protective of their space. And
that's why when we find that dogs that have attacked
an elderly person or a child because they wandered in
to their area. And so sometimes we find dogs who
psychologically have just they've given up, you know, this life
of isolation, no socialization, no affection or love from the
people that are supposed to be caring for them. And
so when we find a dog like Rusty, you know,
we want to maintain that, and so we visited him
as much as we could, because we have thousands of
animals that we visit every year, and we just to
always keep Rusty spirits up, always keep that relationship going
with his former owner so that when the day came that,
you know, maybe we could convince her or her you know,
the circumstances and her life changed and she called us,
and we're so grateful for that in the end, that
we were able to get Rusty into a loving home
where he always deserved and all dogs really deserved to
have the family that Rusty has. Now, if I could
just say that I wasn't there when Hannah met Rusty,
but I was told that it was like immediate connection,
that Rusty acted like he had known Hannah all his life.
It was just like love at first sight. And you
know that's that's wonderful, that's so amazing. And you know
every dog deserves that. Some people win the lottery, you
win the pup lottery. Hand I really didn't.
Speaker 1: So I got to see some clips in photos that
Peter provided us of y'all, and one of my favorites
is on your tile floor there is Rusty with a toy.
Speaker 3: Is it the frog? One?
Speaker 5: That is his favorite toy that Pete actually gave me
like a gift basket of toys for him, and it's
the frog behind me.
Speaker 3: He's literally obsessed with this toy, like obsessed with it.
I see. He's like, you have my toy. Like even
if I like act like I'm like loving on it
and stuff are like we're like when he has a
lot of energy, he like starts barking at me, like
give me my toy.
Speaker 1: Give him froggy right now, and see what he does.
He probably froggy Rusty And just for you folks, he
is on the bed behind Hannah looking quite happy. I
guess he's got furniture rights, right. He can be on anything.
Speaker 5: Oh, he sleeps on my bed every night with his
hat on a pillow. He really seems like a human.
I'm not kidding. I need to share photos of it.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1: So August twelfth till now, how is your life changed?
Speaker 5: I mean just a lot more like love in it,
you know, like coming home and having him like waiting
at the door, like wagging his tail. It's like I
look forward to it. If I'm out home, I'm like
checking my furbo like to see like what he's doing.
Like I like want to get whatever I'm doing. I
want to get home like as soon as possible because
of him. Now has he met the rest of your family?
Has he met Bentley, your mom and Dad's dog.
Speaker 3: Yes, he did.
Speaker 5: He like wanted to play with him like so much,
and like Bentley was just like kind of just standing
there like he was like doing his like little paws
and stuff, and Belly was just like whatever.
Speaker 1: Man, Well, Bentley's older, right, he's older too. Yeah? Yeah,
what about you take him on dog friendly beaches for walks?
Speaker 3: And I do? Yeah, and he loves it.
Speaker 1: He won't get to see a surfer dude now? Or
what's his deal with the beach? Now?
Speaker 3: He's he just he just sunbaths. He didn't like the water.
Speaker 1: What do you think about his little white muzzle?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: I love a black body.
Speaker 3: I think it's so cute. I love it.
Speaker 1: So what's a fun activity you like to do besides
going on the beach? Have you gone to any pet
friendly cafes in PM Beach County? Where does Rust he
get to go?
Speaker 5: He goes to the green Market every south with me,
and so we'll go to that. It's just like a
bunch of different vendors, and like sometimes he'll get like
a new little bow tie or bandanna to wear something,
or I'll get him like a pop cup there.
Speaker 3: But he loves going in the car. He gets so excited.
Speaker 1: He's kind of like a George Clooney of the canine world,
isn't he He's got that. He looks very dashing. He's
got a little gray for you know.
Speaker 3: It's adorable. He's very handsome.
Speaker 1: What's your message to others, Hannah about finding a good
four legger to fill your life?
Speaker 5: Definitely adopt and don't shop, and then also just giving
older dogs a chance, not saying you have to rescue
an older dog, but you know it's it's nice.
Speaker 3: But he's only had one accent now today I got him.
Speaker 5: Like he's so easy, Like it's not like he's chewing
out my furniture or like, you know, like he's just
been like the easiest dog ever. So definitely in giving
older dogs a chance, I definitely he's maybe one now
like after him.
Speaker 3: I feel like I I'll only want older dogs, you know,
I like that. I like that.
Speaker 1: How can people help Peter? I know you have empathy
kits and some other programs you want to talk real
quickly about.
Speaker 3: We have a division called which you might be referring to.
We have a division called teach kind, which teaches empathy
in schools, and so we supply teachers with curriculums that
teach empathy. So we really you know, we want to
start with the kids, and we want to get them
thinking about animals, because you know, every animal is someone
and just thinking of them as an individual, whether it's
their dog or their cat, or the bird or the
fish or the you know, the food that they put
on their plates. Just to start thinking of animals as individuals.
And that they animals feel the same fear, pain, love,
loneliness that we do. And so you know, we always
ask people to make compassionate choices and which you can
do so easily during your day. And our website peda
dot org has just so much information about campaign that
we're working on if you're looking to adopt. We traveled
to Florida, we traveled to New York to reunite to
bring animals with it together with their new families. And yeah,
I mean, if people are interested in Peter's mission and
what we're up to, our website and our social media
is a great place to start.
Speaker 1: And for you, Hannah, you worked during the day, so
as he practiced cakeles while you're gone. Do you have
any like pet sitters or anything, or has he got
the bladder I wish I had.
Speaker 3: So I'm like hybrid.
Speaker 5: So it's like my job is like fifty to fifty,
Like I'm home a dee percent time, I go in
oppicee percent of the time. Oh okay, either I have
like my neighbor come let him out during the day
if she can't nice if not, I'm not gone that long.
So he's never had an accident or anything. He just
like naps the whole day. If I check the furbell,
what's his favorite treat?
Speaker 3: Peanut butter for sure.
Speaker 5: Like he even knows like whenever I'm opening like a
peanut butter jar, Like he can like hear, he knows
what that sounds like, and like he's like sprinting off
the couch.
Speaker 1: Do you find yourself smiling more?
Speaker 3: Oh? For sure, definitely.
Speaker 1: So what's what's something you want to do with Rusty
in twenty twenty five? What's an activity or a place
you want to maybe with Rusty?
Speaker 5: Maybe just take him to the beach more, just more
restaurants with me? You know, I mean I feel like
he comes with me at decent but already, but you know,
I wish that I could, like he could travel with me,
But I'm like, I don't.
Speaker 1: Really, he's not going to fit under the seat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. I'm like I wish, I wish I
could like kind of smosh him under there, But I
don't think you'll get a fit.
Speaker 1: Do your neighbors and others your friends know about his
background and what's been their response?
Speaker 5: Oh, I mean everyone's been so supportive about him and
is like everyone my neighborhoods like, oh my gosh, he's
so famous. Like and a lot of people my neighborhood
also have rescued dogs, so they all like love him
and like love his story and love that he's happy.
Speaker 1: Now, well, I have been so honored to have you, ladies,
both on our show. We have had Rachel Vellas from
Peta and we have Hannah Caldwell and of course her
newest edition to her family answers to the name Rusty
please check out Peterpeta dot org. And I want to
just tell you from the bottom of my heart, I
am so honored to have you share your story and
another example everybody how you can give a pet, an
animal a chance, and they just may give it back
in dividends. Wouldn't you both agree?
Speaker 3: Absolutely for sure?
Speaker 1: All right, So at this time I need to do
a shout out to my producer, Mark Winter. He is
the executive producer of Pet Life Radio. We are the
longest running pet radio network on the planet, and this
show is the longest running weekly podcast for pets. It's
been on the air since seven as I jokingly say,
when we both were in diapers. But of all the stories,
this is in the top ten for me and that
says a lot. We've had Betty, why Jennifranistan a bunch
of other people, what you ladies have done and your organization.
And for you Hannah, I just want to say bless you.
And you gave a dog from a rough store, having
a bow tie, sitting laying on a bed with a
toy frog. You can't get any better than that. I
hope you all will follow me. Go to my YouTube
channel Ardenmore. I have a newsletter It's called four Leggedlife
dot com and my passion is I teach pet first
aid to pet parents and pet professionals all over the
world to pet first State for you with a couple
of shelter lums, pet safety cat Casey and pet safety
dog Kona. So check us out at pet first Date
for you. So until next time, this is your flea
free host Ardenmore delivering just two words to all you
two three and four layers out there.
Speaker 2: Oh behave coast to coast that around the world, it's
all behaved with Ardenmore. Find out why cats and dogs
do the things they do and you get the latest
buzz from wagging tongues and tails and rin ten tinsel
Town from famous pet experts and best selling authors to
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