Everyone wanted a dog at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, but as time went on, many found they no longer had money and/or time for their new companions.
Now, a nonprofit in Traverse City called H.A.N.D.D.S. to the Rescue that takes in sick, abused and pregnant dogs from all over the state, is seeing an increase in pet returns.
H.A.N.D.D.S. is an acronym for Helping Abused Neglected Disabled Displaced Souls.
The problem is there aren’t enough foster homes to meet the demand, said Patti Goubey, who helped start the nonprofit in 2009.
H.A.N.D.D.S. relies heavily on volunteer foster parents like Megan Keys who started fostering dogs for the organization in 2017.
She’s fostered 60 dogs over the years, including a deaf pitbull named Dapper.
“I had to learn the sign language for him to learn commands. Couldn’t have him out off the leash because he’s deaf. You can’t call him and say, ‘Hey, come back!’ Because he’s not going to hear you,” she says.
Dapper eventually found his forever home and is doing well.
Now Megan is fostering Chops, a four-year-old pure-bred Rottweiler given to H.A.N.D.D.S. after his family moved to Tennessee four months ago.
“He’s a very typical Rottweiler. He’s very goofy, very like ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t realize I weigh 120 pounds and can’t fit through this tiny opening,’” she said.
Megan said she hopes he finds his forever home soon, but she warns that it takes time for him to adjust to new faces.
“Once you get him to trust you, he’s very cuddly. He’ll jump up on your lap. He loves it when you scratch him — scratch his head,” she says.
Chops is one of many dogs the nonprofit is trying to re-home, but he’s lucky, as he got into a foster home with H.A.N.D.D.S.
Right now, there’s a list of 15 more dogs who are still with owners that want to relinquish them.
That list is longer than usual, Goubey said.
When the economy slowly began to open up, she heard people say, “Oh, I’m going back to work, I don’t have time for a dog.”
The problem with taking dogs back is they don’t have anywhere for them to go. H.A.N.D.D.S. doesn’t have a shelter for dogs and relies solely on foster homes, which they’re lacking.
And, because the nonprofit deals with more than just pandemic pets, their list is even more crowded.
H.A.N.D.D.S. takes all sorts of neglected and scared dogs from shelters and animal control.
“Most of the time they’re sick or injured or pregnants that a typical animal control or humane society doest deal with because they’re on cement floors,” Goubey said.
They get a lot of pregnant dogs expecting puppies, and dogs expecting are too expensive for most shelters, she says.
So H.A.N.D.D.S. steps in, takes care of the moms until delivery and finds homes for them and their puppies.
At the beginning of 2020 H.A.N.D.D.S. had 47 puppies. When COVID-19 hit Michigan, they got three times as many applications for puppies and dogs than they got pre-pandemic.
They easily were able to adopt them out, said Lori Beckwith, who has volunteered for the organization for nine years.
“It’s when the new normal started to set, that’s when we started getting calls, ‘Can you take my dog, can you take my dog, can you take my dog,’” she said.
But, right now they can’t. The rescue currently has 35 dogs, including four litters of puppies.
H.A.N.D.D.S. also takes dogs out of shelters that simply don’t do well caged up in kennels, Goubey says.
“They’re petrified. They start to show some cage aggression, which doesn’t necessarily mean the dog is mean. It just means that’s not a good spot and the dog is getting aggravated very easily. Or scared to death and hides in the back of the crate, and people are like ‘I don’t want that one,’” she said.
So how does H.A.N.D.D.S. show the public dogs and puppies during a pandemic?
They used to take the animals to Tractor Supply in Traverse City every Saturday, and it was first come first serve.
Adult dogs cost $175 and new owners have a seven day trial period. Puppies are $200 each.
Now that H.A.N.D.D.S. can’t take them to Tractor Supply because of COVID, the organization solely uses Facebook.
Once someone shows interest, they have to follow a different protocol. They have people meet at Goubey’s house on Saturdays. No more than two people are allowed, and masks are worn.
The visits also are first come first serve, meaning whoever contacts the nonprofit first about a particular dog, they get to see the dog before anyone else.
Goubey said she doesn’t mind opening her house, as she wants the pups to find their forever homes.
It takes a lot of work and hours to run the nonprofit, she says.
Both Beckwith and Goubey work at cafeterias in Traverse City Area Public Schools to pay their bills. The work they do for H.A.N.D.D.S. is 100 percent volunteer.
They both stress that helping dogs takes time and money.
The majority of funds the nonprofit gets is through its two annual fundraising events — Bark at the Park in August and Supper with Santa in December — which raises roughly $15,000 a year. Both events were canceled due to the pandemic.
So, H.A.N.D.D.S., like many organizations, decided to do a can drive, said Beckwith.
“We had trailers, trailer loads of pop cans. When we were able to get back and take them, it took us a month or more,” she says.
The grand total was a whopping $10,000.
Goubey and Beckwith want people to choose dogs that are right for their lifestyle. A hound dog, for instance, likes to whine and howl.
If that doesn’t suit someone, they should find a different breed, Goubey said.
“We want you to truly be looking for a dog. Truly researched what it takes if it’s a specific breed,” she says. “The dogs are not a right now pet, they’re a forever pet, which in a lot of breeds means 15 to 18 years of loving them and taking care of them properly.”
Those interested in becoming foster dog parents, or those looking to adopt a dog, can visit H.A.N.D.D.S. to the Rescue’s Facebook page.