In May 2010, Missy was stolen from her owner’s car in Tucson when they stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. In the more than a year that has past, her owner, Amber, has not stopped looking for her — regularly checking with the shelter, placing ads on Craigslist, etc.

Even after she returned to Nebraska, Amber kept looking for Missy.

Now there has been a break. Missy has been found. She is in the Pima Animal Care Center in Tucson, Arizona. Above is a photo of her as she looks now.

Time is of the essence. We are asking for everyone’s help. Is there a rescue or a kind soul who will step forward and pull Missy from the shelter?

Contact Amber at 402-601-7086 or via Facebook. Or email me.

UPDATE: Amber and a friend are driving to Tucson to pick up Missy. We will update you as details become available. I wish them a safe journey and a happy reunion.

Many gracias, Holly.

URGENT! We need 1-2 volunteers next Friday afternoon (10/29) at CHICAGO O’HARE International Airport (ORD). Please contact me a.s.a.p. if you can help us out for a couple of hours….

As Let’s Adopt! is growing worldwide we are in need of volunteers at major US airports to assist us receiving animals from our flight volunteers, AFTER they have passed through customs.
The airport volunteer will then take the animal and check it in for its connection flight to its final destination – its new home

It’s one of the most vital part of our operations, and with that also
a lot of fun and very rewarding:

• Time commitment is only few hours.

• You’ll need a vehicle to accommodate the kennel(s) or crate(s), depending on the size and number of animals to be transported.

• Meet with the flight volunteer at Arrivals

• Receive animal(s) and all necessary paperwork.

• Give animal(s) a quick potty/water break.

• Continue to designated cargo facility nearby.

• Check in animal(s) with airline (we do all the booking)

• Send them on their way and don’t forget to take pictures and videos for our community.

• DONE!

What’s in it for you?
Be a hero to our rescues and special needs animals, by providing this essential link to the Chain of Change.
What feels better than being part of a movement, saving lives and inspiring other? There’s nothing quite like it….

“BEing in the moment – BEing part of the movement - BEing The Change“!

Will you join us?

e-mail me at misha@myletsadopt.com

URGENT:
We need 1-2 volunteers next
Friday afternoon (10/29)
at CHICAGO‘s O’HARE
International Airport (ORD).
Please contact me a.s.a.p. if you can help us out for a couple of hours. BE part of our movement!

Thank You!

Misha

BE The Change

UPDATE September 6th,2010:

SOPHIA HAS BEEN ADOPTED!

Thanks to everyone who helped save her….

——————————————————————-

Many of you might remember my rescue trip to the San Francisco Bay Area in July.

leaving Portland for San Francisco

I was able to bring back ten dogs of which we kept two with Let’s Adopt! in Portland to re-home locally.

The lucky two were Sophia, a 2-year old Chi-Rat X, who found the greatest foster home in the city, Our very own Donde.

The other is Esperrranza “Espie”, a 1-year old Chi-Pin X, who is rooming with my little tribe.

Both have been vetted, spayed, and well socialized. They’ll have a play date with potential adopters over the weekend.

Let’s recap real quick why we had to rescue these dogs…

They were on death-row – on the kill list of the shelter for the very day I got my hands on them.

Espie wasn’t even available for adoption to the public. Her crime? She was “Timid”…TIMID! After 2-3 weeks in the madhouse, all that noise day in, day out, in a cold kennel, on concrete, did I mention the noise? I WOULD BE TIMID.

The instant she was out of the building and in the parking lot with us, she gave kisses…something she’s now famous for. In fact, she chases Ouzo down on the sofa and basically gives him a complete dental at least twice a day. Very sweet girl. After weeks at the pound she needed a refresher on the house training, which she is doing well with.

Sophia is a little speed devil. She’s proud to walk on leash and can’t wait to get to the dog park to play with the other dogs and meet all the people…oh and treats of course.

I don’t even remember why she was on death row, but it strikes me as hideous that perfectly healthy animals are being killed in our municipal shelters.

With OUR tax dollars.

Can’t we do better than that?

I think we can.

Please read this week’s blog on how to become a *gulp* community organizer. To bring true change in your own community. It is time that YOU and I step up to the plate. Are you ready?

Meanwhile…sign up as a foster for us, rescue a dog or cat from your local kill pound this week, and foster it for a few days or weeks….we’ll assist you in re-homing it through our network…surprise me…

BE THE CHANGE

-Misha

Dear friends,

Today we are going to try something that, as far as we know it has never been done before, something that just a few years ago it could have never been attempted without a massive advertising expenditure.

pls read carefully and at the end PLEASE SHARE.

One of the most challenging aspects of our mission is to find foster homes. A network of foster homes is absolutely essential for the good fonctioning of any rescue organization.

A foster home is,  a temporary home where the animal gets chance to recover from the stress of being in a shelter or abandoned.  Additionally, the foster volunteer has the opportunity to work with the animal  to introduce him to family living (if its a puppy or a kitten) or to correct some of the behavior problems that may have led to him being abandoned.

Quite simply: Fostering Saves Lives.

So this is what we are going to do here today. Today we are going to use our entire network to build up our network of foster homes.

To do this we are going to need YOUR help. I need you to do three things:

1. Please feel free to use our poster, Foster Saves Lifes as avatar in your Facebook profile. You can just save the picture in this post. Alternatively you can download the small version  HERE

2. We need to have the involvement of your trusted veterinarians in this campaign. For this I would like you to download the Hig-Resolution Poster HERE, print it (in colour please) and ask your veterinary clinic to put it in its announcement board. I understand this may be a bit too cumbersome to some, but it is the fastest and most efficient way to have an inmediate distribution of this poster all over the world. It will also help us stablishing a link with our members trusted vets all over the world.

DOWNLOAD HI-RES POSTER HERE

3. Finally, I need you to share this post with your own networks. You can share it on your wall, you can email it, it doesn’t really matter, but I need you to please become personally involved in this campaign. We cannot do this alone we need you. The animals need you. PLEASE SHARE.

This campaign is being launched in our Global, USA, Canada, French, German and Turkish networks simultaneously and the homes will be available to our friends at Soi Dog / Let’s Adopt (Thailand), that are doing such an incredible job in the Far East.

If you would like to have the poster designed in your language to be used in your veterinary clinics just drop me a quick email on viktor@myletsadopt.com and Ill make sure it gets translated.

Come on.. let’s get to work.. this is very exciting! help us build a truly global foster home network.

Fostering Saves Lifes!.. Let’s get to work! That’s what we do! Save Lifes!

Start fostering today!. Contact me on: viktor@myletsadopt.com

Viktor

Dearest Friends + Supporters of Let’s Adopt!

I would like to thank you for your tireless support and votes in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge.
We have come to the realization, that we now have a zero chance to come close of making it into the top 2 of the $250k – grant category.
For that reason, we have decided to move on to focus on the urgent cases waiting for us to be handled.
We have numerous special needs dogs and cats in great need of new homes and/or vet care.
We’re also looking for volunteers in many areas.

So, I’d like to invite you to become permanent tribe members of our wonderful family, by joining your closest Let’s Adopt! network.
I have listed a few of them below:

LA! Global:
http://www.facebook.com/LetsAdoptGlobal

LA! USA:
http://www.facebook.com/LetsAdoptUSA

LA! Canada:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101251555667

LA! Germany/Austria:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=99371202835

LA! Turkey:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=223594502500

visit http://myletsadopt.com/
to find a network near you!
I hope to see you on the other side…

Please continue to support our work.
We are not only looking for contributions,but are also in desperate need of VOLUNTEERS!

Flight Escorts
-
are you traveling a lot? Especially to/from Europe? – You can be a
lifesaver! At no extra cost to you. Just donate a little extra time at
the check-in/out and customs

Foster Volunteers
-
we need you in all countries!!
We’re desperate in Turkey.
TRULY desperate for foster homes. There are too many animals we can’t take in
because no one will step up and make a little space in their homes to
them….
We also need your help in Germany, France, USA, Canada, Bulgaria…everywhere

Activists
- you know who you are.
Annoyed by PETA, and a little scared of ALF?
We might just be the right place for you to land…

Contributors - our silent supporters who make so much of our work possible…
The Simba Fund:
http://bethechange.chipin.com/

Please download and add our foster flyer as your profile picture on FB for the next few weeks to raise awareness of the importance of fostering.

BE The Change

-Misha
contact me:
misha@myletsadopt.com

HALFWAY POINT!!!

Exciting???!! Well not so much.

We just fell to 110.
I promised myself I would fight for the Pepsi  Grant until the bitter end, but there’s only so much a handful of people can do.
I wholeheartedly thank everyone who supported this great opportunity for Let’s Adopt! and worked so hard, voted daily, if not twice, rallied friends, grandpa & grandma.
This evening I browsed a few pages of our ‘fans’ on Facebook  and noted how few of you bothered to re-post even once, put a little note in your profile to vote for us.

Yet Farmville, Mafia Wars and most ironically, PETville are some of the favorite time killers out there.

Daily, hourly, if not every few minutes, you’re chasing cyber goats, or chickens, feed you little cyber puppy…
Well, in the real world, puppies die, kitties die.

They are being tortured to death, starved, I just learned about a cat at my vet clinic who was dropped of because someone kicked her stomach so hard it was in her chest…
I’d love to take that cat on, but I don’t have the funds or the volunteers to do so. So, the staff does what it can, they did an emergency surgery on the cat – I don’t know whether she survived.
I don’t want to know, because I can’t make any difference in its life right now.
$250k was a big dream – a lot of money to save a lot of animals, fund spay /neuter – no kill action – we had a grand dream and an even bigger plan.
But halfway through the month it looks like we can’t compete with Farmville.
We can’t compete with your virtual reality.
My reality are the animals. Every day I see them, I sense them, I smell them, I live them.
Every day my heart breaks over one I couldn’t save for one or the other reason.
What I never did was give up or put my head in the sand.
I’d always try until the end.
So, what I am going to do now is, hand the voting power and our future in terms of receiving this grant money to you. The cyber farmers, virtual pet owners, mafia lords.
I challenge you to show that you’re alive out there and help us to get the votes we need. We need to make it into the top 2 of our category.
It was a feasible concept. Now I am too disillusioned to believe that.

Let’s Adopt! is a network of ACTIVists not couch potatoes.
You want change? Join us. You want to chase cyber chickens?

Please don’t waste our time with ohhs and aaahs over cute dogs on death row.
I could post pictures of abused cats and dogs to bring my point across, but I am honestly not very hopeful it would make a difference.

Thank You… I guess

BE The Change

Misha

We’re doing well!

KEEP VOTING!

This race is about endurance, and we’re in for a virtual “Ironman”.

http://www.refresheverything.com/letsadopt

I believe this little video will “speak” to each and everyone of those who watch it…

We are in a long distance run…

Come run with us…

Please vote for Let’s Adopt at the Pepsi Project… and SHARE…

To Create the

United States Largest

Animal Rescue Network:

Let’s Adopt!

Two years ago we had an idea,  to create a “virtual” animal rescue network that enabled its members to support one another in their rescue activities across the nation. We called it Let’s Adopt!.

Today, Let’s Adopt! has turned into an global  organization, entirely run by volunteers that operates using the multiplying power of social media networks.

Project description:

We have groups all across the United States that work around the clock rescuing animals and educating citizens on animal welfare issues.

We also have a number of micro-comunities:
- Creative network: A network of volunteer artists and media people.
- Legal Council: Network of volunteer lawyers specialized on animal rights
- Veterinary support: Advice to vets on nutrition and pet health issues
- Petzcool: A network about education on animal behavior issues.

What makes us unique:

• We are an entirely volunteer organization, with a 0% administration costs.

• We operate a nationwide network,  coordination our network of flight volunteers.

• We don’t apply rehoming fees.

• We have built a horizontal organization that is not slowed down by hierarchy, committees and any of the typical structures that create inefficiency.

• We aim to solve the most difficult cases . We focus on senior and handicapped animals.

• All our rescues are public. All our members see where the day-to-day evolution of our rescue operations, and are able to connect with the people involved. This “connection” is what keeps the entire community together and united.

All groups are integrated; we all speak to each other. The process happens quickly and seamlessly because of the horizontal structure of the group.

—

How would the money be distributed:

50.000: Preparation and implementation of a world-class internet platform that functions of assistance to approved rescue networks around the USA. Providing them with real-time information as well as solution tools to manage their operations. This platform will be built by the team that designed Barak Obama social media campaign, Blue States Digital.
200.000: Seed for the Simba Fund: A fund of nation-wide scope whose returns will entirely be destined to finance medical treatments and rescue operation of abused animals across the USA.

Milestones:

Month 1:  Funds made available.

Month 1 – 3: Design and implementation of internet platform.

Month  1 – onwards:  Investment of the remaining funds on yield-producing related projects.

Challenges that could hinder our project success:

None that cannot be overcome thanks to the commitment and passion of Let’s Adopt! volunteers.

Vote for Let’s Adopt! HERE

and TEXT 101884 to Pepsi (73774)

Invite your friends, family, co-workers, create your own office challenge.

You have 10 votes a day, where you can vote for 10 different projects.

If you like you can go the extra mile, pick projects in the other money categories (5k/50k etc) as well and let them know that it comes from Let’s Adopt! ($250k).

This way, we’ll receive a few return votes from those groups as well.

BE the Change!

It’s about the animals

Misha

Vote for us daily

WONDERFUL NEWS

AMAZING NEWS!.. EXCITING NEWS!!!

WE ARE IN THE RACE FOR A $250k GRANT BY PEPSI!

TIME TO PUT OUR AMAZING COMMUNITY TO WORK!

Vote for us here!
http://www.refresheverything.com/letsadopt

bookmark the page and keep voting daily.

Also join our Let’s Adopt! Pepsi Refresh Team here…

We are going to need you this month!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=125831834127932

We need you.. our animals need you… TODAY

If awarded, we will be allocating $50k to pulling animals from dead row in the USA. The money will be matching donations for equal amounts. That way the total amounts will double up to $100 k .

Check back daily for updates and please don’t forget to vote for us every single day throughout the month.

Your vote can be the difference of us getting a quarter of a million dollars for our budget.

Invite your friends, co-workers, Nana and Pops. – we will need every single vote we can get.

Remember, we are one of the few if not the only agency out there in animal welfare that operates with zero overhead. Which means 100% of our funds go to our rescue efforts.

What else is there to say?

Oh Yes..

Don't forget to vote for LA! every day in August

This is truly your time to shine – to show your support, not for us, but for the animals and their welfare!

This is the time to                                                                                    BE THE CHANGE

Misha

PS: Feel free to download the Let’sAdopt-Pepsi Image, and use it as your profile picture in the month of August. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Early July, I received a cry for help from rescuers of the Contra Costa County death camps.
Listings after listings of perfectly healthy, beautiful animals slated to go down any time.
Something had to be done – NOW.
But how? We have no fosters in the area.
Martinez is almost 700 miles away, my car was too small, renting an SUV or van + gas was too expensive. So, what could we do? As you know, Let’s Adopt! is a volunteer run organization. We don’t have a fleet of vans or SUVs at our disposal.
We don’t run shelters or a day care. We work with foster homes. Unfortunately we don’t have enough yet, but we’re growing and I am optimistic that this story will inspire some of you to sign up to become not just another foster, but a viable lifeline!

I contacted my friend Amy with the Pixie Project, and just asked her whether I could borrow the rescue’s  SUV for a long weekend.
It was a long shot and I held my breath, hoping, but really thinking she’d laugh me off telling, me “nice try, but I’m not giving you my car to drive it 1400 miles across state lines“.
Well, Amy did not only call me back right away, she contacted a fellow rescuer in town who immediately offered to take 5-7 dogs in addition to the ones Let’s Adopt! was about to rescue. It took some scheduling and wiggling the details, but in the end we sorted it all out.

leaving Portland for San Francisco

I started my trip from Portland to San Francisco on Saturday, July 10th at sunrise. A SUV packed with empty cages and kennels and a whole lot of hope and arrived in the Bay Area late afternoon, managed to reconnect with some old rescue friends from my time of living in SF. I learned the shelter wouldn’t be open until Tuesday, so I had time to connect and touch bases about the current status of animal rescue and welfare in the Bay Area.

…And it doesn’t look good at all. I spoke to one of the managers of the SF Animal Care & Control who described in despair how the city is shaving dollar after dollar off their budget, that could potentially safe lives. Yet the city uses funds to create silly projects like some “Good Samaritan fund” that rewards people who did the right or a good thing.
We’re now “bribing” people to do what’s right?
What a world.
This deserves its own blog. Stay tuned for an interview with a SF AC&C official.

Sunday: I receive the euthanasia list from the shelter.Pages after pages … Chihuahuas, Poodle Mix, Pit bulls, Pomeranian mix, King Charles Spaniel – another spaniel mix… the list was overwhelming to go through, but I had to. I needed to choose, who I could save. I had five to seven spots. That was it. Now many of you are already questioning the following: HOW DO YOU CHOOSE?
How does one choose?
I don’t know. At some point you have to put emotions past you and look at it from a rational point of view. As rational as one can be in a situation such as this. You look for temperament, adopt ability. I knew I couldn’t bring any Pits or Pit X, because I didn’t have a foster for one, and the other rescues can’t take them due to liability issues. Both rescues run day-cares and the prejudice against this breed is alive and well…..Something we will have to discuss another time.

With Pit bulls excluded, I made a list of 12 dogs and rearranged it from there. When I got to the shelter on Tuesday, there were already a lot of people in line. Some to adopt, others to claim their animals and then there were those that were waiting to surrender their pets. I was greeted by Annie, who held yet another more recent kill list in her hands. We compared notes and just rushed inside to look at as many dogs as we possibly could, knowing “they” are starting the killings in just a few moments. We had 5 dogs in no time, added another 2 – that was it!!
Or was it?

Annie + Lori doing the paperwork

While we checked out the first dogs with the help of Lori of Good Newz Pittie Pups Rescue,  Annie, presented me with 3 wire crates another person donated to the mission. I had dividers in them!!!By taking some of my larger kennels out and using those crates, I had more room. We pulled an older Aussie Shepherd, who we since named Jester.

More about this boy later. He is a special needs boy, who happened to bite me on the way back home,during one of the breaks. It’s not an aggression issue, he did that out of fear, stress, pain combined, when I tried to get him back into the car after a potty break.

Aaaanyway:

While I was outside arranging the crates and animals, I realized that I had more space. So I called Annie on her cell inside the shelter: “I’ve got room for two more, Annie….!!!”.

She zoomed into the euthanesia room, and snatched two dogs straight out from under the needles.

Safe! Pulled with minutes perhaps even seconds to spare!

safe! one has already been adopted!

safe! sweet, skinny little Pom mix

On the Road again....Portland here we come

After getting everyone settled in the car, sorted out the paperwork, we hugged and I went on my way back to Portland.
Because of time “lost” at the shelter and during some potty breaks with the dogs, I arrived back in Portland at 2:30 AM on Wednesday morning.
Theresa from DogStar waited for me, keeping herself entertained by doing some much needed bookkeeping. We unloaded the car, put everyone in a kennel, gave them some food/water and kisses, and went home. Mission accomplished – ten dogs save – alive!
Got home at about 3:30AM, Ouzo greeted me with kisses and hugs. I snuck upstairs, kissed Al “hello”. Ouzo squeezed in between us snuggling with me, licking my bite wounds…. I fell asleep thinking….What a trip!

Would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY – ANYTIME!

All started with a small idea and the desire to help. It takes a community to do this. I still need fosters – everywhere. When I sent out a call for local fosters, Donde Buckowski stepped up immediately, and offered her home to one of the rescues.

Safe! Sophia (foreground) is available for adoption with LA!USA

Little “Sophia” is a Chihuahua mix with cow markings. Great with dogs, loves kitties, full of energy. Sophia has already a solid interest – after only few days.

safe! ESPERRRANZA, available for adoption via Let's Adopt!USA

I have little “Esperrranza”, a Chi( MinPin?) mix, who was going down for behavioral. “TIMID” her card said. I found her shivering in the back of her kennel, low to the ground, the noise level in her unit was unbearable – impossible to talk. Can you imagine a little dog in there for 2-3 weeks? I would be TIMID too. As soon as she knew she was safe – she gave kisses and one could just see the big sigh of relief in her entire body language. “Esperrranza” is available for adoption as well. There is some interest for her, but we’re still accepting applications for both of these dogs.

The standard Let’s Adopt! Adoption requirements apply:

• Must have another animal dog

• will be part of the family, not live in the garage, basement, or ever be left on a tie out or unsupervised in the yard.

• We are supporters of a species appropriate diet and all Let’s Adopt! animals are being fed a raw diet. (see http://www.rawlearning.com for more info).

• Adopter has to sign up with Facebook and create a photo album to share with the Let’s Adopt! community that shows the animal’s progress. (Or adopter can send pictures to me and I’ll set up the album for them)

We do not apply an adoption fee. Adopting one of our animals is a privilege not mercy. One can’t put a price tag on any of our animals.

Even if you can’t adopt, but would like to support our mission and rescue operations such as this, please contributing to the Let’s Adopt! Simba Fund

Many thanks to the following rescuers and agencies for their support and collaboration.

Annie Wong – Big Dawgs Rescue

Lori Wilson – Good Newz Pittie Pups Rescue

Melody Chen – FB cross poster and rescuer for the Contra Costa County Shelters.

Amy Sacks – Pixie Project

Theresa Shire – DogStar

and of course thanks to Billie+ David for housing and feeding me “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAVID!”, as well as “Matela” for sharing HER sofa with a human.

BE The Change -

it is not THAT difficult if you just put your mind to it.

~Misha