Hi – My name is Mitzi Gillis. This is a bit of a test to see if I’ve got the blog thing figured out. I’m behind the learning curve for all things internet. You never know what you’ll learn when you get involved with a rescue group.

My first experience with PAWS was to be able to rescue, foster and reunite pets with their owners after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Reuniting a pet with its family or introducing a dog or cat, puppy or kitten to its new forever home – It’s something you don’t forget and don’t really ever get over. I’m privileged and excited to be a part of the trip to Washington.

We’ll start selecting the pets soon. And we’ll be getting to know our new volunteers. I hope I get lots of chances to help take anyone reading this blog along for the ride.

I’m not a dog trainer, or a dog specialist, I’m certainly not very internet literate and I don’t have any real experience with rescue groups. I’m truly not big on volunteering. I’m still learning. There are things that dog specialists or rescue groups or volunteers know that, well, sometimes they forget that the rest of us don’t know. I hope what I can do is recognize this interesting and helpful information and pass along what I have learned and will learn.

Along those lines, here’s something interesting I came across yesterday. A headline in the Austin American Statesman newspaper reads “Little Time For A Dog? Rent One”. It’s about a business that will lease a dog to a family for a daily, weekly or monthly fee.

No, the fact that there is a doggie rental business in California is not what I learned today. But it made me think about what I have learned about foster families that take in rescue dogs until they can find their forever home. And you don’t pay a fee to foster a dog.

PAWS uses a network of foster families as temporary homes for their dogs. The dogs live in a home, not a kennel. It’s good for the dogs and it’s one of the many ways PAWS stretches its rescue dollars. You’re going to be amazed at how much they can do with the donations that they get. Volunteers, very little overhead – it really is all for the dogs. But you’re going to also see how much the humans get out of it, too. By helping the dogs, we help others and ourselves – but that’s for another time.