Muttville Senior Dog Rescue is a special kind of shelter. Maybe it's the old dogs, or maybe it's the volunteers, but when you are inside Muttville, your life gets brighter. Mine has.

Helping write the last chapter of an older dog's life feels amazing.

Let me tell you, it's easy to advocate for animals when you've a senior dog trying to snuggle up next to you. I've been volunteering a few hours each week at Muttville and these old dogs don't pull any punches. They are professionals! Muttville mutts either boldly demand you give them affection, or purposefully seek out a quiet blanket in a peaceful corner.

Marvelous Muttville

Thanks in large part to their continued focus on education, and successful use of social media, Muttville has had an explosive growth in the last four years. In 2012 they also signed a lease for their building, giving Sherri, the founder and executive director, her house back.

Though she still has several dogs with her on any given day, the doggy loft at their home on Rescue Row and the many foster homes allows Muttville to help many, many more senior dogs.

Muttville has about thirty dogs in their new building on Alabama Street, with another 80-90 in foster homes. What is unique is that the few kennels you'll find in their headquarters all have open doors. The dogs are free to sleep wherever they want. 

Jackpot & Jax were both adopted later that day

Animal Advocacy

Of the hundred Muttville foster homes, 70% have cared for 10 or more dogs. That says a lot about how committed you become to advocating for senior dogs after helping your first. Older dogs shut down the most in a loud and crowded place like a city shelter. This contributes to their depressed and quiet demeanor, and doesn't help their adoption chances.

The open doggy loft and family of foster homes allows Muttville mutts to blossom and show their true loving nature.

Choosing to adopt a shelter pet can have wonderful consequences for both of you. When you decide to adopt a senior dog, you open yourself to a world of love. When kids care for animals, they learn empathy and compassion. 

Promoting dog adoption, advocating for senior dogs and championing well-run shelters is something we can do every day, not just once a year, don't you think? Join me!

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Puppies are very cute, but I don't want one. Never have. Even when we had a litter of puppies during my childhood, they were sweet creatures but they couldn't hold my attention like our adult dogs. The older dogs kept my interest because I wanted so much to understand them better. I craved their respect and trust. The puppies were sweet blobs of unformed clay, while the adults were sharp intelligent animals. 

Fast forward a few decades, and my Shepherd Husky refreshed my memory of why old dogs matter, and how they positively influence your life.

Now, volunteering at Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, the mutts are sharing many reasons why we should care about them, and for them, more than ever.

During a vacation last year across Turkey, I had the chance to see stray dogs for the first time. They displayed their own unique way of hanging out, and engaging with people. The spaniel in this photo was an intact male who seemed to enjoy checking out various groups of tourists exploring the ancient Anatolian ruins of Perge.

Compared to other groups of foreigners, I think he was encouraged by our body language to get very close. I certainly welcomed him, even petting him for a few minutes. He decided on his own to lie in the shade with us, and listen to our guide talk about the baths for about ten minutes. 

After returning to San Francisco, I realized that I had witnessed what it must have been like for dogs thousands of years ago. These stray dogs displayed a desire to be near people, even if the people showed little desire to have them close by.

This spaniel wasn't unusual, the stray dogs at the many UNESCO sites we visited sensed that we were people who responded positively to their overtures. Neither side was threatening. How they chose to engage varied. Some came in close for physical affection, while others were content at lying near us in a relaxed and trusting manner.

As a dog lover, watching  how other tourists and visitors responded to the roaming dogs, one can appreciate why these dogs had to be cautious around people. I saw some tourists and locals reacting badly to a dog's presence near their shop or just walking down the street.  

It was obvious the dogs were trying to survive in a place where they weren't always abused, just mostly ignored or tolerated. 

I did not see pet dogs, but at a rural cultural and educational center, there was a puppy and an older deaf Beagle being cared for as part of their property. They lived outside in dog houses, or freely wandered the property. They were definitely members of the group who ran the premises, interacting freely with them. They were not chained up.

Experiencing dogs who belong to a place rather than a person was a first for me. Having that experience set inside ancient communities made it easier to image the evolution of dogs over thousands of years.

How (and when) dogs become members of our family definitely depends on culture and country.

This trip showed me firsthand that dogs are incredibly adaptable creatures! But from my perspective, once you've experienced the joy and companionship of a dog, anything less is unacceptable.

- Sharon Castellanos

Have you experienced dogs who belong more to a place than a person?

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Help, Foster, Adopt. There are many ways all of us can do the right thing for companion animals. I recently started volunteering at Muttville Senior Dog Rescue. What if there was a way for you to take action, and help your favorite shelter win much needed funds?

The ASPCA celebrated their 150th anniversary, and to honor this milestone, with the help from a few major celebrities, they have launched 150 Days of Rescue, a nationwide action campaign that seeks to unite the country in making a difference in the lives of homeless and abused animals.

Animal lovers are encouraged to visit ASPCA.org/150days and pledge their time between April 10 and September 7 to help animals in need, with the goal of reaching 150,000 actions for animals in 150 days.

Ways to participate

• Volunteer at a local shelter
• Donate
• Foster
• Adopt a shelter pet

Don't Forget!

When you log your good deed you will also be given the opportunity to nominate a favorite animal shelter to receive a grant prize of $150,000!

Let's do this! It's win-win! Visit ASPCA.org/150days

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I tell people every single day that if they have a chance to have an older dog in their life, grab it! Want to feel like you won the lottery? Need a personal in-home yogi to show you how to relax and focus on what's important in life? Trust me when I say that a senior dog, especially Drake, will bring you all of these wonderful feelings and lessons.

Meet Drake, a 7 to 8-year-old Flat-Coated Retriever mix, ready to start his new life. He is being fostered for Lily's Legacy Senior Dog Sanctuary in Petaluma, California.

He has recovered from his cataract surgery with flying colors and is now seeing the world with joy and awe!

He is a very happy, cuddly boy with a puppy-like attitude, eager to please and learn. He loves his walks, is great on a leash, and is now learning sit & stay.

His Foster-Mom also reports he loves his rides in the car and is a devoted companion!

Before coming to Lily's, Drake spent 61/2 years in a back yard and garage with minimal human attention. Due to early onset cataracts, he was blind for much of this time.

He is truly experiencing much of life for the first time as a sighted-pup and is an only-dog in his foster home.

Drake needs to learn how to interact with other dogs but so far seems to be OK with cats.

Discover why senior dogs rule!

Visit www.lilyslegacy.org to learn more 

Call (415) 488-4984

Email: [email protected]

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This has to be one of the best dog videos ever! It's as good as this one about why we shouldn't leave dogs in cars, only funny.

There are three dogs in this car, with the Airedale in front letting their mom know that she better hurry up because they're tired of waiting.

The one in back sniffing through the open window is funny too. Do you think she laid back down because she was embarrassed by the one honking the horn?

Either way, I love the video and this resourceful dog!

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You would expect a big dog to move through your house like a bull in a china shop. I've been around noisy, gregarious Labradors who thunder from the kitchen to the yard, back through the sliding glass door until crashing onto a couch. Why? Because someone they knew drove up the driveway.

On the flip side, I grew up with Dobermans who could be light on their feet, if they wanted to. As a teenager I played a few games of hide and seek with Zorro, and lost not to his incredible sniffer but his stealth. He actually snuck around the couch from the opposite side before I heard or saw him.

After reading a new Scientific American post, "Who's Better at Sneaking Around: Dogs or Teenagers?" by Julie Hecht (@Dogspies), I got to thinking about my big Shepherd Husky girl.

Over the course of our life together, her physical presence was always large than life, but could also be quite silent. At young adult, our return home was greeted by her racing up to poke us in the stomach, followed by her jetting down the hallway to jump on our bed so hard the mattress and bedding slid two feet. She'd proceed to gallop back to the living room until her body hit the couch hard enough for it to slam into the windowsill.

She did this particular greeting for about three years, long enough that we were shocked when she ever so quietly took a piece of cheese off a plate. In front of us.

Until that moment I didn't think our dog knew the word subtle.

Our 85 lb. Shepherd Husky pawed, poked, bumped and jumped her way through the day. That afternoon when she flowed smoothly by the coffee table with the cheese and crackers on it, nipped the cheddar slice, and tiptoed her way into another room like a jewel thief, I was shocked!

I also couldn't stop laughing, at myself. Boy, did she just show me what it means to "assume" wrongly about a dog. Later that night, we added another nickname for her, kitten feet.

~ Sharon Castellanos

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