Safe Harbor Lab Rescue: A New Life For So Many

Henri faced spending his golden years in a Houston shelter. The life-long owners of this nearly eleven-year-old Labrador retriever had surrendered him, plus twenty-three pages of medical records, to the shelter. He’d developed severe allergies when the family returned to live in Texas after years of living in Europe.

Safe Harbor Lab Rescue (Safe Harbor) rescued Henri when they learned about his situation and thought he might do better in a drier climate. Soon after, Polly Kruse, a Safe Harbor volunteer and previous adopter, took Henri in. She put him on high-quality food, and his allergies subsided.

Kruse proudly says her “glue dog” adoptee loves to retrieve, 24-7. Senior dogs don’t necessarily mean sedate canines, she adds. Henri out runs other dogs when he fetches!

Now twelve, this athletic and happy Labrador lives with another Safe Harbor rescue, Osborne, who was surrendered when his owners went through a divorce. Kruse adopted Osborne at the age of three and a half. Osborne recently turned ten and prefers to be indoors curled up in his bed, or “talking” and begging for treats. Both boys get along well together. Kruse likes to adopt owner surrenders because of the medical records that accompany them. She still volunteers for Safe Harbor, often helping with transports and marketing.

Last year, Safe Harbor rescued about seventy seniors, seven years or older, according to its president, Jacky Eckard. “Many rescues don’t take old dogs,” she says.  And, the Grey Muzzle Organization, a national organization dedicated to senior dogs, recently awarded Safe Harbor a grant to help pay medical costs for its senior rescues!

Safe Harbor, based in Golden, Colorado, expects this year to rescue about 250 Labrador retrievers.

Organized in 2002, this all-volunteer nonprofit organization is one of hundreds of breed rescue groups across the nation that offer dog lovers an opportunity to give a second or even third chance to hard luck canines. Safe Harbor is operated under the watchful eye of Eckard, a ten-member board of directors, and about one hundred volunteers who help out at various times of the year.

Breed rescues offer an excellent way for individuals to adopt a specific breed of dog as their next family member although most of the canines won’t come with American Kennel Club registration papers. An exception is Henri! His adopter, Kruse, recently learned that his sire descended from show champions! Breed rescues can often be located on websites of national breed clubs or local breed clubs. Safe Harbor, for instance, is listed on the Labrador Retriever Club Inc.’s website.

Like many other breed rescues, Safe Harbor doesn’t have a physical office or a shelter for its canines. Instead, its volunteers work with rescue partners it knows and trusts to find Labs that they think will find forever homes. Eckard says that Safe Harbor can deal with health issues but doesn’t seek out hospice-type canines. That said, three hospice dogs are currently in foster homes.

When Safe Harbor rescues have reactivity and/or anxiety issues, canine behavioral specialists work with these canines before they are put up for adoption. “We’ve been blessed with most rescues having nice temperaments,” Eckard notes.

Once a dog arrives in the Denver area, it receives a complete medical workup and shots and treatment if necessary. Then dogs are placed in foster homes where they live until they are adopted.

Safe Harbor paid about $150,000 last year for its rescues’ medical treatment, according to Eckard. About 93 percent of its annual budget expenses, including for medical, training, food and transportation from out-of-state locations, was spent directly on the rescues in 2017.

Its largest expense is medical care but fortunately its partners bill at a reduced, rescue rate. Eckard anticipates Safe Harbor will again in 2018 spend $150,000 on medical care. Alameda East Veterinary Hospital’s veterinarians examine most of their canines but the group also sends dogs to Arvada West Veterinary Hospital, and for orthopedic problems, Colorado Canine Orthopedics & Rehab’s’ Michael Bauer, DVM, who, Eckard notes, has been very generous. Other partners include The K9 Body Shop in Arvada, Canine Rehabilitation and Conditioning, and several animal behaviorists.

Safe Harbor operates on a budget supported through donations, primarily from individuals and fundraisers including an annual pool party (LabFest) and annual calendar. Just 7 percent of its budget goes to administrative costs, such as insurance policies, legal and financial professional fees, software licenses and web hosting.

About 60 percent of Safe Harbor’s rescues come from outside of Colorado, including Nebraska, Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, all states that don’t have a high demand for canine adoptions, Eckard explains. But nearly all of Safe Harbor’s rescues find forever families on Colorado’s front range and a few on its western slope. Safe Harbor doesn’t buy dogs from auctions, she adds.

The majority of Safe Harbor rescues are strays but some are owner surrendered for a variety of reasons. About 19 percent of the dogs are owner surrendered to Safe Harbor and another 15 percent come from shelters in Colorado.

Each dog comes with its own story.

Safe Harbor found a new home for Hank, a handsome, skinny yellow Labrador. He’d been a stray in Utah but knew sit, down, roll-over and High 5. His new owners took him to their veterinarian when he couldn’t climb stairs. They returned him to Safe Harbor after he was diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia.

Mary Downs agreed to foster the dog for a second time.

“You look like lank Hank.” The big dog perked up his ears. Mary realized the dog’s name probably was Hank or maybe Frank.  Hank stuck.  Mary and her husband fell in love with him. They paid for his second hip replacement and Safe Harbor footed the bill for the first one. At age nine or so, Hank lives with another Safe Harbor rescue named Buddy, also a big yellow, taken in from the Buddy Center in Castle Rock. Buddy is an alpha dog that was owner surrendered during a divorce. Downs notes that he was scared to death of people and so fearful that he wouldn’t eat when she first fostered him. He’s now accepted her family and eats but remains scared of some people.

Hank’s the total opposite of Buddy, Downs says. He’s very sweet and a party dog.

Downs has adopted four of the ten dogs that she’s fostered for Safe Harbor. One, a yellow named Riley, was owner surrendered because the dog was going blind. He had Progressive Retinal Atrophy, a genetic disorder which causes blindness. Riley lived a full life with Downs until he crossed the Rainbow Bridge at the age of twelve.

Then there’s Chester, a yellow Lab brought to Safe Harbor from a New Mexico shelter. He’d lived on the lam for several months in New Mexico before being caught— and his body was covered with more than 100 ticks. He’d survived by catching and eating field mice, his adopter Peg Newell surmises. Newell, who has adopted a total of four Safe Harbor Labs, brought Chester home at age six or so. She notes that he’s become civilized and no longer hunts mice in fields. He’s also slowed down because of some arthritis at age twelve but adores Newell’s grandchildren.

Newell has a soft spot for seniors. Miles came to live with her when no one else would adopt the twelve-year-old black Lab. Miles and Winston, his elderly Lab companion, had been owner surrendered, and a couple drove from Maine to adopt both canines. The dogs weren’t well socialized, and the couple returned them. With Newell’s loving care, Miles lived another two years. Winston went to a home of another Safe Harbor volunteer. Sadly, Newell says that “it is pretty normal” that owners surrender senior dogs when their canines’ future care looks expensive. These dogs are often surrendered to shelters or veterinarians.

She’s volunteered for Safe Harbor since 2008, first fostering new dogs and now summarizing canines’ medical records for adopters and applying her CPA background to help with Safe Harbor’s financial records.

Is Safe Harbor always looking for foster homes?

“That would be an understatement,” Eckard chuckles. She’s ALWAYS looking for foster homes!

Safe Harbor carefully screens its forever family applicants who fill out an application and list references. Volunteers check the references and then interview the applicant over the phone. Next, the applicant and dog meet. Safe Harbor takes these measures to assure the best possible match and avoid any problems such as having their dogs adopted by “flippers,” individuals who buy dogs and then turn around and sell them for a profit.

Safe Harbor wants potential adopters to understand Labradors: their potential health issues and exercise requirements. It seeks adopters who view their adoptee as a family member, not a dog just left outside day and night. If an adopter cannot keep their adoptee for any reason, he/she must, by contract, return the canine to Safe Harbor. Eckard says each year some canines are returned, often times because of changed family circumstances or when the adopter dies and relatives are unable to care for the animal.

Most of Safe Harbor’s rescues are canines between the age of one to six years of age. A fourth are seniors. Few puppies are rescued. If the rescue hasn’t been neutered or spayed at the time of the adoption, adopters must agree to spay or neuter their adoptee at eight months or later if requested by the dog’s veterinarian. A $200 deposit is returned upon proof of the spay or neuter.

Adoption fees range from $300 for puppies, $275 for one to six-year olds, $225 for canines seven to nine, and $100 for seniors ten and older.

“The adoption fee is a fraction of what it costs” to ready the dogs for adoption. All dogs received gold-plated medical treatment,” Eckard proudly says.

She cautions that only some of the available or soon-to-be-available canines are featured on Safe Harbor’s website. Others are either recovering from medical or behavioral issues, or have applicants waiting for them, so their stories haven’t been posted. She recommends filing an application and asking to be placed on a waiting list so as to be paired for just the right new family member.

Thanks to Safe Harbor Lab Rescue, many canines are living out their lives with loving families. Visit Safe Harbor’s website for more information: http://www.safeharborlabrescue.org/