Wren Yorkie Rescue
About Us
Who Are We?
We are an officially recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit animal rescue group operating as a small family Rescue in Oakland, CA. Mrs. Wren has been a vet-tech and dog/cat groomer for many years, involved with animal rescue work for 4 decades, specializing in rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming YORKSHIRE TERRIERS since 1995. We are a NO-KILL Rescue that cares for pets surrendered to us as long as it takes until each one can be matched up with a permanent new home.
Sometimes Foster homes fall in love and adopt because they can't bear to let their visitors go, so we are always looking to qualify people as new Fosters! Our approach differs from the usual Rescue, in that we never turn down a senior dog, and work with senior and/or disabled people, and single-adult household with children wanting a furry companion to cuddle at night. Thanks to the generosity of MADDIE'S FUND since 2010, we have been able to subsidize post-adoption medical care or special diets as needed to allow otherwise qualified low-income people to keep their companion animals.
RESCUE ACTIVITY STATISTICS:
Wren Yorkie Rescue has been gratefully indebted to the Duffield Family Foundation, popularly known as MADDIE'S FUND, for its continuing operation since the first Adoptathon Event in 2010 [our Adoption site was in Pittsburg that year].
In 2011, Wren Yorkie Rescue took in and rehabilitated 55 dogs, primarily Yorkies and Yorkie mixes, from local shelters and owners who were no longer able to care for their pets because of home foreclosures, death, job loss or the arrival of new human babies. Permanent homes were found for 42 of the dogs in our care that year. 35 of the little ones--many of them seniors and/or special needs pets--who were eligible to participate in the 2011 MADDIE'S FUND MATCHATHON, were adopted during that June 4-5, 2011 weekend event.
Several of the dogs who hadn't yet found their forever homes were eligible to participate in the 2012 ADOPTION DAYS EVENT program and joined the newest eligible ones to meet their new pet-parents, going to permanent new homes on June 9th & 10th, 2012 at Wren Yorkie Rescue's MADDIE'S FUND ADOPTION DAYS site in Livermore. 39 dogs were rehomed that weekend. THANKS SO MUCH, MADDIE!!! We love you and couldn't do our work without your financial support to cover routine as well as lifesaving vet procedures, food, medicines, and travel expenses of interviewing foster and permanent adoption homes!
How Do We Differ from a Shelter and How Are We Funded?
PRIVATE RESCUES are DIFFERENT from public facilities:
We consist of a network of unpaid, animal-dedicated individuals and foster families who volunteer their own time and use their own money to care for companion animals in their homes, treating them as cherished members of their own families until just the right permanent new adoptive home can be found among the applications received.
We have no building (and no cages!), no staff, no public viewing hours, and no predictable source of reliable or consistent revenue. We subsist on and greatly appreciate all donations and offers of assistance, particularly temporary foster homes!
Funding is accomplished through personal finances, private donations, adoption fees, and grants from MADDIE'S FUND. Whereas shelters are supported by public taxes from their respective cities/counties and receive free or extremely-low-cost vet
care, private rescues have to pay all their own vet bills and other costs associated with top-quality care for the animals they take responsibility for.
Our average annual Rescue expenses are about $50,000, which we could not afford to spend if it were not for the additional assistance given by MADDIE'S FUND, whose annual grant amounts vary depending on the number of dogs in our Rescue eligible to participate in the program, AND the number of those eligible dogs who are actually adopted during the annual event. Average out-of-pocket costs to get a dog restored to health and placed in the right new home run around $400--lots more if there are special medical needs beyond spay/neuter and dental to be met. Senior or special needs dogs are often adopted with no fee, and we work with people having fixed or special financial circumstances to make sure they can comfortably afford a dog who seems like the perfect fit for them. Our bottom line is to make the best possible permanent match between dog and new guardian, so we try our best not to let finances get in the way of fulfilling this purpose.
You are invited to offer support at whatever level is personally comfortable. Email WrenYorkieRescue@aol.com to inquire how you might assist using your time and talent. For example, one summer we had a pre-vet student spend 2 months accumulating experience and hours learning the basics of a small dog and cat grooming, care, medication administration, and home visit/adoption interviewing.