At Save One Soul Animal Rescue League, there's no better time than now to find the at-risk dog that needs you most – The Independent

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Partly cloudy during the evening followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 43F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: December 2, 2022 @ 1:22 am
For just $30, you can purchase a holiday ornament from Save One Soul Animal Rescue and support the group’s mission to help homeless, neglected, abandoned and generally at-risk dogs find their forever home.

For just $30, you can purchase a holiday ornament from Save One Soul Animal Rescue and support the group’s mission to help homeless, neglected, abandoned and generally at-risk dogs find their forever home.
Dog adoption has been a booming business since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020. There was a point during the pandemic when dogs would stay in shelters or with fosters very briefly because the demand for adoptable pets was so great. More than 23 million American households, in fact, chose to adopt during the pandemic, as reported by the ASPCA and reported by The Washington Post on January 7, 2022.
But with those adoptions came financial and logistical issues related to care and boarding once members of those families began returning to work. The costs of feeding and caring for dogs have only increased. And some families ultimately decided their lifestyles and/or temperaments were not compatible with dog ownership.
But families are still in the market for adoptable pups, though demand has waned from mid-pandemic levels. To counter any unfavorable adoption situations, animal rescue agencies have begun to educate families about the true responsibilities of dog ownership, including making sure they understand the financial and care responsibilities, the time commitment (adding up to years), and the overall adjustments a family may have to make to create the best situation for their new pets.
Enter Save One Soul Animal Rescue, a non-profit volunteer-driven dog rescue organization serving the Southern New England Area. The organization is dedicated to rescuing homeless, neglected, abandoned, and otherwise at-risk dogs found primarily at high-kill shelters or inside of an extensive foster-care network, both located in the South.
One might wonder how higher-risk dogs fare in getting adopted during the holiday season. With all the activities during the holidays, like shopping, cooking, and traveling, are at-risk holiday pups on anyone’s lists?
As Save One Soul Executive Director Emma Dawley explained, “There’s definitely a seasonality to adoptions.” And she also explained that well-established patterns in the adoption world have been significantly disrupted due to the pandemic. She spoke to the increased difficulty of adopting higher-risk dogs since the pandemic started.
“I think people have become more unrealistic, or just wanting it all, or wanting that perfect dog,” Dawley explained. Dogs that have behavioral quirks, she shared, and especially those with special needs, both medical and behavioral, have become harder than ever to place. In fact, there are currently a handful of dogs that have been with Save One Soul fosters for much longer than the previously established average, one placement for about a year, and the longest one yet closing in on two years.
“Four years ago, they would have been adopted already. And neither has gotten a single application, and not for lack of us promoting them, trying new things, having special events, or featuring them,” she said.
This current crisis in adopting Dawley blames on our culture’s false expectations of dogs. She explained that Save One Soul prides itself in a very thorough application process including veterinarian interviews, discussions with references, and overall taking a truly holistic look at both adopters and potential adoptees in pursuit of truly finding the right matches.
“If we had this interview four years ago, I would be the first one to say, very optimistically, that there’s a lid for every pot,” she said. But complications in helping families find ‘the perfect pet’ have sadly left that analogy by the wayside.
Save One Soul is a foster-based operation, meaning they have no shelter facility – all the dogs stay with and are cared for by local foster families. And in those foster homes, the individuals caring for the dogs are able to observe and learn about the dogs they foster, allowing more comprehensive information to be shared with both Save One Soul staff and adoption counselors, but also prospective families.
Dawley says this holistic approach helps encourage lasting connections, but because dogs are living creatures just like humans, she recognizes there may be bumps along the way.
“We don’t expect any adoption to be perfect, no issues, sailing off into the sunset,” she said, “but it should be close enough that the person and the dog have the tools and at least the foundational compatibility that they can move forward. That’s what we’re striving to achieve with the process.”
She explained that though a prospective family may indicate they have spayed or neutered a pet already living in the home, that fact alone does not precipitate an automatic approval for an adoption. Willingness to pay the adoption fee for the dog also does not convince the adoption team to release a dog to a prospective owner. The care and deliberation of the screening process helps create and maintain an environment of trust and mutual concern for the needs of both the adopters and adoptees.
Trisha Hlastawa, adopter, Adoption Counselor, the organization’s current volunteer Media Coordinator, and an employee of the SOS ReTail store on Kingstown Road in Wakefield, has been working with the organization for nearly four years. She has fostered as well, but is not fostering currently.
“2020, for example, was nuts,” Hlastawa said. “We were super, super busy. Dogs were in foster homes for a very limited amount of time, quick in and out into their homes, and we had a high success rate with dogs getting in their adoptive homes and staying there.”
“Right now,” she continued, “adoptions have slowed significantly so we have less dogs available just because of the capacity and the ability to get the dogs into the homes quickly enough to make sense.”
Hlastawa explained there are a lot of logistical issues around making sure there are enough foster homes that can see a temporary placement through long enough to get that dog placed permanently.
During her time as a foster, Hlastawa had to spring into action rather quickly over Thanksgiving of 2019, accepting an emergency placement during her Thanksgiving dinner, of a bonded pair of dogs, Brody and Lupo, who had to be temporarily, and then permanently, rehomed due to an adopter’s health issue. She explained that flexibility over the holidays is key, and that willing fosters need to understand their placements will need to be maintained and managed over the holidays.
Emma Dawley shared that the rescue workday is very much evenings and weekends, and as seen in this example, sometimes holidays as well.
Though there does not appear to be an increased demand for adoptions over the holidays, the organization prioritizes soliciting funds needed to continue to operate, as well as provide fosters with crates and food, and the dogs with vet care, throughout the season.
Hlastawa, as part of SOS ReTail, is preparing the store for the holiday season, offering special Christmas ornaments for visitors to purchase that support the organization’s mission. Katie LaCroix, a foster as well as the organization’s Events Coordinator, is handling a bevy of holiday activities for the Save One Soul community. Scheduled activities include a Santa Drop, where members of the community can drop off food, toys, and donations for adoptable dogs, pet Photos with Santa, and Secret Santa Paws, a Secret Santa program where families’ pets are matched with one another to bring four-pawed family members a little sprinkling of holiday joy.
LaCroix, who has been fostering since September of 2020, has had 12 placements so far. The first 11, she said, went fairly quickly.
“We actually had a dog for 45 minutes and then they got adopted,” LaCroix laughed.
But her household has been holding onto Ajax, her latest placement, for a full year.
“He’s the perfect dog in the house,” she said. “He’s got great manners.” But due to the slowdown in movement of adoptions, Ajax’s behavioral quirks, and increased requirements on the end of adopters, Ajax has yet to find his forever home.
LaCroix does feel, after Ajax is finally placed, she would like to continue to foster, and finds herself quite busy managing and attending events for the organization.
“I think personally, dogs stick around more during the holidays just because people are so busy,” LaCroix said. Executive Director Dawley also commented on the delicate dance that occurs with both foster dogs and families over the holidays, as a network of care must be secured in order for families to carry out their normal holiday routines like travel. She explained there is a lot of flexibility required, and where possible, dogs are successfully temporarily relocated for the duration of fosters’ absences.
Dawley recognized that both the community and Save One Soul’s network of fosters are very generous to the organization around the holidays, donating cash, supplies, food, and toys as well as participating in Save One Soul’s holiday-themed events. The organization is planning a few, smaller, regularly scheduled adoption-related events prior to the holidays, and they will also continue to facilitate private meetings between dogs and potential adopters.
Save One Soul is a 501(c)3 charity. SOS ReTail is located at 577 Kingstown Road in South Kingstown. The store is open Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm and Sunday 12pm-4pm.
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