By Don Bradley
KC Pet Project has a program called “Dog Day Out.”
You pick up a dog and take it out for a few hours.
Kind of like a blind date.
I did it last week. After the paperwork, a stray named Tod with a wound on his head, climbed somewhat warily into the passenger seat of my car. Eyes straight ahead. We’d gone a couple of blocks when he turned and gave me a going over.
I was clearly a letdown. Kind of like a blind date who showed up wearing an ascot.
So I lowered the passenger window halfway. Tod, just shy of a year old, 43 pounds of mixed something or other, stuck his nose into the rushing wind and his ears perked up as the world passed. He turned and gave me a slobbery tongue happy face and I smiled back and we were good to go.
He later climbed over to my lap — he knew that would be okay and right then, that moment, I knew how this would end.
Dog Day Out
The Kansas City Campus for Animal Care, the big building at Elmwood Avenue and Gregory Boulevard near Swope Park, is a world away from the old “dog pound.”
Bright and shiny, vet clinic, outdoor play areas, surgery suite, meet n’ greet rooms, retail store…there’s a Roasterie Coffee Shop in there. Staff and volunteers for KC Pet Project care for 16,000 animals a year, finding homes for many of them. There’s music.
The place is state-of-the art. But at the end of the day, as a staffer said, it’s also crowded, loud and, most of all, a stressful place for animals who have already lived a stressful life.
That’s where Dog Day Out comes in.
“Just a few hours out means so much to these dogs,” said Tori Fugate, Pet Project’s chief communications officer. “Their stress level drops when they leave and goes right back up when they return.”
Last year there were about 1,800 outings. People take dogs on walks, they go to the park or a quiet coffee shop, maybe take a car ride.
“Or just take them home,” Fugate said. “A quiet place to take a nap is a big deal for a dog.”
Rules: no dog parks and no interaction with other animals in the home. Afterwards, people who take dogs out fill out a form about how the dog did. Valuable information.
“We have so many dogs and we know nothing about them,” Fugate said. “We learn so much from people who take the dogs out for a while.”
The big quantified benefit: Dogs who get a day out spend on average one less week at KCCAC.
Just a loaner
When Asia died, people told me to get another dog.
I said I would. Of course I’ll get another dog. That was probably 10 years ago. Asia’s tags hang in the den. His bowl is in the china cabinet.
Then came this Dog Day Out story idea. And I was going to do the overnight option.
It would all come back.
For some reason, I thought of the guy in “Airplane” who had to fly the plane after Peter Graves ate the fish — “I haven’t flown since the war!”
But it was time. I filled out the forms online, showed up the next day and met with Karl Akers, a canine foster program coordinator.
We talked as he looked at the forms I’d filled out.
Then we talked dogs. He showed me a candidate. Bio and photo. Nice dog, sweet dog. Perfect.
“What else you got?” I asked.
Karl showed me two more. He looked at me. Tick…tick…this big, busy place had suddenly gone quiet.
Rejection is a real fear. So is rejecting.
I firmly decided what to do. “You pick,” I told him.
Karl smiled and finished the form, leaving blank the place for what he called “mystery dog.”
Five minutes later, I met Tod. He’s a black dog. Asia was black.
After that ride home, Tod loved the backyard. He ran, chased a bouncing toy and visited through the fence with a little neighbor dog.
I watched from the deck railing. Then Tod ran to me, looked up and wagged his tail. We went in to cool off. He ate and took a nap on the rug.
That night, my son and his fiance came over. They were surprised to find a dog in the kitchen. I told them it’s just a loaner.
“What?” Sam said immediately then he said it again.
“What? You’ve wanted a dog. For years, you’ve said you were getting a dog. Well (big hand gesture) here one is. He’s right here. You can’t take him back. You can’t return him.”
Touch of snarky there at the end — “You can’t returrrrn him.”
I was already there. I knew it in the car that first time when happy dog slobber blew in the wind.
So the next day we went back to KCCAC and made it official. Hard to believe that I would be the first Dog Day Out client to become ensnared. I wasn’t.
I did ask how long Tod has been “Tod.”
Just the three weeks he’s been there.
“Name him whatever you want,” they told me.
I’ve never been a fan of one-syllable dog names. Unless maybe Duke. Two syllables are more melodic. Tod didn’t even have two d’s.
We left with a bag of Pedigree, collar, new tags and new crate.
Later that evening, I went to the back door and called “Arlo!”
Okay, short of melodic, but it sounded fine and he came running.
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For more information about Dog Day Out, go to kcpetproject.org.