Rocket Dog Rescue

Rocket Dog Rescue is a volunteer nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California, devoted to pet adoption and animal rescue. It is the most prominent of several local private organizations that save dogs from euthenasia by caring for them and finding new families. [cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2003/03/03/urbananimal.DTL|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=2007-12-28|title=Saving Pit Bulls from the Death Chamber|author=Hank Pellissier|date=March 3, 2003] The program places dogs from animal shelters in the San Francisco Bay Area into foster homes while awaiting adoption. It also treats medical and behavioral problems such as socialization issues, neuters and spays the animals, and provides vaccines, so as to make their animals adoptable. [cite web|accessdate=2007-12-28|url=http://www.rocketdogrescue.org/about_us/index.html|publisher=Rocket Dog Rescue|title=About Us]

History

The organization was founded in by Pali Boucher, daughter of a hippie mother, and Paul Boucher, a program director of San Francisco radio station KSAN (formerly "Jive 95"; now 107.7, "the Bone"). [cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/13/PKGDOIM2CT1.DTL|author=Ben Fong-Torres|title=Radio Waves|Date=August 13, 2006|accessdate=2007-12-28] [cite web|title=Where are they now|url=http://www.jive95.com/whos_where.htm|publisher=KSAN|accessdate=2007-12-28] An HIV victim and former foster child and drug addict whose mother died when she was ten.cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=2007-12-28|title=Dog rescuer loses her home in a fire:3 canines she was fostering are killed in destructive blaze|author=Jill Tucker|date=December 23, 2007|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/23/BAFIU3KC0.DTL] After being homeless for more than ten years after, she adopted an abandoned coonhound puppy from the local dog pound she named Leadbelly. She lived on the street with Leadbelly for several more years. After spending six months in jail [cite news|publisher=The Woofer Times|url=http://www.rocketdogrescue.org/pdfs/woofertimes06.pdf|title=For the Love of a Dog|author=Sally Stephens|date=January, 2006|accessdate=2007-12-28|format=PDF] then entered the Good Shepherd Gracenter, a women's residential recovery program run by the Roman Catholic order, the Good Shepherd Sisters. [cite web|url=http://www.gsgracenter.org/sisters.htm|publisher=Good Shepherd GraceCenter|accessdate=2007-12-28|title=The Sisters of the Good Shepherd] [cite web|url=http://www.catholic-sf.org/FPArticle206.htm|title=Gracecenter|publisher=the Archdiocese of San Francisco|accessdate=2007-12-28] She credits the program and her dog with saving her life.cite news|author=Lord Martine|date=November 29, 2002|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=2007-12-28|title=Saving dogs helped her save herself|publisher=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/11/29/WB241239.DTL] .

In the late 1990s Boucher began working for Hopalong Animal Rescue, based in Oakland, California.cite news|publisher=The Noe Valley Voice|accessdate=2007-12-28|url=http://www.noevalleyvoice.com/1999/March/dogs.html|author=Erica Kohnke|title=Homeless Dogs Find a Pal in Pali Boucher] In 2000, while she was working for the SPCA, she inspired San Francisco veterinarians to found VetSOS, a nonprofit mobile clinic that helps homeless people who are unable to care for their pets. [cite news|title=Jefferson Award: Ilana Strubel, vet for pets of homeless|author=Suzanne Pullen|date=January 7, 2006|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/07/EDG5TG17U31.DTL|accessdate=2007-12-28]

In 2001, the year after Leadbelly's death, she started Rocket Dog Rescue and won a Points of Light award for volunteerism.. She claims to have rescued 150 dogs in the first year. In 2006 the organization was profiled on Discovery's Animal Planet network in a one-hour documentary, "Rocket Dogs". [cite web|url=http://www.studiobfilms.com/services/rw_rocket_dog.html|publisher=Studio B Films|title=Rocket Dogs documentary] By 2007 the organization had saved approximately 3,000 animals, and was spending $150,000 per year of donated funds on veterinary bills for sick animals.

In December, 2007 her home burned in a fire, making her homeless once again and killing three dogs, a parrot, and a pigeon for which she was caring. [cite news|title=3 Dogs, 2 Birds Die In SF Animal Foster Home Fire |publisher=CBS Broadcasting|url=http://cbs5.com/local/animal.foster.home.2.616271.html|accessdate=2007-12-28|date=December 21, 2007]

External links

* [http://www.rocketdogrescue.org rocketdogrescue.org] - official site
* [http://www.gsgracenter.org/ Good Shepherd Gracecenter] - official site
* [http://www.hopalong.org/ Hopalong & Second Chance Animal Rescue] - official site
* [http://www.vetsos.org/ VetSOS.com] - official site

References