Lost Pets, Found Solutions: Inside Journey Home Animal Control

Welcome to Keep It You Main the Podcast. Where we talk about animal control shelters in animal welfare and the people doing the work. With your hosts. Ashley Bishop. And sometimes Ashley Bishop. And Daniel Attenger helping people help animals. Welcome to another episode of Keep It You Main the Podcast with both me and Texas Bishop. With Constantine Bishop she's busy. She's actually at a bunch of different airports this week. Repoing all the spirit airline airplane. So she's bringing those back to I guess Boeing or wherever they belong. Since that's not a company anymore. How about that? That's craziness. It is crazy. We were actually my husband and I were talking about this the other day. And I was like, you know, where are the people going to get their red eyes now that we're like super cheap? And did I ever tell you the story about my experience on spirit? I think I did. Yes. I don't know if you've ever sat on the podcast but. It was exactly what I expected. I took it to Texas. It was Texas. No. Yeah, it was San Antonio. Yes it was. Yes it was. It was San Antonio. And I get on the plane. It's like it's a vibe. Like it truly is what you would expect on spirit. And I'm sitting there kind of mind of my own business headphones in and I hear a little commotion and I'm like, like this is going to be as advertised. In sure if they had to bring the police on to escort a woman off that was trying to open up the emergency exit door. Thankfully we were still like on the tarmac and whatnot. And I'm like, what in the bananas is going on here? So I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised that it's out of business. You know the whole airline industry. I don't know how they make money. Like I try to do the mathematics in my head because like if I pay $300 for a round trip, it's $150 per seat. And then I'm like, there's only 190 seats on the plane. So I mean, this plane is only if everybody paid that same price, which they didn't, but this plane is only making $30,000 a flight or something crazy or whatever it is. Like how do they do it? So I'm glad I'm in animal welfare and not the aviation business. Honestly, you do spirit airlines. My anxiety can't like, I really hate flying as it is. Like my anxiety is always like at a thousand on the plane. No, like I just, some of a police officer comes on plane, just give me out. Just fucking take me with them because this is not happening. Like you can't. It was, I think I was the first and only time. I guess probably the only time, unless they get a government bailout that'll ever have flown spirit airlines. So good shout out to Ashley. Ashley was constant bishop. She's, I didn't know she could fly planes, but like apparently she just puts that thing on co-pilot. She has some assistance with take off and landing and she's repotting all those planes this week. So we'll see her next week. What do you think it takes to repot plane? Like what? Yeah. I mean, a lot of these planes aren't even, they're not bought like in full either, right? They like buy them and they pay because they're like hundreds of millions of dollars. I love airplanes. I'm a nerd. Kind of when it comes to them. Not like a mega nerd, but a mini nerd. And like like Pitney Bowens, Bowens, Pitney. I don't know how you say it. See, I'm not that big, but like there's three different engine model makers. Pitney, Pitney somebody, somebody's looking and they're like, it's Pitney Bowes. Then you have Rolls Royce and you have General Electric. That's it. The three model motor makers. Okay. Anyway, that's enough by animal welfare or not, but not animal welfare. And I'm sure our guest is probably like Daniel. I'm sitting here patiently trying to get on this plane to go to wherever we're going, which is Pittsburgh again this week. Nice. Two times. Thankfully, I think that didn't book on spirit though. Their planes are getting repotter. That would have been rough. Well, let's introduce our guest, Rachel with Journey Home Animal Control. Journey Home Animal Control. Don't confuse it like I did. Welcome, Rachel. Happy to have you. Happy to be here for sure. How are things in another whisk, Contanite? Not too bad. I mean, we skipped all this storm damage from like last week. So the tornadoes got really close to my house, but thankfully like went around. Listen, last week I found out that Wisconsin has tornadoes and my mind was blown. I was like, what do you mean? There's there's tornadoes in Wisconsin. Yeah. Lee, Lee introduced me that you guys get tornadoes, but either way, Rachel, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do in the industry. Yeah. So I am actually as my name's Rachel. I am the director and founder of Journey Home Animal Control. I founded it in 2024 after trying to like help bridge the gap between like what we see in the veterinary fields, what we see in the rescue fields, trying to be like that middleman and also help kind of give the community like a better idea of like what animal control is about and what we as rescues have to deal with and also kind of help with veterinary care when we can. So I'm also a certified vet tech. So I was in the vet fields for over six years before just kind of taking the jump in doing this. So it's, I've had a lot of mentors. I have a lot of people walking me through the steps on being a nonprofit and you know how to manage a nonprofit, but it's been it's been a crazy two years. That's for sure. So your your background you started as a vet tech like did you do animal control at any point? No. I so I'm a certified vet tech through like the state of Wisconsin. Yeah. I did you know I went through an AVMA school and everything and then I just slowly started finding cats. Okay. So then people like in the community started like recognizing who I was and they tend to call me before they even call the police, especially nowadays like because they understand like the police don't have as much animal handling training, which I'm working on like you know I've been getting them some proper equipments and everything and walking them through like lost dog behavior and everything, but it was just kind of like someone made a joke about how I was practically animal control at this point and it just like I help with bunnies. I've helped catch birds like you know I help with lost dogs or sturdogs so that is awesome. That is awesome. So like what is your day-to-day within nonprofit like you know who's calling you for help and you know our municipalities or you know brick-and-mortar facilities also reaching out for your assistance. Yeah so right now it's it tends to be like a lot of owners with lost pets. People take them some posts they're like hey there's this stray dog that has been running around for two weeks. We need help. He's a superskittish. We have occasionally like we will help like a shelter or rescue if they reach out. Newly adopted dogs are like one of the number one type of dogs that we have to try and trap. So we do have rescues that contact us. We do work with one of the municipalities. We're not contracted with them but they don't have the equipment to trap so we're more than happy to like we just go ahead and we're like hey we're gonna trap this dog for you guys and their fans has it to work with. So and we also honor like any contracts that are already in place within municipalities because we definitely want to like respect that and I mean I love all the shelters in my area so you know I want to support them. Do you find it like was it maybe not difficult but like anxiety-provoking to jump out on your own and try doing this like what? Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. What was like the what was your biggest challenge so far and what's been like kind of the easiest trend like something that you didn't think was going to be so easy but that was actually pretty easy when you started doing this. I think the biggest was taking the jump and like doing this full time. I wasn't sure like how much of a need there really was if it was if I was just gonna crash and burn like as soon as I did it because starting a nonprofit and starting all this was it was kind of challenging there's not like really clear guidelines on how to do it and everyone I talked to have been running nonprofits for years so they kind of forgot about the whole process so definitely made a few mistakes but it was it was easy to correct efforts and I think now it's more the challenges I'm a professional and recognizing myself as a professional because to me like you you guys are the professional. That's why I listen to your guys' podcast like I always want to learn so it's kind of odd when people are telling me that I'm the professional in this field trying to get that recognition it's kind of strange to me but the easiest probably is just how much like the community cares like I wasn't expecting how many members of the community would get involved and would care and follow like we just got a straight-dog after three months and over. 70 miles like it was probably my biggest challenge and just talking to the community and I mean it's just been the easiest transition like everyone's like yep go for it like it's definitely thought like more people would fight back about it so well you're doing good like that's the thing is like you're doing good work you're not out here scamming people or just trying to like fit in just to fit in like you're truly you can tell like your passion is here to help the animals and so that's going to shine through every time I guess the the question that I have like is how big is your scope like because in my brain in my in my brain I'm like oh she's like in this little town in Wisconsin which probably has like 65 people and like they probably have more cows than people truly like and so but that's just me being ignorant so I don't know Rachel like tell me like or tell our listeners like what is your scope how who do you normally work with and like how how big like if someone's listening in Chicago would you help them there or is that too far that kind of stuff yeah so we actually cover four counties in Wisconsin so quite a bit like a huge distance yeah we cover wallworth Jefferson Rock and Waukesha County so we don't go out towards like Milwaukee or Madison we know trappers in that area so we will always refer to an organization much closer like just out of respect for them and also like that's kind of their area they know that area will be better than we could but I'm actually from white water so we have a very high like college population here and his bandit population and so I'm definitely I'm in the city so there's definitely farmland around two but it's yeah but I didn't grow up in the middle nowhere so you said that you have a huge college population where I'm at as well I have that kind of what hasn't been like to to work in a population like that because I know for me it's slapped me in the face pretty hard when I moved up here to kind of deal with us having to be on the schedule of academia where it's like right now it's going to be summertime all the kids are gone slows down for us a lot but you know I'm not going to lie around this time we start getting there like hey I can't take my dog home that I adopted from you or another organization like we see a lot of those problems so what is it like for y'all actually we don't honestly we don't get a lot of college students usually it's the ones that like they've called me for they see a cat hit by a car and they don't know what to do or they found a kid's in that looks injured or they're seeing a cat on campus or they saw a dog run through campus so honestly in my experience like the college students are a huge asset because they have so many different social media channels and ways to get a hold of each other and spread the word and we just had a dog that was running around for seven days and kept going on campus and like I don't know if there's a single college student that didn't know about that dog so if anything they've just honestly been such an asset a lot of people here like to blame the college students for things like dompt animals dogs to departments and honestly that's just it's not been my experience and I've been doing this for six years so it's yeah that's that's good what's been your favorite tool so far to use oh my gosh we just got a new camera so I don't want to say it's a new camera yet but it's it's pretty close honestly I think it's honest all the Tomahawk traps the gravity traps you've just they've been a godsend to everything so especially the cat ones. Shots out Tomahawk. Yeah. And they they they do some really good work they really do they do they're awesome company. Do you do you find it's more cats that you're dealing with or like what's is it or is it just honestly whatever the day kind of brings. I think right now at least this year we're definitely more dog-oriented. We've helped over 150 animals so far this year which and we're a small group like there's only seven of us we just we do the best we can honestly so to me like that numbers like really low compared to what other numbers like people deal with before this I would say I would have said cats. Okay. Our biggest cat colony was over 120 cats so but that kind of that kind of skewed the numbers just a bit so. Geez that that's that's insane that's a huge colony overall. Yeah huge. What's the weirdest animal that you've gotten a call about? Probably a Quaker parrot. Wait what? Sir how long have you been in this industry and you don't know what a Quaker parrot is? How cute! They're like technically illegal to happen with sconson really? Yeah but there was like from what I understand and you know I could be saying stuff wrong because it's been a while but I believe like a population escaped in like Chicago area like a huge population. They like spread out and so and no one claimed the birds so we kind of just assumed like yeah he's part of the Chicago area. We just got lucky because I don't I don't do birds like that's not my I'll call someone else than with more experience but we got lucky because it was a little bit cold so he was on the ground and super easy to just throw something over him so. So he was not a Quaker parrot he was a quivering parrot. Yeah. How bad is that? Yeah that was bad bro. We see a lot of birds honestly like we see a lot of parakeets the first free brevies and microchip event that first year that we did it we actually microchipped him a call somebody brought their mical over to us and our vet was like yeah I know how to microchip this thing and he microchiped it and I was like all right but yeah we see a lot of birds we we actually do and they they usually go pretty quick compared to like other weird stuff that comes in like our small mammals never leave very quickly but our birds leave quick you know going back to aviation they have when they put those microchips and birds they have to do it exact center because of weight imbalance so if they biocosely put it to the left and the bird flies a little bit like this like a little leaned over that way or that way I'm sure that's not a thing but it'll be funny if it was it was interesting just on one this morning guys well I don't know what's going on the quaker okay so okay well we haven't I need people to know because they're probably like where do I go to check this out so journey home animal control dot com journey home animal control dot com you can also find them on Facebook and when you do when you do you're gonna get really excited because they're a little banner on their home screen you know what it says bishup it says helping people help animals oh yeah we love that here on keeping you made the park and I have gots in the idea from you guys it's wonderful no you should you should the more I think I stole it too so I mean the reality is that's what we're here to do do you I guess like do you get people that are upset like they call you and want you to do something and you're like look that's just not a thing that we are capable of doing like that walk us through some of situations like that and how you kind of navigate it so one of the things is so we don't have a facility where violence here based so you know I'm more than happy to do TNR and everything but there's some people who just want to say like come get the cats and like just dump them off somewhere so like we do a lot of education when that happens but recently actually I had a call about a bike quarantine um which I've never had in two years been called about this um and they wanted me to come get the dog like that night and they called it like 11 p.m. and there was multiple bite wounds on like the person and attack the cat like it was a very like awful thing to hear on the phone and know that I can't do anything to really like help um so whenever there's a situation where we're not they're equipped or we don't have the capabilities to do we refer them to the resources that can so in this case we refer them to non-emergency or emergency I didn't know how bad the you know bite wounds were and kind of walk them through like you know you need to take your cat to the ER vets give them a list of the ER vets in the area um let them actually I messaged the shelter right away to give them a heads up um just because I wasn't sure like again like what kind of situation this was um but I was very honest with the the owner and I was like that's not what we do like this we we don't have the facility for something like that um I have two kids under two so I I definitely can't be bringing a bite risk dog into my house yeah for sure so but yeah we we we try and be like honestly is the best policy we try and be very upfront and clear communication about what we can and can't do and then we always have like a list of resources to refer them to and sometimes like depending on the situation will follow up so in this case I actually called the ER vets that the cat was taken to and nature everything was going to be okay. So that's awesome. Awesome. What have you noticed? 'Cause I feel, you know, you said earlier that you're trying to bridge that gap, you know, like between vet med and, you know, animal welfare, which, you know, I feel like we still have a lot of work to do in that area. What was the craziest thing that you learned coming from the vet side about animal welfare, animal control, how municipalities work, that kind of thing? - Well, I kind of, it's kind of hard to explain 'cause I've been doing this for a few years, but only officially, like, went, you know, headfirst two years ago into this. So I already had, like, good relationships with the shelters and the rescues and building those relationships, continuing to build more relationships with other organizations. The shelter might is definitely very different in terms of a lot of things, but I think it's helped me a lot with being realistic and good with talking owners through things, being more compassionate, being more understanding of these struggles that sometimes people have financially to do things. And I definitely have a lot more respect for shelter med. Like, I wish I could do more, like, shelter work and like, going into, like, the SNP clinics and helping out, but I just, again, I have two kids under two, so it can get a little dicey with my timing, but. - I bet. - And I think a lot of it was communication issues too, on both sides, so. - Absolutely. - Yeah, one of the vets I worked with was very upset about shelters having SNP clinics, and there was a lot of grief about, you know, that's not their job, their job is to protect the community from animals and take in sprays. They shouldn't be providing veterinary services. So that was, it was an interesting conversation with him, like, he's an older school vet, so it was, we get a lot of that up here, where old school vets, it's like, it's just a cat. Like, we don't. So it's been interesting, for sure. So. - What do you think the biggest gaps are right now in the animal welfare industry? Like where, if you had imagined one, would it something, I guess, that you would waive at that with our industry, that you're seeing? - Honestly, if I could just make everyone educated, I would. (laughing) I can't talk enough about just what, you know, this is what shelters are experiencing, this is what fat clinics are experiencing. This is, you know, animal behavior, this is why animals are doing stuff like this. This is how we properly handle. This is why shelters have to euthanize or make the decision euthanize. Like, it's literally like every topic you could talk about with animal welfare. I feel like I turn blue in the face sometimes when I talk to some people who just, they don't understand at all. They just think that like, we're made of money and like we just wave a wand and like an animal's gonna be the best temperaments, you know, well trained dog ever or with a cat like we can just make them not barrel. Like that'd be nice. I wish we could, but I've worked with enough federal cats to have a respect for them. So I just, that's a lot of what we do is we do a lot of community education. So I'll go talk to people for like two, three hours if they need to, like they have so many questions for me. People don't understand like why better near prices are skyrocketing. And so it's, yeah. I don't know if that answers your question, but it's honestly just anything education, like just seeing what we go through and what we have to deal with and all the emotional side of things as well. - Absolutely, absolutely. - Absolutely, yeah, my boss. He was the lucky guy who got to take over animal services when the city decided to take over like 11 years ago. And he loaded a lot pretty quick and me, you know, but he's such a great stomping ground for me because a lot of times I get stuck in that emotional square and he pulls me out of it a lot. And, you know, it's hard to do when I've been, I'm going on 18 years, I think I'm going 10 years in the career I am right now where I'm at and the city I work for. And it's really hard to kind of get myself out of that box, you know, 'cause I'm just so used to it. Like we're just so emotionally charged all the time. It's really hard not to, especially with the direction I feel animal welfare is going in compared to when I started. So I completely get it, you know, education I think for us is one of the things that we really strive to get across and that people understand what it is that not only, you know, municipalities or contracted humane societies and rescue organizations, what it is we can and can't do. Like even beyond the scope of like, yeah, I would love to do X, Y, Z but a lot of times the law doesn't allow for it. Like, of course, I wouldn't love my dog outside when it's pouring rain or snowing, but, you know, the law here in Texas states as long as they have X, Y, Z, they're good. So I mean, it's just, it's hard to get that across people. And, you know, we're always the ones that get told, well, it's just 'cause you don't care. And I was like, well, I wish the courts would move fast enough. I mean, we're working on a big case right now. And I wish we could just move quickly enough to where we can see justice for some of the animals that we come across. Oh, absolutely. Reality. I'm really not. So have you ever met Ashley with contemplation or just, but I have talked to her like, I think months ago before I had my second kid, like, his enter a message and, 'cause I'm hoping to take the humane officer training. Just in case like a municipality does want to like contract with us, I'm, and I'm kind of like going back and forth on that too, because like we don't have a facility. I'd much rather they contract with like, you know, a shelter. But I definitely understand like some of the municipalities I work with, like there's a huge financial barrier. So at least then they would have someone who's trained and knows what they're doing and knows how to handle animals. So, but yeah, I did talk to her a few times. So. And so the humane trainings there in Wisconsin, specific for your state. Yes. And what's that look like for you? So it's about, it's so thankfully it's only an hour away from where I live. So I could drive there every day if needed. Like I don't have to rent a hotel room, but I want to say it was like a week. I can still sign up is just this year. I think things are going to be a little bit too chaotic for me to take the class. Just because again, like two kids under two, it's very hard to plan. Absolutely. Being away for a long time. So you don't need to be already employed, right? You can just be anyone who's interested in the, okay, that's cool. Correct. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So I actually met two of the humane officers for Rock County and they were also encouraging me to take the class just so you know, they had someone else nearby. But it would help build on to like the knowledge I currently have and give me more of a, like I'd have the certification. So I couldn't identify myself as a humane officer unless I was contracted. So. Which I'm fine with that, but at least I have the certification. Would you be able to do things like in a perfect world you could do both? You would have. Yeah. I think that'd be great because then you'd build the resources that you have currently in both, in both areas that you can apply, right? So they'd have to be pretty, pretty exceptional. Oh yeah. My husband would probably have a few words to say about it, but. He'd be like, Hey, we need you at home with the kiddos. Yeah. We'd be like, why is there like seven straight dogs all of a sudden? Welcome to animal control. Honestly, welcome to animal welfare. It just did general. We all bring home something at some point. I brought home the dog that we just trapped after three months and he just kind of looked at me and he's like, all right. Like. But. Oh, it's. Hey, no pickles. Pickles. What's that? Oh no, he's just running around like a banshee. Well, this has been great. I think like for our listeners to know that they're not alone. Like there's people out there that might have interest in doing something like this or even some of our listeners that are currently doing it. And I think that's the cool part is like knowing that you can just apply everything you need and just just give it a shot. Like there's there is a need for the help. Like that is definitely not a surprise to anyone. And so if you're in a community, whether large or small, like you can, you can do this. What advice would you have for somebody that's wanting to start something up like this? I would say that it would be really important to. Educate yourself beforehand to like on all the various topics and plan out what is most meaningful to you. So for. journey home when I was creating it. My whole goal is to help reunite pets with their owners. So, you know, I talk a lot about microchipping. We offer free microchipping. We talk a lot about, you know, trapping and how to prevent your pet from getting lost. We do a lot of T&R, so that's a huge focus for me, but we don't release every cat that we, you know, get, because I'm also, you know, educate yourself on like cat behavior and understanding the difference between like a feral and a stray, and then like how to present yourself to the community. I see a lot of organizations starting where they come in kind of like bold losers and they burn bridges before they're even built. Like it's and stuff like that is what gives animal welfare a bad name. Like you're not gonna, you're gonna catch more flies with honey than anything else. And it's, I never want someone to feel like they can't contact us for help because they're worried that they're gonna get judged or talk down to or scream bad or anything like that. So, if someone's gonna do this, it's, they have to have, you know, they have to be confident in their people skills. They have to be able to set boundaries because I, there's a lot of people who, I mean, it's a very emotional time when pets get out and people are doing everything they can, whether it's right or wrong, like chasing the dog, like we don't, we don't like that, but it's instinct. I mean, we don't chase dogs. You know, it doesn't get them back. That's how it works. Not always. Maybe if you're really lucky. And honestly, just like start, start talking at the organizations around. See like what works, what doesn't work. I don't think it's necessarily like we need more organizations. We just need more people who are knowledgeable and willing to help. I started journey home because there's no other organization in my area that does what we do. So, and that's again, like, so we don't have a foster or adoption program. Like that's not what our goal is, like our goal is to keep them, keep animals with their owners. So, amen. Absolutely. And it kind of leads me into, and if some of our listeners, they know about the animal welfare junction, which is a podcast hosted by Dr. G. And she just finished her whole thing on a, and I don't want to use similar because it's not fair because it's due. It was a piece of trash. But conceptually, yeah, I chose words. Conceptionally, it's like the same thought process, except he did it in a very mischievous self. What would you say? Self-promoting. He didn't do it for the animals at all. Yeah, and it ended up going to jail because in Bezileman, and they got my animal cruelty, like, they got them on a few different things. And it's just like he saw an opportunity to take advantage of people and he did. And I think that's what's so refreshing here in your story is, like that's not all what it's about. Like, you know, you have your hands full already with the two kiddos, and then you're still on top of that trying to help this community, which is so, so important. Absolutely. I definitely try my best. And I've told my husband so many times already, is the day I stop wanting to learn, the day I stop, or the day I start looking at everything with a pessimistic side or point of view, that's the day I leave the field. Like, every single person I talk to is different. They're going through different challenges. They're going through different financial issues. Like, it's you have to be in the field with an open mind because not every single person is the same. And I feel like a lot of the organizations that, again, when they come in and they just bulldoze over everything, they kind of have a negative mindset from the get go that, like, people are dumping animals, people are mean to animals, they're cruel. And it's been my experience that very few people are actually mean to animals. So, because usually I'm just like, hey, there's a lost dog, can I be in the property and I get permission? Like, people know that what we're doing is for everyone's benefit, including the animals. So, totally, absolutely. That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, this is great. I think the more that we can help each other in this aspect, the better that animal welfare will be for sure. I feel like, as a community, I feel like we're still continuing to kind of get our feet under us. And the more support that we can get, the better off that we're going to be long-term. And so, your program, you know, just being able to be there. I don't know. I would love to see more and more of this. Is there anything like you or like this, like in Texas for you, Bishop? Yes, but they're not as organized. You know, we have a local, you know, loss of found page who kind of does something very similar. And she's very, you know, in the community and things like that. She's help reunite dogs or trap dogs and things like that. But no, I don't think we have like an official 501c3 that does something like this. And I might be naive, you know, because again, I'm kind of in a smaller area of tech, Tejas. So, maybe one of the bigger cities may have something similar. I mean, I wouldn't call anything in Texas small, but I mean, I mean, you're not wrong, but I'm smaller compared to the cities that are to my northeast and west. Yeah. Well, Rachel, this is great. I think, you know, we really appreciate you taking the time. And I think like our listeners, is there anything they can do to help from afar? Like say, there's a listener in Florida or a listener in Texas or Pennsylvania or California, like what can they do to help support you? Oh boy, I'm really bad at like promoting myself, honestly, because like I genuinely just do this because I love doing this. I love my team. They could either, you know, follow the page, you know, like our page, see kind of what we're doing. See if it's something that could happen in their community and maybe start something up there. And more than happy, like we talk a lot about collaboration. So, you know, if someone is interested, like out of state in setting something up, I can absolutely give them the guidelines that I did. I mean, we do have donation links too, because, you know, we do have to buy traps and, you know, we have trail cameras and everything. But I, yes, yeah, we, our new cameras, it's amazing. It's cellular, but it's like an actual like, you can like go live with it. So you can actually see, I know it's so cool. We've used it like in the last three dogs now. So, but you know, just helping support what we do and encourage others to do the same. It's probably the biggest thing. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Great mantra. And yeah, like if again, I can't imagine what it was like to start a 501 C3. I've heard plenty of horror stories. You know, the bureaucracy of the paperwork that you have to get through. I'm sure it was a pain in the rear. But could it us to you in starting something like this in your area, you know, and hopefully maybe it's something that somebody can build on. Thank you. Yeah, we, we do our best for sure. So that's good. That's really good. Well, is there anything you would like like before we wrap up like our listeners to know just anything we can share. Make sure that they check out the website as, as again, that's journeyhomeanimalcontrol.com or Facebook. Are you on Instagram too? No, I'm really bad at keeping up with other socials, honestly. I had a tick-tock for a while and it's still there, but it's not, you know, I was trying to videotape like us trapping and us catching all these kids in my hands and them screaming their little heads off. But not that I can think of, I probably like would like to clarify like again, like we're not a contract as like facility, you know, we don't, we do this to help the rescues and shelters in the area. We try and be more boots on the ground. So because the shelter staff can't always leave when there's a stray animal. So like just, yeah, we do our best with what we can and we'd like to help people help animals basically. So what? We know that saying. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. Yeah, well, and thank you because like I know I'm new to the fields. Like I still have so much to learn like every time I go out in the field, I learn more. I learn more from you guys every single time I listen to a podcast, I'm usually like laughing a long or like shaking my head like yeah, like when they're done that. So we're glad we can reach people in our homes because yeah, sometimes it's, uh, it can be a little tough and we can be a little jaded, but that's why we have community. We have to rely on one another. Absolutely. Tell us, I guess, to wrap up. like, what is one unexpected story that happened after starting this? Like, what's something that you were like, holy moly or this is really, like, warms the soul, like, just, I think it'd be great for our listeners to hear that. Um, is it okay if I talk about the dog I just trapped? Absolutely. This is, yeah, please. Um, so Marv, so we named him Marv. We have no, like, we searched through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana posts for this dog, because he is our runner. The biggest surprise with him was the distance he would travel. He traveled 17 miles in eight hours. Oh, yeah. And I know it. That's why we were like, we have to expand our search. Like, this is insane. So we ended up, he would disappear for like two weeks and then pop up elsewhere and then disappear for two weeks and pop up elsewhere. So we got involved when he was in our area. No, no one else was on the case. Like, shelters had no idea about him. So we started following him. We got to trap out. He disappeared. That was the day he decided to run along the inner state, which was a little bit, you know, scary. And then he just disappeared. And then my biggest surprise was he showed up. Like, there was no reported sightings, like no one said anything. And then all of a sudden he was behind a mall in Racine, which is like near two highways. So extremely busy area. And then also in there he was. And then he disappeared again and we just got him on Thursday. He was spotted again in a landfill, but this time 25 miles away from where he was seen last. And just his story like and just having to keep up with him and figuring out what he was doing was such a challenge. And it was so rewarding to see him go into that trap. And then, you know, we were very worried about like he was out for three months. We have no idea who the owner is, no idea like anything about him. We don't know if he like escapes someone's house because he fits someone. He's the best dog ever, honestly. So how was he when you finally got, like got him out of it? Was it you specifically got him out of the trap? Yeah. So we moved him the individuals at the landfill. They were fantastic to work with. They helped move the trap and everything. So it was the six foot trap. So we got him into the closed area and he was kind of whining and coming up to us like he wasn't like showing any signs of like being fearful. So we just like slowly opened the trap and he came out and he was again, like he's just the sweetest dog. I've only had him three days now, but his only issue right now is the jumping, which is super easy to work with. But he doesn't seem like cat aggressive or dog aggressive. Maybe a little excited about seeing some kids. But I think that was more he wants to go play. But it's it was very rewarding that after three months of work and he crossed over six counties. Wow. So we like, you know, we had to talk to everyone and now what would it take for the owner to reclaim this dog? Um, a lot because I would have a lot of questions on why they didn't report him three months ago. Because our first known sighting was at the end of February. So like I have a lot of I would have a lot of questions on like why didn't you report him? Do you have photos? Ask him asking them like a specific questions about like his markings and everything. Because of course he's not fixed and he's not microchipped. So we were really hoping he was microchipped so we could like figure out where he came from. Honestly, my biggest question is I would want to know why. Always the big one. Yeah, it's usually, you know, when it comes to a stray like there's him in his impality, like we can easily work with them. They go to the shelter. It was he was a kind of a special case because like we were working on catching him for three months. That I was like, I don't want him to go directly into a shelter environment. So just because again, we had no idea what he was going to be like and it was definitely, I got way more emotional with this one than I did anyone or any other case. So but we've been lucky knock on wood like all the straights we've got have been super friendly. So even the German shepherds. That's good. And I mean, it takes that experience over time, right? You kind of learned different ways techniques methods and you didn't give up. I think that was really cool. Like to hear how far that dog truly traveled is the definition of, you know, journey home. I was pretty determined. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And he's imperfect health too. Like besides all the ticks, like he looks like he's been eating protein powder. Like for all his meals. He's like him. He's. Oh yeah. Yeah. He is there's a picture on if you haven't seen it, Dan. Oh yeah. On the face. Yeah. Somebody's been feeding this dog or he been getting some somewhere. He was eating in the landfill for two weeks. So he's like, this is great leftover baby diapers and. Right. We actually, we got him with quick trip chicken. So I don't know if you guys have ever been a quick trip, but like, I know like Wisconsin, like we're all crazy about quick trip, but there's a good reason for it. So that's our like go to when we're trapping dogs as we we grab a rotisserie chicken from there. Nice. So we get burnt ends from a barbecue place over here in Texas. Oh, I haven't thought about that. And here I am eating. We fry beans and busts with brussels. Brussels sprouts. That's all you Dan. I'll try that on the next like bunny and see like we, I can get a bunny with that. You might, you might be able to just tell him this is good vegan food. That's funny. Well, Rachel, thanks again so much for joining us. We really appreciate you listening and being a part of this podcast and the work that you, more importantly, the work that you're doing there in Wisconsin. I think your inspiration for others. Thank you. Keep that up. So as we like to say here on the podcast, let's continue to help people help animals. Yes. Keep it you may. Thank you.