Natalie Garcia on her way back to Los Angeles with a rescue dog.

BY CANDY PARKER
Lesbian.com

Natalie Garcia really loves animals. Sure, you say, don’t we all? But I mean Garcia really loves our four-legged, furry friends – so much so that she recently announced the launch of MaeDay, a labor of love in the form of a non-profit organization committed to helping the homeless animal population, generating awareness of the plight of stray animals and providing education regarding the importance of spaying/neutering animals. The organization focuses its efforts in La Ventana, Baja, Mexico, and Los Angeles, California.

While Garcia’s dream of creating MaeDay was just recently realized, she’s been actively involved in independent rescue efforts since 2010, re-homing, rescuing and networking hundreds of animals, a passion borne from the tragic loss of her beloved Maggie Mae.

Maggie Mae was lost after Garcia, who at the time was building her career as a TV and red carpet host, was involved in a rollover car accident. Both Maggie Mae, her companion of five years, and Pistache, a Mexican street dog she had been fostering, escaped before Garcia could pull herself from the wreckage. After a trip to the hospital, Garcia’s full focus turned to searching for the two lost pups.

With the aide of volunteers across Los Angeles and Orange County Pistache was found after five days, smelly and scared, but alive. Sadly, two days later Garcia’s beloved Maggie Mae was found, killed by a train. Garcia took the pain of losing her cherished Maggie Mae, the lessons learned from the week-long search and the insights gained from the healing process and decided to dedicate her life to animal rescue.

From 2010 to 2014, Garcia served as the Chief Animal Officer for Sweet travel, organizing volunteer opportunities, adoption events and spay/neuter clinics in Mexico for the eco-friendly travel company’s guests. Through these efforts, Garcia gained experience working alongside Mexican rescue organizations, finding homes for dozens of Mexican animals.

Garcia’s vision for MaeDay includes sponsoring animal education/awareness programs for children in Mexico, purchasing a large property for housing homeless dogs and cats and establishing biannual spay and neuter clinics in rural parts of Mexico.

Right now, Garcia is busy preparing for a MaeDay’s upcoming benefit photo shoot on June 28. For the event, MaeDay Rescue will pull 20 dogs from high-kill shelters in Los Angeles and photograph them with models and celebrities who have volunteered their support. Currently, Garcia is seeking support for the event in the form of donations, volunteers to assist with the logistics on June 28, a plane ticket to fly a model from New York City to Los Angeles, professional hair and make-up artists and fosters for the 20 dogs who’ll be featured in the photo shoot. For information on how to get involved, visit www.maedayrescue.com.

I was able to talk with Garcia shortly after MaeDay’s launch and learn more about her passion project, how people can get involved in their own communities and why it’s important to adopt rather than buy an animal.

MaeDay is focusing on rescue efforts in the Los Angeles, California, and La Ventana, Baja, Mexico, areas. Given that you’re based in Los Angeles, the connection there makes sense, but why did you choose to focus on the La Ventana area?

I have always had a soft spot for Mexican dogs, since Pistache was my first foster and she and I went through so much due to the accident. Her survival and strength has always inspired me to help her fellow “primos” or cousins in Mexico.

I met many animal rescue connections in the Cancun area through Sweet, but wanted to find somewhere in Mexico that was closer to Los Angeles and made more geographical sense. I met Olivia Withington at the Cozumel shelter a few years back, while volunteering with Sweet. She has since moved to La Ventana, Baja Sur, California to work for her family’s company. She and I have always hit it off and we have the same animal rescue ideas and goals.

Since La Ventana is only about a three hour commute, it made sense. It’s a very small fishing community, with a lot of poverty, which means a lot of animals that are in need. In the last few months Olivia has already done a lot to better the La Ventana community, but was in need of financial, networking and spay/neutering assistance. So we teamed up and MaeDay is raising money and putting together what I hope will be a mini Sweet-like trip where we will take over a small hotel, volunteer at the clinic, have entertainment, give back to a community and, of course, have fun!

We know you’ve been involved in rescue efforts for some time. Do you have a rescue story (or two) that really stand out to you, “favorites,” if you will?

That’s so hard to pick! Seeing sad animals turn into happy souls with healing and love is always a great story to me. But, when I was volunteering at a clinic in Cancun about year ago, there was a very skinny dog outside the clinic who was being scared away by a local with a stick. He could hardly stand, because he was so thin and weak. I had honestly never seen anything so emaciated.

We brought him in and were deciding if we should put him down, because it seemed too late for him. But, I saw a little gleam in his eye and we decided to try and save him. He was too weak to fly to Los Angeles with me, so he stayed at a Cancun rescue and was rehabilitated. MaeDay paid for his care until he was strong enough to fly to Los Angeles.

It took him about a month and he gained weight, became happy and was healthy! We got a donation for his flight and he was on his way. Once he was here, he was like a new dog! He got adopted on my block by a neighbor, so I get to see him every day! Seeing him go from almost dead on the streets of Mexico to living a healthy and happy life in Hollywood is so rewarding.

One of my personal foster dogs, I pulled from an adoption event I was volunteering for in Los Angeles. I networked the dog all afternoon at the adoption event and had someone who wanted her in Pennsylvania. So I took the dog home and was going to keep her a few days, while I organized her flight, etc. I didn’t feel a real connection with this dog, nor was she my “type.” Plus, she was mean – biting pant legs, tearing things up in my house and so on, but I was sending her to Pennsylvania in a few days, so I dealt with it.

In the meantime, I took her to the vet to get a check-up and a flying certificate and the vet found a grade 4 heart murmur. You could visibly see her chest moving with her over-working heart. That was when we realized she was so mean because she was in pain.

Since we couldn’t fly her to Pennsylvania with the heart murmur, we didn’t have many options. We obviously couldn’t take her back to the shelter (her condition is what we think got her in the shelter originally) so now we were stuck with a mean, biting, tearing up, money-draining dog that was going to cost us $3,000 to fix! So we did the right thing and raised some money, then paid the rest for the surgery.

Meanwhile we were still networking her to help her find a home. After she had a routine, the surgery and love, her whole personality changed. She became nice, loving and very grateful. After eight months of surgery after-care and unsuccessful home checks for potential adopters, we kept her. Ironically, she is now our smartest dog. (Don’t tell my others!) It was all meant to be and I believe she found us! It was really neat to see a dog change so much just with love and a stable environment.

We know people can help out by making donations at the MaeDay website – how else can they get involved?

They can get involved by fostering in the Los Angeles area or volunteering for one of our spay/neuter clinics in La Ventana, Mexico. Our next clinic is in mid-October, where people can volunteer at the clinic during the day, doing things like supporting animals as they wake up in recovery, brushing them, clipping nails, de-ticking and de-fleaing them. They’d also be weighing animals to help determine the proper dosing for anesthesia and medication.

When the clinic isn’t going on, we’ll be right on the ocean, which offers opportunities for stand up paddle boarding, kite boarding, canoeing, boating, kayaking, etc. All the food in the town is local. The fish is caught fresh daily and feeds the whole town, from locals to the restaurants. Not only does volunteering help with the La Ventana animal population, but it helps this impoverished community of 1,500 people, who otherwise can’t afford animal care. Check for clinic details on maedayrescue.com starting in June to get details on where to stay, house packages and the clinic schedule.

You can also get involved by escorting a pet or helping us find an escort. For example, if a pet has a home in Oklahoma, but it’s in Los Angeles and you know someone who is traveling from Los Angeles to Oklahoma, you could let us know. it’s all about the escorting animals and networking them. Sharing animal posts online is also a good way to help. Every share, gets that homeless animal seen! If you follow us on Facebook, you can see when we have escort opportunities.

For people who want to help with animal rescue efforts closer to home, what are the best ways for them to get involved?

They can help MaeDay as I mentioned above, but they can also look up a local rescue group and volunteer at an adoption event. Go to your local shelter (ideally high kill), take pictures of animals in need and share their picture. It’s hard for many people to go into the shelter environment, so if you can go in and get some pictures, it helps those people see the animals that are available and learn about their stories.

We all know that many people still prefer to get their pets from breeders or (yikes!!) pet stores. Can you tell our audience why they shouldn’t do that?

First, there’s a saying: “When you buy, a shelter animal will die.” It’s sad, but true. There are so many shelter animals that need homes, so buying an animal that isn’t even born yet and waiting for that specific puppy to be born from a breeder is taking a home away from a dog who is already here and hoping to be saved.

I get that people like a certain “look,” and think some dogs are cuter than others. But, there are always rescues that save those breeds. Plus, for me, I think it’s about the animal connection. I definitely think certain breeds are beautiful, but none of my dogs are those breeds. My dogs found me and it’s like a relationship, you better get along and like each other if you are going to spend the next 10-15+ years together! If we picked our girlfriends like some people picked dogs, it wouldn’t last. I think that one is cute, but I don’t know her personality or likes or if we even get along.

(Sorry, I ranted a bit.) But, if you really need to go to a breeder, make sure you are knowledgeable about the breed and that your lifestyle fits that dog. In my experience, all the rescue dogs I have saved or placed are extremely grateful and know they got a second chance. Since most are mutts, they are very smart and with the great mixes, you get to see their unique qualities.

As far as pet stores or puppy mills, most people don’t know that pet stores are puppy mills. They have a few female dogs that they over-breed to produce cute, cuddly puppies. The females are usually birthing so many puppies that they die, get really bad health problems, etc. The conditions of these facilities are usually not clean and there are many dogs in one small cage. Then the dogs are placed in a fancy window to seem adorable. Unfortunately, the misconception is that people think they are saving the puppies from this place, which, of course, they are, but they’re also supporting an industry that doesn’t really tend to the pets very well at all. If we don’t buy from them, eventually they will go out of business and all the remaining dogs will go to a rescue or shelter. Then the dogs will be saved. So please rescue, rescue, rescue!

Finally, if someone sees a pet on your site up for adoption, but isn’t close to Los Angeles or La Ventana, is there a process by which you can get that pet to them in, say, Boise, Idaho?

Yes, we can always transport animals. Ideally, the adopter would fly to Los Angeles and transport the animal home, but if that isn’t an option we can arrange a pet escort. It’s takes a village to find the perfect home.

Is there anything else we didn’t ask that you’d like to share with our audience?

​Just check out Maedayrescue.com. All the views are a plus and you can donate, spread the word or network animals via social media. Follow us on Instagram @maedayrescue, which is where I post animal-related pictures daily. Follow our MaeDay Rescue Facebook page and come to the October clinic. I will have more details to come!​

You can see some of the fabulous work being done by MaeDay Rescue and their supporters in these videos.

Bark for Baja and MaeDay Clinic — Part 1

Bark for Baja and MaeDay Clinic — Part 2

The post Dogs, cats rejoice: MaeDay to the rescue! first appeared on Lesbian.com.

I share my home with Shayne, Rio, Bandit (my mom’s dog), Panther, Monty and Jefferson — plus the occasional foster dog. It can be a bit much in terms of the number of critters that share the space but I am extremely fortunate that managing this bunch is actually pretty simple. There are many homes and situations with multiple pets/dogs that require different degrees of management to run smoothly.

When talking about multi-pet homes, there is no one-size-fits-all picture of what a home should look like. Depending on all the individuals involved, each house will look different. One is not any better than the other — they are just different and suited to each individual set of pets.

When there only the six resident animals are in my house, the level of management is pretty low. With the exception of one incident between Shayne and Panther a year ago (in a very specific circumstance that is strictly managed), there has not been a single scuffle, snark or concerning incident between anyone. There are very rare (once with Shayne and once with Rio) moments of yucky face resource-guarding over food items but it has never escalated beyond a snarly face and small growl.

When I am home, all the critters have access to one another. The dogs can all have resources together (though they go to separate areas on their own), they have access to toys/chews and they come and go as they please. The cats have wall shelves, cat towers, window perches and a gated off area so they can always get out of the way of the dogs if it gets rowdy. I manage the play level and don’t allow picking on anyone but it’s pretty harmonious.

Although they live completely peacefully when I’m home, I still have a very low-level management routine in place for when they are left unattended. Since they have never had any scuffles or issues, the dogs are left unattended together in a gated off section of the house. The cats have access to the dogs’ area but most of their favorite sleeping spots are outside of the area so they aren’t together too much when we are not home. Even though there have never been any indications of problems, there is still risk in leaving six animals together unattended. Given that there has never been so much as a serious disagreement between them the risk is low, but it still exists.

The risk for issues is drastically greater when there are foster (or new) dogs in play. These dogs are new to the mix and do change the dynamics of the group. All but one of my foster dogs were with me for more than three months–some as long as seven months. All of the dogs, except for Linus because of his separation anxiety, were left separated from the rest of the animals when they were unattended. There was too much risk of a fight happening with the unknown dog in the mix to leave dogs together (even if they had been with me for six months).

Anything can happen when dogs are left unattended — disputes over couch space, toys, beds or even just floor space can quickly escalate into a disastrous fight (remember these are predators who have powerful mouths full of sharp teeth). These things can happen even if there had never been a big issue seen when they were supervised. (The fact that the humans are home changes the dynamics.)

As previously mentioned, there are many homes that require a higher level of management to keep everyone safe and happy. Some homes only function on a strict separation protocol when left alone — all dogs are crated or securely separated from other dogs/cats in the home. Some homes may even have this type of separation protocol for when the dogs are simply unattended — if you are in the shower or in the garage/basement working, the animals are separated. There are some situations where only certain dogs must be completely separated but others can be left alone together. Perhaps it’s only a matter of separating the dogs and the cats when left alone.

It all will vary and depend on the individual dogs and the specific situations. I take into account the history of the dogs (any disagreements/scuffles/fights), how long they have been together, any known behavioral problems, size differences, breeds and general vibe in the house when I’m choosing what type of management is needed when dogs are left unattended.

Here are some situations and how I would personally manage them. (Others may handle the situations differently and each situation is individual and details not included in the snapshot of info might change things.)

A household with three adult dogs who have been with each other for years. One of the dogs has a history of resource guarding toys, trash or couch space. The guarding hasn’t result in serious injuries but there have been some physical disagreements.

I would not be leaving these three dogs alone in the house together. The risk of things escalating without me there to step in quickly would be a risk that I wasn’t willing to take. Since the dog who resource guards does so with a wide variety of resources, it’s not as simple as leaving them without food items. If there was a single dog who was resource guarding, I may crate or gate that dog separately and let the other two hang out, or I may separate all three. With three dogs in the house, when two dogs get into it, many other dogs would jump in on the melee and gang up on the weaker dog which can result in serious injury or death of a beloved pet.

A household with two dogs — one is a dog who was adopted/purchased a few months ago. After a rough several days immediately after adding the new dog (no injuries, just some posturing), the dogs have seemed fine together. No known issues of resource guarding.

I would not leave a newly adopted dog home alone together with the resident dog. It can take newly adopted/purchased dogs 2 – 4 months to fully settle into a home, let alone be trusted with the resident dog. Add to that concern the fact that it sounds like the initial introduction wasn’t necessarily ideal I would be even more cautious. (I would have suggested a two-week shut down for the newly adopted dog, instead of going right to meeting the resident dog.) I would make sure to have both dogs separated when I was not home to monitor interactions. Puppy Rio had been with me for about five or six months before being left alone with Shayne (with no history of any issues between the two).

Two dog household with adult dogs of similar size and two cats in the house. These dogs have lived together for years. While they are typically good together, they have a history of a few disagreements that resulted in some minor injuries — maybe a few minor lacerations to the face or maybe a torn ear needing stitches. Both dogs love the cats and there have been no problems between dog and cats.

Although they are fine together most of the time, the fact that there is a history of scuffles/fights that led to blood being drawn would lead me to make sure both dogs are separated from one another when left alone in the house. There is a good chance that the prior scuffles were quickly broken up when I stepped in — if I wasn’t there to step in who knows how fast they would escalate and what type of damage could be done. Since both dogs have shown no problems with the cats, I would be comfortable letting the cats roam as long as the dogs were separated.

A home with three dogs of varying ages. One of the dogs is either old, frail, deaf, blind, ill, injured or fearful/anxious/insecure. None of the dogs have a history of any concerning behaviors with another resident dog.

I would be separating the old, frail, deaf, blind, ill, injured or fearful (etc.) dog from the others (assuming the other two have no history of concerning behaviors, they would be left together). Dogs that are deaf or blind can have an exaggerated startle response that could lead to a fight in any number of situations–these responses can be totally out of the blue and contrary to the normal group vibe. Fearful, anxious, or insecure dogs can easily overreact to situations that don’t warrant a high response–another dog barks or growls in their sleep while dreaming and the fearful dog reacts defensively causing an issue. Dogs that are old, frail, ill or injured may be more defensive because they know they are not ‘well’ or they can be easy pickings for the other dogs if something were to spark a disagreement or spark an increase in arousal/stress level (door bell rings, car back-fires, thunder storm, etc).

The most important thing to remember is that there is risk involved when leaving animals alone together. The risk in some situations is pretty low but the risk in others is pretty high. Dogs are capable of seriously injuring or even killing other dogs/cats in the home–if things go wrong, they can go really wrong. It is extremely important that pet owners are making safe and educated decisions on the management protocol in the house. You have to set a management protocol for the dogs/cats that you have, not necessarily for a house full of perfect Lassies. I’d love to be able to give the dogs full run of the whole upstairs in my house, but the fact is I have two dogs who are food hounds that will extreme counter surf and open doors to get into things — so, because of their history they are gated into a few rooms that have no food in them.

It’s okay if a more strict management plan is needed to assure all the dogs/cats remain safe–it’s not a reflection of you as an owner or your dogs as animals.

Tena Parker M.S., has been working with dogs for over 10 years. She is the owner of Success Just Clicks Dog Training in Pittsburgh, PA, has a thriving daily dog blog online, is a member of the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), is a Certified APDT C.L.A.S.S Evaluator (and instructor), is a Certified AKC Canine Good Citizen and S.T.A.R. Puppy Evaluator, and is a Certified Mentor Trainer for Animal Behavior College. She also teaches popular dog training classes through Western Pennsylvania Humane Society’s Get Smart! Training School several days a week.

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