[mariah] hi, sweet pea! It's okay.
[tia] coming up on pit bulls and parolees...
It's okay, puppies.
What we saw was just horrible neglect.
They were all chained up, they had no water,
they were in the sun.
The smaller puppies were in a plastic tub.
They're so hungry.
It was a sad situation.
They were just left to fend for themselves.
[elyse] he's coming in hot!
[tia] former adopters saw deuces on our website.
Did you see his face? He turned his face.
[woman] deuces is a lot of dog. So, we are hoping
that there's a big love connection.
[screaming] no!
[lizzy] oh, look at the dog... Chained up.
This woman is unable to care for three dogs
and that's a lot.
She's been here since she was six weeks old.
[lizzy] I was not expecting what toney and I walked into.
[toney] hey, baby boy.
[barking]
my name is tia maria torres.
For more than 20 years, I've run a sanctuary
dedicated to second chances.
It's for over 300 pit bulls,
the world's most misunderstood breed of dog,
and for the parolees,
the guys I hire, because no one else will.
My family and I have devoted our lives
to saving these dogs we love so much.
From louisiana swamps to the streets of new orleans,
the city of second chances.
Our mission is to rescue,
but my hope is, one day, we won't have to.
Hi! Yeah! I actually-- I heard briefly
about you needing help with some dogs.
[woman speaking on phone]
oh, my god.
Okay.
We have somebody calling us
saying that they are unable to care for not just one dog,
but three dogs, and that's a lot.
And so, we did feel that there was a sense of urgency.
Are they inside dogs or outside dogs?
Are they inside or outside?
-Oh, they're outside dogs. -All right.
Okay. We'll come get them, just leave them
where they are for now.
No problem.
-[woman] all right, bye. -All right, bye.
This is a tough situation.
You know, this woman just lost her son
and toney is just wonderful with people,
he's very empathetic.
I thought that he would be the perfect person
to bring with me on this rescue.
I'm really curious how these dogs are going to react to us.
You know, like if they're gonna let us approach them or not.
-Yeah. -Or if they're gonna be a little bit aggressive.
Not that I would hold that against them if they were.
-Something really traumatic just happened to them so... -So they kind of like...
-I don't know how they're gonna react to us. -Definitely.
Going into a situation with three dogs
and knowing that the owner passed away,
you know, just a lot of potential for something wrong to happen.
[lizzy] the area that we're going to,
I've never been in before. So I really don't know what to expect.
I have no idea what it looks like.
[toney] it's right up there to the left.
-[lizzy] turn left? -Yeah.
[lizzy] oh, look at the dog... Chained up.
My initial reaction pulling up to sheila's house,
it just wasn't a safe situation for dogs to be living in.
[barking]
it's always a little alarming to see dogs tied up.
[toney] okay.
Hey, buddy!
[lizzy] these also were not sheila's dogs,
they were her son's dogs, and so, it seems that how to care for them
was sort of out of her hands,
and she is doing the right thing by reaching and asking for help.
[toney] the two dogs were chained up
in the front of the house and no perimeter fence in sight.
So, like, the dogs could just-- if they got off those chains,
they could run straight into the highway.
And, um, so that was an immediate, like, alarm.
You know, this wasn't a home at all
that we would've gave a dog to,
'cause it's not properly set up for that, you know?
-Hi, I'm lizzy. -[toney] good morning, sheila.
This is toney.
[toney] how are you doing?
[lizzy] so, I see one,
and then I saw one when we walked in.
[sheila] and then the other one, the male's in the cage.
[lizzy] on the other side. Okay.
Are they spayed and neutered?
Okay, none of them are altered. Okay.
What's that one's name down there?
-That's the female? -Yeah, that's the female, felony.
-Felony? -Mmm-hmm.
-And how old is she? -About five.
Is there anything you can tell me about her specifically?
She's real protective because of the yard and stuff.
-[lizzy] okay. -And me.
-[lizzy] and then what's, um... -This grey one?
Sassy.
How old is sassy?
About eight.
She's been here since she was six weeks old.
-That's her daughter. -That's her daughter?
Grandma, mom and child.
[lizzy] okay, okay, okay.
-What's felony's son's name? -Chip. He is 20 months.
[lizzy] okay.
Let's get the females put away.
We'll go in order, so we don't have to walk pass anybody.
[toney] uh-huh.
I'm going to have you put them up, because I don't think--
[sheila] I think it would be better.
[lizzy] they don't seem like they really want us...
It's so scary for these dogs to have strangers pull up
and approach them.
They're already leaving what they're familiar with,
and they don't know that we're going to try to give them something better.
They have no idea why we're there or what we're doing.
You just put this over her head and then just pull it down
-so it's tight around her neck so she can't get out of it. -Okay.
So, why make it any more traumatizing on these dogs
by toney and I approaching. There's just no reason for it.
[sheila] come on.
Come on. Come on.
All right. Now sit.
Oh, so yeah, she's really friendly with her, obviously.
[sheila] come on. Sit.
Okay.
[lizzy] I know dogs get chained up.
I know it's a fairly common thing, especially in the south.
But it's still always a little bit shocking
because we're not used to seeing our dogs, you know, on chains.
So, when she had to get pliers to take felony off of the chain,
I was a little bit upset by that.
Not with her, just at the situation.
It's just upsetting to see.
[sheila] all right. Come on.
Let's take a walk. Come on.
Come on. Come. Come.
Come, it's okay. It's okay.
Come on.
[lizzy] as soon as sheila was walking felony over
and she had her off that chain, felony completely changed.
She didn't seem aggressive in any way.
She actually seemed quite nervous
when she was approaching us,
and so that just kind of said to me all that barking she was doing
when she was tied up was all fear.
Hey, mama. It's okay, mama.
It was really sad actually, seeing her approach the way that she did
and with her ears back, and she looked scared.
It actually broke my heart.
You can just leave the leash on.
[sheila] come on, get in.
Come on, you're gonna be all right. You be good.
Okay? Stay there.
Stay.
-[lizzy] toney, you got the second leash? -Yeah. I got the second leash.
-All right, you want to get sassy? Grandma. -[sheila] okay.
This now...
[lizzy] okay, mama.
[sheila] come!
Come.
Come! Come.
[toney] hey, sassy!
[sheila] for being the oldest, she's the most active.
[toney] yes, ma'am.
Yeah, sassy a little...
Kind of coming... [laughs]
[sheila laughs] she's not gonna hurt ya.
[toney] ah, she all right. Hey, mama. You're okay.
This way, come on.
Come on, mama.
-[sheila] come on. -[lizzy] hi, mama. It's okay. You got some tail-wags?
Hi!
She was actually very friendly approaching us.
But what was really, really sad
is that she had been there the longest.
I mean, she's eight years old.
And she's been chained up her entire life.
So, to imagine these dogs in the extreme heat is awful,
but to also imagine them shivering
when the temperatures drop really low
in the middle of winter is pretty awful to think about.
You like treats? You like treats?
Oh, look at the little wiggle butt.
[grunts] oh! Come on, get in. Come on.
You got to get in. Come on.
You be good. You be good.
-[lizzy] okay, let's get chip. -[sheila] we go get him?
Okay. He is back here.
So, then, we start walking
and all I could think was where is this other dog?
[barking]
[lizzy] I'm looking for, like, another tree
that, you know, the third dog is going to be tied up to,
that's what I'm looking for.
[toney] oh, man.
[lizzy] I was not expecting what toney and I walked into.
Oh, wow.
[tia] I was actually on my way home
when I got a call from animal control
saying they needed my help with a situation
that they said only involved a couple of dogs.
One of them got loose and attacked a little girl.
It was just a big mess, nobody knew what dog did it.
So, the sheriff wanted all the dogs confiscated.
I thought it was best to have someone go with me.
So, I drove past mariah's and I picked her up.
You know, and I thought it was just going to be,
you know, pick up a couple of dogs,
bring them back to the sanctuary,
put them in kennels and it'd be over with.
We didn't have time to film at all.
We just got the dogs and came back.
Let's go out there and talk about this.
-[mariah] figure this out. -Yeah.
But what we got was not what we expected.
They were all chained up, they had no water,
they were in the sun.
[mariah] the other puppies were in a tub sitting out front.
[tia] it was a bad situation.
...Flavor it.
So, we got it figured out we're gonna put 'em in a mill.
[mariah] come here, my love.
[tia] it's okay. Come here, mama.
Give me one more. He can carry three.
[mariah] hey, little puppies.
There was a big blue bin
that had a bunch of tiny, tiny puppies in it.
They were like, they couldn't even really move.
[tia] it's okay, puppies.
You may have to put plywood in between here.
[mariah] sweet pupper.
So, loose mama dog under an abandoned house next door,
puppies, a bunch of them in a bin out front,
and then out back, I couldn't even tell how many were back there.
Wait. You're missing a puppy.
[tia] this is the only one that can stay out.
Once we got all of them in, we brought 15 dogs home.
They're ready for regular food. That's the problem.
-[mariah] I know. She's probably exhausted. -Yeah.
[man speaking]
yeah, we'll have to get like a puppy pan to separate
because these puppies are ready for regular food and they're just...
[mariah] she's gonna need to eat,
-but we're gonna have to do that in a little bit. -Yeah.
She's probably starving.
Yeah.
[mariah] the only nice thing about having little puppies like that
is it gives us just a tiny bit of time
before we have to figure out all of their kennels.
They can all be together for a second.
Look, puppy trays.
The puppies are a lot of work.
-More food. Here, here. -[woman] the little pointy ears...
-They're so hungry. -I know, it's sad.
-This is probably their first food. -It's okay.
[mariah] the puppies are old enough
where they should have been taken off the mama dog already.
Hey, stink butts, look.
Let's come over here and give mom a break for a minute.
She obviously isn't in great condition.
She's so sweet.
[woman] she's a good mama. 'cause these puppies don't look bad.
-[tia] yeah. -They look healthy.
She was a great mama dog and very, very, very sweet.
[woman] okay, let's go look at these bigger puppies,
and see...
[tia] we have this old camper trailer that we keep plugged in,
you know, air conditioned, the whole bit.
I think this would be good for them for the night.
So, we put the older puppies in there.
These are the bigger ones.
Okay, look. Look! Hey! What's this?
Good baby.
[tia] black dogs and black cats
do have a difficult time getting homes...
Hi, sweet pea. It's okay.
[tia] ...Just because they don't stand out
as much as maybe, like, a white dog
or a dog that has spots and coloration on it.
[mariah] okay. You want to come together?
I got it.
[tia] so, we already know
they're going to be difficult to adopt out.
All right, let's go get, uh...
Let's go get the outlaw.
We saved the most scared one for last.
[tia] I'll have her show you the video, hold on. Film.
The last one.
The other ones were just scared.
This puppy was trying to bite us.
[growling]
you're fine. I know.
Sorry, I'm not scared.
He was by himself, he was hiding underneath a chair.
-It's okay, it's okay. -Ah, not in your mouth.
[mariah] she was trying to get a leash on him and he was not having it,
trying to scream and bite, it was so sad.
He's skinny.
I feel like he's the skinniest one.
-They probably weren't-- -[tia] not socialized.
[woman] he acted like that with the adult-- with the people,
so they didn't feed him.
He seemed like he has seen some bad days.
The fact that he is too scared to even eat
is what makes me sad. 'cause look at how starving he is.
-[tia] I know. He's just scared. -It's all right, bud.
[woman] we'll come around.
[mariah] he's not an aggressive dog, you can tell.
All of it was out of fear.
This dog was just so terrified.
[overlapping chatter]
-he peed. You're okay. -It's okay. I got you, I got you.
-That they're so scared, they pee on themselves. -Come here, I got you.
[woman] yeah, he is definitely the littlest.
He was so scared that he would not eat a treat.
He wouldn't come near me. He was terrified.
Look at your new world!
[mariah] it's sad. He's so young
and he's so little, and he already feels that traumatized by people.
[tia] these two little here, they're all happy. They're all wagging...
Yeah, those two are already coming around.
[mariah] all of them already started wagging their tails a little bit,
like, that's pretty beautiful.
You ready? There you go.
[tia] we'll start with getting the fleas off of them, checking, you know,
the skin conditions that they have,
make sure it's not contagious or if it is, treat it.
Start treating them for parasites, shots,
which I'm sure they've never had.
[mariah] they might feel more comfortable
eating and drinking with us not staring at them.
And then getting them fed.
And giving them water. Just the basics.
That's the program right now.
[mariah sighs] all right.
We got to get the fleas off you.
I wanted to give them baths and get the fleas off.
You're okay.
Because with a puppy that small, it can actually die
if the fleas aren't taken care of.
Oh, look at you. Look at you.
Kids just turned him loose in the neighborhood.
-Good boy? -Super sweet. Yeah.
[earl] they was walking literally for five hours
trying to find somewhere for this dog to go.
[lizzy] where is this other dog?
I'm looking for, like, another tree
that the third dog was going to be tied up to.
-[toney] I gots the leash. -[sheila] okay. He's back here.
[toney] hey, baby boy.
It's okay, baby boy.
[sheila] what? What?
[toney] are you okay?
[lizzy] I was not expecting there to be this, like,
raised... I guess like kennel or a wooden box, um... With a dog in it.
That was really shocking and sad to see.
Come on. You want to come out?
Come on. Come on.
[toney] it's okay, baby boy.
[sheila] come here.
Come here!
Come here.
Uh-uh-uh,
don't you jump.
Come on.
-[lizzy] do you need help? -Nuh-uh, I got it.
I do it all the time.
[toney] you know, I done seen a lot, like, you know,
just growing up around these hoods and stuff,
and seeing the positions dogs be in and everything.
And it is like, this ain't right.
It wasn't right. I done seen
kennels that was raised for, like, puppies,
but I never saw that.
It reminded me of like a bird cage or something,
or, like, as if he was a prisoner.
And he'd been living in that situation
for like 20 months, and it was just like that [bleep] ain't right.
-[lizzy] hi! Hi! Oh, you're a little scared. -Say hi.
-It's okay. It's okay. -[toney] yeah, we got these masks on and [bleep], too.
[sheila] let's show him. Come on.
-[toney] it's okay, baby boy. We got faces. -Talk to 'em. Come on.
[clicking tongue] come on.
[toney] his whole body posture,
everything suggested to me that he barely came out of that thing.
[sheila] stop! You're gonna choke yourself.
[toney] you know, it's just very...
[voice shaking] he would be very sad.
-[sheila] come on. Come! Come. -[toney] come on, baby boy.
-Come! -[lizzy] it's okay, buddy.
Come! Get in.
-[groans] -[toney] I got your homies.
All right, get in.
Get in! Stop!
You got him? Need me to help you a little?
No, I got him. He's just being stubborn.
He's strong, he's very strong.
Come here, you be good.
Y'all are going to be okay.
You're gonna be okay.
You all be good.
-I appreciate it. -Yes, ma'am.
Thank you for giving us a call.
We'll take care of y'all.
-Thank you. -Yes, ma'am.
All right. Have a good day
and, again, sorry for everything.
[sobbing]
[mariah] all right. Just grab... Yeah, let's grab two.
Good, put them in the water.
Even though the younger puppies
that were with the mama dog were seeming to be pretty healthy,
they were really covered in fleas.
I know it's cold, babies.
I wanted to go ahead and give them baths anyways
and get the fleas off, because with a puppy that small,
they can get very anemic from the fleas
and they can actually die sometimes
if the fleas aren't taken care of.
We gotta get the fleas off you.
Yeah, they do have fleas everywhere.
Make sure you get underneath, too.
Get some of those fleas off.
You're okay. You're okay.
Let me just clean those things off.
Oh, look at you!
Poor babies.
So, tia and m1 wanted to name the mama dog delta dawn,
which is after a country song.
So, I decided it would be cute to name her puppies
after parts or pieces of a truck.
Okay, look at that little thing.
Some of the puppies' names are 4x4, overdrive, roof rack,
roll cage, tow bar, high beams, tailgate, lift kit and flatbed.
Hi! Hey!
It's okay.
My goodness.
You got the fluffy fur.
I'm sorry, I don't like doing your face,
but I got to get the little fleas off, guys.
Tag-teaming you guys. Yeah.
So that will do for now,
and then tomorrow, we'll do another one.
-It's a sad situation. -Yeah. It's okay, baby.
[lizzy] toney and I just rescued three dogs
from a pretty horrible situation.
Oh, you're a little scared. It's okay, it's okay.
The owner passed away suddenly and his mom was not able to care for these dogs.
It's so hard 'cause, like, I can see that she really loves them.
But they were not being cared for the way they were supposed to.
And, like, that dog living in that box right there, like, come on.
I think that there is a silver lining here,
that there is hope for these dogs
to have a much better life inside of a house.
The male dog is terrified.
-Yeah. -Because he lives in that box.
Like, it's not okay.
[toney] I was like, "oh, my god," when I saw that, man.
What happened to that little boy should have never happened.
He really don't seem like he know how to be a dog,
you know what I mean?
So that [bleep] kind of...
Pretty messed up, but...
[voice breaking] ...We got 'em now, you know.
I just kind of wonder if we're gonna be able to get 'em back right.
[lizzy] she did the right thing and, like, that's the best thing
she could have done was ask us for help and let us take them.
So I'm kind of anxious to go start trying to give him the attention he needs, but...
Just hope that we don't have to come to some sort of sad ending with him.
[lizzy] earl's gonna unlock the back gate.
And that way, they don't have to walk as far.
Toney and I are already decided from the beginning
that we're going to keep these dogs next to each other.
So, heidi and earl set up three kennels
in one of our quieter areas of the warehouse to set these three dogs up.
So, this one is the one that was, like, the most spicy,
but she was scared.
She's being a little more friendly now that she's away from there.
[earl] you're okay, mama.
[lizzy] this one was friendly the whole time.
Hi, sassy.
And he's terrified, and that's the box--
this is the one that lived in the box,
and this is sassy girl.
-Sassy. -[lizzy] sassy, this is grandma.
Granny. She's a sweet girl.
Felony's son is the one we probably have to carry back.
These ones... Will walk.
Let's start with sassy.
-[earl] all right. -[lizzy] hi, sassy girl.
You're just like a little cute girl.
I want to say hi to everybody.
Hi, earl. Oh, my god.
You're so cute.
Hi!
Are you happy, girl?
It's okay, mama. It's okay. I know it's scary.
I know, I know.
It is a relief to know that she's safe from the weather,
safe from the possibility of getting loose from her chain
and getting hit by a car.
This is better for her and I think that,
in some crazy way, she knows that.
It's okay. Oh, you're giving tail-wags?
Are you giving the tail-wags?
-Good girl. -[toney] good job, baby. Good girl.
[lizzy] we knew we were going to be able to walk grandma, sass and felony
back to their kennels with no problem.
Come on, baby.
That was obvious to us with just the way that they approached us
when we were at the van.
Come on! Come on. It's okay, come on. Good.
[toney] good girl, mama.
It's all right, my baby.
[lizzy] she's definitely more friendly,
like, away from there.
I mean, I'm not surprised, she was just chained to a tree.
When we rescued these three dogs,
chip was the most terrified.
[barking]
and it would be really difficult
to get chip to walk past barking dogs and into his kennel.
So, we decided to carry chip in the crate back into his kennel.
Big chip.
[earl] big chip.
All right, big chipper.
[toney] good job, baby boy.
It's okay.
See how he stays squatting down?
Look how he's squatting down, son.
-[lizzy] it's okay, baby. -[toney] it's okay, chip.
It's okay, baby boy.
When he came out, he wasn't a bad boy,
you know, he just was scared as hell.
Kind of like real low to the ground in nature.
I just wanna be able to start, like, getting him comfortable,
and that he starts to get that confidence he needs
to, like, let us do what we need to do for him, you know?
It's okay, baby boy. You're going to be all right, okay?
As far as like safety, the cleanliness,
this is like an upgrade in comparison to how they've been living.
All right, chip baby, we're gonna let y'all relax a little, okay?
Let my baby relax.
You're going to be all right.
[lizzy] we're going to let these three dogs get settled in
and we'll see about doing some medical with them
as soon as they feel more comfortable.
-At least they're being friendly. -[toney] yeah, they did good.
[lizzy] even with him being as scared as he is,
he's not being aggressive. So that's good.
So I guess we'll give them a few days to settle in
and then you can do their medical and let us know.
I'm sure they're heartworm positive.
All right, thanks for your help.
-You, guys, want to see him? -[woman] yes.
[tia] it's a matter of seeing how he is
through virtual means.
-[elyse] he is coming in hot! -No!
With the covid pandemic hitting us, you know,
it did create a backlog of dogs
because we couldn't travel,
we couldn't take dogs to go anywhere, nobody could leave.
You know, so it was tough for a while,
but things are starting to ease up and look better.
[mariah] okay, which one of you wants to sit in the puppy pen?
You wanna take this one and come with me?
-[tia] come on, tindo. -Here you go.
[tia] you know, our pennsylvania prison dog program,
like all of our prison dog programs,
are, when I say lifesavers,
I'm not even slightly exaggerating.
Without them, I don't know what we would have done.
This is cavalier, this is fancy.
And just hold her tight 'cause she's pretty wild.
[tia] they take in anywhere from 20 to 25 dogs
from us once a month.
You're a new handler, right? She's all yours.
The dogs are then assigned to an inmate handler,
they get trained
and it makes them more adoptable.
Then they actively look for new homes.
-[man] that's the yard. -[woman] this whole thing here. Fully fenced.
[tia] we need a dog yard like this.
So, for the prisons to ease up again and start allowing dogs
to come back in is like a huge weight off our shoulders.
It's okay, puppies.
[mariah] there you go.
We have black lab mixes that we rescued recently.
Look, hey. What's this?
[tia] we're actually thinking of sending some of the puppies
to the pennsylvania prison dog program,
but they need to get a little older.
This is very different from how we typically do things.
We're gonna have a good time together, okay?
[tia] in addition to our prison dog transfer programs,
we have found other ways to get our dogs, you know,
into homes during these crazy times.
-This is moo cow. -Oh, my gosh!
[lizzy] this is my son, he is like our kid-tester.
So, you can see how they interact with kids.
[tia] right now, lizzy is probably working harder
than she's ever worked in her life
trying to get these dogs homes.
So, it's a lot of stress, but she's getting it done.
[tia] what's up?
So, I want to talk to you about, um, kalista's adopters.
-Do you remember maria? -Mmm-hmm. Totally.
Many years ago, a former adopter
and former california volunteer, maria,
had adopted a dog we had named kalista.
-Kalista just recently passed away. -Right. Yeah, I knew that.
Which is crazy, I would have-- I mean,
she must have lived a long time.
'cause she was already a senior when they got her.
We had her such a long time, yeah.
[tia] maria kept her until the day kalista passed on,
you know, from old age,
and maria and her family have been very,
like, super hardcore villalobos supporters.
So, they want deuces.
-Aw. I rescued deuces! -Oh!
When I heard they wanted deuces,
my heart went pitter-patter.
[lizzy] was he from new orleans or california?
No, he's from-- when, um, hurricane isaac came in.
And it flooded the entire area that I lived in.
I was coming down highway 22 on the other side of the river,
-it was just about dark, water was like this deep. -Uh-huh.
And I was going through the water,
and my headlights hit something.
-And there he was swimming through the water. -Oh, my god!
So he wasn't like freaked out or anything, I'm like, "oh, my god, get in,"
and he just hopped in the jeep.
That's why he's named deuces. 2-2, highway 22.
To this day, he's always been the same dog,
happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy.
Yeah. He hasn't changed a bit.
So, he is got to be like ten-ish.
That's actually crazy,
-because he does not look like a senior. -I know and he doesn't act it.
But he hasn't had any attention.
Like, there has been no adoption applications for him.
[lizzy] he's great. He's amazing,
and he's come a long way.
Like, he had some issues in the very beginning, just with some anxiety,
but he's, like, he's fine now.
[tia] maria and art saw deuces on our website
and have been interested in him ever since.
She was just like, "no, we just want him, we don't care,
-like, what the situation is." -he's a fun dog.
There is sense of relief when former adopters
want another dog,
because we've done the home check, we know they're wonderful.
-And I'll just keep you posted on the progress. -Okay. Yeah. That's great.
Lizzy is doing the virtual meet-and-greets now
because of the whole covid thing.
So, it's a matter of them, you know, seeing how he is through virtual means
and seeing if they feel his personality
and energy level's gonna go with their lifestyle.
[fawn speaking]
[earl] oh, yeah? They just turned him loose?
Yeah, they said they didn't want him anymore.
A couple of ladies walking up with this dog...
We have two dogs at home.
Otherwise, we would have took him in, but there's no way.
We called a bunch of other places, and they said
-they weren't taking dogs-- -is he a good boy?
-They weren't taking pit bulls. -He's sweet, yeah.
[ali] he was super nice to our other dog, as well. Yeah. He's awesome.
[earl] they was walking their dog and this guy run up.
Try to find the owner, or post him on facebook and things like that.
How long y'all had him? Like...
-[fawn] like five hours. -Couple hours?
-Yeah. Probably-- we got him at like 11:00. -[ali] couple hours.
-Well, he think he belong to y'all now. -Yeah.
[ali] I know. I know.
We've been walking all day with this guy.
Walking all day with this guy trying to get somewhere.
They say they were walking, literally, for five hours,
trying to find somewhere for this dog to go.
I want to take him and bring him in,
put him back there, so... We could, um...
Mix the catfish?
...Save his life.
-Yeah. -He deserves a second chance.
-[fawn] he deserves it. -[earl] second chances!
I would say these young ladies
is the true definition of a good samaritan.
These young ladies, they decided to do the right thing,
because they couldn't keep him.
But they just didn't want him running the streets.
So, you know, I give them a big thumbs up for that.
Well, we appreciate y'all bringing him this way, you know.
Thank you. No, we appreciate you guys, like.
Respect.
-We'll take care. We'll take care. -You be a good boy!
All right, later, dude!
-Awesome, guys. Thank you so much. -All right, y'all. Thank you!
-Yep, bye. -[ali] bye.
[earl] come on!
I am very, very, very happy villalobos took him
and I know he is in good hands here.
He's a sweet baby boy,
-and they're going to find a good home for him. -Yeah.
[woman] all right, let me just scan him.
Let's scan. Let's scan.
[earl] we recently had a dog dropped off to us.
What y'all got going on right here?
They said he was a sweet boy, and, lo and behold, he really was.
-Nothing? -No.
-Wow, that figures. -What a surprise.
You know, we always like to look them over,
uh, just with the naked eye and see what we see.
-He is clean? -He has-- he has an ear infection.
Oh, all right.
This guy had a lot of, like, bumps, like, all over his body.
He was in some ants. He was an outside dog
and just getting bit by things.
It's, like, a little round...
Look at him. Oh, oh.
-It has fleas. -That's what it is?
Yeah.
I'll give him some flea meds right now. Yeah, he has fleas.
So maybe that's all that is.
[earl] good sit!
Ooh, look how pretty!
He was a good boy.
He knew some basic commands
and you could tell somebody did spend time with him
to teach him a couple of things.
Well, all in all, he was a good dog.
[heidi] all right, I'm just going to clean those ears
and put some medicine in there.
It's okay.
Normally, I wouldn't, like, do all of this,
like, day one, but he seems, like, pretty...
Pretty...
Mentally stable.
[earl] dirty ear, boy!
Look at what you have in there.
All done.
Well, she going to make sure you stay healthy.
You want your cookies, now?
Oh. We're, like, dead to him after that.
Cookie? Uh-oh.
I know.
You mad with her?
Yeah. Yeah, you're mad with her.
Because this here was your first day.
And you had to experience that.
I'm sorry.
[earl] oh, he mad with you.
Next thing, we need to get him in the back,
get him settled,
and we try to put him somewhere quiet,
so he can kind of settle down
and, you know, get into groove of things.
All right, my boy, you'll go to the good part.
We're not going to give up on anybody trying to come get him,
but as of right now,
we are going to take care of him like he belongs to us.
See what's going on with him, and we'll go from there.
I'm telling you, you're going next to a triple og.
All right?
[tia] it can be a little difficult getting a senior dog a home.
You know, a lot of them have medical issues,
and some people don't want to deal with that.
Sometimes it's just not the right situation for the dog.
But lately we've had some good luck.
We probably still have about ten senior dogs
that we brought over from california with us
that are still waiting for a home.
And little rocky was one of those dogs.
Little rocky, he's a special one for us,
because he was actually a dog that we rescued
as an older pup in new orleans
before we ever thought about living there.
[gasps]
oh, my god.
[tia] yeah.
[woman] oh, man!
[tia] I got an email about this little pit bull puppy
basically thrown out on the street like trash.
Oh, man. She wants me to come and help her with him.
And here is rocky.
-[tia] oh, you guys went so quiet. -[lizzy] oh, hi!
[tia] he went back to california with us,
and then lo and behold, we ended up deciding to move,
and he came back to new orleans with us.
[tia] gosh. How old is he now?
When I first started here as a dog walker, he was in my room.
So-- and I started seven years ago. So he's gotta be what?
We've been here since 2011. So, he is over ten years old, then.
Has to be.
[lizzy] rocky has such a great personality.
Even though he is considered a senior dog at this point,
he really hasn't slowed down.
He looks really good, though.
He just has a great spirit and he hasn't given up hope.
We have some dogs that wait here a while
and become seniors here and you can kind of see
a sadness in their eyes, and rocky doesn't have that.
He has always just had a happy attitude
about being here with us
and that's why he's so special to us.
-So, heidi... -Hi.
Heidi took him to the vet
because his lymph nodes were swollen
and then called me
and let me know that he actually has lymphoma.
-Oh. So... -Yeah.
It's so not fair.
[tia] he looks really good, though.
Like, he hasn't even had a chance to be in a home.
That's what makes it suck, like, the worst.
This dog, who's never been noticed
as far as getting a home
or getting an application on him,
now he's a senior and now he has cancer.
It's a sad situation for this dog to be in,
and it's just unfair. It's just not fair.
So, now what?
So, I guess we just have to figure out
some kind of, like, treatment plan.
[lizzy] lymphoma can be a really scary diagnosis,
especially for a senior dog.
With any types of cancer, there is different stages
and depending on whether or not it's spread,
it can just be really scary
not knowing how far advanced it is.
Let me see. You got the little gray face.
You got little gray face.
My biggest fear with rocky being diagnosed with lymphoma
is that it'll take time off of his life,
and he doesn't have a lot of time to spare.
He is already a senior dog and I'm just terrified
that this is the end of the road for him.
[tia] man.
[tia] we realize that doing virtual meet-and-greets
is not the most ideal situation.
You know, the adopter can't meet the dog one-on-one
and vice versa.
But, with all the restrictions,
it's just, right now, the safest way to do it
and still keep moving forward.
Hi, guys.
Good. How are you, guys, doing?
[lizzy] today, I am doing a virtual meet-and-greet
with maria and her family, so they can see deuces.
Deuces got his pictures on the website
and he doesn't really get a lot of applications on him.
He just gets passed up on like many of our other dogs
that we sit and wonder, you know,
why we just haven't had anybody come along
who has felt like he was the dog for them?
So, it's pretty sweet that maria and her family
feel so strongly about him specifically.
All right. So, you know, you guys are past adopters,
um...
But it's been a while.
How long ago was it that I brought kalista to you guys?
Okay, yeah.
My name is maria and I'm from california.
I started volunteering with villalobos
when they were in california.
I used to walk the dogs with my daughter
and sometimes my husband and son would join me.
Kalista became part of our lives
and she was the best thing that ever happened to us.
[art] she was the perfect dog at the right time for me.
I was dealing with an issue with my mom passing away.
And so, kalista was a sense of comfort for us.
I loved her with all my heart.
So, when she got sick, you know, it was very hard.
[maria] she was diagnosed with an enlarged heart.
She had a mass on her spleen
and she also had a deteriorating spine.
It was, you know, coming towards the end...
She started slowing down a lot more.
[art] we called a doctor
and then he came to the house, held her...
It was her time. And she passed with us.
[maria] we were able to give her the life
that she deserved.
She was, you know, loved and she loved us so much.
And rescuing a senior dog
was probably one of the greatest gifts that we could have ever had.
So, we knew we wanted to do that again.
Tell us just about your lifestyle.
Has anything changed in your lives since kalista
that would make things different for the next dog?
Yeah. I'm sure. I know she had a big presence.
So, what's life like for you guys right now?
[lizzy] okay.
Okay.
Okay. All right, cool.
Is there anything specific you want to be able to do
with this next dog
that you guys weren't able to do with kalista?
Okay.
[maria] we found out about deuce through the website
and I immediately fell in love.
I showed my daughter and she was just like,
"oh, my gosh, we have to get him."
[art] on the pictures, they really show him running around and jumping,
and I knew that...
That was the complete opposite of what we had with kalista.
And I know that my daughter and my son, both,
as much as they tried to play with kalista,
it was on her terms only.
And so, we liked his energy.
I know we've been talking a lot about deuces,
and he can definitely run.
He definitely still has good energy.
Like it's shocking that he is a little bit of an older dog
just because he is in such great shape.
He looks like he's like three.
Deuces definitely still has the stamina
to be able to go running.
He doesn't have any health issues,
his body is still in really great shape.
So, he would probably make a great running partner.
All right. You guys wanna see him?
Okay, all right.
Elyse! Bring the deu!
Deu! Come on!
Deu, deu.
He's taking elyse for a walk.
-Deu. -[elyse] he's coming in hot!
-He's coming in hot! -[lizzy] I can't hold it.
-Coming in hot! -Hi, deu!
You have to actually get in the camera.
Say hi!
[elyse] hi, maria.
[lizzy] say hi, I know this is weird.
He's really hyper.
He's got energy.
Are you guys ready for that?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Yeah, it's gonna be completely different from kalista.
When we met him, we saw that personality
just pop right out of the screen and, oh, my gosh.
He was like bouncing all around
and he was just so full of life
and it was what we needed.
We like to go for walks around the park a lot,
and hopefully, we'll get to take him to the beach.
So, we are looking to be a little bit more active
with deuces.
Oh, my gosh.
-Did you see his face? He turned his face. -[maria speaking]
deuces, look at your tongue.
I definitely felt a connection when I saw him.
[aaron] seeing deuces for the first time
was very enjoyable.
I love him, I already love him.
[art] deuces, based on the energy,
you could just tell he was perfect for us.
I think you guys are gonna love him.
I think you're gonna have a fun time with him.
I knew that this family already really loved deuces,
but after seeing their reaction to him today,
I know that he's definitely the dog for them.
I can tell they are just so excited
and they really enjoyed seeing him.
They thought that everything he was doing
was just adorable, and it was.
So, I think that after this virtual meet-and-greet,
deuces is on his way to his forever home.
All right, guys.
Yes. We'll keep you posted on his progress
at elyse's house and she'll definitely give you updates.
All right. Well, it was so nice to see you guys again.
And we look forward to bringing deuces to you.
All right. Bye, guys.
Bye!
Aw!
[elyse] ow.
Deuces!
[both] no!
[elyse speaking]
oh, [bleep], deuces.
[both laughing]
maria's husband, he wants to be able
to take deuces running.
Oh, hold up, liz.
[lizzy] I thought it was a good idea to have earl
do the jog testing with me and deuces.
Good boy, deuce! Keep up, deuce. All right!
Come on, earl.
Whoo! I'm about to pass out.
[lizzy laughing]
come on, come on, come on!
The pups are doing well.
Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness.
They have really come a long way.
You were trying to eat me.
Like, huge, huge weight taken off of us.
Good job, bud!
[mariah] they're over here?
They're in the back, on the side.
Okay.
Hi! Hi!
[lizzy] oh, look at the dog... Chained up.
[mariah] toney and lizzy rescued three dogs
from a terrible situation.
Sassy is the white and blue one.
[sheila] yeah.
That's felony.
[lizzy] what's felony's son's name?
Chip.
The owner had passed away and the dogs were not living
in good conditions at all,
and it was traumatizing for them.
Uh-uh-uh, don't you jump.
-Hello! Hi! -[earl] come on, chip.
[mariah] we wanted to give the dogs
a few days to settle in
before we started doing their medical.
Hi! Hello!
Today, felony seemed a lot more nervous
than the other two.
So, we wanted to give her a little bit more time
before doing her medical.
Come here.
[earl] come on.
So, we decided to do chip and grandma sassy's medical first.
Come on out. Come on, buddy.
-Come here, mama. -[earl] she need him.
-[mariah] dude, she can't-- her breathing is bad. -The way she breathing.
I know. I'm curious to see if she has heartworms
and that's part of it.
-[mariah] weren't they by the water? -[earl] yeah.
[heidi] like deep down south.
[mariah] she does not seem very healthy.
[earl] don't look like they had a lot of
human contact.
You know. They was real nervous.
So, it was a sad situation to see
but everybody gon' step up
and give them the love and care they need.
[mariah] come here!
Yeah, obviously they-- you are really silly-looking.
It's cute.
Come here, sweety.
I know, your breathing.
Yes, she needs to be fully checked out.
Grandma sass already looked like she had a lot going on.
You can see her breathing was so difficult,
and most of the time, in louisiana, it's heartworms.
Especially at her age.
On top of it, she's underweight.
She definitely needed some serious love
and she needs some medical attention.
Good girl. Yay!
-[earl] all right, all right. -It's okay. It's okay.
[mariah] you want me to use her and see if he'll come over?
-Come on. -Hang on.
[mariah] it's okay, buddy.
[earl] it didn't surprise me chip was real nervous.
From what I understand,
this guy was, like, living in a box.
But we had his support system, which was sassy.
It's okay.
[heidi] uh, sass is positive.
She is? [bleep].
Go figure.
[heidi] depending on what she needs done,
that my complicate it a little bit.
[mariah] with senior dogs, any sort of medical issues
get a lot more complicated to try and navigate.
[heidi] hi, chippie.
[mariah] all right, buddy.
Chip could probably get through heartworm and push through it.
But her, on the other hand, it's so concerning,
because we don't know that her heart will be able
to handle anything.
[heidi] oh, he's positive, too.
[mariah] oh, they both-- so, I'm sure felony has...
[heidi] yeah. Or not.
[mariah] they were by the water, like...
[earl] felony wasn't ready just yet,
but we only assumed that she was gonna be heartworm positive, too,
because all of them was outside dogs.
You know, so, they was in the elements.
They getting bit by ants, mosquitoes...
All right, well, let's go put them back.
We also have lots of work to do.
The next step for grandma sass and chip
is to start treating their heartworm
and, hopefully, get their bodies healthy.
Come on.
Ooh, I smelled that fart, woman.
[tia] I think the dogs that we've had
for such a long time
are the ones that get to us the most.
[lizzy] no, rock. Come on.
Good boy.
[tia] lil' rocky, he's a special one for us.
We've been here since 2011.
So, he's over ten years old, then.
Um... He actually has lymphoma.
Oh. So...
-Yeah. -[tia] it's so not fair.
Like, he hasn't even had a chance to be in a home.
[lizzy] after a month of steroids,
it is time to check in with dr. Samantha
and see if rocky's lymph node has shrunk at all.
-Hi. -Lil' rocky!
I am feeling a little anxious. This determines his course
of treatment and what we're able to do for him.
I just really want him to have a chance at getting a home.
All right, re-checking lil' rocky today.
[lizzy] mmm-hmm.
[dr. Samantha] so, lil' rocky was initially brought in
for a swelling under his jaw.
When he first came in, it was this big swelling.
I thought it was going to be a tumor.
So, we got the diagnosis of him for the t-zone lymphoma.
We got a sample of it and, basically,
we found out that it was lymphoma
or a cancerous process inside of the lymph node.
So, I'm gonna feel the lymph node today
-and see if it shrank down. -Mmm-hmm.
[lizzy] lil' rocky has been with us a long time
and to think that now he may have to go through
an aggressive cancer treatment is really difficult to digest.
I'm hoping that the steroids have worked enough
that we can rule out more extreme treatment options.
Oh, wow, it's majorly shrunk.
Oh, wow.
It was maybe six to seven times larger.
[dr. Samantha] the type of lymphoma he has
carries a much better prognosis
than the vast majority of lymphomas in dogs.
So, like, years, rather than a regular lymphoma,
we're talking weeks to months.
So, he is one of the lucky ones in that sense.
You know? We could talk about going in surgically,
and assuming his blood looks good,
and just pulling that node out.
And just taking it out of the equation
since it shrunk up so much.
You know, he'd have an incision about like this.
[lizzy] got it.
It is such a localized form of lymphoma,
whereas generally, lymphoma's throughout the body.
All right, buddy.
So, we'll get the blood work back tomorrow.
If it looks good, you know, let's set him up for surgery.
Okay. That sounds great.
The fact that he doesn't have to go through
aggressive treatment like chemo is such a relief.
Bye, buddy!
[lizzy] you know, sometimes the chemo itself
can make a dog sicker than the cancer.
-[dr. Samantha] bye! -[lizzy] bye!
So, surgery is the best-case scenario.
[lizzy] maria's husband, he's a runner,
and, uh, he wants to be able to take deuces running.
I can see it.
[lizzy] maria and art were volunteers in california.
They had adopted kalista from us and they saw deuces
on the website and really wanted to meet him.
-Did you see his face? He turned his face. -[maria speaking]
earl, do you need to stretch?
See, toney is really like the athletic guy.
So, that'd be a nice...
-[lizzy] little project for him? -For him.
Him and him only.
[lizzy] we walk our dogs regularly,
but we don't necessarily run with them.
So, we are going to do this testing to determine
if deuces would make a great running partner or not.
All right. Now, first,
you make sure you pick your legs up kind of high.
-Yeah. Pick your knees... -Oh, do you--
-yeah. -You need help putting that on?
Yeah, definitely.
He had a sweatband. He was ready.
I'm going to loosen up right quick--
no, no, no. Let's just run down to that stop sign and then back.
Like that-- oh, hold up, liz.
That's like a serious block right here.
That's nothing. Come on.
[earl] what we want to do is run with deuces
and I'ma do a few things to try to distract him,
like cross in front of him or pick up the pace.
-Hold up. -All right, let's go.
-Hold up, hold up, hold up. -Come on,
you're trying to stall. Let's go, deuces is ready.
I'm ready.
It's so easy for these guys to get distracted.
So, we need deuces to know the task at hand
and stay focused on what miss maria and art need him to do.
Ready? Go.
So, you think the jogs are gonna be jogging like this?
-Oh, he just gonna be all-- -oh, look. He's good at it.
[earl grunting]
[lizzy] I mean, he's running a little bit ahead, but it's not bad.
Good boy! All right.
Come on, earl.
[earl] he ready for some more.
Good boy, deuce!
Deuces.
Oh, good, you're not distracting him that much.
Good boy. Good boy.
[earl] he ain't paying no attention to me.
I crossed in front of his face a couple of times.
Deuce, keep up, deuce.
I yelled his name a few times.
I even picked up the speed a little bit,
the little speed I had left.
Come on, deu. Come on, deu.
Good.
You know what's good, too,
is that he doesn't, like, cross to the other side.
-[earl] he's got a good-- -now he's going to do it,
-just 'cause I said it. -Just 'cause you said.
[lizzy] but he wasn't before. Good boy!
[earl panting] whoo!
[lizzy] deuces actually did really well
and I could see him being great at it
and actually really enjoying it.
[earl] good boy, deu.
[lizzy] do you think he passed?
I think he had a good pace.
-He could totally do it. -I think it'd be better if he'd wear a harness.
Yeah, he can wear a harness. But he's good.
He'll be able to run with him for sure.
He has the energy for it,
and even though he's an older dog,
he definitely is in good health and able to do it.
[earl] good boy, deuce. Good boy.
[lizzy] as far as, you know, like, effort goes,
earl did a really, really great job.
But as far as who's the better runner,
I would say deuces.
-He passed. You passed. -[earl] you passed, bro, but--
did you pass?
Yeah, I'm about to pass out.
I really couldn't take another lap.
Deuces thinks he's going into retirement, but he's not.
He's going to be a runner.
Deuces has not met this family in person yet.
So, we are hoping that during the home check,
that there is a big love connection.
Should we get him a sweatband?
Definitely.
I'll send him with this one.
Are you ready to retire it?
[earl] this is my last one of these.
[chuckles]
[tia] we recently rescued 15 dogs total.
A mother and a litter of nine puppies,
which are doing great.
Hi, sweet pea. It's okay.
[tia] but it was the remaining older puppies
that are the bigger concern
because of their temperament and behavior.
-[snarls] -[gasps] ooh. Oop, oop, oop.
Pretty unsocial.
-[mariah] come on out to me. Come on, mister. -Okay. And there you have it.
Hi, babies!
Y'all ready?
-Come on, come on, come on. -[tia] hi, guys! Come on.
Let's go.
[mariah sweetly] come on, come on, come on.
Hi, guys. Oh, hi. Oh, hi. Oh, my goodness.
Look, look, look.
You were trying to eat me. You were trying to eat me.
[mariah] aren't they so much better?
[tia] oh, my god, yes.
When I brought 15 dogs to the sanctuary,
m2 kept saying, "what are we going to do
with all these dogs?"
no. No acorns.
And then we get an email from amy,
with our pennsylvania prison dog partner program,
that the restrictions have lifted up some,
and they are opening back up.
That, that's their thing. They like to be in your lap.
Like, huge, huge weight, um, taken off of us.
[mariah] oh, my goodness!
[tia laughing]
[mariah] okay. Okay.
They have really come a long way.
Oh, my goodness.
[mariah] they get really excited to see
the people that they know.
They're still a little cautious of new people,
but they warm up really quickly,
which was a huge change from when we first got them in.
This is the one that's heartworm positive.
-Oh, man. -All the other ones are negative.
Hi, stapleton.
So, he goes in to get neutered tomorrow
and she, wayward, the lover in your lap,
-goes in to get spayed. -Okay.
And then, that's pirelli.
Kanani named her after a bike tire.
That's underwood.
Guys, guys, guys!
And then, the one in your lap is hayes, after hunter hayes.
-Aw, we like hunter hayes. He's from breaux bridge. -Yes.
[tia] mariah was so proud of them.
You know, and she's the one spending
all the time with them.
Puppies on their own are a lot of work,
and then you have completely unsocial ones.
Kudos to her for really putting in
all the extra work that they need.
Come here, buddy.
-[mariah] staples. -Come on. Come on.
Go say hi, stapes.
Hi. How are you?
Good boy. Look at you do that.
Good boy. Oh, he loves giving kisses.
So, he is actually like the biggest lover
-once he gets used to you. -Right.
[tia] stapleton is still a little shy,
but, boy, just coming around,
trying his hardest to be brave.
Good for him.
[mariah] so, we're doing a lot better.
And they're like-- they're lapdogs.
They want to be in someone's lap.
[tia] the pups are doing well.
They are getting more socialized.
And now that they've made such a huge improvement,
we can start getting them ready to go
to pennsylvania,
to our prison dog program there.
-And, so, they're used to guy and tori and kanani now. -Oh, good.
So, all of them can take care of-- them now.
One of the puppies did turn up heartworm positive,
which sucks.
So, we are going to go ahead and get the other ones spayed,
neutered, and as soon as their medical is completed,
the puppies will be going on transport to pennsylvania.
Come on, pup-pups.
[mariah] underwood, come here.
-[tia] come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. -Come here.
-Good job. -[mariah] good girl.
How are you guys doing?
We saw a post of a family missing their dog,
and lo and behold...
-[bo] is that king? King! -[karen] king!
[bo] what's up, boy?
Coming out!
When felony was rescued,
we didn't think she was gonna do too good.
The first couple of days,
she wouldn't even come out of her home.
So, we are taking baby steps with her
and I go see her every day, you know.
So, she did come out her shell.
[toney] how you feeling today?
[earl] she gotta get that blood work today.
[toney] you gon' be ready for that?
[earl] oh, lord.
We know why you here.
[earl] after giving felony two, three extra days
to kind of adjust,
she's ready to do her medical work today.
I'm pretty.
[earl] let's do it.
Does she eat all of her kibbles?
Yeah, but you really got to put it in her house.
If you don't put it in her house,
she just knocks it over.
Be the little tough girl we know you is.
[earl and heidi groan]
[heidi] tough skin, tough skin. Good girl.
[toney] you see how tough that tail look.
[heidi] all right, and then blood.
This is easier than-- chip was so terrified of me.
All right.
He wouldn't move away.
So, it was like a little nightmare.
[earl] good girl. All right.
I just need a drop, princess.
[toney] you're all right, mama.
Okay, hold her.
It's okay.
You're okay, baby girl.
See how easy that was?
[singsong] it's over!
[earl] she done well, real well.
It was real surprising to heidi.
Me, myself, I had a little more confidence in her that she'll do well.
So, how will you know it's positive?
So, if there's a line that shows up there,
that means she's heartworm positive.
Oh, there ain't no line.
So, no line yet, but I can kind of see--
I don't know. We'll see. We'll see.
She-- I mean, there's no way.
If chip's positive and sass is positive,
I will be astounded.
[earl] well, you about to be whatever the word
you just said.
-"astounded." if she's negative. -[mocking] "astounded."
-yeah, it's positive, see? -Positive.
Been living outside all her life.
[tia] heartworm disease kills.
It comes from the bite of a mosquito
and where you have an environment and a climate
that are humid and hot,
you're going to have mosquitos.
And, hello, we're in louisiana, you know?
We very rarely have taken a dog
that's heartworm negative.
Glad we got that baby. I'm glad we went in there.
We don't adopt our dogs out until they're heartworm-free.
It's just our policy.
So, when we bring a dog in that's heartworm positive,
they can be with us from anywhere
from minimum of three to four months up to a year.
[earl] she's doing so much better.
[toney] oh, yeah, she's doing great.
[earl] it makes me feel good
to like really get that trust out of this dog,
compared to where she come from.
Just being chained up for so long,
I don't think she had a lot of people interaction.
-This is a beautiful photograph, earl. -This is how you take
a picture with a dog named felony.
Take a-- man, come on, man! Her name felony.
Earl, you gotta look tougher, man. Come on!
I can't, bro.
I can't do all that, bro.
[earl] but for the most part, she's coming around
and hopefully, we could work her enough
that she's able to be adopted to a family
that's going to take care of this dog,
'cause she's a good little dog.
That's good.
[mariah] all right. Ready?
-Hi! How are y'all doing? -[earl] what up, what up?
One of our employees was on social media
and saw a post of a family missing their dog.
What y'all got going on right here?
[fawn speaking]
they said they didn't want him anymore.
What happened?
So, uh, Friday morning, he got out.
The house that we just got--
-oh, you guys just moved. -We just moved.
-So, that's really common. -[karen] yeah.
We thought we had the fence
pretty much secured for the yard,
but he found a hole.
There was a hole there. There was some chicken wire,
you know what I'm saying...
Yeah, you guys just moved,
-and dogs don't know that's their spot yet. -Yeah.
-[karen] we were out at four o'clock in the morning... -Like, "where's king at?"
...Looking for this dog.
Well, you guys know what to fix now.
Yeah, we got it-- it's fixed now. So, we-- we're good.
[mariah] good. No, it makes me happy.
I've learned over the years not to pass judgement
because most of the time there is a reason for things,
and our biggest thing is
if an owner loses their dog,
that they are putting an effort
to try and find their dog.
The only thing we had like that for a gps was, uh...
-A tile. We had it on his collar. -We have a tile on his collar.
[karen] but we had just given him a bath.
Oh! Everything was not lined up.
It was good he did fall in the hands of some good dog people.
-Yeah, exactly. -You know what I'm saying?
Like, he being so friendly,
anybody could take him...
That's what I was worried about, yeah.
And you guys should get him microchipped,
'cause there is times--
even my dogs, their collars come off.
Having that tile, obviously keep it on,
because if someone sees him, whatever.
But microchip is the only thing you're not gonna lose
if something were to ever happen.
[earl] a microchip is a forever id for a dog.
It's as small as a grain of rice.
It goes right under his skin, between his shoulder blades.
Once you scan him, the information will come up,
where this dog was chipped at and who's this dog's owners.
-I am very glad that we were able to get him back to you. -We're glad, too.
The best thing to do is get your dog microchipped
just in case.
You'd rather be safe than sorry.
Do you miss your dog?
You're ready to have him back?
[mariah laughing]
do you want to get him, while...
-Yeah, I'll go get him. -This won't take long at all.
[earl] they told me his name is king,
and I really give them thumbs up for not giving up
and just saying, "he gone."
[karen] hi, baby!
-[bo] is that king? King! -[karen] king!
King! King!
[bo] what's up, boy?
What's up, baby!
Yeah, y'all! Where's that stuff?
Where's that stuff at? Where's that stuff at?
[mariah] seeing a dog's reaction like that,
you know it's their family.
Where have you been? Where have you been?
He can't even contain himself.
If y'all need anything, don't be shy, guys.
I'm glad you guys are getting him back.
If you need some help, come see us.
[mariah] someone's excited.
[earl] you know, real excited. Mama!
[mariah laughs] it's always the mom.
[earl] where y'all been at?
[mariah laughing]
there you go.
We was just as happy to give them their dog back
as they was to get the dog.
Congratulations. Got your baby back.
Bye! I hope I never have to see you again, okay?
[earl] you gotta love him.
[mariah] I mean that in the nicest way.
Getting to have days like this at work is...
What makes everything better.
And only will we have another kennel open back up,
but this dog is going back to his family,
which is a beautiful thing.
I can't imagine how they're feeling right now
and the excitement that they're feeling.
Bye!
Okay. Okay, okay.
Lil' rocky is one of our senior dogs,
who was recently diagnosed with cancer,
and today he is having surgery to remove some of it.
Okay, baby.
Good!
Good boy.
That was a--
right on the mouth, rocky.
Planted one on me.
I was relieved to take him to the vet
because I felt like this surgery
was something that was going to give him
more time if it was successful.
I'm just relieved
that surgery is an option for rocky.
With the current situation and covid right now,
things at the vet are pretty different.
We're only able to just drop off dogs in the parking lot.
It's going to be okay, buddy.
We're going to get you taken care of.
It's going to be okay, bud.
I hope everything goes well with rocky
and I look forward to picking him up once he's done.
[woman] come on, baby.
Come on!
You wanna say hi. That's too bad.
[tia] today, we have 25 dogs
going to our pennsylvania prison dog program.
She's probably got hound in her.
She's our little escape artist.
So, we're gonna really work doors with her.
[tia] we've worked, gosh, for a while now
with amy and her husband through the dogs program.
Do you see how pushy she is?
Yeah, you gotta-- well, yeah.
She doesn't mean harm, but it gets irritating
with the other dogs.
The dogs are brought into the prisons
and they live with the inmates in their cells
and they train them and get them ready for adoption.
I know, you guys are hot, I know. It's okay.
So, we have a group of 25 dogs that are ready.
I have these two.
These are delta dawn's puppies, right?
Yes, they are.
And out of those, 13 are from the rescue
we did of the 15 dogs.
[mariah] that is lift kit, tailgate...
Ooh, I like these names.
Um, overdrive, 4x4.
[mariah laughing] those names are good.
[tia] it was a sad situation
where these puppies came from, you know?
They were just all tied up outside, no shelter.
They couldn't even get to water.
Oh, are you scared?
[tia] these pups were filled with parasites,
covered in fleas, malnourished.
I mean, just a horrible neglect.
Hi, babies!
Come here, staples.
Come here, magic boy!
My big brave boy.
[tia] hi, guys! You're gonna go to a really pretty place.
It was a very unfair situation.
[mariah] look at you, guys.
They should follow.
Now, seeing how well they're doing with just the employees
of villalobos, with getting used to the leash.
Just getting healthy again.
It just goes to show you with just a little bit,
a little bit of love and compassion and patience,
just makes a whole bunch of difference.
We're all going bye-bye!
[tia] but, thankfully, it all worked out
and the puppies are going to go off
to a much better situation.
[mariah] she's not gonna freak out by herself?
No, she's-- she's like the most confident out of all of them.
-[mariah] she is? Okay, good. -[tia] and the area
near pennsylvania,
we've been told this by a lot of people up there,
love lap dogs.
All right. Hayes will go in that one...
[tia] so, we are pretty excited
that this is where they're gonna be going.
All right, hayes.
My babies. Bye, my big boy. You be brave, okay?
[mariah] oh, my-- look at him, he looks so cute and comfy.
I know I love him.
[tia] all right, guys.
[mariah] if I had to think of anywhere
I would want a puppy to go,
I would rather a puppy go to the prison.
They need constant attention
and, of course, we give it to them,
but if they can all be someone's priority
and get that extra time,
then, hopefully, they will all grow into wonderful dogs.
[tia] have fun in pennsylvania!
Have fun in pennsylvania!
Bye, pirell.
[tia] I can sit here and say that I hope these puppies
get homes, but I know they're going to get homes.
The dogs prison program has a really great success rate.
So, it's only going to be a matter of time.
-All right, guys. Have fun! -Thank you!
May the force be with you with all those puppies!
[tia] once they go through their little training
and get some obedience on them
and get more socialized...
Poof!
They'll be off to their new homes.
No, I just told tim-- I said, "puppies are gonna have fun.
Tim, not so much."
[laughing]
[lizzy] this is mallory. She is six years old.
Mallory came to us as a stray puppy
and she was skin and bones.
We have had her for about six years now.
That's a good girl. Are you excited?
She is one of the happiest dogs that we have.
Mallory must be the only dog in a home
and she can be shy.
So, older kids would be best.
If you're interested in adopting mallory
or donating to villalobos,
please visit animalplanet.Com/pitbulls.
[lizzy] the vet that we use
has several different locations
and has some different restrictions
due to the pandemic.
So, I wasn't able to go in when I dropped off rocky.
But luckily, I was able to pick him up
from one of their other locations.
-Okay. -[lizzy] oh, look at that.
[dr. Samantha] so, he did really well, actually.
The nodes had really shrunk down.
So, I was able to dissect out
all the lymph nodes in that chain, on that side.
Honestly, he does have some swelling
-and some bruising here. -Aw...
And it is a little tender for him
okay.
I'm gonna have you all do anti-inflammatories
and antibiotics,
and then also have you guys ice this area
a little bit, too.
Just to bring down that swelling.
Swelling is expected from any surgery around the neck,
essentially.
So, what does this mean now
that you were able to go and get some of that out?
Basically, what it means is that, um, we've probably
extended his life with the surgery.
-Okay, cool. -So, less likely
for, you know, the cancer to reoccur in that area.
He is in remission at this stage.
That's awesome.
I'm really happy with how everything's gone so far.
I mean, he has responded really well to the treatment.
Everything saying, we're looking at years,
really, of life to go for him.
[lizzy] hi!
With cancer, you don't always know
which way it's gonna go,
and it's not often that you get good news about it.
So, this is the best-case scenario,
and I just felt so relieved
that this isn't the end of the road for rocky
and that there's still plenty of time for him to get a home.
Kirby, what's it gotten into you?
[woman] come here, baby.
-[mariah] come on, buddy! -[earl] deuce, good boy.
I'm done taking him.
Every dog got their day, and your day is here.
[mariah] after eight or nine long years
of deuces being with us,
today is the day that he finally gets
to leave villalobos and go on the opposite side
of the country for his potential home in california.
All right, come on!
[earl] good boy, deuce!
Say hi!
[mariah] what makes this adoption even more special
is that maria was actually a volunteer
when villalobos was in southern california.
Not only that, she is a previous adopter.
So, this whole thing's special.
Come here, honey bunny. I know it's hot.
Come on, baby! Good boy.
She's potentially adopting a dog
that is really special to us,
and is really deserving of finally having his own home.
Just the thought of a dog being at the rescue
for nine years is heartbreaking,
and he didn't let it break him.
He is still just the sweetest, like, happiest dog.
Are you ready, honey bunny?
Having someone that has such a connection
with the rescue already adopting him
makes it that much more special.
You guys want to meet him?
-Yes. -Yeah!
Finally face-to-face.
Are you ready, bubba?
I'm a little bit nervous whether or not
deuces may be comfortable with us or not.
-All right. -Oh, here he comes.
[lizzy] hi, rocky.
Rocky had a pretty large mass on his neck.
It's amazing that rocky was able to get treated
for this cancer as quickly as he was,
and that everything worked out so well.
Rocky, come, rocky.
Rocky can be a little bit stubborn sometimes.
Oh, your breath is rancid.
Oh, big mistake.
Oh, my god.
That's rancid. It's rancid.
He won't go in.
So, him kind of putting on the brakes
and refusing to go inside wasn't really anything to do
with his surgery or, you know, pain level.
This is part of rocky's personality.
Rocky!
He does like to be encouraged the whole way, I think.
Come on, rocky!
Rocky!
-Oh, do I have to do this the whole way? -Yeah.
Sometimes it takes a little bit of extra coaxing
to get rocky to do what you want him to.
Encouragement, rocky.
Let's go to your bedroom.
Now that we have gotten rocky,
we're going to let him rest and recover,
and as soon as he is ready,
we will start searching for a home again.
Rocky!
My rock boy.
[mariah] oh, this is so cute.
Today we are in california doing deuce's home check.
So, I'm hoping that the whole family
has that connection in person as they did virtually.
Deucey, you ready?
Because these are previous adopters
and they actually adopted
a really special dog from us years ago named kalista,
the only reason we do these home checks again
with previous adopters is just to make sure
that there is nothing that has popped up
that we need to work on them with.
-Hi, guys! How are you? -Hi!
I sorry I can't hug you right now.
-[art] how are you doing? -How are you?
Good. How are you doing?
I'm doing well. Are you guys excited?
-Oh, yeah. -Yeah.
Waiting for deuces to get here
just brought me back to childhood,
waiting for santa claus to come.
We've been impatiently waiting,
but it's given us time to get ready for him
and we bought him new leashes,
collars, dog bowls, all of that stuff, a new bed.
[mariah] this is so cool!
These two made it.
-Did you really? -Yeah.
[art] once we found out that deuces
was going to be our next addition to the family,
we started prepping right away.
And with the help of my son, we built deuces a crate.
[mariah] this is amazing.
It just latches? That's so cool.
He is really good in his crate,
so that's a mansion for him.
Their house is already set up for a dog.
This is triple the size that deuces is used to.
So, he has a mansion inside of his own house.
Why don't we go outside?
I'm gonna check the yard first
and then we'll sit down and talk. Since we can't do it inside.
Oh, my gosh. That's a good one.
-I'm gonna check the fence and then we can sit down. -Okay.
Okay.
Okay, so, with this gate,
will you guys put a clip on it for me, though?
-Yeah, we have a lock. -You have one?
Well, I'm saying if you wanna-- when it locks,
put a clip on it, 'cause he's a tall dog.
Just so that you don't have a chance
of anything happening. I normally use a carabiner.
It's cheap. Get it at the dollar store and stick it through there.
Okay.
The fence looks great, though.
It's there a gate back here also?
[art] no, this was kalista's dog run.
Easy.
You guys got this stuff handled.
The backyard is beyond what I could have asked for him.
The fence is extremely secure.
They have the whole bottom of the wood fence lined up against,
so he can't even try and push out the bottom.
So, everything looks perfect for him.
Had him for eight years.
That's a long time for a dog to be in a kennel
waiting to find a home.
It probably feels weird not having a dog, huh?
Oh, really.
We didn't have a dog for so long and then we had kalista,
-and it was just like... -She was a special one.
-It was meant to be. -Yeah.
Losing her was so weird because it was like
we could still hear, like, the sounds of her crate,
you know, creaking.
It was not same not hearing her snore, none of that.
-It was just... -It was too quiet.
And we still walk every night at the same time
that we would walk her, and we still take her leash
-or her collar with us. -Oh, you guys, stop!
So, we're still going to continue that
when we-- when deuces goes with us.
[maria] I am really excited.
I can't wait to meet him finally face-to-face.
Nose-to-nose.
[laughs]
we're just ready to have him in our home.
-He was so easy on this trip. -Aw.
He's a lackadaisy dude,
but he'll still run around.
He's confident and I like it.
Having a dog that's been with us for that long...
-And then hearing that he finally got a home... -Mmm-hmm.
Well, you guys want to meet him?
-Yes. -All right.
I'm gonna go get him. I'll bring him through the gate
and then we can just shut it after.
I am a little bit nervous whether or not
deuces may be comfortable with us or not.
Watch him come running around the corner.
I know.
Just 'cause with kalista, it took her a little bit of time.
You ready, bubba?
[art] but I know that once deuces gets here,
he's going to be welcomed
and I believe he will know that this is his home, too.
-He is gonna come to me first. -No!
No.
I think he is going to come to alli.
[alli] now that we're finally getting deuces,
I'm really excited
'cause we are finally gonna have a dog in our house.
It won't be as quiet anymore.
Are you ready?
-What if he jumps on-- like, jumps in your... -[mariah] come here, baby.
Oh, here he comes.
All right.
-[mariah] come here, baby. -Oh, here he comes.
[maria] oh, my goodness.
Hi!
Oh, my goodness.
Hi! Oh, love you!
[art] I was a little bit nervous,
but when deuces came around the corner,
everything just turned to happiness.
It was really exciting.
Hi, lovey.
[alli giggling]
hi.
He's so chill right now.
Just see him in person, it was-- it was exciting.
I mean, he was such a sweetheart.
A total sweetheart.
[mariah] going from eight years in a kennel
to this is, I'm sure, a little...
A little much for any dog or person.
[maria] what do you think of your new brother?
[aaron] I was very happy.
I'm glad he has a home now, instead of, you know...
Being in a kennel. Now he has an actual home, has a family.
What do you guys think?
-You like him? -Yes.
Keeper?
[mariah] you guys have a dog again.
[art] yeah.
[maria] deuces life here,
I think is going to be a huge improvement.
He's gonna be able to run free here in the backyard.
He's going to have, you know, a home that loves him.
He is going to be able to, you know,
live out the best of his years here.
[mariah] you wanna go see your home?
[maria] ready? Wanna come in?
Come. Go on, go on.
Come on! Come inside.
What is all this, dude?
[aaron] he's exploring.
Wanna go in?
[mariah] what is that?
You got a mansion.
And all these friggin' led lights in there.
It's nicer than my bedroom, buddy.
[maria] you like your new bed?
[art] when deuces noticed his crate,
I was kind of nervous. I was, like,
"oh, is he gonna like it? Is he not gonna like it?"
but once he was in there, we were like, "oh, yeah,
he is comfortable in there."
[maria] even that sound we missed.
[everyone laughing]
having another dog back in the house again
after months of not having kalista around,
hearing those sounds once again...
That was a fun sound to hear.
Well, that was easy. So, I think I can say bye.
-All right. Thank you! -Thank you so much.
Let me know if you guys need anything.
-Congratulations. -[maria] thank you!
-[art] thank you. -I want all the pictures.
We'll send them to you, definitely.
[maria laughing]
-bye, guys! Thank you. -Bye! Thank you!
[mariah] this family has already proven that they love
our old gray faces and dogs that people tend to look over.
So, leaving deuces here, I know that he finally
has, not only his own family, but a family
that is already a part of the villalobos family.
Now that deuces is here, it's a new chapter.
We can go on walks.
You know, we can go on runs.
We can wake up in the morning and see him sitting there.
You know, wagging his tail.
And I see the smile on my wife's face,
on my son's face and my daughter's face,
and it's making a big impact, even today.