[dogs barking]
[Lizzy] That's what on the other side of the fence
She's so scared, oh, my God.
So I was headed home to actually go let my dogs out.
Oh, [bleep].
I happen to like, look over, you know,
check on the building and I'm like,
"Oh, my God, there's a dog behind the fence,"
and in a spot where we've never had a dog.
[Lizzy speaking]
[Orlando speaking]
[Lizzy] God, seriously.
[indistinct chatter]
Usually when people dump their dogs,
they tie them to the gate or they tie them down to a pole,
like a little ways away.
We don't usually see a dog like behind that particular area.
All right, I'm gonna go around.
[Orlando speaking]
Let's set up kennel.
[Lizzy] Orlando happened to be outside,
and Perry was also there,
so I asked them for some hel
Hi, baby.
Hi.
No idea how she ended up there.
I mean, it's possible she was running as a stray
and somehow managed to squeeze her body back there.
If somebody were to dump her
they'd have to either push her through the small crack or throw her over,
which I don't really think that's what happened,
'cause I think she'd probably be hurt.
[Lizzy] Hi.
Hi, sweetie.
Hi. It's okay.
[Lizzy speaking]
We've got to get you out of here, okay?
Let me put this on you.
I know. I know.
[Lizzy] It's okay.
[whimpering]
[Perry] Hey, hey.
Hey. Hey.
Come on, baby.
No, it's okay.
I don't want to pull you.
Come on.
There you go. Come on. Come on.
Come on.
-[Perry] You got him? -[Lizzy] Yeah.
Come on, baby.
Come on. Come on.
It's okay.
You're okay. You're okay.
Come on. Come on, girl.
Good girl. Good girl.
Oh, sweet girl.
I know it's scary.
I know. Come on, baby.
Yeah, good girl!
She's pretty scared.
So we need to let her decompress, and, you know,
as she becomes more comfortable with us,
we can really kind of look at her,
take the harness off,
and I'm just hoping we get some answers as to how she ended up
where she did and if somebody's looking for her.
I don't think she has a microchip because these...
these are supposed to be able to like,
pick it up from a distance and it should be able to pick it up
through the harness, too.
[Lizzy] We do post pictures on social media.
We check all the lost and found pages.
We check the Next door app.
We check everything we possibly can
when they don't have a chip and we do post them to our Facebook page.
So we just have to hope that, um,
this wasn't like a dump job and there, you know,
maybe she got loose or something happened
and somebody's looking for her.
So crazy, isn't it?
-[Perry] Dude, yeah. -Like how?
I'm wondering if she wedged herself
there rather than like walking through.
Right.
-So I feel like the dogs would have went nuts. -[Perry] Yeah. Oh, yeah.
If she was walking past anybody, yeah,
-they would have been going crazy. -[Lizzy] Just so weird.
We do have cameras on the building
and we are definitely going to check the camera footage
because we want to find out what happened.
[Lizzy] It is really bizarre
[instrumental music playing]
[dogs barking]
Hey!
[Lizzy] Good morning, Kim. How are you?
I'm fine, Lizzy. How have you been?
[Lizzy] The pandemic has been really hard on the adoption process.
I've been great.
One of the positive outcomes is that we've been able to do video calls
with potential adopters.
Okay, so I just wanted to talk more about Ben.
Somebody had found Ben as a stray wandering around New Orleans.
We had already been suspecti that he was probably deaf.
[Lizzy] Ben.
Ben.
[doctor] We have these tiny electrodes,
they're almost like acupuncture needles.
[Lizzy] We're lucky enough to have a doctor do like a fancy hearing test...
[doctor] This is not the pattern we're expecting.
So he is deaf in both ears.
[Lizzy] Deaf in both ears. Deaf then.
[Mariah] Wow!
[Lizzy] ...and confirm our thoughts that he is in fact, deaf.
He already knows how to sit. That's a good first step.
He fits a lot of what people are looking for
He is so outgoing and friendly,
he's perfect in the car so you can take him places.
He's a quick learner.
-And I'll try to do it from all the way over there. -Give your hand.
[Lizzy] And he's so eager to learn, too.
Oh! Good boy!
But the one thing always comes down to,
"Well, I'm not really sure that I'm equipped for a deaf dog."
So to get an application from two people,
like we did with Kim and Daw who only wanted Ben,
only had eyes for Ben was pretty incredible.
I remember getting the application and I was like,
"Oh, my God, calling this right now."
What made you put in an application for Ben?
How did you come across him?
I had been looking.
She had been looking separately.
Dawn and I, we had a previous dog, Rider.
He was a Jack Russell Terrie
We, for a long time,
just mourned over him because he was just a great dog.
Then one day we got into discussion
about getting another dog and having to fence in the yard,
and we found out that we were both looking, actually.
She happen to see Ben online
She yelled at me. She says, "Honey,
you got to come here and look at this."
She showed me his picture and he's cute as can be.
And then she showed me his name.
To give you a little background,
my parents were deaf, my dad's name was Ben.
She only showed me his picture once and read the bio,
and I just... just fell in love with him.
Oh, that is so sweet. I love that.
We don't usually get applications for dogs that are deaf.
A lot of people consider that a special need,
and they get worried about if they have the ability
to take something like that on.
When we found out that he was deaf, we're like,
"Oh, boy, this could make things even harder on him."
So we were worried that he was going to be here,
you know, a long time because of that.
Um, it just...
it seems like you guys already feel connected to him.
We do.
- Just fell in love with him so... -Aw.
[Kim] Good.
The reason why they are so perfect for Ben is they don't see him=
being deaf as like an "issue".
They see that as part of what makes Ben special.
And I just love that about them.
And if you guys have any questions or need anything,
you know, of course you can reach out to me any time.
Now that we decided to move forward with an adoption
and we have to get Ben into the vet for a final checkup
and we have to do some training with him.
All right, then. Well, I'll let you go and, um,
I guess I'll be talking to you soon.
They haven't met Ben yet,
so there's always that possibility that maybe he gets there
and they're just not feelin the connection,
but I'm hopeful about it.
- Okay, thank you, Lizzy. -[Lizzy] All right.
-[Kim] Appreciate it. -Yeah, take care.
-[Kim] All right. Bye. -[Lizzy] All right. Bye-bye.
[instrumental music playing]
[Tia] Today, I'm at the new building in New Orleans,
checking on the progress of construction
and getting things settled i
Oh, yeah, some of the heavy duty kennels.
-Those are the big ones. -Okay.
[indistinct chatter]
This is quite a big project that we've taken on,
but it's going to be well worth it.
It just looks like a, like a little miniature city
Villalobos has come to a place where we kind of had to regroup.
Oh, yeah, made it. Welcome to our home.
[Tia] When we moved to Louisiana,
we knew it was going to be tough,
and we just jumped in, both feet.
While I was in California,
my kids emptied out the entire building of all the trash and garbage.
The place had been abandoned for years.
Wow!
No, it looks really cute.
Looks really cute.
We've pretty much been in 911 mode ever since.
[Tia] Oh, my God. It's pretty bad.
Oh, no, no, no.
Rescue dogs, you know, get them healthy, get them homes.
Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, over and over.
The warehouse was like, it was our home,
but the flooding, the flooding, the flooding,
the leaking, the leaking, the leaking.
This kennel is full of water.
[Tia] It's falling apart,
like pieces are falling off of it.
It got to the point where we were just maintaining...
This is the worst part for us.
Like this section, all those...
you saw about the holes are.
[Tia] ...the new building to start,
but I can say that there are some changes coming to Villalobos.
I don't know what all of them are yet,
but I feel they're coming.
[Tia] We're going to have to put those pans up,
we got to tack the pans to the back
how we were supposed to do.
I think what I like most about the new location is the way I have it set up
Let's face it,
we all know what the traditional animal shelter is like,
rows of cages, barking dogs.
Let's face it, it's very stressful.
The old Villalobos was no different.
So with this new building, you know,
it just makes it more structured.
The dogs come out in small groups.
It's quieter, it's just more organized.
And already the employees are saying it is hugely different than the old system.
They're loving it because it gives them so much more control because,
like all the dogs are taking their naps right now,
so they're not raging.
The new location in New Orleans is just probably half a mile away
from the current location.
We've moved a good chunk of the dogs over.
You know, we didn't want to move everything over at one time
because it becomes too stressful for the dogs.
Um, Lizzy wants me to build outside kennels
because there are some dogs that don't want to be inside
It's getting there. Like, when everything gets decorated, oh, my God,
it's gonna be great.
Everybody's moved at one point in their life,
so they understand exactly what I'm talking about.
Try doing it with couple hundred dogs, you know.
So, um, it's going to take a minute.
Okay, well, I'll be here if you need anything.
It looks great, smells great, too.
[dog barking]
[cheerful music playing]
[Lizzy] Come.
Remember? No!
Geez, you don't have that.
Today, I'm gonna meet up with Earl to do
some work with Ben and training before he leave
-Hey, Earl. -What's up, Liz?
[Lizzy] I'm going to show Ea what Ben and I have been working on,
and I think it'll just make it easier for Earl,
uh, to communicate with Ben on the trip,
since Ben can't hear.
We're just trying some enrichment and some training.
He is very food motivated,
so it actually makes it, makes it a lot easier.
[Earl] Right.
[Lizzy] It's always a little trickier with a dog that can't hear.
-[Earl] Right, right. -So, smelling--
-[Earl] You've been trying to sip the dog. -[Lizzy] Yeah.
With Ben, since he can't hear...
-Yeah. Good boy. -That's good.
...I basically started just kind of luring him into a sip.
I'm just kind of holding the treat up.
Let's see if I can get him to do it without the...
Oh! Yeah! He got it!
He got it with the treat.
Eventually, I'm able to kind of not have the treat in my hand
and just kind of hand signal him to where he's sitting.
[Earl] He's a real smart boy.
[Lizzy] Yeah, he's good.
He's good. He's a good boy.
With trying to teach him dow
he was starting to slowly get it without the treat in my hand,
but I still kind of need to use the hand motions
since he can't hear and I'm not able to use a verbal cue with him.
So, hold it up. Yeah.
Yeah. Perfect.
-[Earl] Good boy. -[Lizzy] Now, give him the treat.
-[Earl] I want the-- -[Lizzy] Oh, you want to get...
-you want the down? -[Earl] Yeah, I want the down.
[Lizzy] All right. There you go.
Good boy. Good boy.
[Lizzy] From everything that...
that I've seen and learned,
there isn't necessarily set hand signals
when it comes to training deaf dogs.
Since he's into it too,
like they could even have fun with it.
They can teach him spin.
-[Earl] Yeah. -[Lizzy] At the end of the day,
you have to do what works for you and your dog.
He's such a quick learner.
And it helps that he's so food motivated.
But also the work has to be consistent.
Consistent, yeah.
It's going to be better when he goes to a home
because they'll be able to work on it consistently.
All we have to do now is load him up and send him on his way.
Oh, Ben. Oh, Ben boy.
Oh, boy.
Oh, Ben, Ben.
[instrumental music playing]
[Mariah] Come here!
Here, Athena. Let him have... Hey, let him have his.
Go. Get it.
I have a lot of personal dog
All of them have different roles in my life.
Here, get it.
Tater was the hardest dog I've ever had in my life with his special needs.
You ready, bubba?
Tater had a slipped disc a really long time ago.
He didn't get full mobility in one of his back legs,
so he would drag it a lot and I could just tell it's starting to affect his spine.
[doctor] Yeah, see, that is very abnormal.
He should correct that.
[Mariah] And he does it every day.
Come on, buddy.
[Mariah] It was just this constant battle.
Good boy. It's okay.
Aside from that, there were so many other things medical going on with him.
-There he goes. -[doctor] Atta boy. Good boy.
[Mariah] My whole life revolved around taking care of Tater
My entire life.
Tater was a dog that I rescued back in California.
Wow. Over ten years ago.
He was the calmest dog ever
Like, so sweet.
And when he became Mariah's,
it was like he knew that she was like this tiny little thing
because he became extremely protective over her.
I can't...
I couldn't even like open the door to her room or her house
without him trying to kill m
I'm like, "I'm the one that rescued yo
Why are you trying to kill me?"
But he became like that with her.
You know, that was his girl
[Mariah sobbing]
[Mariah] Things got really bad with Tater medically to the point
where he wasn't living a good quality of life.
I had to make the decision and say goodbye to him.
It was the hardest decision I have ever made in my entire life.
It was just hard because Tater still really thought that he was able to.
to do everything and he wasn't.
Tater, I'm gonna get you.
[Mariah giggling]
Come on.
Look at you go!
I feel like after the amoun of time that Tater and I were together,
I didn't know who I was without him.
I got him when I was 17 or 1
[Mariah giggling]
[Mariah] I love you.
It's been a weird transition
trying to figure that out and realizing that I relied on him as much as I did,
that we did everything together.
So for years,
I've wanted a motorcycle with a sidecar for Tater.
He's adventured everywhere with me.
So what better way than for me
to have my dog and ride a motorcycle at the same time?
I've been looking for a sidecar setup for years and something that's always...
like didn't work out with it.
[Moe] Hey! What's up? How was the trip?
What did you bring back?
So there's no ignition, so we can't start it.
Oh, no.
[Mariah laughs]
The day after I had to say goodbye to Tater,
I got a phone call from someone asking me if I still wanted a sidecar
Oh, [bleep], I need ramps.
[Mariah giggles]
[Moe] Ooh.
[Mariah] And if that wasn't the universe doing something
I feel like that was Tater just being a turd.
Sidecar action.
Is it cool?
So I went to Texas and picked it up.
All right, let's go.
I know, I want to go ride it right now.
I need to figure out how to start it first.
But yeah, I'm gonna need your help.
So what better way to memorialize my dog than to build a sidecar
and take old dogs from the rescue on little trips around town.
I do want to make it a little bit safer for the dogs.
And I want to... I'm going to start with, like,
one of my dogs,
with like Athena or something or Pastor,
because they love being on the road and get them comfortable.
I'm not taking any of the dogs on like long trips.
This is literally just going to be around town for them.
[Moe] Well, fun.
It's going to make a good project here, right here.
[Mariah] And try and keep it as safe and calm as possible for the
just to get some sort of jo and happiness, you know?
-[Moe] Yeah. -We have some restoration to do.
It's a little haggard.
So this thing hadn't been running in over ten years.
So obviously there are things that I'm going to have to work on.
We pretty much need to clean out everything.
[Moe] You know, just leave the key in it.
Yeah.
[Mariah] I don't have the key for it
so I have to order a new ignition,
we have to order new carburetors,
put all new hoses.
[Mariah grunts]
We need to actually get all the parts ordered that we need
and get this thing running.
-Okay, bye. -[Mariah] Bye! Love you. Thank you.
-Love you too! -[Mariah] But it'll be worth it.
[instrumental music playing]
[Lizzy speaking]
Perry and I rescued a really sweet dog about a week ago.
Let me put this on you.
I know. I know.
She just looked terrified.
I mean, she was frozen in fear,
she wasn't even moving.
I decided to call her Mystic
Just felt right,
just given the circumstances of not knowing how she ended up where she was.
We tried to watch cameras.
That gave us no answer,
which means she probably came in from an area
that we didn't have a camera on.
[Lizzy speaking]
Unfortunately, Mystic does not have a microchip.
We checked lost and found pages.
We actually posted her as well on our Facebook page, and nothing.
There's nobody. Nobody is looking for her.
[Lizzy speaking]
I gave her a minute to kind of just see
if she wanted to interact with me, and she did.
[Lizzy speaking]
She came over and she wanted to be pet,
and she put her little paws in my lap and I was like,
"Okay, you're getting more comfortable."
[Lizzy speaking]
We're making progress.
And I knew that based on her body language and her approaching me,
that it was safe to kind of do some things with her.
[Lizzy speaking]
I think Mystic is very adoptable.
I'm so hopeful that she'll be able to find a great home.
She's a really sweet girl.
She's really smart, and she's another one that really likes to learn.
[Lizzy speaking]
I'm going to continue to work with Mystic and prepare her for a home.
And, you know, we've got to get her dog tested
and all of that good stuff.
I'm very confident she'll be ready for a home soon.
[Moe] What's up, dude?
What is that?
-The ignition. -Oh, no.
Moe and I are really, really close,
and our bonding time is sitting in the shop
and working on motorcycles and cars together.
I just want to try and get this ignition on at least.
[Moe] Okay.
So this is a whole new ballgame for us.
And I think that's why my brother, one of the reasons,
he's so excited about the sidecar.
Goddamn, it seems like a lot of work when it's not started.
'Cause we have never worked on one before.
So it's a challenge.
It's not as easy to push around a motorcycle.
I mean, all of them are a challenge for me but not for him.
So when we push it back over there, I'm gonna take this off.
-Okay. -If I can figure out how.
At this point, Moe and I are just going down the checklist,
trying to get all of these things checked off
so that we can try and start it for the first time.
We're not gonna get it running today,
obviously, 'cause I got to get a battery in that.
So at least today is making a plan
and seeing what has to be done.
She originally wanted the bike for her dog Tater that passed away.
My friend's mom has a year-old sidecar
and she takes her German shepherd.
That was one of her kind of dreams, you know,
take them for a ride around the city and everything.
Yeah. Yeah, this thing can't just be for show.
Look at the threading.
There's nothing left on this.
I'm most excited that, you know,
she gets to ride it with the older dogs and just, you know,
have a good time with it.
Got it.
And seeing the smile on her face.
I got the right.
No, I have to take that tire off.
[Mariah] Well, I figured we should do it back there
'cause it's going to be sitting, right?
Let's see if the brakes work. Did that stop at all?
-Yeah. -Okay. Just very slowly.
[Mariah speaking]
With Tater passing away recently, you know,
Mariah is still having a tough time, you know,
getting over it just pulls off.
Is it connected anywhere back there?
Oh, that's it?
Whoa!
And working on that motorcycle,
it's a part of the healing process that she needs to do
Yay!
[dogs barking]
[Lizzy] Ben's ready.
Ben said, "Bye, guys.
I'm going to a home."
Come, Ben. Let's go home.
Heidi and I both really love Ben,
so we wanted to be here with Earl this morning to load up Ben
and say our final goodbyes.
-[Earl] This is it. This is it. -[Heidi] All right, Ben.
Somebody has officially made your bail.
I'm so excited to say bye to Ben, which sounds crazy,
because I love him so much.
But they're not supposed to be here with us forever.
This is like a little stepping stone.
Come on. Come on. Good boy.
-Good boy. -Good boy.
Are you excited that you're the one taking him?
Oh, yeah. Always.
Since the adopters have not met Ben yet,
there's always a chance that a dog gets to a home
when the adopters haven't met them yet,
and they decide that it just doesn't feel right.
I love you, Ben.
Do you love me?
-He doesn't care. -He do. He really do.
He knows you put in work for him.
Well, we about to move out, man.
I don't want to hold him up no longer than I have to.
Enjoy Ohio.
Bye, Ben. Love you.
It rarely happens where we get to a home
and the dog doesn't get to stay.
But you never know.
There's a first time for everything.
Earl, drive safe.
I will. Thank you.
Let me know how it goes.
I'll write a letter.
There he goes.
Bye, Ben.
Nope, I need more weight.
[Moe speaking]
I got it.
I don't remember who came up with the name
for the sidecar, but it is perfect.
We're gonna call it The Spud Bucket for Tater.
So this thing has a lot of hours put into it already
and we're not even close to being done with like
our final project of making it beautiful.
Yeah, this doesn't look...
We're definitely not gonna change that.
-[Moe] Get it. -Got it?
Whoo!
How did you get that inside one?
I can't even.
Hopefully, this is mine and Moe's like final day
for any of the huge parts aside from cosmetic.
So this probably needs to come out or whatever to meet that.
And then this goes over here.
I got the new carburetors in, the clutch and the brake lever.
Ooh.
Yeah!
[bleep].
He got a bunch of other stuff that we need for it.
Oh, [bleep]. I'm spilling gasoline.
Oh, [bleep].
We have everything we need at this point.
Well, turn the key. See what happens.
So there should not be any reason
why this doesn't start.
Is the battery on right?
It's not even fitting in. What are you doing?
What do you mean what am I doing?
The batteries...
This was... The orange was negative.
Yeah?
If I've learned anything about motorcycles, it's that I know nothing.
Oh, come on!
You can flip the switch.
-What switch? -There it is.
Oh.
Do you have the hose back on?
It started!
Kill switch.
Moe tried to start it and the throttle got stuck, so he just shut it off.
Whoo!
But the point is, is it started.
All right, here we go.
Okay, so we just had that wrong.
Are you sure the other side's good?
-Yeah. Let me see. Hang on. -Awesome.
That's how it always works out.
Once you get it started and you hear it,
then you have to adjust everything.
Can we push... You want to push it out that way?
We knew that everything was good
and we just needed to adjust carburetors
and the throttle and a few other things.
Moe got in the sidecar and I drove it.
My face was just stuck.
Oh, my God.
I don't know.
I feel like it's one of the best projects that I've decided to take on.
It's so cool!
The more that I talk about it,
the more I realize how much it was because
it is inviting so many different aspects of my life into one thing.
I don't know. It's really special to me.
Hello, little lady.
Now that I know it's running and even though
it's not ready for the dogs yet...
You wanna smell it first?
What is this?
...I can still start workin with them, getting in and out
and teaching commands.
Good.
Okay. Come this way.
You want to try and get in?
What is this? Smell it.
I want to start with my dog, Athena just because I know her so well.
What do you smell?
Right here.
She's younger and she loves doing training stuff.
And she's... she learns quick.
Come on, come on.
Good girl!
That was fast.
You want another treat.
People don't realize how scary that like
starting motorcycle can be for dogs.
You want to try and get out and try again?
So I just wanted to get Athena used to the sidecar first going in and out.
All right. Ready? Come on.
Load up.
Good girl!
That was so impressive.
But like I figured, she caught on really quick
to getting in, getting out of it.
All right. Load up.
Good job. Right here.
This is gonna be a learning process for me as well.
I need to do some planning so that I can go into this perfectly
with all the rest of the dog that we teach to ride in the sidecar.
We're definitely gonna need to do some altering
'cause this is very dangerous right now for a dog.
I don't think I knew how emotional this build would be for me.
I'm not even done because I need to make the sidecar more safe
for the dogs, obviously.
Good job.
Until I have this thing painted and make it the official Spud Bucket...
You're gonna love this when we're done.
You're gonna love it.
I don't think it's gonna, like, set in.
But it's definitely a part of my healing process with Tater.
Like building a memory of Tater,
obviously, is the biggest thing, so.
I don't know. This turned into a very emotional build for me.
Jugg. Jugg.
You're not gonna give me a kiss in public?
This is Juggernaut. He is about 3.5 years old.
He is dog friendly.
So he's kind of built for any kind of lifestyle.
He is kid friendly, although I would definitely do ten or over
because he is a bigger boy.
He's a lot of fun.
He's probably one of my favorite dogs here.
He's pretty much perfect.
And if you are interested in adopting Juggernaut
or any other Villalobos dog or to donate to Villalobos Rescue Center,
go to AnimalPlanet.com/PitBulls.
Today, we are moving our cabana from the old warehouse
to the new warehouse.
I feel like that cabana's been...
It has been such a staple thing for us.
He's so silly.
He's coming all the way up.
He wants the biscuit.
She just likes attention.
She likes cuddling.
The cabana is used for meet and greets
and to kind of let the dogs run around.
We've used it to do baby announcements.
We want to award you with your dog tags off parole.
And to announce all of our guys getting off of parole.
It's all been beautiful moments.
It's never been anything bad.
So I feel like that cabana just has all of this happiness in the wood.
There's something special that always happens in there.
And hopefully, it'll bring all of that same joy
with it to the newer house.
All right, Ben, it's over with for you, boy.
I'm about to turn you loose.
So today, we're here in Ohio.
And it's for a good cause.
Ben is going to his forever home.
All right, Ben, time to get yourself together.
Having a deaf dog is just like having a dog that can hear.
They only hear with their eyes.
We are confident that they can handle this, but you never know.
So we still have our fingers crossed with Ben.
-Hello. -Hey, Earl.
Delivery, delivery.
[Kim] Oh, you brought the mail.
Delivery.
Today is just so exciting.
How are you doing?
We have been anxiously waiting.
We've been just going crazy buying new stuff.
-I'm here. -Have a seat.
[Earl] Oh, I'd love to.
Just creating a forever home for him.
-Good to meet you. -Same here.
My name is Dawn.
Of course, a fan of what Tia and her family do.
So I went to their website.
Ben was the first dog on there.
He's adorable.
He has that little mustache under his nose.
So cute.
As far as his deafness goes, I'm not really worried about that.
Ben's deafness is not a disability.
It's an exceptionality, and it makes him an exceptional dog.
Being around Ben since he came to the rescue,
he just needs some parents, gonna take time to get him
the structure you want for y'all.
And I guarantee you, gonna be like that.
-We look forward to it. -Yeah.
Being that he is deaf and my parents are deaf,
I have insight into what he sees, what his world is.
That's why his bed is over here.
Okay?
So when we're sitting there, we can have that eye contact with him.
All right.
My initial reaction of the adopter's home,
I do feel like they are prepared.
They have him toys.
They have him a doggy bed.
They have him a nice soft crate.
But I'd like to go see the backyard.
But my main concern always be with the yard 'cause it'll be a sad thing
if we drop the dog off toda
and he escaped tomorrow and something bad happen.
So Miss Tia's main objective is they have a secure yard.
All this for him?
-[woman] All that's for him. -[Kim] All that's for him.
Oh, my God!
300 feet to the back.
Man, that man gonna forget about us so quick.
The fence is something that I and with the help of my friends,
over the last three weeks, have installed.
This is nice, man.
I just want to see his excitement
when he realizes that he has all this space.
It's not confined to just a kennel.
He's gonna love being out here.
When I saw the backyard, I tried to make a deal like take me in,
send Ben back.
Beautiful yard. A lot of space.
Sound like y'all ready for your package.
I'd love to go get him.
So it really made me feel good about that situation.
You ready?
Come on.
I'm excited.
I'm nervous that he will be sad.
Oh, you act like you know where you're going.
Like missing other dogs, missing New Orleans, I just hope he's okay here.
Here we go.
-Here we go. -Hi.
He act like he knew exactly where he was going.
Come around here.
Come on.
Hi.
-Hi. -He's just looking around.
-Yeah. -Hi.
He walked up to the front door like, man, get me out of here, I'm home.
[Kim] I just feel like just overjoyed.
I'm just so glad he's here.
You hit the spot, I think.
Good boy. That's it.
Did I find it?
First time I pet him, his head just rolled over li "You found the spot."
This is it, Ben.
This is it.
-Thank you, buddy. -This is it for you.
Thank you. Yeah.
We're just really glad he's here.
Come on, we're going this way.
Let's go. He's sniffing everywhere.
-We're going this way. -Oh, yeah.
[Earl] Come on, this way.
[Kim] There you go.
[Earl] I don't need that no more.
[Kim] Good boy.
He got finished going around the perimeter.
He was up the far corner of the yard.
He turned and he looked at us,
and it wasn't so much the expression on his face,
it was the expression on his whole body.
Come on. Come on.
He just... just started running.
Just to see him be able to just run at a full gallop
and feel like he's finally found that freedom.
So isn't that what we all want is a little freedom?
Once he caught that eye contact, he's like, "Yup," then come running.
That's what I need to see.
Once he called him and he came immediately.
You know, he didn't run to me.
Good.
I've been in the car with him for 12 hours.
You know, he ran to the adopter,
and that was a real touchy moment for me.
Look like my work here is done.
He know this is it.
This is mine right here.
This is mine.
It's just we both just felt something
we've been missing since Rider was gone.
And Ben will fill that that spot.
This dog kills me, he been with us for years.
Like he gonna see me walk away
and ain't gonna blink a eye. Like, "bye."
-You think so? -Bye.
Well, you know, it's always mixed emotions when we get these dogs adopted
'cause we deal with them like seven days a week.
You really can't help but get attached to them.
He's gonna get a lot of lovi and he's going to get a lot of carin'.
He's gonna get out as much as possible.
It don't get no better than this for him.
It's cute, right?
So today, we are having kind of a soft grand opening for the new building.
You know, we're still putting stuff together.
We still have a lot more construction to do.
But we had a lot of people, a lot of our supporters,
a lot of our donors that were just, you know...
They were like, "Come on, let us in."
So finally, I thought, "Okay, this is it.
Let's let some people in."
Each building has a turnout,
and I'm trying to make this like a totally self-contained...
Like a city here.
So the whole purpose is to take dogs out,
whether it's outside or in here,
you don't have to walk outside the gate or the fence.
I think having the new building in the New Orleans location
and having everybody under the same roof,
having the dogs more organized,
and the environment so much more stress free,
I think it's gonna be better for the dogs.
This is gonna be their temporary training arena.
We're just gonna make a little indoor training area, so I'll order the rest.
You know, we're doing a lot of focusing now on training
with Lizzie taking on this additional role.
For us, it's all about making it better for the dogs.
This has been kind of a combination of employees, my kids.
That was easy.
I thought it was gonna be a lot harder to do.
And a lot of volunteers that helped, you know,
make this new dream come true.
Hello, Gordy.
Hey, Gordy. He perks up.
Gordy.
Okay.
You know, with COVID hittin and the flooding around our building, you know,
we shut down the warehouse, no tours, travel restriction which was tough.
With having this new building in New Orleans,
changing the way we're gonna be handling things
and really focusing on including the public more
Remember if somebody in front of your stops, be sure you stop.
You know, it's a good feelin
I'm putting together for the first time ever a foster dog program.
We have never relied on people to foster our dogs because we have trust issues.
Plain and simple.
But then you see all the good that these people do
when they come to volunteer and you see them with these dogs
and you're like, "We have got to rip the Band-Aid off
and just start trusting again."
It's hard.
So between the foster dog program,
between opening up the new building in New Orleans
to do some training and behavioral stuff,
having volunteers come back and walking the dogs,
this is like a new Villalobos for us.
Let's step it up and do better.
That's what the Villalobos Healing Center is all about, doing better.