DON HUGHES Interview Published on: 10, Jul 2024

In 2013, I began dating a woman who had five rescue dogs and ran a private shelter in Prescott, Arizona. Jenny opened my eyes to the world of animal rescue including the abuse we humans inflict on dogs and cats and just how terrific rescue dogs are. I began contributing financially to her rescue and others. I knew the money was needed and well spent; I began questioning whether just giving money was enough. If we want to make the world a better place, we have an obligation to give of ourselves and not just write a check.

Volunteering as an adoption counselor at our County Shelter, was the most rewarding and heartbreaking thing I’ve ever done. It would make me question my faith in humanity and restore it, often in the same day. While I can’t change the world, finding a good home for a dog or cat, I can change their world.

One hot August day, a mocha-colored Labrador puppy just appeared out of nowhere by my car door. Someone had dumped this beautiful puppy at the shelter before it opened and just drove off. Fortunately, I was able to get a leash on the forlorn animal and took her inside, before I changed my mind and just took her home. How could someone just leave this dog out in the heat with no water or shade? Someone else did the same thing with a chihuahua who bolted away from staff and was killed by a car. It happens often enough that the staff gave it a name: dump and drive.

A puppy had been brought into the West Shelter after its owner had beat it with a hammer. Saving the puppy would require extensive and expensive medical care. With more than 500 dogs and cats in its care, the county did not have the resources to provide that level of medical care for just one dog. The rescue community quickly sprang into action to raise the needed funds. I told the county staff that I would pay for whatever the fundraising didn’t. Once the puppy healed, a nice family quickly

The first time I saw Barbie was in a video that Andrea, a fellow volunteer had posted on Facebook. Barbie was so scared; she was visibly shaking in the video. At that moment, I knew I had to meet her and I had to do something. I wasn’t sure at this point what I was going to do, just something to help her.

I drove out to the Shelter the next day to meet Barbie. She was hiding in the back corner of the outside part of her kennel hoping no one would notice her. But I did. The first time I looked in her big brown eyes, there was no spark, no hope, all I saw was despair. She had given up on life. While she walked well on the leash, there was no interaction between us, even when I took her into one of the meeting rooms. She immediately curled up into a tight ball, trying to become invisible. As I gently stroked her back, I whispered, maybe we can help each other heal.

Barbie needed someone to believe enough in her to try, and that was going to be me even if she didn’t know it when I first brought her home. Everything I did the first day was wrong. Instead of just letting her decompress I decided to take her for a walk. She was so scared, walking on a leash was a struggle to just move forward and back. Finally, back home, Barbie almost fell asleep standing up because she was too afraid to lay down.

My strategy for gaining her trust would be structure, food and walks. All dogs need structure in their lives, just like children. We would get up at the same time every morning, go for a walk along the same route and I would feed her at the same time every day. It was a slow process to gain her trust, but the first slight tail wag before our third daily walk was a small sign of progress.

One example, Barbie was afraid of parked cars. Each time we approached a parked car I would walk her around it and let her sniff the tires, the fenders and the doors until she realized parked cars were not scary creatures that were trying to harm her.

Barbie still has some fear issues we’re working on, but she’s made so much progress, people who knew her in the Shelter don’t recognize her now.

For the first time, I’m solely responsible for another life. That’s an awesome responsibility that has made major changes in my life for the better. Putting her needs before my mine has made me a more thoughtful person. No matter how busy I am, I always find time to play with Barbie. And I learned the hard way to put my shoes, clothes, glasses away just like my mother always told me to.

The biggest challenge was her fear of men. For the longest time, Barbie barely wanted to be in the same room with me. She would not eat or drink if I was in the kitchen with her. She had to first accept that I was not going to hurt her and that I was the alpha male in our little pack. Over a few months, Barbie began to accept that I was there to protect and provide for her.

Barbie had been brought into the Shelter as a stray, so I don’t know her backstory. But it is unlikely she had ever been inside a house before. This made house training a huge challenge because one day it didn’t matter where she went, now it did. Teaching what I wanted from her was a major challenge. Our communication improved once I learned to pay attention to the signs she was giving when she needed to go out. When she would come in to my home office and lay down, I knew everything was okay. When she came in and either just stared at me or put her pay on my leg, that was the signal she needed to go outside now.

I struggled with the decision to adopt Barbie because of all the behavioral red flags such as being afraid of men and everything else. Our encounters were okay but there was no real interaction between us. It was like a date that had gone well enough for a second date, but definitely not love at first sight.

After a day foster that went reasonably well, I told the shelter staff that if they could find an adopter or a rescue that would take Barbie, that was fine. But before they put her on the euthanasia list, to call me. I had a business trip coming up, I hoped to have more time to spend with Barbie at the shelter afterwards to make up my mind. As the saying goes, Man plans, God laughs. That week the shelter called to let me know Barbie was going to be put down that Monday. Now there was no more time for waffling or agonizing, it was put up or she dies time.

Sometimes you just have to have faith that every thing will work out. I adopted Barbie on Sunday the day before she was set to be euthanized. And have never looked back, it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

When I was volunteering at the Shelter, I would email my friend Jenny what had happened during my shift. Some of the stories were funny, some touching and a few heartbreaking stories. She loved the stories and encouraged me to something with them. Well Jenny continued to pester me about doing something with my stories. I pasted the stories into a Word document, structured an overall story and gave them to Jenny for Christmas. She loved the “book” and shared it with her mother who also loved the book.

I continued to work on the manuscript over the summer and shared it with other family members and friends. Everyone encouraged to pursue publishing it, but I knew nothing about publishing a book and was overwhelmed with conflicting and confusing information from the research I had done on the publishing process.

Eventually I settled on Greenleaf Publishing, a hybrid publisher, with an excellent reputation in the industry. I submitted my manuscript, two weeks later much to my surprise, Greenleaf called interested in publishing The Mutt for Me.

Two very dedicated volunteers, Marsha and Susan, ran the project dog program at the Shelter. They would work with those dogs with serious behavioral problems that prevent them from being adopted. Barbie was one of those project dogs. With 500 or more dogs at the shelter and more coming in every day, there were no resources to determine an individual dog’s breed especially a stray like Barbie. The book tells our journey how Barbie went from a project dog to my best friend.

I hope readers will see just how rewarding volunteering at their local public shelter or private rescue can be and be inspired to volunteer themselves. It became my happy place and a chance to make a real difference in the lives of the dogs and cats I placed into good homes. Hopefully, they will see there are a lot of great dogs just waiting for a family to love and not to overlook the behaviorally challenged dogs like Barbie. There’s a great dog just waiting for someone to see past their fear.

My father had died six months before I met Barbie after a long illness. I had become quieter, withdrawn and more easily irritated. When your job depends upon you being an effective communicator, these are not good traits. Barbie has helped me heal from the loss of my father and through her I’ve found a strength and resolve I didn’t know I had. And a depth of love I didn’t know I was capable of feeling or giving. I know Dad would be proud of how far Barbie and I have come together.

Unfortunately, I have not had the time to continue volunteering at the shelter. That was something I considered before I adopted Barbie. With her behavior problems, she needed my attention more than the shelter did. I am donating fifteen percent of the royalties to support local rescues in the Phoenix area. The more books I sell, the more money I can donate to rescues that are doing great work.

I joined AllAuthors on March 4, 2024. It’s been a great experience so far. The added exposure to new potential readers and authors has been worth the investment. The tools to create content to promote The Mutt for Me on various social media platforms have been easy to use. I will definitely be renewing my membership in September.