12 Days Of Charitable Giving 2013: To Love A Canine

It’s the twelfth and final day of our 12 Days of Charitable Giving! In December, I’ll be focusing on twelve charitable organizations that my readers have nominated as most deserving of your charitable donation.

Tomorrow (December 31) is your last day to squeeze in your charitable deduction for tax purposes in 2013 – so why not consider one of our twelve?

Today’s featured charity is To Love a Canine.

To Love a Canine Rescue, or TLC, is a non-profit, all-breed, foster-based, no-kill rescue. The organization’s mission is to rescue, offer sanctuary, and find permanent homes for abandoned, stray, and surrendered dogs in order to minimize the needless euthanizing of animals. The organization is relatively new but already making an impact: to date, they’ve rescued at least 178 dogs, 166 of which have found homes.

In the way of disclosure, I have a serious interest in this organization. No, not financial. Furry. If you’re a regular reader, you know that we lost our beloved dog of 13 years last year. It took us a while to make the decision to start looking for a new pup again. When we were ready, we started with the usual suspects, including the SPCA (our last dog, Lyle, was an SPCA rescue). But we came up empty-handed. And then we wandered into a pet meet and greet one day, and we found her: our newest addition, Beckett.

Beckett was just three months old when she came to live with us but she was already socialized. TLC doesn’t leave its dogs in shelters. Rather, once they are rescued from kill shelters, dogs are fostered in homes until they are ready to join a new family.

TLC dogs are all spayed or neutered and brought up to date on shots appropriate for their age. They are also microchipped prior to being placed in their new homes.

TLC works to connect families with the right dogs. And the connection doesn’t stop once the adoption has been completed. TLC foster families and associated trainers work with adoptive families to ensure a smooth transition and help facilitate additional support and training that may be needed to create and maintain a stable and happy home for the dogs.

And what about the life those dogs escape? Pamela Garnick, TLC’s Director of Fundraising & Public Affairs and a founding member, told me about one of the first dogs TLC took in, Tilly. Tilly was about 10 months old when she was found in a ditch wrapped up in wire. The wire had cut deeply into the tissue of her front legs: she still bears the physical scars from her injuries. She limped in pain during the weeks it took her to heal but was calm and cooperative when her wounds had to be cleaned and bandages changed. Despite what she had been through, Tilly showed no signs of fear or mistrust of people – quite the opposite as she loved to snuggle and play. Tilly met her new family, Bill and Karen, during a meet and greet, much like the one I attended.

Two other TLC dogs, Harry and Haley, were 2-month old boxer-pit bull mixes who would not have survived in the shelter. The two pups were brought in together in a Tupperware container and were so sick they barely moved. Both dogs were scrawny and chock full of parasites. Harry had to be spoon-fed. Haley had seizures from the overload of vaccines, wormers, and nutrients that had to be given to her and spent the first weekend in VRC. In just two weeks, they more than doubled their weight and were acting and playing like normal puppies. They were eventually healthy enough to meet potential adopters. Harry was adopted right away.

So how can you help?

TLC is a volunteer-driven organization. In addition to volunteers that work meet and greets and assist with other tasks, they need foster families. TLC dogs aren’t left in shelters but are instead quickly moved to foster homes while volunteers seek to find permanent homes for the dogs. Fosters help dogs with house training when necessary, and work on basic manners. Foster families also socialize and interact with the dogs to learn their strengths and understand their challenges. Fostering helps TLC to evaluate the personality and temperament of the dogs in order to facilitate placement in the best homes possible.

You can make a donation online in any amount. If you prefer to write a check, send your contribution to:

To Love A Canine, Inc.
P.O. Box 422
Kimberton, PA 19442

You can also send supplies to TLC’s mailing address. If you’d like to contribute supplies that TLC has indicated they need, you can support TLC by buying items off of their Amazon wish list. Items range in cost from under $4 to $80 and include collars, leashes, and exercise kennel pens. It’s easy to order directly from Amazon: just click on the items on the list and at check-out, designate TLC as the recipient (it will show as an option). If you buy items elsewhere, you can note that on the wish list in order to avoid duplicating items.

You can show your support for TLC and help fund their work by picking up some cool TLC merchandise. In addition to tee shirts, magnets, totes, and more for humans, there are supplies for your furry friends, too.

As always, you want to make sure that your donation is going to a qualified charitable organization. A search using the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Select Check reveals that TLC is on the IRS list of qualified charitable organizations. To find out more about the work of the organization, check out their website, follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, or pin along with them on Pinterest (if you’re really in the mood for some cute pics, check out these success story photos).

And that’s a wrap! 12 charities, 12 days. I encourage you to check out the charities that made our list this year, including the previous 11:

Remember, submissions to the 12 Days of Charitable Giving are made by readers and in most cases, I can’t personally vouch for the good work that these folks do. So be generous. But be smart. Do your homework.
For more on the tax considerations in making charitable donations, check out some of these prior posts: