Missing in Action

Where have I been and why is this blog not updated? Good question. Here's the short version -- I may or may not get around to posting the longer story.

Let it suffice to say that on 1 June 2010, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, I had surgery to remove a golf ball-sized tumor on my pituitary gland. Recovery has been uneventful but slow. Benign, slow-growing, but probably has been affecting me for some time.

Now I'm back. Stay tuned.

Change focus: rescues don't need money

We don't. What we need is vet care. Medicine. Transports. Kenneling. Foster homes. Dog food.

Money is how we're used to getting those things.

But what if there were another way?

Another grant program for your list

Interesting new grant source for rescue groups:

http://dogtime.com/dog-shelter-grants

Ben Hur Lampman on Where to Bury a Dog

Someone on one of my Airedale lists just posted this to a friend who has just lost a dog. I haven't run across this before but it's well worth sharing. It was originally published in 1926.

"For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last."

"On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives. But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all."

"If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there."

"People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing."

"The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master."

Ben Hur Lampman"

For more on this remarkable writer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hur_Lampman

Share the Pain -- filling out 501(c)3 paperwork.

Well, we had a great live workshop on filling out the 501(c)3 paperwork and were able to solve a number of problems for a couple of rescues. I am really surprised at what bad legal advice some folks have gotten. In one case, a group was told that they could form an LLC and get 501(c)3 status for it.

A simple reading of the IRS instructions would have save them a ton of money. First, yes, an LLC can apply for tax-exempt status – but ONLY if ALL MEMBERS of the LLC are 501(c)3 themselves. And since an individual can't get 501(c)3 status individually, neither can an LLC composed of individuals. (Something had struck me as odd about that whole setup from the git go, but it took this workshop to get me off my duff to actually look at the rules.)

The second situation involved untangling a morass of poor recordkeeping. I'm hoping that this particular group will be able to resurrect their status without having to refile, but that remains to be seen.

All in all, it was a great evening. Once I found my mysteriously-missing handouts and instructions, it went very smoothly and I know that at least two of the attendees have already sent off for grants for the filing fees or have actually filed their paperwork.

We'll have to do another workshop soon. As a matter of fact, I'm planning one on fundraising right now and that may be the next one we actually put on.

I'm committed to making all live workshops available in internet class format, too. So if you missed the live workshop (with, I might add, a TREMENDOUS CD just FULL of information!) you can take the class online. Just sign up on the website at http://atriskintervention.org. There's a small user fee for some of the courses – that's what supports our work – but there are also a ton of free courses, like the Five Minute Grant Writer.

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TIRED. Just finished uploading the online course to get your nonprofit status. About time! http://dogbooks.org/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=9&Itemid=44

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Blog Roll for At Risk Intervention

So what are your favorite animal rescue blogs? I want an awesome list for http://atriskintervention.org. I especially want hard-hitting expose-abuse bloggers and creative solutions. Help me out? Nominate a blog!