In the heartwarming annals of Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue, one story stands out—a testament to resilience, compassion, and the indomitable spirit of a canine survivor named Courage. This tale also underscores the importance of well-trained and passionate Rescue Ranch Advocates.
In 2020, Paws for Miles rescue in Loveland, Ohio, reached out to Marley’s Mutts for help with a dog that had lost its tongue after being used as a bait dog. The emotional damage Courage carried was devastating. His short life had been marred by the horrors of a fighting ring, and he bore the physical scars of abuse. But it was the emotional wounds that cut deepest.
Zach Skow, Marley’s Founder, drove to Loveland to rescue Courage and bring him back to California. Despite the odds stacked against him, Courage clung to life with unwavering determination. When he was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel syndrome and lost 25 pounds, it seemed we might lose him. Yet, Courage defied expectations.
His story resonated far beyond the Ranch. Through the power of social media, tens of thousands of people learned about Courage’s journey. He became a beacon of hope, touching hearts across the digital landscape. And then, one day, a family fell in love with him and came to meet him at the Ranch.
After 1100 days in our care, Courage entered foster care and cohabitated with other dogs. On Day 1223, his journey took an unexpected turn—he was adopted. Courage’s resilience and unwavering spirit serve as a reminder that even in the face of adversity, hope and love can prevail.
Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue
Marley's Mutts Dog Rescue
We are a community based organization focused on addressing the issues within animal welfare and rescue through every variable that affects euthanasia in our community. The Marley’s Mutts Rescue Ranch is a canine community center located right here in Tehachapi, California. The Rescue Ranch is actually 20 acres, and we have about five of it developed.
It's a great place for us to house dogs and get them the rehabilitation that they need at any given time. We have between 50 and 70 dogs that are in our care, many of them large breeds. Those are the ones that are struggling in shelters. Those are the ones that are hard to find fosters for.
By having this facility we actually get to help all of those dogs that normally we wouldn't be able to help. We have a staff here that works with the dogs on a daily basis. We can take on medical dogs. We can quarantine dogs directly out of the shelter. We can help litters. We can help senior dogs. The ranch is absolutely instrumental in helping us save lives.
Marley’s Mutts Mutt Movers is a rescue by relocation program. We take dogs from areas of high euthanasia concentration to areas of low euthanasia concentration. We transport the dogs because it gives us a means to immediately get them into foster and adoptive homes. It's almost doubled the amount of dogs that we're able to move out of the county and into homes immediately, versus the amount of dogs that we're able to get adopted.
We have our Miracle Mutts program, which is a huge community education and therapy program. These are owned dogs that go through AKC therapy dog training. They go in to everything from the reading program to visiting hospital patients, and provide stress relief, and also provide rehabilitative services for a variety of individuals that need help. We have partnered with more than 100 organizations in our community to bring the human animal bond into those facilities.
So Positive Change is a 14 week program that pairs a shelter dog with an inmate trainer. Our participants learn kind of the basics of dog training, and what we've been able to do in positive change is rescue and rehabilitate more than 500 dogs through the prison system and through the juvenile system. We've graduated more than a thousand students within the prison system.
Many of those students have gone on to become professional dog trainers themselves, and we are really rehabilitating and providing structure and guidance to the most vulnerable dogs in our community. It's basically just helping these dogs who most of the time don't have a lot of manners and teaching them to be polite dogs, which gives them the tools to get adopted and stay adopted.
