The White Muzzle Fund
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Mission
To provide the means so that abandoned senior dogs will not have to
live out their lives alone in an animal shelter cage.

Vision
Create a nationwide network of senior dog rescue programs by:
1.  Providing financial support for existing programs that find loving homes or provide a home-like setting for old dogs to live out their lives;
2.  Initiating and supporting similar programs where none exist.

A shelter cage is no place for an old friend.

Every homeless senior dog comes with a heartbreaking story. Animal groups that take on the responsibility of rescuing senior dogs are few and far between. It is rare to find people willing to open their hearts and homes to senior dogs for adoption or lifetime foster care.

The plight of a homeless senior dog is emotional as well as physical. Their bed is gone. Their water bowl is gone. Their favorite toy is gone. And, most devastating to them, the human family they had spent years with is gone.

Now they are old.
They are more tired than they used to be and sleep a little bit more.
Some don't see as well.  Some don't hear as well.  Some don't walk as well.
There isn't a familiar friend anywhere in their life.

They were used to having run of the house. They were used to having their heads petted, their ears scratched, their bellies rubbed, and sitting on the sofa with their human mom or dad. They knew just when to give a little bark to get the treat they knew they were entitled to; or how to stand anxiously by the door in that special way which said "I'm trying to be patient but hurry up with the leash, I really gotta go pee."

These are just a few of the everyday moments and rituals that made up their human-dog family life. Suddenly it is all gone.

Now they live in a cage at an animal shelter. Potential adopters pass right by them, perhaps pausing for a moment to let out a sympathetic sigh, then walking on to see the younger dogs.

This is what every senior dog that ends up in an animal shelter goes through. Most will not be adopted. Most will live out their remaining years, months, or days alone in their cage. The good news is that some people do care, and are running great programs for senior dogs:

Thinking Outside the Cage

Senior Dog Adoptions: Rescuing senior dogs from shelters (or accepting them from people who have to give them up) and finding carefully screened new families for them.

Senior Dog Lifetime Foster Care: The foster family supplies the love and a forever home, a senior dog program pays the vet bills.

Senior Dog Retirement Living: Small groups of dogs living with human caretakers in homes or home-like settings.

Senior Dog Assisted Living: For special needs seniors (i.e., blind, deaf, difficulty walking, incontinent) who may need a little extra help navigating life.

Senior Dog Hospice: Sometimes, when they are most fragile is when they find themselves all alone.

Given time, patience, love, and the right environment, even the most frightened or depressed senior dog can find happiness as part of a new family in their golden years.

For homeless dogs with less time left, senior dog programs provide companionship and care; give them a sense of safety and comfort; and, when the time comes, helps them pass knowing that at the end they were loved and not alone.