Despite the Ups & Downs, These Ladies Keep Coming Back for More
By Heidi Dahms Foster
Toby Frost: Every Rescue is Precious to Her
Toby Frost is a Board Advisor for Yavapai Humane Trappers. She comes by it naturally – having grown up with dogs, cats, chickens and a horse. In high school, her family had a lot of cats, but when she got a horse during high school, Toby found she was truly attached.
“Chico was a Tennessee walker pony and so much fun that he consumed my senior high school afternoons on the trails and hills around my southern California home,” she said.
After college and travel, during which she couldn’t have a pet, Toby returned home to begin a serious focus on rescuing pets for herself, and then branching into full rescue work.
“My first rescue with my husband Ray was in the late 70s, a beautiful collie mix, Bret, that had to be rehomed by kids living in an apartment. By that time, we were in our first home along with our first rescue cat, Chelsea, from a litter of free kittens.”
Ray, who Toby says surprisingly did not grow up with pets, “was a cautious patient audience who quickly discovered how captivating pet relationships can be and he has been my partner in crime ever since.”
While living in Flagstaff, after adopting a mustang, Toby and her husband got involved with the mustang protection group and worked with the Bureau of Land Management.
“My mustang Chester was a special love, and I went through the school of hard knocks on my first “horse training” adventures with that feisty boy,” Toby said. “But after he was trained, riding him often felt like an extension of myself with wings, and that brought indescribable joy.
“Adding to our 80s pack were two beautiful cats given away at a garage sale, a stray dog, ‘Wooly-beast,’ that a co-worker was headed with to the pound, another give-away dog, Penny, due to family allergies, and a Saint Bernard rescue, Nickle, from the Yavapai Humane Society,” she said.
After moving to Prescott in the late 90s, Toby volunteered with Yavapai Humane Society, helping to run their foster program. She then helped to start a local rescue, where she volunteered for 15 years. She volunteered briefly coordinating a foster program for an established rescue, then helped to start another new rescue before venturing in with Yavapai Humane Trappers Animal Search and Rescue.
“I was drawn to the offer to help start their foster program, and the widespread impact that adding search and rescue services provides for saving animal lives,” she said. She was attracted to the potential for changing the outcome for homeless and abandoned animals.
Every rescue has special meaning to Toby.
“Each rescue is very touching to me, from saving the puppies from Parvovirus, and in one instance, Distemper, to bringing the shut-down dogs out of their shells with a renewed will to live. I have watched life transform with a worried stray mom cat who had a litter of beautiful babies in (Ray’s) bathroom.
“Some of my toughest were my dear Mag, a three-legged border collie cross, and Zig, a baby pug rescue, who were my constant companions in my office for over a decade. They both left me last year within a month of each other, which just brought me to my knees. But I knew they were at least together, which consoled me as I slowly healed. I am grateful they were part of my life for so long,” Toby said.
A perfect scenario for Toby? “To not be needed in rescue anymore, because the problem of homeless and unwanted animals would be solved.”
“While I don’t see that happening in my lifetime, instilling the commitments that pets are family that you don’t just give up when it is inconvenient, and spay/neuter is not just a conversation piece, would be my greatest hope,” she said.
Dealing with people is sometimes harder than her rescue work, with some cases causing a great deal of sorrow.
“The animal cruelty cases are so traumatic, and the older animals that fold with broken hearts when their pet guardians leave them behind, bore into my brain,” she said.
Toby is in no way a quitter, however.
“The pleading eyes and hopeful looks from the next animal that needs me reel me in, and I shake myself off to go again.”
Kathy Norum, Volunteer Dog Walker, Enjoys Giving Love and Affection, and Receiving It From the Dogs She Helps
Kathy Norum said her family got her first puppy when she was five, and the pup lived to be 17. She also added hamsters, gerbils and a parrot to the mix! Now, she and her husband of 40 years, Milan, are volunteer dog walking regulars at Yavapai Humane Society.
Kathy turned her lifelong love of dogs into a volunteer mission after driving by YHS every day. “I was retired, and looking for something to do in my spare time. I’m so glad I stepped in to fill out an application!”
Now, she truly enjoys her time with the animals. “The love and affection I receive back is truly amazing. Most of the dogs just want attention and love in return. It really makes me feel good when I come across a dog that is really scared and unsure, and I can turn that around where the dog can be trusted and loving,” she said. “The best part is seeing the dog be adopted. It really makes the time and effort volunteering worthwhile.”
“Milan started volunteering around six months after I started. He saw that some days I was putting in four or five hours to get the available dogs all walked. I am so glad he is there. We make a pretty good team when we are short on walkers,” she said.
Yavapai Humane Society Volunteer Coordinator Allie Raugust said Kathy and her husband have been especially valuable during the Pandemic as volunteer numbers are down. “They spend time walking the dogs, and they help our volunteer photographers who take photos to advertise the available dogs on our website. They are absolutely wonderful, here almost every day, and I love their dedication and passion for the dogs.”
Kathy said she has had some truly heartwarming experiences during her volunteer time at YHS. “I think my first experience was with a dog named Sheryl. She wasn’t available for adoption just yet because she was so scared. It took a bit to get the leash on her to get her out of the kennel. I took her to the outdoor bark park to let her run around.
“When it came time to leash her again she wouldn’t come near me. So, I sat on the ground for about 45 minutes tossing her treats. She eventually got close enough where I could touch her and then leash her again. She got adopted shortly after she became available.”
“Then there was Tilly. She was a small black pit mix. She was so sweet but she wasn’t very cuddly. I would get her to run around outside and afterwards she would come by me for some treats and butt scratches. I made it a point to walk her whenever I was at YHS. It got to the point where she would bark and wag her tail whenever she saw me.
“Then one day my husband and I went to YHS to see if we could take her offsite to go hiking. When we arrived, there was a young couple looking at her outside in the bark park. Tilly was being her usual self, not showing a whole lot of affection. I walked by the kennel and she immediately started barking and wagging her tail. So I went in to visit her and talked with the couple, explaining her personality. They ended up adopting her that day. From what I have heard they are a very active couple and they take her everywhere. They even sent pictures of her on one of their hikes.”
Kathy said her goal is to get all the dogs walked each day she is at the shelter. She hopes eventually to see all YHS services in the same location. “As of right now the wellness and spay/neuter clinic is at a different location in Prescott and the equine center is in Chino Valley,” she said.
The love and affection Kathy has to offer keeps her returning often to walk and spend time with the dogs. “They give it back tenfold. It really warms your heart, knowing you are helping animals in need.”
Michele Bachman’s First Foray Into Fostering Drew Her Into a Lifelong Love for Helping Dogs
Michele grew up with dogs in Colorado and Utah, but later while living in apartments during 30 years in Hawaii, she was not able to have pets. Finally, she bought a house in North Oahu, and her first two rescues found her. The stray pups were heeler/whippet mixes, a cross that was often used to hunt boar on the island. The two showed up on her doorstep. She did eventually find out who owned the pups, and got permission to keep them. One, the runt, became ill and died fairly young, she said, but the other one is now 16. Then, neighborhood kids found another abandoned pup that Michele also still has.
“I’m single, so my dogs are my family. They have made as much difference in my life as anything,” she said.
Michele, an artist by trade, moved to Cottonwood in 2017. She started volunteering with various humane societies and rescues, but with two elderly dogs in her home, she wasn’t sure about taking in more dogs. Then, she met the rescuers from Yavapai Humane Trappers, and agreed to take in two six-week-old pups from the Navajo reservation. That’s when she made her first “foster fail,” which actually is a success.
When she met the two pups, they literally screamed when touched because they had never known human touch. They were loaded with ticks, so she took them home and bathed and loved them. One is now her own “foster failure,” an 8-month-old husky-shepherd mix, and the other has been adopted into a great home.
“It’s amazing, if you saw them now. They are beautiful animals,” she said.
Since then, Michele has fostered and seen adopted three more reservation pups. She said she got involved with Yavapai Humane Trappers because she likes the work they do finding animals that don’t have much chance otherwise.
Fostering has touched Michele in ways that nothing else has. “People ask me how I can foster and then give them up. They say they couldn’t do that. But I can when I see a dog go to such a good home,” she said.
Michele would like to see more people volunteer to foster. “It’s scary at first, but really it’s so rewarding.”
There is always the possibility of a “foster failure,” like Michele’s, a dog you just can’t let go, but rescues actually consider those “foster successes!”
The difficult times do come. “You think a lot of times, ‘no, I can’t, this is the last one.’ But the need is so great, and we have the ability to make a difference in dogs’ lives. Sometimes I have to take a step back and say, ‘I can do this.’’
She admits that the old dogs tug on her heart more than any others, perhaps because she has two precious senior dogs in her home. “I only do the old ones once in awhile – that breaks my heart.”
Michele wants to encourage people who are able to foster. “It’s not as scary as you think.” As she talks about the pup she adopted, and the ones she has fostered, it’s clear that despite any difficulties, the rewards are far greater.
