Where Hospice Dogs Go To LIVE!
Hi, this is Krista with episode number 113. On the wag out loud podcast, here's a tip help to keep your dog hydrated by adding fresh veggies to their meals. Most dogs that eat kibble are in a chronic state of dehydration and that contributes to problems such as kidney disease, or the formation of bladder stones. Vegetables are an excellent source of water and veggies like cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli, and brussel sprouts are over 85% water. So raw, lightly steamed or even frozen veggies are great, but you'll need to crush or pulverize them in a juicer or a blender, or your dog won't be able to digest them.
Welcome all dog lovers to another informative episode of The wag out loud podcast. And joining me today is Jeff Allen. Jeff Allen is the cofounder of Monkey’s House a Dog Hospice & Sanctuary and a bestselling author of Where Dogs Go To Live!: Inspiring Stories of Hospice Dogs Living in the Moment. And he is going to share with us about where hospice dogs go to live. Jeff, we so appreciate you being with us today and can't wait to learn more about you. Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your love of dogs?
Sure, Krista. And first thank you for having me on. It's an honor to be on Wag Out Loud. Thank you. So my wife and I in 2015 started Monkey's House. It's a dog hospice and sanctuary. We've rescued over 120 dogs that were going to be destroyed in shelters that come to our little farm here in New Jersey. And they live a great final chapter of their lives. We feed more holistic food depending on the health conditions. They live in a home environment. So yes, we have 20 to 25 dogs at any time living with us throughout the house. And it's just a great place. We have volunteers that come over to help out.
Wow! Well, Jeff, what do you consider to be a hospice dog?
So generally our dogs that we that we rescue have multiple medical, so they're medically diagnosed terminal. They could have cancer, major heart issues, liver, kidney, most of them also have either they're blind or they're deaf. So we have or both, we have quite a few things. But my wife, she was a nurse for many, many years. Now she's retired and she's just doing this. So she really does have that background and she's learned so much about dogs that really helps out. And, and I just do a lot of other things for the organization.
Wow, this sounds like a major undertaking. So why don't we go back? How was your dog Monkey the inspiration of Monkeys House?
That's a great question. So when we we were fostering dogs at the time. And we got Monkey from this local rescue shelter, said Hey, would you take little dog has major heart conditions, again because they knew my wife could handle the major medical issues. So we said yeah, will take monkey and my wife said that Monkey needs To get some very inexpensive heart meds, we've seen this before in dogs, she went to the shelter that shelter vet said, just take take him home. Monkey’s only gonna be around for like about a month or so. And that wasn't good enough for us. So we adopted Monkey took him to our own vet, he saw a cardiologist got on the meds he needed, which were like the $4 meds from Walmart, very inexpensive. And he lived 17 vibrant months with us. And that just kind of kicked it off, we realized there was there's very little resources for the terminally ill dogs in shelters. So we've started Monkey’s House.
That's fantastic. And what is your philosophy when it comes to dogs with a terminal illness? I know when we talked before, you had some different ideas about care, and you even have the beach and Santa, can you tell us more about all that?
Sure. And that's kind of our saying, right? Where dogs go to live? I you know, so look, these dogs, we get them as healthy as possible. We're not saying we're curing them from their terminal diagnosis. What we're saying is, we get them as healthy as they can be. So they can enjoy those final moments. And those final final moments could be simple things like going outside and having the sun and the wind blow in their face. Or it could be the more exciting things. We have a senior dog bus, it used to be a senior citizen bus. They all pile in with our volunteers meet us at the Jersey Shore. We'll go to see Santa. And they all go the ones who can't walk. We have strollers, we have little wagons, the blind ones, they love the different smells. So it's really it says something for even for us, right as humans. It's like, Look, you have to live every day till the end. So that's what we will do with these dogs. And they do they love life.
Lucky dogs, for sure. And how many dogs do you typically care for at one time? Did you say
at one time we were at almost 30 at one time, which was a lot for us. We generally about 25. But we have been down to about 20 during the pandemic because we also social distance. A lot of the volunteers weren't coming over. And they're just starting, you know, a lot of us got vaccinated. So we're just starting to come back on. So we're getting back up there. We I think we have 22 right now.
Okay. My main question is how on earth do you care for each dog's medical needs? When it comes to food and medications and supplements and anything else that they need to treat their illness? I would imagine that it's a 24/7 routine over there.
It certainly is. Well, first, I have to have this big do a big shout out to all of our, our supporters, right, we're a donation based organization, a 501 3c. So we do get a lot of donations that come in that help support the financial end of it because it is very expensive for anybody having dogs it will be very expensive for medical surgery or issues. Then each dog is looked at when they first come, we actually take them to the vet, Michelle figures out a diet for them because depending on what their medical condition is, if they have cancer or if they have some type of liver or kidney issues, then they are put on different dietary supplements along with the the base food could be different as well. Some dogs get a chicken, turkey, beef, even pork or or so on. And we feed more raw if we can or gently cooked food. So it's all home cooked, no bag food. And we found that that food therapy is really makes a big difference. We still use the traditional medicine as well. I mean if they if they need to get meds, they get their meds. But we do find that on being on healthy food reduces that at times.
Okay, that's great. So you've mentioned that you have volunteers, obviously that help you with all of this. How do these terminally ill dogs find you?
They all the all the shelters around here now? know of us. So when they have a dog that has a major medical issue that needs to be…a lot of them have to be euthanized, sadly, that they will get in touch with us. And if we have room for them, then we would gladly bring them in to Monkey’s House. First. They first they actually go to a quarantine foster for a couple of weeks. Because we don't want to potentially bring anything in from the shelter like kennel cough. So they're isolated for two to three weeks. And then they make their way to Monkey's House. And then they get they get all the love they can imagine… our aunts and uncles. Here's a good name for our Aunts and Uncles. I mean, our volunteers are called aunts and uncles. Because we want them to really be part of the family and they really fall in love with these dogs.
That is amazing. And Where exactly are you in New Jersey?
We're in Burlington County which is the Southern part of New Jersey.
Okay. And that's why you're close to the shore. That's fantastic. Yeah. Well, Jeff, you and Michelle are doing such great, great work, so that these dogs can actually live out their final days and pure happiness. And I want to talk to you about the emotional strain on you guys. So knowing that these dogs won't be with you for a long time, how do you deal emotionally with all the attachment? And then the inevitable loss? You're constantly dealing with anticipatory grief, aren't you?
We are. And, look, it's no different than, than anybody who has a dog, and that dog becomes sick, and you're taking care of it, and then it passes. It's heartbreaking. And honestly, every one breaks our hearts. And Michelle said one day, when they don't break our hearts anymore, that's when we'll stop. Because they deserve all of our love, and affection. You know, it's, it's tough, it is tough. But you know, we have 20 some, so we have to keep going. And you have to keep moving on. We're very sad. And we're sad for a long time. With 20 some dogs, you would think that we don't miss one dog. We miss them tremendously. there's a there's a big hole in the family for quite a while, I guess is no different than then someone who has one or two dogs to be honest with you.
And can you set the scene? What What does Monkey's House look like on a typical day?
I don't know there's any typical day here. So yeah, we, you know, I wake up, usually I'm up first, and I'll start getting some of the dogs out back in our big fenced in backyard. So they go out back and, and do their business or, and then I have to wake some of them up and carry them out. Because they can't they're not very mobile. And then we actually will get ready to start feeding and feeding takes about an hour and a half. Again, like I said, because it's all special meals. It's something that some of its pre cooked. But you still have to prepare 20 some meals. With the meds get the dogs we do have crates for a lot of the dogs for when we feed just so they're not getting into someone else's food with their medicine. So they are most of them are all separated. Once the feeding is done, then it's walking time. So they go out for walks. The ones that need a strollers and even we have a couple that are in their own little carts because their back end doesn't work. Put them in there, take them out. And sometimes you can't you're taking out five or six at a time on walks up and down the driveway. A few of the other dogs that can go further might go around the back field are, you know we have old country roads, there's not much traffic, you can go down the road, you know, then lunch, it's really funny around this time at lunchtime, it's very quiet, all the dogs are kind of resting. And then it starts back up again around four o'clock they get excited for dinner. And it's the same process again. And then on certain days of the week, like Wednesdays are the days that my wife takes all the dogs to the vet the pet bt some of them get physical therapy, the underwater treadmill, laser therapy. So usually she has about 15 dogs in our van that goes to the vet’s on Wednesdays. And then sometimes on the weekend weekend, we'll try to do a trip out to the state forest, we live close to the Pine Barrens or if it's a special occasion, we we hit the beach.
Well, this is a labor of love, for sure. And Jeff, you are an expert and caring for dogs with terminal illness. So let's chat about your thoughts about how we can care for a terminally ill dog here at home. What recommendations do you have?
I think the biggest recommendation with will say, first have a great relationship with your vet, we joke and say if you're not that you're going to especially during COVID, you're not going to hug your vet. But if you don't feel like hugging your vet, you might want to find another vet, you want to find the best vet that's going to listen to to your needs and your dog's needs. Like I said, we do traditional and non traditional. So our vet’s a little mix of the both. If you have a traditional vet that you want to look at some non traditional approaches, see if your vet’s interested in that. A lot of vets will be if they're not, you know, maybe you need to find somebody else to to work with. But that's not said you have to have a great relationship with your vet. Because if your dog does become have issues and you need to get like say fluids for your dog, you can do fluids at home. The vet can teach you how to do that. I do it all the time. I don't have a medical background. So you could do something like that at home. We call that sofa medicine. Chapter, a chapter in the book I wrote it talks about all those things that you can do at home that you know, in the comfort of your home, because your dog might be get anxious when you go to the vet. So if it’s done on your couch is going to be more relaxing to them and more relaxing to you. It's just have that relationship with your vet, and learn to educate yourself. So educate yourself as much as you can about the about the condition of your dog, I think that's going to put your mind at ease.
Absolutely. And I think what you guys are doing that is so amazing, as you're helping these dogs, you focus on the moment, that you're not looking into the future. And you are actually giving them precious time and memories, and living in the here and now, which I think is fantastic. And I would think a lot of people that have a dog with an illness, they're already thinking about when the dog is gonna pass and they're not living in the moment, like you guys are. I want to say kudos to you for doing that. Because a lot of us would just be in grief already before the dog is even passed. Do you want to speak to that?
Yeah, Krista, that the dogs feel that energy too. We have a big saying here that we try to keep everything positive, as much as we can, you know, the dogs that we take in, most of them have had a horrible life prior to us. But we don't think of that, you know, when they get here, we think of that point and forward. So everything is happy times, even when, you know, it's funny, we have a large Facebook following, and sometimes we’ll say, Oh, this dog came in and they'll see pictures of it and is really abused. And people, you'll get some people that are like, oh, well it’s in the best place it can be now, you know, going forward. Other people say that, but they also say, you know, bad karma for the previous owners. And we're like, no, don't even bring that up. Because we don't want to think of negative things. It's all positive. And like you were saying, it's all positive things. Even if your dog does have a terminal diagnosis. What can you do positive? Can you take them to a walk on the beach? No, if they can't walk, then can you put them in a stroller and take them somewhere? You know, it's just like you said it took little moments that they're going to enjoy. And when they enjoy, you're going to enjoy it.
Yeah, I agree. And we have to, you know, a lot of us are control freaks. And we have to accept the fact that we cannot control our dog's illness. So to your point, live in the here and now and make their final days as wonderful as possible and that would help you as well. And while we're on the topic of you know, the caretaking role, it has to be emotionally and physically exhausting for us taking care of our dog and seeing them in their final stages. So Wouldn't you say that it's so important for us to take time out for ourselves so that we can better in taking care of them?
Absolutely. I think we do need to do that. And again, like I said, if you could do that along with your dog, it's what, how better is that? Right? If you could spend some time, just even just sitting outside with them, doing whatever. And like I said, If as long as you know as much as you can about them, and the illness that they have with the condition that they have. Because that's going to put your mind at ease too. Because if you know what the stages are of that illness, then when things happen, you're going to understand it more so then then just be nervous and really upset about it. It's going to be upsetting, but at least you're going to know that knowledge is power in taking care of your dogs.
And you mentioned that you have a very strong Facebook following. You don't have to go through this alone, right? There has to be so many support groups out there of others going through the same thing.
Absolutely. You know, when we started Monkey's House in 2015, we didn't even think about what our Facebook group would be like we we just said, Oh, you know, we got we have to start one because we need to get followers and hope to support these dogs right financially and emotionally. But we didn't realize that we now have 70,000 followers on Facebook, around the world. And yeah, and it has it has been so yeah, not only do they fall in love with our dogs, it's amazing how they fall in love with dogs from they've never seen and one passes, we'll get you know, 10,000 comments and not just rip but like comments that they've been following this dog. But what is amazing is that when someone else's dog passes, like they’ll, you can tell that maybe they don't have the support at home so much. But on the Facebook group, they'll say something about it, and then all the other people chime in and give them support. So it really is a big support network in a way and we didn't we didn't realize that was what Monkey’s House was going to become, you know, the Facebook page and everything. So it's quite amazing. And also was one of the things that brings joy to my wife and I the most is when someone comments and says, you know, by following you guys, I took a chance. And I adopted a senior dog with medical issues because I realized I can do it. Or they'll say, I didn't put my dog down when I thought other people told me because I was listening to you. And I had so much, so much more wonderful time with them. Yes, there were tough times too. But, and that's those are the most rewarding things for us, is to not just the dogs that we have here. But we're helping people with their dogs as well.
I just got goosebumps, that is amazing. You're touching so many lives. So all of your hard work, it has to just feel so rewarding when when you hear confirmation like that.
It really is. because like you said, it is hard, it gets tough at times, sometimes, you know, sometimes, you know, we get down, I get down. And then when I start reading comments, or reading things like that, it really brings me back up and says you know what, I am doing the right thing. You know, we are doing a good thing for these dogs. So keep chugging along.
Well, Jeff, you briefly mentioned about the book, and the book is where dogs go to live inspiring stories of hospice dogs living in the moment. How did that book come to be?
You know, we we post every night on Facebook. And you know, if I did I do my wife, my wife probably does more than I do. My wife is more educational. I'm kind of more fun, you know, but people really enjoy it. And I started enjoying writing. So a couple of years ago, before I I put the book out, which was the end of last summer, I started writing about different dogs stories. And I just thought that they they deserve to have their stories told, I kept writing about the stories more and more. And within a couple of years, I basically had a book. So I, I put it out and it's got really, I got a five star rating on Amazon, I'm kind of surprised. 250 reviews, it's done very well. And it really does highlight all the stories of all the stories of dogs we have here. Not all the dogs we've like I said we had 120 that's about 37 stories in the book. And also, there's a little bit education in there talks about how Monkeys House how we care for the dogs, medically and in food therapy, and different things like that. And I talked about sofa medicine. So it tells you how you can take care of your dogs. If these fluids are inflamed and things like that. But it's it's very, I didn't want it to be sad. And I wanted to show people that. You know, these hospice dogs, a lot of people don't want to talk about hospice, right? It's a word that no one wants to talk about. But these dogs live life that's really why we titled it, where dogs go to LIVE. It's been a great experience I got this is my first book I've written I've actually I'm starting the second one. Now it's going to be out. It's a coffee table book actually of pictures of dogs and some some funny and inspirational quotes.
Oh, that's fantastic. Well, this book not only has amazing reviews, but the endorsements that you have from top people in the industry. I mean, that is impressive. When Dr. Karen Becker or Dr. Judy Morgan or Rodney Habib, we all know those names, and they give high accolades to this book. So it must be very heartwarming as well as informative.
Yes. I'm very thankful for all the people who did endorse, I said, I guess you're right, we got a lot of terrific endorsements for the book. And you know, to be honest, they just, they know what we do here. They know that the care we give these dogs, and they love what we do and and they read the book and they love the book too. So that was that was a plus double plus they get they love us and then they liked the book.
that's great. And are there other facilities like yours around the country?
Sadly, there's very few like ours, Krista, who's the you know, there's senior sanctuaries and a lot of senior sanctuaries have some hospice dogs. But, you know, a lot of shelters will have volunteers that might take their hospice dog home and they'll say, you know, take Fido home, just keep them comfortable in a bed and feed them and, and just let them rest until he passes. He does not and there's nothing wrong with that because I understand it. But that's not our philosophy. You know, our philosophy is we bring them to Monkeys House. We get them as healthy as they can be. For those final moments, and not just to lay in a bed, but to go to the Jersey Shore to take walks at the park, even if it's in a stroller, right, so they get the smells, they can they can get the sight.s So we, Michelle once said, you know, one of her quotes was just because you’re dying doesn't mean you can't live. And that's how we feel about these dogs. We want them to live.
And they have each other, which is fantastic as well.
Oh, it's amazing to see, you know, 98% of our dogs are senior dogs too. And they come in here by themselves. Next thing you know, they have a buddy or two or three they're laying with, like a dog pile of a dog pile together. So it's really cute.
That's fantastic. Well, Jeff, as we are wrapping up, I mean, my heart is so full right now. What would you like to leave us with?
I guess I'd like to say that, you know, senior dogs, and especially these senior dogs with medical issues, they still have a lot of love to give, and a lot of love to receive. So don't write them off so fast. Enjoy your time with them. Especially if you have a dog that's getting older and, and has some medical issues. enjoy time with them. Like I. said, get as much information you can on the illness that they have. Have a vet that really respects your opinions and that you respect and love. And just enjoy that final time with your dogs.
And it's perfect advice. Jeff, where can everyone find out more information about you? Monkeys House and your amazing book where dogs go to live?
So Where Dogs go to live is in any bookstore has it. Amazon is a big place people buy it or Barnes and Noble online those type of stores. So they can go to where dogs go to live out on Amazon. And then our Monkeys House is monkeyshouse.org. That's our website. And from our website, you can obviously see a lot of the dogs. If you're interested in you know, donate or follow us on Facebook has a link to Facebook. And so please come check out Monkey’s House, check out the book Where Dogs Go To Live!. FB: @monkeyshouse.org IG: @monkeyshouse_doghospice
And Krista I greatly appreciate for you having me on to talk about the dogs that we love so much.
We appreciate everything that you and Michelle and all of your volunteers, aka the aunts and uncles are doing for these dogs. And hopefully we gave everybody some inspiration today that if you have an aging dog with an illness, that there's so much you can do for them in their final days. So Jeff, thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you.
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Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode?