Q & A with Amanda & Martin St. John of Muttshack Animal Rescue & Disaster Response
Comments(9)
Marty: I don't think I ever actually made that decision because I grew up with them and they've always been a part of my life. I've always been a dog lover and they've always followed me home. For everyone who has grown up with dogs, there is always one dog that stands out in their childhood. Mine was "Tippy," he was a pit-bull that looked like Petey from the Little Rascals and he protected me from everything and everybody. We lived in a tough neighborhood in New Jersey. Tippy always had my back and I always had his. GC: Why dogs? A&M: Dogs have such joie de vivre. They love us unconditionally. They challenge us to do things we'd never contemplate, like taking on mountains we have no business climbing. We go exploring off road, get lost, and miraculously by nightfall they always find the trail and we make it home again.  GC: How have you balanced work with your dogs? Marty: My dogs would phrase that question in a slightly different way, "What's with this work thing anyway and what could you possibly be doing on this great earth that could be more important than going out with us, throwing rocks and toys and stuff, digging holes - the deeper the better - I'll find it I swear." And maybe they'd be right. Amanda: I work from home in unfettered dogdom. I'm actually attached, at the toes, to my shadow, Muttley. He lies under my desk. Roxy lies behind my chair while I work. But at exactly four o'clock, these comatose dogs--who can obviously read the clock on the wall---leap up and demand to take us on a hike. It is a fair balance: Work, Hike, Eat, Sleep.
Amanda: Thousands. In April 2005 Marty gave me a rather unusual birthday gift - a 501(c) (3) non-profit. MuttShack! The idea was to put Mutts into Shacks, so we rescued dogs and cats on death row and found them homes. Then came Hurricane Katrina. MuttShack set up an emergency triage clinic and shelter in the Lake Castle School in New Orleans. It was fierce. No electricity, no water, thousands of starving dogs and cats, and animals trapped in homes all over the city. We stayed throughout Hurricanes Rita and Wilma; then, when the poor refugees came back, the shelters started overflowing with surrendered dogs because everyone had lost their homes. Dogs that survived Katrina now pitfully sat on death row. So we were back doing shelter rescues and moving dogs to large metro areas like Atlanta, New York and Denver, where there are big enough populations and infrastructures in place to get them adopted---three cargo vans in tandem.
GC: How did your present dogs come into your life? Amanda: Both of our dogs were picked up as strays. Roxy was standing at the side of the road in pouring rain and Muttley was dodging Los Angeles rush hour traffic. GC: What kind of cars would your dogs drive? A&M: Muttley would have a speedy convertible. Roxy, a Land Rover for rescue work. GC: What would be the title of your dogs' autobiographies? A&M: Muttley - "Live, Love, Run." Roxy -"Sun Tzu and the Art of War-m Food Falling from the Sky." GC: Is there a secret about you that only your dogs know? Amanda: I throw dog bones over the fence for the neighbor's dogs. Marty: I sneak up on the dogs when they're not paying attention - keeps them alert and helps develop useful skills like sleeping with one eye open.
A&M: "Four o'clock is time for your walk, dammit." GC: What is your pet peeve about your dogs? Amanda: To wake us in the morning, they will jump all over the bed, no matter how tired we are, how well we hide, or how mean we growl. Marty: Roxy has a bark that catches you off guard and makes you jump right out of your skin -- just like in the cartoons. GC: What musical instruments would your dogs play? Marty: Muttley would play the obnoxious squeaky ball in A sharp---Allegro, of course. Amanda: Roxy would be the Maestro and confiscate the offending instrument. GC: What do your dogs think about cats? Amanda: Roxy had her own cat "Spyder" which she rescued from a trash bag in the hills. Her Spydercat would have nothing to do with humans. Come dinner time, we'd tell Roxy to go get her cat so we could feed them together. Marty: Muttley's nemesis is the cat from across the street that has the effrontery to sit outside, on our front windowsill, to watch birdie-TV (aka - the aviary) and to contemplate his favorite birdie recipes. He sits there ignoring Muttley's full throttle frenzy, seemingly extolling the virtues of glass windows.
A&M: Going to the dog park and watching them interact with other dogs and meeting other people who have dogs. GC: What excites your dogs the most? A&M: Three words, "shoes," "walk" and "leash" -- in no particular order. GC: If your dogs were human, what would be their favorite movies? A&M: Muttley, a regular TV watcher, loves 101 Dalmatians. Glenn's got some explaining to do to him. Roxy would love Rat Race and the endless silliness. She loves to hear us laugh!  GC: What is it about you that makes your dogs most proud? Amanda: I think they know what we do, how we rescue animals. It is heartbreaking work and they know it. Marty: Roxy? How I always feed her first out of respect. Muttley? How I always seem to throw the ball further than the other guys in the dog park. GC: What is it that makes you most proud about your dogs? A&M: Muttley can outrun the wind! Roxy is a little animal rescuer and will protect small creatures from harm---even from other dogs.
A&M: They sleep with each other, their toys and bones in the family room - spread out on their memory-foam dog beds and covered in comforters. GC: Where are your dogs' favorite spot at home? Amanda: Muttley likes to be on duty at the front door since he is still trying to get a handle on the cat's schedule. They also like to perch on the back hill. GC: Do your dogs like to dress up? Amanda: When it rains I like to dress them in Picasso colored raincoats (made for kids) and booties. We like to keep the mud outside. They hate it but a walk is a walk! GC: Do your dogs have a special talent? Amanda: Roxy rescues animals. When we had three dogs, we once found all of them going round and round the potted plant after a mole. Roxy backed them off and commandeered the mole, which was covered in slobber—quite annoyed—but safe. Marty: Muttley speaks. Hardly any sound comes out, but he mouths the words. He asks to go outside---Yap yap yap… sotto voce. We have scarves tied to the doorknobs so he will yank doors open and go almost anywhere he wants. GC: If your dogs were famous people, who would they be? A&M: Roxy would be Greta Carbo. (She adores all carbohydrates.) Muttley would be Kobe Bryant. The boy's got hops! GC: Is there a question you would like to ask your dogs, or vice versa? A&M: We wonder where they were before they came to us. Who kicked Muttley in the head and blinded him in one eye? Who stole Roxy's tail? We'd like to get our hands on both of those jerks. GC: What is your dogs' idea of perfect happiness? Amanda: Muttley loves it when Marty picks up a rock or his toy and throws it: the anticipation, the swaying back and forth, anxiously trying to figure out which way it will go; and then, when the rock takes flight, Muttley spontaneously combusts---sometimes outrunning the rock before it lands. Roxy is the Yin to Muttley's Yang. She loves calmness and serenity. Her perfect happiness is when I place one of our baby birds between her two front paws and she sits in the sun motionless snuggling just like a brooding hen with a big smile on her face.
A&M: A place where dogs and all animals are respected loved and protected -- where they aren't treated like property. The satisfaction of knowing that what we do makes a difference -- that's happiness. That we never forget how much we love and appreciate life in all its forms, our volunteers who give so selflessly, our friends who put up with us arriving late because we were orchestrating some unplanned rescue. To spend more time with people who share our love and commitment to animals, and are dedicated to making this a better place for all of us and have influence and the respect of others so they can get them to help. |
Posted By
Posted By
on May 22, 2008