Will You Strut Your Mutt for Animal Welfare?

The nationwide fundraising dog-walk by Best Friends Animal Society needs you and your dog.

Best Friends Animal Society’s Strut Your Mutt is a nationwide event in which people take nice, leisurely strolls with their dogs to raise money for animal welfare groups. Last year, it took in $1.3 million, benefiting 180 groups. This year, it's aiming for $2 million, with different walks taking place in 11 cities in the next few months.  

This is a fun way to raise money for dogs. Register to walk, choose which group you want to benefit in your city, set up your fundraising page on the site, and hit up your friends and co-workers for donations (which is made easy through the website). On the big day, you get to take a nice walk with a bunch of other people walking dogs, and there are few things more enjoyable than that.  

We can't call out all the individual teams nationwide, but because Dogster is based in San Francisco, we can give some love to the home team. Our strut takes place on Treasure Island on Sept. 21, and the local animal welfare groups who are participating -- and who you can donate to! -- are are fine bunch: Milo Foundation, NorCal GSP Rescue, Oakdale Shelter Pet Alliance, Reunion Rescue,  and San Francisco Animal Care & Control.

But, alas, in perusing the donations pages of all the above groups (which you can get to by those links), we noticed something sad. As of press time, many of them had a healthy donations -- with NorCal GSP Rescue leading the pack at nearly $6,000 -- but one poor soul had not a single donation: San Francisco Animal Care & Control.

We feel you, San Francisco Animal Care & Control. 

So, readers -- and we're especially looking at you, local readers -- are we going let this fine organization strut around Treasure Island without a single dollar behind it? Are we going to let this San Franciscan dog, led by Capt. Susan Butler, raise zero dollars at a nationwide fundraising effort?

We think not. Let's help San Francisco Animal Care & Control get some money on the boards before strut-day. Here's part of Susan Butler's statement on the site to help you ease open your wallet: 

I am participating in Strut Your Mutt to raise money that will go directly back into my community to be used to fund adoption programs and spay/neuter services, ultimately impacting the number of pets entering and leaving the shelters.

What else do you need to know? Donate. And then get out there and Strut Your Mutt.

Photos via Strut Your Mutt's Facebook page

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An Extreme Mutt Makeover by CARA Welfare Philippines

A female dog named Matt faced a miserable life outdoors but now is looking for her forever home.

The stray pets of the Philippines are fortunate that an intrepid group of volunteers have their backs: CARA Welfare Philippines -- Compassion and Responsibility for Animal Welfare in the Philippines. A nongovernmental nonprofit operating solely on private donations, the Manila-based group has made possible many astonishing success stories. But we think one of CARA's most compelling cases is the extreme makeover of a mini-mutt called Matt.

Matt is certainly an offbeat name for a girlydog; she earned her handle because of the tangled mats of knotted hair that covered her entire body. But mats were the least of little Matt's problems.

"Matt belonged to a squatter whose house is pasted against a wall along Araneta Avenue," says CARA's Rebecca Tieng, who discovered the dog in October. She was kept above the ground on an elevated piece of plyboard, tethered by a short metal wire just a foot long. The wire was so tight around Matt's neck that it dug into her flesh. Two years prior, her owners had acquired Matt as a puppy, then promptly robbed her of every pup's birthright: To romp and play and sleep where it's safe. She never knew the comfort of living indoors.  

"She lived in a very neglected state," Tieng says -- and that's putting it mildly. Had Matt tripped or fallen or taken one wrong step off her plyboard perch, she would've died by hanging. With no roof or canopy over her head, she was fully exposed to the elements.

Meanwhile, the wire around her neck gave her an inflamed wound. She was rarely fed, and never got water -- unless, that is, you count the raindrops that pelted her from a stormy sky, cruelly stinging her wounded neck.

Tieng boldly offered the owners money for their dog. "I convinced them to give her up, paid them 1,000 pesos, and they surrendered her to me," she recalls. So hands-off were these people that they thought their dog was male; now, Tieng says, "Matt is short for Mathilde!"

Upon arrival at the CARA veterinary clinic, Matt was shaved from nose to tail, with extra care taken around the neck, to expose the injured flesh for treatment and healing. Not surprisingly, Tieng says, "the wound had become badly infected, so the vets cleaned and stitched it up." Despite the pain she endured thanks to mistreatment, Matt enjoyed interacting with the people who tended to her.

That pesky name has understandably caused confusion, leading people to believe Matt is a boy. On the CARA blog, prior to desexing surgery, Matt's prognosis was: "He will be a beautiful dog once his fur has grown back." 

Along with the matted, filthy fur and the ability to reproduce, Matt also shed her fear of moving an inch. Her inner puppy came out to play, for keeps. "She would bark incessantly until she was let out of the clinic cage and played with," Tieng says. "She loved attention, hugging, and nipping!"

Today, Matt is doing well. "She is housetrained, instinctively very clean, and smells like a baby," Tieng reports. Matt loves interacting with dogs and people of all sizes, but CARA is seeking a home without children because of her irrepressible, puppylike tendency to jump, hug, and -- yep -- nip. 

Considering all she's been through, it seems only fair to grant this dog a permanent puppy pass. CARA's truth-in-advertising approach is commendable: "She must have someone in the home 24/7 who can give her all the love and care she missed for the first two years of her life," Tieng insists. "She is very sweet but naughty in her own cute ways."

Long may Matt's too-long-repressed inner puppy play. CARA hopes you'll help spread the word about Matt, so she'll find her forever home -- and please consider donating so the group may continue doing dog's work for the Philippines' furry citizens. 

Do you know of a rescue hero — dog, human, or group — we should profile on Dogster? Write us at dogsterheroes@dogster.com. 

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