{"id":2124,"date":"2016-01-04T00:20:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T00:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/pets\/very-practical-joke-prank-it-forward-pulls-the-fur-over-dog-rescuer-s-eyes\/"},"modified":"2016-01-04T00:20:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T00:20:18","slug":"very-practical-joke-prank-it-forward-pulls-the-fur-over-dog-rescuer-s-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/very-practical-joke-prank-it-forward-pulls-the-fur-over-dog-rescuer-s-eyes","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Prank It Forward&#8217; Pulls the Fur Over Dog Rescuer&#8217;s Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sherri Stankewitz, the founder of the Long Beach nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WestCoastAnimalRescue\/photos_stream\">West Coast Animal Rescue (WeCARe)<\/a>, is accustomed to the heartaches and headaches that go with extreme animal rescue. She\u2019s so used to it, in fact, that when an officer from the PET Investigation Foundation drove into the Seaport Marina Hotel parking lot, a frequent host of WeCARe\u2019s adoption events, and interrupted the biggest adoption event that WeCARe had organized, all she said was \u201cDamn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The officer said that she was over the limit in dogs (there were around 30 of them at the event) and needed to clear them out in about an hour. Worse, not a single person had come to even look at the dogs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was blistering hot, and we had all these dogs!\u201d Stankewitz said.<\/p>\n<p>WeCARE had its beginnings with several rescuers who met eight years ago in Long Beach. Stankewitz had been the sole manager of South Bay rescue Sparky and the Gang, and the reorganization promised to help dogs find homes in a huge way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody became a family,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do things together, even go on vacations together. It\u2019s about the animals, but we\u2019ve created an amazing group of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-45921\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Sherri-and-crew.JPG\" alt=\"Sherri and crew\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0The amazing group of friends recently spent several months planning an elaborate prank called \u201cAll Dogs Must Go!\u201d on their founder through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prankitforward.com\/\">Prank It Forward\u00a0(PIF)<\/a>, a nonprofit charitable organization that may have been conceived when <i>Queen for a Day <\/i>got together with <i>Candid Camera <\/i>and put steroids in their offspring\u2019s formula. Nominations of worthy recipients are submitted to the website, and a winner is chosen from tens of thousands of entries (click the link and enjoy the heartfelt supergags they created\u2014they\u2019re wonderful). The producers then team up with a brand partner\u2014Barefoot Wine &amp; Bubbly joined them for \u201cAll Dogs Must Go!\u201d\u2014and create a scenario that spans a few weeks and results in the lucky victim receiving life-altering rewards for his or her good work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had actually seen some of their stuff online and I thought it was so amazing\u2014I like to pay it forward, and I love pranks,\u201d said Tee, a WeCARE volunteer since the beginning. She submitted Stankewitz\u2019s nomination and was overjoyed when PIF picked it out of 20,000 submissions.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the prank, Tee and another volunteer, Louise Montgomery, sprang an impromptu rescue event on Stankewitz, and there was no accompanying publicity to bring in their usual crowds. Stankewitz had no idea what was going on, and she was on her last nerve by the time Pet Investigative Foundation showed up.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cKimy had said, we\u2019re going to have this big event!\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I said, why? There are no flyers, nobody knows about it\u2014and you want me to bring 30 dogs? Meanwhile, Louise was letting all these dogs go to foster homes instead of the adoption event. Where\u2019s the money [from adoption fees] going to come from? And Louise says, Oh don\u2019t worry about it. And I say, I\u2019m worried about it! I gotta pay the rent!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even if she\u2019d thought of it, Stankewitz had no time to Google \u201cPET Investigation Foundation,\u201d and she wouldn\u2019t have found anything anyway. It was way under an hour when the officer drove up again and gave the dogs marching orders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHang on a second\u2014I want to show you something,\u201d he said ominously. He walked over to a covered vehicle hitched to his truck and pulled the cover off to reveal a brand-new trailer. It was donated to WeCARe by the Airstream corporation and decorated with the organization\u2019s name, its logo and dog-related graphics. Stankewitz put both her hands over her face in disbelief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen all these people started coming out\u2014they were coming out the front, they were coming out the back, like sardines\u2014and I started crying,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6c6rhvVA3eg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" seamless=\"\" style=\"border: 0; outline: 0;\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6c6rhvVA3eg\">\u201cAll Dogs Must Go\u201d<\/a>\u00a0is without doubt a 10-Kleenex production. It was over a year in the making and expresses more about Stankewitz, the volunteers and the dogs than words ever could, but I\u2019ll give it a shot.<\/p>\n<p>WeCARe goes above and beyond what most rescues do. Many of the dogs that Stankewitz pulls from the shelter or goes after to save are pets that are considered unadoptable. She and the volunteers don\u2019t believe in that word.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m like one of the old-school people in rescue\u2014I\u2019ve been around for 18 years, and I found that you\u2019re supposed to rescue injured animals,\u201d Stankewitz said. \u201cWhen I went to the shelter, I would go right to the back room where all the injured dogs were. Sometimes, a leg has to be cut off because it\u2019s so damaged, but it\u2019s better for the animal, and they do get adopted. They <i>do <\/i>get adopted! He\u2019s still a normal dog even if he\u2019s missing a leg, an eye, half a tail, or mange, which is completely treatable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stankewitz and the crew also have made a contact in Tijuana, where they\u2019ve gone several times to rescue the hardest of cases. There was Rosarita, apparently hit by a car and ill with mange. WeCARe fixed her up to be beautiful and found her an adopter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-45922\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/RosaritaBeforeandAFter.png\" alt=\"RosaritaBeforeandAFter\" width=\"640\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Rosarita shows what a lot of love and care can do. Photo courtesy of WeCARe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Little TJ had been found covered in mange, dirt and excrement and living in a trash heap. He\u2019d been attacked by a larger dog, leaving his back legs paralyzed. He\u2019s now been adopted and trots in his little wheelchair to WeCARe events. The worst case was Cheyenne. All four of her legs had been sawed off. The veterinarian whom Stankewitz entrusted with her surgery fell in love and adopted her.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-45923\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/TJ-before.jpg\" alt=\"TJ before\" width=\"640\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Can you believe it&#8217;s the same dog? TJ&#8217;s new life is thanks to the rescue efforts of WeCARe. Photo courtesy of WeCARe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tee\u2019s nomination and a look at the WeCARe website where many success stories are featured motivated PIF\u2019s<i> <\/i>supervising producer, Casey Casseday, to single out Stankewitz\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe story stuck out,\u201d Casseday said. \u201cWe did research and read articles that had been posted about her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stankewitz marveled at the planning, ingeniousness and outright cunning that went into the project, as well as the ability of the volunteers to keep a secret.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey had to have a cover,\u201d she said. \u201c[Before the adoption event], some people came into the kennel and said that they were going to make a \u2018dog-umentary.\u2019 So I said, oh yeah, whatever, come on in and film it. I\u2019d just done another TV show, and I thought, great\u2014more publicity!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, there was a lot of cloak-and-dagger by the volunteers to find homes for the 30 dogs that were in the kennel or staying with fosters, including vetting potential dog parents to make sure that the home they offered was a good one. They eventually found adopters for all of them, including eight senior dogs who went to<a href=\"http:\/\/www.muttville.org\/\"> Muttville<\/a>, a San Francisco-based senior-dog-rescue facility that had homes waiting for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was more work than my own job!\u201d said Tee, who is the founder of an at-home care assistance company for human seniors.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the people pouring out of the Airstream were the adopters come to take their new family members home. Casseday himself adopted a dog, whom he named Stinky. The first person out was Susan Hemmerich-Wetmore, a close friend and fellow rescuer who had moved to Texas and hadn\u2019t seen Stankewitz in quite a while.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen he opened the door and I saw Susan, that\u2019s when I knew it was a prank,\u201d Stankewitz said. \u201cThe trailer, OK\u2014but what was Susan doing there? You know, when you\u2019re pranked, you think people are going to go crazy, but you\u2019re kind of stunned!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Casseday then popped the champagne provided by Barefoot Wine &amp; Bubbly and presented Stankewitz with additional gifts: a vacation for two to Aruba, which she can certainly use, and a donation to WeCARe to pay their expenses for a year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis covers a lot of our bills!\u201d Stankewitz exclaimed \u201cAnd a trip to Aruba! Seriously?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-45924\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/WECARE.jpg\" alt=\"WECARE\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>From left: Sherri Franklin, Muttville volunteer; Stankewitz; Tee; Heather Rowe, Muttville volunteer; and Hemmerich-Wetmore. Photo courtesy of Louise Montgomery.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Casseday was delighted with the entire production, which he called the \u201cbig get of the year\u201d (PIF produces pranks on smaller scales).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnytime we do one of these things, there\u2019s no second take,\u201d Casseday said. \u201cWe try not to do anything too mean\u2014we want to ride that emotional roller coaster. It all comes down to that one moment, and we were thrilled at her reaction. She cries at the drop of a hat\u2014she\u2019s an amazing human being!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone thinks I\u2019m a hardass, but I am a baby\u2014I really do cry.\u201d Stankewitz said.<\/p>\n<p>So, what makes Stankewitz cry? Of course, the inhumanity she sees on an almost-daily basis accounts for a lot of the tears. And, like any animal rescuer worth the name, she wears out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo matter how hard you work, you\u2019ll still have animals to save,\u201d Stankewitz said. \u201cIt\u2019s like putting your finger in a dike when you\u2019re only doing what you can. And people don\u2019t realize how much work it is. I could sit in the shelter with dogs all day, clean up their poo, and be totally happy\u2014but the truth is, animal rescuers aren\u2019t machines and aren\u2019t getting by on a cloud of love and passion. It\u2019s hard, and so many rescuers want to quit. An animal rescuer often doesn\u2019t think of the self in balance\u2014they want to save the entire planet, and even if they just stick local, it feels like that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also the paradoxical nature of volunteering\u2014they\u2019re a huge blessing and a lot of work for the organizers . Volunteers who stick with organizations like WeCARe through literal hell and high water\u2014also literal, if you\u2019ve experienced a busted water pipe at a shelter\u2014are worth more than their weight in grain-free pet treats. WeCARe has a sizeable cache of jewels, like Henna Lee, who has walked the rescue\u2019s dogs on a regular basis since her niece, volunteer Nadith Schuster, prodded her to come along.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went to walk one dog for one day,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThree years later, here I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A shared passion and a willingness to work hard can take a load off an organizer\u2019s back, but there are still thorns in the side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVolunteering is a responsibility, not just for the volunteers but also for figuring out where and how to use them,\u201d Stankewitz said. \u201cYou find positions for the volunteers, schedule them, bring provisions to the shelter, do the laundry, washing the leashes when they get dirty, doing adoptions, washing the cages out after adoptions\u2014not always just a fun part. That\u2019s where we lose volunteers sometimes\u2014they just want to do one particular something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-45925\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Sherri-in-office.JPG\" alt=\"Sherri in office\" width=\"640\" \/><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>There&#8217;s paperwork, too\u2014lots of it, and more than what&#8217;s used in puppy training. Yeah, there&#8217;s that, too.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Success is often described as making something extremely difficult look easy, the way the adorable cats and dogs at adoption events make it look.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are the biggest rescue group in Long Beach, and we place probably 800 animals a year in great homes,\u201d said Montgomery. \u201cWe love the support of Long Beach and its surrounding communities. The problem with rescue, though, is that it\u2019s 24\/7, and you can\u2019t always drop everything to show a puppy that somebody wants as a birthday present.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stankewitz is grateful for those 800 annual bright spots as well as for the supernova that PIF brought in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThanks to Prank It Forward, there are no vet bills this year, and I want to say, those guys were really awesome,\u201d Stankewitz said. \u201cThey were into their job\u2014they\u2019re really helping people and making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-45926\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Shes-a-keeper-yes-she-is.JPG\" alt=\"Shes a keeper yes she is\" width=\"640\" \/><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Yes, she is.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Donate to WeCARE, apply to volunteer, and look at the stories of TJ and Rosarita <a href=\"http:\/\/www.westcoastanimalrescue.org\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Above, left: Stankewitz enjoys cuddles with her rescue dogs and her own Bobo, who takes up most of the space on the left. The signage and shelter furnishings were donated by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/saveourshelter.com\/\">Save Our Shelter<\/a>.\u00a0<em>All photos by Kate Karp unless otherwise indicated.\u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><i>\u201cIf people knew how hard I worked<\/i><i> to gain my mastery,<\/i><i> it wouldn&#8217;t seem so wonderful.<\/i><i>\u201d<br \/><\/i><i>~ Michelangelo, artist<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West Coast Animal Rescue (WeCARe) founder Sherri Stankewitz was the amused recipient of a recent prank called &#8220;All Dogs Must Go!&#8221; conducted by her friends through\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.prankitforward.com\/\">Prank It Forward\u00a0(PIF)<\/a>, a nonprofit charitable organization. Nominations of worthy recipients are submitted to the website, and a winner is chosen from tens of thousands of entries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":67490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[68],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","tag-the-scratching-post","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}