Dogs on Deployment: Keeping Pets Safe While Heroes Serve

What happens when both you and your spouse are suddenly called to military duty, leaving your beloved pet with no one to care for them? This was the challenge Alisa Sieber-Johnson faced, which inspired her to co-found Dogs on Deployment. This nonprofit provides crucial support for military families by connecting service members and first responders with volunteer pet boarders through their online platform. This ensures that no pet has to be surrendered due to deployment. Additionally, the organization offers financial assistance and other resources that significantly impact those who serve nationwide.

In this heartwarming episode, Alisa shares her journey of starting Dogs on Deployment and how the organization has become a vital resource for military personnel and their pets. We explore the wide-reaching impact of their services and the diverse range of pets they support, driven by Alisa’s unwavering commitment to military pet owners.

You’ll also hear the inspiring story of a dedicated Marine Corps officer and pilot who discovered a profound calling in pet fostering. Balancing a demanding career with a commitment to helping military families, his story underscores the critical role of foster homes, the ongoing need for volunteers, and the transformative power of community support to ensure no pet is left behind.

Tune in to learn more about how Dogs on Deployment is making a difference and how you can get involved!

Learn more about Dogs on Deployment and how you can get involved: visit their website at www.dogsondeployment.org

Follow them on social:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/DogsonDeployment
X: https://x.com/DogsonDeploymnt
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/dogsondeployment

 Big changes are coming soon to Starlight Pet Talk! 🚀 We’re excited to share that we're evolving to bring you even more engaging content and fresh perspectives. Stay tuned for new features and exciting updates that will enhance your listening experience. We can’t wait to reveal what’s next—keep an eye out for more details! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Military Support for Pet Owners
• 9:55 Military Leader's Pet Boarding Organization
• 14:28 Military Pet Boarding Partnership Operation
• 21:22 Supporting Military Pet Owners' Peace
• 29:47 International Pet Travel Challenges and Support
• 37:59 Expanding Support for Military Pet Owners

Transcript

Amy Castro: 0:00

If you're a pet parent, you know it is tough enough to find care for your pets when you go on vacation. But imagine if you were a military service member or first responder and you were being deployed at the last minute, or you were going on temporary duty for a year or more and you had to find someone to care for your pets while you're gone. On today's episode, we dive into the inspiring story behind Dogs on Deployment, a remarkable organization dedicated to ensuring that no pet is left behind from our nation's heroes. Join us as we talk with Alisa Sieber-Johnson, the visionary co-founder who turned her personal challenge into a nationwide movement. Discover how Dogs on Deployment provides critical support to our nation's heroes, offering a network of pet foster homes and financial assistance to keep beloved pets safe and cared for during their service commitments. You won't want to miss this heartwarming episode about the powerful bond between our nation's service members and their pets. Tune in to learn more about DogsOnDeploymentcom. Here we go.

Amy Castro: 1:01

You're listening to Starlight Pet Talk, a podcast for pet parents who want the best pet care advice from cat experts, dog trainers, veterinarians and other top pet professionals who will help you live your very best life with your pets. Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk, I'm your host, amy Castro, and on today's episode we are joined by Alisa Sieber-Johnson, president and co-founder of Dogs on Deployment. Alisa's journey began with a personal need to find care for her own dog while she and her husband fulfilled their military duties, which led to a creation of a national nonprofit that provides crucial support for military pet owners. Her leadership has turned Dogs on Deployment into a lifeline for military families, offering a network of pet fostering and financial assistance. Elisa served in the US Marine Corps as a badass C-130 pilot, but she also served as a sexual assault response coordinator during her time in the Marines. She has a passion for those in the military and for helping others, and she continues to advocate for military pet owner rights and responsible pet ownership. So, elisa, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 2:13

Thank you. I'm excited to share the story of dogs on deployment with you and your listeners.

Amy Castro: 2:18

Yes, I know, because at first I was thinking dogs on deployment or dogs deploying. But yeah, I was fascinated by your story. So why don't you tell us how this all got started? Because it's shocking to me not only how a person can be so motivated to make something happen, but at such a young age when you started this organization.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 2:37

So tell us more, yeah it's funny because I truly do feel like I'm in that next phase of my life where I look back and I look into my 20s and I realize what I'm accomplished at that time and the legacy that it's led, and at times it's very humbling to know that I carry that history with me because of the profound impacts that the organization has made on so many service members throughout the years. So my name is Elisa Johnson. I founded Dogs Unemployment in 2011. I was a newly commissioned Marine Corps officer and I had scheduled to go to the basic school, which is an infantry-centric six-month training in Quantico, virginia, and my husband at the same time was scheduled to deploy.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 3:24

We had a dog, jd, and nobody was able to watch our dog while we went on our dual service commitments, and it got us into this real big predicament where we were looking at professional boarding and kenneling, but we were talking thousands of dollars for six months. On top of that, my dog had horrible separation anxiety and so it really didn't feel like a kennel was a feasible option. My family lived in Hawaii, so they were not an option, and our other relatives were not in a position to take a dog, and so we just didn't know what to do, and we were extremely lucky that we had a distant relative that heard about our story. They were also veterans, and so they were willing to take my dog, and the best part about it is that they lived in Virginia. So while everybody else on the weekends was going out partying in the basic school, I was going over to their house hanging out with my dog.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 4:20

You know and I think that really just sums up honestly most of my personality is I always choose my dog, and you know, it was on our drive, as we were moving myself from California to Virginia we're driving across the country that we started thinking about this problem.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 4:41

And then, at the same time, we were looking to adopt a second dog and I had just been denied an adoption application from a rescue group. It made me feel extremely saddened because, you know, I knew that there was this problem with pet relinquishment. I had already come from the animal rescue community and then here I am with a dual you know officers as well. So we had the financial means right, like we could have taken care of ourselves. But you know, as leaders you're thinking okay, if I had this problem, well, what about the Marines under me? What are they doing when they're having problems with their pets? And suddenly I just I realized that this was a real problem and I bought an HTML for dummies book from the Barnes and Noble in Alexandria, virginia, and that weekend, while I was waiting to check in, when I had my Xbox and my laptop, and I coded the first website for dogs in employment, and the rest is history.

Amy Castro: 5:43

You're a motivated woman, for sure, the Marine.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 5:46

Corps would agree, I guess.

Amy Castro: 5:49

Yes, I was married to Marines, so I know that personality. Who is the program open to when it comes to that need for finding someone to take care of my dog?

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 6:02

The organization is open to the pets of all companion animals belonging to our eligible pet parents. So we've had several cats, but also parrots, ferrets, a chicken, a snake, guinea pigs, so we've had everything. If you have a pet and it's legal, we allow it onto our website application. So to answer your question, though, about who are those eligible pet parents, so yeah, when I started the organization, I was very focused on the junior enlisted population of the services, because those are the ones that we continue to help the most of. However, they are not uniquely the only ones that need our services.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 6:45

So as we started to find more and more volunteers and we started to pick up momentum throughout the years, we started to expand our program.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 6:54

So we always helped active duty, we always helped preserve us, We've always helped honorably discharged veterans, but throughout the years, then, we were able to expand to saying we can also help first responders. So, for example, we've had a few firemen use our services that have had to move from Southern California to Northern California, for example, we've had police. If they're having to go to academy or training or God forbid, they have anything that happens to them while they're in the line of duty that they need our assistance for and we also helped a few nurses and medical personnel during the COVID pandemic. We had one civilian, for example, that went on to one of our hospital ships that we were able to assist and we also help just general service employees of the United States government or government contractors that are deploying in support of a military operation. So essentially, if you're doing something for the benefit of the United States military that requires you to take yourself away from your pet ownership and you're in need, we look at your application.

Amy Castro: 8:01

That's great and I like what you said about focusing on the junior enlisted because, as an officer, I mean you know what you said about focusing on the junior enlisted because, as you know, as an officer, I mean I've actually gone back recently because I'm getting closer to retirement and I'm looking at what I made when I was in the Air Force but it's like I still made way more than you know, than the enlisted folks, and you had these young people that were serving their country and they got deployed to Iraq or they got deployed to Afghanistan and it's like nobody can afford that. I mean it's hard enough to afford boarding at all, let alone for six months on a sergeant's pay or, you know, airman's pay, whatever it might be. It's just it's pretty much impossible.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 8:36

Yes, Our military deserves our support wherever we can give them Definitely, definitely.

Amy Castro: 8:44

So when you started the organization and obviously you were on active duty trying to start the organization at the same time what were some of the challenges that you faced, that you had to overcome getting the whole program rolling? Oh, they were endless, I'm sure.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 9:00

And, honestly, the biggest challenge was the military itself. It was a huge conflict of interest. So myself, as a flight student and as a young, new Marine Corps officer, I was doing something that was extremely frowned upon because it was like a conflict of interest to my duties, to my duties, and so I had a lot of uphill battles just in starting the organization to begin with, where my leadership highly encouraged me not to pursue representing myself in conjunction with a nonprofit, because there's actually restrictions against active duty service members being able to endorse or represent a nonprofit organization. So I always had to toe the line. So for me personally, that was probably the hugest challenge was just the support of my actual professional career and the conflict that I constantly felt. Where, you know, I was a part of this organization, the Marine Corps that I had put my life, you know, my soul into.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 10:02

I joined when I was 17 years old, so going to college and becoming an officer was a surprise.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 10:10

Let's just say that.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 10:11

You know that was not the route that I was originally going to take or had available to me to take, that I thought that I was going to be able to take, and so when I found myself in this leadership role, suddenly I felt a huge drive to provide the services that I was going to be able to take.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 10:23

And so, when I found myself in this leadership role, suddenly I felt a huge drive to provide the services that I was creating for military members. I would have people calling me in tears because they were at the shelter or they had just talked to a shelter, or they'd be sending me an email with this long-winded explanation of why they couldn't pay for their dog to get boarding and how they didn't know what to do with themselves and their pet. And here I am, a new lieutenant that's supposed to be concentrated on my flight school studies. But then I had these messages in my inbox of people that really needed help, and I joined the Marine Corps to be a leader, to be of service and to have my life be of a greater purpose. And so I felt myself in this huge conflict of a position where I tended to lean towards helping those people. It fulfilled me, but, like I said, that fulfillment came at a cost to my professional reputation like I said, that fulfillment came at a cost to my professional reputation.

Amy Castro: 11:27

Yeah, and that's. You know, it's that higher, that higher calling sometimes that wins out in those, in those situations, and it's a challenge to to juggle two aspects of your life that are so different and then, you know, also in conflict.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 11:36

The intersection is huge, but they're also like completely opposite. You know, of the Venn diagram, the intersection was very small.

Amy Castro: 11:44

Yeah, and I hope people who are listening to this hear that you know, when you think about the animals that are in shelters you know oftentimes we think about, you know animals that are picked up at strays or you know people that don't care about their pets and, quote unquote, dump them in shelters.

Amy Castro: 12:00

And I know that. You know, in my personal community we don't have a big military population so, having volunteered in shelters, it's not like we saw lots of service people in. But I think it's pretty sad when you get to a point where somebody has given up their life to serve their country and then they have to give up their pet and basically leave it at a shelter because there's. You know, prior to your organization existing, there were a few options If you didn't have friends or family that wanted to take your dog for a year, which is a long time, or for an undetermined amount of time, that was, that's basically your option and that's really, really sad and it's it's awesome that you've been able to fill that gap. I know we talked about this in our pre-recording the whole idea of fosters how does the process work? And then, at that same time, I'm curious how do you get as many fosters, as you've been able to get, and all around the country.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 12:50

Well, first, how do we get as many fosters? It's by doing interviews like this. I mean, we blew up because in 2013, we were on the Queen Latifah show and Queen Latifah if you ever think of us again, I mean honestly, it was getting that national exposure and suddenly everybody was like, oh, this exists. And we ended up in People Magazine several times after that and several other national news publications that allowed the organization to gain a name. But with that momentum also, you need to have the organizational capacity to be able to build upon that momentum. Unfortunately, as a volunteer organization that then went through the pandemic, it's very difficult to keep that momentum driven. So we are now at that point of time where, at one point of time, we had a huge amount of fosters in our system and I felt very confident that, you know, anybody that came to our organization that needed a free boarding home for their pet while they were on a service commitment would be able to find one. Times have changed. Now I don't have that mobilized volunteer force that I used to have, that mobilized volunteer force that I used to, and we're looking to regain that because we need it. So what is a foster? Well, you kind of come up from it. I think we can look at this from the rescue community. Is that a foster? Somebody that takes in a pet that needs a temporary home? Now, the difference between a rescue foster and dogs in employment we don't actually use the word foster, we use the word boarding because we think of our volunteers more as boarders than fosters.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 14:28

The pets that go into your home have an owner, they have some place to return to, and so the relationship there with the pet is also different. But when you become a boarder to our organization, the process is as simple as signing up. You complete a profile that lists your home details who's in your house, what kind of pets do you have, are you an active family? Do you live in an apartment? Do you have a house with a yard the details that somebody looking for a home for their pet would want to know and then you're basically just listed.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 15:10

Now it's up to the boarder to decide how active or proactive they're going to be with our organization.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 15:13

So some of our boarders just list themselves, and if you don't log back in, we will eventually remove you from our system, because we want people to be interacting and responding to messages.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 15:24

So when you log in, you have your choice of either not doing anything or searching for pets in need, and when you find a pet that you're like, oh, I think I might be able to help that service member, you just send them a message and that's how you start the communication. So it's really important for our boarders to realize that when you create an account and you're listed, and if you leave, that's going to be the end of your experience because our organization does not contact you to put a dog or something into your home. It's up to you, as the boarder, to contact pet owners that you think you can help, and then vice versa, when a pet owner is approved and able to use our application system and our network, they're able to send direct messages to boarders. So if you receive a message as a boarder, we want you to log in, check that message and respond to it. Either yes, I can help you or yes, I want to talk more, or no, it's not the right fit for me at this time.

Amy Castro: 16:27

Okay. So basically you're providing a platform and then also some pretty extensive, I know, because I do want to talk about the application process, but you know the platform and then the screening process to put these people in a room together, so to speak, and give them the opportunity to make those connections. But both parties need to work it. If I'm a service member looking for somebody for my pet, can I go and look for people as well and reach out to those people? Or is it only the other way around?

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 16:57

Exactly, they can connect with another. Remember, I started this organization in 2011. So this is pre-Rover or pre-Carecom. It was the very early days of the Airbnb model, and so I actually based my site off of Matchcom. Okay said it was a matchcom for military and, to be fair, too, we did have a pet owner that they used a border and they fell in love with the border's roommate and got married. It was a real thing. So we do have one matchcom success.

Amy Castro: 17:38

That's hysterical. Yeah, that's funny. Well, yeah, you know people who like dogs or pets. It's kind of a you already have that in common.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 17:45

So that's Right, I mean, we do have primarily single military on our website as our primary demographic. Not saying anything, I'm just. These are the facts because they don't have other people able to help them and they are the ones that are most at risk. They're the ones that we have to help the most because they don't have people to rely on.

Amy Castro: 18:06

Yeah, it's definitely just such a such a great option. And is there a cost involved to the military member, or how does how does that work? As far as you know, if I'm going to keep somebody's pet for a year, am I getting paid for it? Am I getting reimbursed for expenses? How does that work?

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 18:21

That is a fantastic question and probably the one that we try to emphasize the most is that dog's unemployment is free to use for the service member, meaning that you cannot sign up to be a boarder on our website and then ask a service member for a boarding fee. You can't say, hey, I'll watch your dog, but pay me $10 a day. That is not allowed. What is required by the pet owner is that before they give their dog to the border or their pet to the border, that they have had an agreement in place and we try to help them. We try to provide some resources on our website through what we call a boarding and care plan. That is essentially a long instructional document for the boarder of what the pet owner's expectations are for the care of their pet when it comes to their feeding, their food, their exercise, their health, etc. But part of that being the expenses, and the pet owner is required to remain financially responsible for the care of their pet during their service commitment.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 19:21

While in boarding Meaning, if the pet has to have grooming done, they need to be sending money to the boarder to either reimburse or they need to be paying the groomer directly If the pet needs to have something done at the veterinarian's office while the service member is overseas. We actually recommend that before they deploy, they leave a credit card authorization with their veterinarian prior to leaving so that way, if anything happens, that they can just bill the pet owner directly at the time of the incident and not worry about reimbursement to a boarder that has to put it on their card. So everything is centered around it being a system designed for people to help people, but you still have to remain that responsible pet owner in that financial sense.

Amy Castro: 20:10

Right, because one of the concerns that I had expressed to you when we had talked previously and I feel sort of guilty about it now but we have, as a rescue, had people, you know, maybe twice in the years that we've had the rescue open where somebody has reached out and says my sister's in the military and she has two cats or she has three cats or whatever it is, and she's getting deployed and you know, can you take the cats?

Amy Castro: 20:32

And you know, and they use the term foster them until she gets back. And I've always been very hesitant because it's like what are the odds they're going to take that pet back and how you know, like you said, the financial responsibility or just making decisions for somebody else's pet over a year long period. But it sounds like you guys have obviously thought of all that and at least have those structures in place so that as the two parties go into this arrangement, that they go in with their eyes wide open or as wide open as we can be. Obviously there's going to be things that happen in life that are not always predictable, but it sounds like you've thought about a lot of the caveats or contingencies that could happen.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 21:15

Yeah, and I love that you mentioned that about a service member coming to you as a rescue and what do you do in that situation? So, first of all, dogs in Employment does have a program called Operation Shelter Partners, and right now we're focusing our attention on brick and mortar facilities. But making sure that your facility whether you're a foster only based organization or brick and mortar you have a process in place for pet adoption and for pet relinquishment. That asks the question are you military or a veteran? And if yes, have a separate set of procedures for that person, meaning if they're being an adopter. Give them a flyer from Dogs Unemployment. You can get rat cards from us for free. You can literally come to our website. There's a thing that says distribute info and we will send you free rat cards If you're doing a relinquishment process and they come to you instead of just taking the pet from them, tell them about our organization, send them to us.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 22:16

Rescues are not set up or designed to handle what dogs in employment handles. It stresses your capacity and it puts you at liability risk because, to your point, you don't have agreements in place with those pet owners that they remain financially liable, that they are the legal pet owner that dogs in employment is not taking any sort of possession of this animal owner that dogs in employment is not taking any sort of possession of this animal. So you know I throw it out there to anybody in the rescue community that if you have a service member or a veteran, come to you for help, please contact dogs in employment. And even if you've never had a service member contact you for help, please connect with dogsemployment and just know that we are a tool that helps ensure your capacity doesn't get fulfilled by something that shouldn't be your responsibility to take care of. We've got that.

Amy Castro: 23:12

Yeah, and how easy is it to just add a question you know, are you currently serving in the military, or reserves, or a first responder, or you know it could be like a just check the box, if any of these apply, because to your point, and what happened to you as a service member and being denied adoption? I mean, we have adopted out to several service members, but generally it's families, and so it's like there's a thing in the back of your head that says, well, at least if the spouse isn't in the military, then the odds are the spouse will be able to take care of the pet. But you've even mentioned that there's scenarios like I think you mentioned one about you know the service members deployed and then the spouse is pregnant and ends up hospitalized, you know, and so it's like they could still need assistance.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 23:56

Yes, yes, several, several situations where you know the one spouse is deployed, the other spouse is home happily taking care of the dog and something tragic happens to them, and there's nothing worse than being by yourself in those hard moments, you know, and the last thing you want to worry about is like what am I going to do with my dog? You know, when you think of military families too and it's really hard, for if you've never been connected to the military, it's really hard to conceptualize how difficult being a military family is. And I think when I was in the service I was very blinded to it myself because I was so ingrained with it and I was just used to the distance myself because I was so ingrained with it and I was just used to the distance. I mean, in my own life I was with my husband for 10 years, the co-founder of Dogs. Unemployment no-transcript.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 24:54

And that was our early romance and for a family. This is the situation that we often see Service member departs, spouse is home taking care of the kids, taking care of the home front, taking care of the dog, and either they have an emergency that requires hospitalization, or their parent has emergency and suddenly they have to leave. Or another situation is like maybe they don't have kids but they're keeping a house that is draining them financially that they don't need because that service member is deployed and that spouse can go live with their parents or live someplace else, but they can't take their pet with them. And it's like you really have to look at all of these individual situations and say, okay, do we have the capacity to help? Do those people need help?

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 25:47

Are we making a positive benefit for the service members' peace of mind, which is in our first few words of our mission statement, is to provide peace of mind. First few words of our mission statement is to provide peace of mind. Then yes, if we have the ability to assist, we will do all that we can. With that said, we do have a very strict eligibility process because we also want to make sure that the people using our website are in fact in need and we're not getting people that are just, hey, I'm going on vacation or I don't want to take care of my pet because I'm just an irresponsible pet owner. Those people do exist. We cannot be naive to that, and so that is where our screening process and our executive director does a fantastic job of making sure that every single service member that comes to our organization for assistance is being looked at on an individual, case-by-case basis.

Amy Castro: 26:44

That's great.

Amy Castro: 26:44

I think it shows the level of commitment obviously of your organization but to the service member that they're going through this process.

Amy Castro: 26:52

You know, because I've recently had an opportunity and I'm still kind of deciding whether I'm going to pursue it or not. But it's like once I saw the list of requirements to take advantage of the opportunity and I'm still kind of deciding whether I'm going to pursue it or not. But it's like once I saw the list of requirements to take advantage of the opportunity, I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing all that, you know. And so for somebody to say, oh, I am dedicated enough to my pet to take all of these steps and to fill out these forms and to go through the screening process, I think it's you know it, it shows a dedication to that pet and I think would make me feel better as a boarder that that person truly is committed to coming back to their pet. And I remember I had I had asked you like how many cases have you had where somebody basically didn't come back for their pet? And it was so small I can't remember the exact number.

Amy Castro: 27:35

I mean not necessarily the exact number but it was like a handful compared to thousands.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 27:40

Yeah, it really is very small and we don't have an exact number. The reason for that is because when people come to our website, they either find somebody or they don't, and in the cases that they don't, a lot of times that's oh, my deployment got canceled or I ended up. You know, you were my backup plan, my family did end up taking my pet, or you know, I found a girlfriend or a boyfriend and they're watching my pet now. Whatever the case may be, but I can't think of a time off the top of my head when we had somebody approved and actively able to use our website and then still turn their pet into a shelter.

Amy Castro: 28:21

Right, and I could see that there would be scenarios where somebody, maybe they got deployed, like your example of separation anxiety, and it's like you know, I get deployed and then I have an opportunity to extend because it's going to be good for my career, or I have to extend, and now it's longer than I originally said, that, yeah, it might get to a point where it's like I thought I was going to be able to navigate this and then come back to my pet, but maybe the best thing for my pet is to, you know, to find a more stable permanent home.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 28:50

We have had that happen before and you know when it does happen it's really hard. But every single time it has happened it has been like a conversation where the executive director is talking to the boarder, that's talking to the pet owner, and I'm talking to our ED and we're making a decision of like, okay, how are we going to approach this? And in some cases we've had boarders adopt the pet. In other cases, dogs. Unemployment has contacted and worked with rescues to rehome the pet. So we're not going to leave somebody that's in our network abandoned. We intervene if there's an issue, but that does not mean that we don't want to be connected with our boarders so that if somebody is actively boarding a pet, we love getting updates, we love seeing pictures, we love getting stories, we love it when people tag us on social media. Those are the things that not only are great to share and showcase what this organization is about, but truly they keep us going.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 29:47

There are times with my team that we feel so down in the dumps because something bad has happened in our community and we're trying to reel from it. For example, over the summer we had a really hard time dealing with the changes to the CDC importation guidelines for pets from overseas. So in the last you know, really in the sense, the pandemic, but really in the last six months there's actually been a lot of changes in pet travel internationally and it's caused a huge problem for our organization because one, in addition to fostering, we also provide financial assistance grants and one of our programs is to help provide grants to ship pets from overseas duty stations back to the United States and vice versa, since that's something that majority comes out of the service member's pocket. However, because of airline costs going up tremendously since the pandemic for shipping, but also new regulations are putting pets out of the passenger holds and into cargo, which means you have to ship them in a separate system, which is much more expensive, and we have also new quarantine requirements. So there's a lot of problems going on and the impact to us is an overwhelming request for support in terms of financial assistance that we absolutely cannot meet. I wish we could. I think it was in the last year.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 31:22

We had nearly like $700,000 total requested from service members and pet shipping, because each service member, for the cost to ship one pet from one duty station to the other anywhere in the world is probably somewhere between $3,000 to $7,000. We've had grants come in for $10,000. We had a service member that shipped their Great Dane from the West Coast to Japan for $10,000. They paid for it. They got there, they had an emergency, very sad tragedy that required them to come back to the United States and then they had to pay another $10,000.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 32:05

And you're just thinking this is such a broken system. Why is this so expensive? Why is this so hard? We're having pets that are being forced to be kept overseas and we're trying to figure out. Can we stand up an international chapter to support those pets? If needed? Can we operate in that regard? Can we do something to work with the international pet travel agency agents that we work with? So we have several partners in pet travel agencies. Can we work with them to help bring more awareness to these problems and how changes in the CDC are not just impacting all pet travel but specifically military families that weren't expecting it? So we're just constantly reacting to hardships and so when we get those stories back from our borders that say, look at this dog, like having such a great time while a service member is deployed, or the best is the reunion, and it keeps us going and it keeps us motivated and reminds us like oh yeah, this is what this organization is really about.

Amy Castro: 33:12

Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that from the standpoint of you know, because when I, of course, when I was in the air I was only in the air force for four years and the you know, the place I really, really, really really wanted to get stationed was either, you know, germany or England, and you know England has such strict quarantine that you know it would have been kind of pointless to to bring a dog, but like so I guess in my mind, if somebody was going to PCS overseas, that they just wouldn't take their pets, and it's like I never even thought, like I can't even imagine sending a dog to Japan. I mean, it's just that floors me. That was out of my realm of understanding or thinking.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 33:49

Yeah, and then the alternative to that is being away from your pet, from two years, yeah, or four, or whatever it might be.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 33:57

Right. So there's a real balance that you have to play and there is no perfect solution and you can't just put a blanket over everybody's scenario and say it's a one size fits all solution, like our organization has to look at every single person case by case and just understand that what we're trying to do is bridge the gap between understanding, between civilian and military populations. Right, this goes beyond the pet ownership. This goes into making somebody that has never met a service member or doesn't have anybody in their family that's ever served and doesn't have any connection to it and maybe doesn't care, but they love animals. And so now they're boarding this pet and now they've met the to it and maybe doesn't care, but they love animals. And so now they're boarding this pet and now they've met the service member and now they've felt this person's story and now they feel compelled to be a part of that journey because they're helping this pet. And now they have love in it.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 34:52

Right, and we need more love in this world. Suddenly now you've created this like cataclysmic connection in the world of a service member and a person that never would have known that person to begin with, but now they're intimately tied through this dog or this cat. Now you have these advocates in the world that are saying I can't believe somebody helped me in that way. Somebody watched my cat for six months and my cat pissed on their carpet every single day for six months and they still did it for me because I was deployed overseas and my life sucked for six months and I can't believe that there was somebody with the heart out there that took care of my cat. For me that's life-changing, not just for that service member, but for who they tell that story to.

Amy Castro: 35:44

Yeah Well, and that's a good point, is that it's not. You know I mean, animals are animals and I know I run into this with fosters too is that you know it's you're gonna, you know you're gonna face challenges potentially too, so you have to be prepared for that, but the end result is is worth it because you look at what was the alternative for that person and for that pet ending up in a shelter or possibly being euthanized or something like that If that person had no other alternatives but to turn their animal into a shelter. So and I'm sure you've got probably tons of other than a marriage. I mean, that's kind of hard to top that. But is there any particular success story that jumps out? You know that you would want to share? Yeah, absolutely.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 36:24

Actually, this year we had a story you can read about it on our blog, frontline Tales but we received an email from an animal shelter saying that they had received this intake of a Cane Carousel named Blue Moon and this dog had been turned in by their service member that had a short notice deployment and, because of his dog's breed, he was really worried. What is he going to do? And he went to the shelter this is the option that he thought he had available and the shelter was very, very nice. They assured him they would do everything they could for the dog, but he still left thinking he was never going to see his dog again.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 37:05

The shelter in fact, did hold up their end of a bargain making sure that Blue Moon went to a good home and luckily they were told about dogs in Plymouth. So when they contacted us and we learned about Blue Moon's owner, we actually got in contact with him, got him registered on our website, got him approved. He was able to connect with a boarder and that boarder was able to get that dog from the shelter and six months later he came home. And you know I unfortunately they were not able to record the reunion, I think because everybody was crying or the dog, like knock the camera out. Something happened, um, but the recording was not able to get done. But yeah, to come home to something you thought you would never see again is a very powerful experience.

Amy Castro: 37:56

Yeah, that's amazing. That is amazing. So obviously we know that in order for the organization to continue to meet need that, you need I would say what as many borders as you can get, because it's really just like it just gives more options and choices in the system for people. Does it matter where a person lives, you know? I mean I would assume that there are certain parts of the country where there's more demand, like Norfolk, virginia. You know there might be more people there than you know someplace that doesn't have a military population. But is there like a mileage limit from where that person's stationed or how does that work?

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 38:57

Great question as well. Yes, we do primarily have need in places where there is a military town, obviously, and our biggest chapters are in San Diego and in Virginia Beach. Because of the fact that I was in the Marine Corps, my husband was in the Navy and that's where the Navy and the Marine Corps are stationed on the East and the West Coast, so there was a lot of emphasis in starting our organization there. However, we are national and because we don't just help active duty and we help veterans veterans live everywhere and first responders live everywhere, and we also have military members that are willing to travel for the right person to watch their dog. If I was living someplace and I had the choice of an apartment within my city or I could drive three miles away and my dog could go live on a ranch and have the time of his life with a family, and I had an Australian shepherd, so I'm going to go three hours right. So don't let distance be the thing that says, well, oh, I'm not going to register. And to your point, choice is imperative here, because we're not doing the placements. We need service members to be able to interview several people, talk to several people and our goal is to have 10 borders for every one approved pet. That's our minimum baseline. We're just under that right now.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 40:20

So we do need people to be on the website registering and what we call them as our DOD reserves. We think of it just like the military. We probably won't need you. You might be registered for two years before you get an email, but that first email you get is your call to action, and that's how the military operates, right.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 40:43

We have our active duty force the people that are deploying and they're doing our day-to-day operations. But then we have our reserve force and those are the people that are in the ready line and they're standing by until their time is called. And if our country goes into some sort of mass deployment or reactive state and we see a lot of people being activated especially if we ever activate our reserve force we expect to see a high influx of pets looking for homes through our organization. And I am not confident that I can keep that story where I told you earlier that I don't think that we've ever had anybody come to our website and not be able to find somebody when they were really in need. I don't know that. I can continue to say that if we were to have a mass deployment situation.

Amy Castro: 41:35

Right, yeah. So people who are listening to this, you know this is your opportunity to step up, investigate, register and again, you may not get called, you may not be needed, but you also might find a point in time where you're desperately needed. You know it can be so last minute and there's so few alternative options available for people. So, beyond if somebody was not in a position to be a boarder for whatever reason, are there other things that they can do to help the organization?

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 42:06

Absolutely. Our organization is virtual, so we do work with all kinds of different virtual volunteers and basically, if you're listening and you're like, I love this organization, I love pets, I love the service members, I want to do something in this field, just shoot us an email. Tell us what you like to do. We're very small. We might look big on our website, but it is me and I have two other team members and we have a very small team of core volunteers. So we're looking to build our team. So come, send your resume, tell us what you want to do. Do tell us what your vision is and let's have a conversation. Um, you know other ways to support is looking at that operation, shelter partners that if you're out there and you're in the rescue community and you want to be a part of the solution, contact us and let's talk about how your organization can be a part of the alliance that we're trying to create, which is a pledge to say we're not going to see military pet relinquishment. And then, yeah, finally, that fundraising piece is always something that we're all going to be challenged in. So I will say, no, it's not fundraising that I need from your community, but what I do need is partnerships. We're all resource limited and we're all working with some sort of limited capacity, and Dogs Unemployment is here to create partnerships with other organizations, not to take away. So if you're in a situation where you think that we could do a joint fundraiser or we can do a joint event or we can work together in a collaborative way, shoot us an email. Our organization is not one to take resources from other nonprofits. No, I'm presently getting my master's in nonprofit leadership and management and there is so much opportunity out there for all of us. We just have to find the right tools and the right avenues to make that opportunity accessible to everyone. The other reason why we want to have a large database of DoD boarders is not only to better serve our service members that might need us, but if I have to be completely honest, when I started this organization in 2011, I was a foster parent first.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 44:13

I would pick up every stray dog on the side of the road and I would foster it, and what I realized very early on was recruiting and retaining foster parents for rescues is so incredibly difficult. My long-term visions for dogs on deployment is being able to expand my network and educating my DOD boarders about not only deployment, military boarding, but also rescue, fostering the differences between it and how they can be activated to not only supporting my organization because, like I said, most of my boarders are not going to get a pet to board, but they've already expressed interest in boarding a pet. So if I can create collaborations with local foster groups or rescue groups that allows my boarders to then be educated on foster programs in their local community, I want to be able to help local groups with that avenue of connection. It's not on our capacity or our abilities yet, but it is something that I'm actively trying to figure out how I can include in our future expansion of our Hero Pet Boarding Network, which is something I'm seeking grant funding for, as well as corporate sponsorship for.

Amy Castro: 45:45

Awesome, yeah, definitely. So I have to ask what's next? What's on the horizon other than obviously getting more borders? Any other new programs or new initiatives that you want to share?

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 45:52

Yeah, we each year do what's called our American Hero, pet of the Year and DOD Mascot Competition, and this is a contest where it's photo based. So of course we're looking for cute photos of military pet owners or military pets, but more so it's a storytelling contest. It's a ability to connect our civilian populations with the meaning behind pets of our service members and really diffusing that maybe negative perception of like, oh well, no, you're in the military, you shouldn't have gotten a pet in the first place. Okay, and I've said this before, valid for some, not valid for all. That is not something that can be a blanket statement for all service members, and so this contest is really about showcasing the importance of pets within our military community by showcasing real stories along with super cute pet pictures.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 47:16

So in November we'll be applies for our contest or are an ambassador, influencer or something we'd love to work with you. We are looking for prize sponsorships for products for our top three contestants, so that is another way that we could work together on that and then all of our contestants. They'll be closed up by the end of the year and public voting will be available in January. So we ask that everybody come to our organization, give us a like on Facebook and Instagram and please vote for your favorite contestant when they're posted at the beginning of the year.

Amy Castro: 47:50

Awesome, looking forward to reading those stories and seeing those photos. Well, elisa, thank you so much. Well, number one, thank you for your service, and thank you for your service to service members and our other heroes in not only creating but running this organization for as long as you have, and I'm so glad that we've had this opportunity for you to come on the show and open everybody's eyes to number one, the need, and number two, the services that you have available for both service members and boarders. I really, really appreciate you and everything that you do.

Alisa Sieber-Johnson: 48:23

Well, thank you so much for letting me talk about my favorite pet passion project.

Amy Castro: 48:30

Awesome and for everybody that's listening, we're going to have links in the show notes. But make sure you do go out and check out Dogs on Deployment and, you know, look for those opportunities to get involved. I think so many times it's real easy to sit on the sidelines and say somebody should do something. Who's going to do it? If you don't do it, you know you need to be the one. Don't wait for somebody else to step up. So at least go check it out, see what opportunities. It sounds like there's lots of options to get involved, depending upon your interest, availability and skills. So make sure you do that. That's my challenge to you for this week and other than that, we will see you next week on another episode of Starlight Pet Talk. Thanks for listening to Starlight Pet Talk. Be sure to visit our website at wwwstarlightpettalkcom for more resources and be sure to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, so you'll never miss a show.

Amy Castro: 49:23

If you enjoyed and found value in today's episode, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple. Or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show, that would be great too. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk. And if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us. Thanks for listening to Starlight Pet Talk. Be sure to visit our website at wwwstarlightpettalkcom for more resources, and be sure to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, so you'll never miss a show. If you enjoyed and found value in today's episode, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple. Or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show, that would be great too. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk. And if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us.