Art and heart for global animal welfare

Sherri Stankewitz has spent over 30 years in animal rescue and has had more ups and downs than the proverbial kangaroo. It would be no surprise, in fact, if her next humane effort includes kangaroos. Sherri Says, Stankewitz’s new animal-centered website currently in development, supports organizations that help street dogs in Morocco, donkeys in Greece and the Skala Women’s Rock Group, also in Greece. The Rock Group isn’t a band but a bunch of women that swim daily to a big rock in the Skala Eressos Beach bay where the turtles play, have coffee, and plan fundraisers for local animal groups to help with emergency medical care, pet food, and vaccination and neutering for cats and dogs.

Stankewitz’s rescue experiences are myriad. She womanned the Sparky and the Gang dog (and occasional cat) rescue for about 30 years, spent 24-hour shifts at her parvo clinic, and dashed out the door to help with spur-of-the-moment animal emergencies, like the time she packed up her pickup with friends and drove out to the Orange County Fairgrounds to help tend to horses rescued during the 2017 Canyon Fires. When Stankewitz traveled, she’d take along donations of pet medications and food for some small animal rescue she’d discovered. Souvenirs generally included the usual T-shirts and handmade earrings, and quite often a dog that needed to be brought home to Sparky and the Gang.

Recently, Stankewitz decided that she needed a change from the accompanying heartaches, headaches and scrambles for funding that rescue involves. But she’s not making a clean break.

“I spent 30 years rescuing — it’s in my blood,” she said. “I’m never not going to accept a phone call, I’m never not going to pick up a sick animal that crosses my path and take it to the ER. But I I can take my fashion degree and combine it with my rescue experience. It doesn't just have to be dogs—it can be animals worldwide!”

Sheri can’t enjoy a trip without visiting a small rescue and helping them somehow. She finds them on the internet, checks them out for legitimacy, and watches their videos.

“It’s the small groups that aren’t on the social-media map that need the help,” she said. “What are they doing? What do they need? We have our Human Society, we have the ASPCA — those are great. People click a button, and they get $10,000. But the small groups only get pieces. So, I thought, why don’t I design clothing that’s catchy and cute that can help them make money?”

That’s how Sherri Says came into being. Sherri Says is a digital content company that supports small animal-welfare organizations across the world by creating and selling clothing and other merchandise themed to specific rescues. Stankewitz and her friends come up with clever and often naughty slogans that mirror each particular organization’s mission. One upcoming design for the pelicans at the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro will read, “Dive Hard, Eat Big!” A planned design for Rhino Connect in South Africa says, “Save the Chubby Unicorns.”

“A lot of donkey rescues have contacted me because I did a shirt for another one that says, ‘I’m a Smartass, Not a Dumbass,’” Stankewitz said. “We sold them all out!”

Stankewitz got the idea for the clothing line when she cleaned out her closet and visited Goodwill in Long Beach.

“There was this huge bin, and people were going through it like crazy, pulling stuff out,” she said. “I wanted to buy sweatshirts, and I came out with about 60 shirts from the Goodwill bin. Some of them had [major label] tags on them — clothes that have been in there forever. They were all blank, so we washed them, retagged them with our own label [Reborn from Worn], and we put our own screening on it. So, I started rescuing sweatshirts!”

Feeding dishes, tote bags and candles with cheeky content are also available. Stankewitz said that she will create individual items for small animal fundraisers as well. Part of the sales revenue from all the products goes directly to the veterinary staff at the organizations to help pay for medicine, spay/neuter procedures and emergency treatment. The website is presently in development, and more rescues and sales items are on the way. Stankewitz mentioned bats.

“I really grew to like them,” she said. “There are tons of bat rescues.”

Funds from sales also fund Stankewitz’s travels to the rescues, and she’s visited every one featured on her website site. She brings merchandise with her for the rescue founders to sell and use the revenue for pet welfare. Any language barriers were easily bypassed because “we didn’t have to speak to know that we’re all animal lovers.”

Stankewitz snaps hundreds of photos and takes videos at each rescue and posts them on Sherri Says. If you want to make your morning or have a reeeeally sweet bedtime story, check out the video for Donkey Center Lesvos, founded by Greek animal advocate Menga Conrad.

“When the donkeys on that island weren’t used anymore, they’d just leave them tied up and abandoned,” Stankewitz said. “So Menga started taking them in. She has a beautiful little property with trees.”

You can see the donkeys bray and play on the Center’s Facebook page. Stankewitz developed a love for them while she was there.

“They’re really smart, kind of stubborn, and have a good energy about them,” she said.

Stankewitz didn’t bring a donkey back with her, although she surely tried to figure out a way to do it. But she did transport a dog from Morocco to France.

“He was a beautiful collie mix, and I was his support ride from Morocco to France,” Stankewitz said. “A rescuer found out that I had a layover in France, and he asked if I’d help get one of his dogs to a rescuer there. He had all the paperwork ready. Anytime someone travels, you can be the ambassador for a rescue animal. All they need is your flight ticket number, they bring the dog to the airport, they bring the documentation, they bring the paperwork to the counter, they bring the dog to the counter, and that dog is living the life. It cost me nothing except a little time.”

Stankewitz was in Morocco visiting a friend after a work trip with veterinarians to South Africa. When she got there, she met Salima Kadaoui, called Sally, who practices the canine version of TNVR — trap/neuter-spay/vaccinate/release — in Tangier. Hundreds of dogs run free in the street in Tangier and other Moroccan cities. Shopkeepers, residents and tourists feed them and some care for them, but few of the dogs have been fixed. Kadaoui’s mission is to spay and neuter as many as she can — she has a large property to keep the dogs on and access to veterinarians to fix and care for them. Some of the dogs stay on the property, and others return to the streets after they’ve been fixed and vaccinated. Just as veterinarians tip the ear of a cat while they’re under anesthesia, the dog gets an ear tag that shows that they’ve been fixed and vaxed. It’s not fail-safe, as ear tipping is — the tags can fall off during strenuous activity, but a hole like a stretched ear piercing will be visible.

Human failings are some of the reasons behind animal cruelty and neglect, and that’s true everywhere. Every so often, government officials cruise the streets and shoot and poison the dogs, but they’re prohibited to do so if the dogs are ear-tagged. They do it anyway, Stankewitz said.

“After I just got there, Sally yelled, ‘Grab any ear-tagged dogs because the government is driving through, and they’re going to start shooting them and killing them!’” Stankewitz said. “And I thought, oh my God. So there I am, running around the street picking up dogs, and I wasn’t there for 10 hours yet!”

Even as she was brought to tears by this heartlessness, Stankewitz was bowled over by Kadaoui.

“I felt like I’d known Sally forever!’ Stankewitz said. “She does what I do in the U.S. except on a bigger scale. She has 1,000 animals at her property! We went to see her facility. She put about 600 dogs out, and they all ran up to me. They all were in great shape, clean, spayed and neutered. What I found so endearing in our interview was that I thought it would be really hard for me to scoop up all those dogs and get them spayed and neutered and ear-tagged and put them back.”

No spay/neuter programs exist in Morocco, so Stankewitz said that rescuers and advocates like Kadaoui make do with what they have. She left Kadaoui with a bunch of the “Balls” shirts to sell and now offers them on Sherry Says to generate funds for what she’s named the Moroccan Mutt Mission.

“I figured that if I could sell a million shirts, I can help spay/neuter in Morocco,” Stankewitz said. “The more shirts I sell, the more money I could send over for spay/neuter, shots, deworming and ear tags. We have three vets in Morocco right now, ready to do it. If she had $100,000, Sally could spay and neuter all those animals.”

Stankewitz wants to create worldwide awareness of spay/neuter and animal welfare, not just here, she said.

“What I learned on my South Africa trip was that there is no safe place for animals — we have invaded all of the areas,” she said. “When you start going down the rabbit hole [so to speak] of rescue, you start seeing that every animal needs to be saved. They need someone to be their voice for them. It’s such a blessing that, besides cat and dog rescues, the people I meet are doing that.”

Get your snarky soccer shirt at Sherri Says, and help animals worldwide. Contact Sherri Stankewitz at Sherrisayssocial@gmail.com

YOURS DROOLY

Usually, Yours drooly’s adoptables tie in with the main article. But two pugs that Stankewitz is fostering appeared in last week’s Yours drooly because Stankewitz had the first word in the main article and her rescue sidekick, Louise Montgomery, had the last.

So, in the spirit of helping discarded pets, meet a ready-made feline family. Three senior cats came in to Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) a couple of weeks ago. Their names are Lulu (ID#A759863), Meko (ID#A759861) and Chickenne (ID#A759862). I Googled that last name every way I could and still have no idea what it means, but if you adopt him, you can name him whatever you think suits him.

In fact, the volunteers in the photo would like someone to adopt all three of them together. They came from a “home” where there were “too many cats,” as an unnamed source said. So, three seniors who’d spent a lot of years as housecats are now stuck in adjoining kennels in a shelter. Meko’s 8, Lulu’s10, and Chickenne’s 12, and they deserve to spend their golden years playing pickleball on someone’s kitchen floor.

If you’re an empty nester (Chickenne would like that) or have a single cat who gets along with everyone feline, please adopt these three. Visit LBACS’ adoption page, do a search for each cat, and fill out the forms. Better yet, meet them in person at Long Beach Animal Care Services, 7700 E. Spring St., Long Beach, at the entrance to El Dorado Park (no parking fee for shelter visitors). Visiting hours are Wednesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., and Saturday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

TAIL-WAGGIN' AND NOSE-BOOPIN' EVENTS

Pet Loss and Illness Support Group

The worst day in the life you share with a pet is the day you have to say goodbye forever. Grief is personal on the one hand, and on the other hand, you have a lot of company who get what you’re going through. Helen Sanders CatPAWS rescue gets it, too, and offers a space for anyone who also gets it, who’ll never say to you, “But it was just a cat.” Or a dog, or a rabbit, or a horse, or a goldfish. The members of this group will listen, connect, and support you, and you’ll do the same for them.

The Pet Loss and Illness Support Group takes place Saturday, July 18 at 11 a.m. at the Bay Shore Church, 5100 E. The Toledo, Long Beach. No cost for the meeting.

Underage Kitten Training

Learn the essentials of caring for orphaned and underage kittens in this training hosted by Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) in partnership with Helen Sanders CatPAWS. During the workshop, participants will learn about LBACS' foster program and how to feed and care for underage kittens, and they will have the opportunity to go home with foster kittens. Registration is encouraged.

Underage Kitten Training takes place Saturday, July 18, 1:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m. at LBACS, 7700 E. Spring St., Long Beach, at the entrance to El Dorado Park (no parking fee for shelter visitors).

Willmore City Pet Wellness

Get free pet vaccinations and microchips at this neighborhood event, thanks to LBACS and CAMP! Optional flea treatment and nail trims will be available for an additional fee. Walk-ups are welcome on a first-come, first-served basis, limited to 100 pets. Dogs must be on leashes, and cats must be in carriers.

Willmore City Pet Wellness takes place Sunday, July 19, 8 a.m.–noon at The Bembridge House, 953 N. Park Circle, Long Beach.

Whiskers & Words open mic night

Think you can get a word in edgewise with a bunch of cats milling around? Feline Good Social Club (FGSC) would like you to try! The cat lounge invites local writers, musicians and cat lovers to Whiskers & Words, a unique open mic night dedicated entirely to the pointy-eared characters in the audience and at large. Human attendees can step into the spotlight or settle into the audience while the lounge’s free-roaming, adoptable resident cats do their best to distract. Performers may share original poetry, read favorite cat-centric literature, or strum acoustic songs inspired by their four-legged muses. It’s the perfect opportunity for animal advocates and creatives to express their devotion to felines in a cozy, supportive community space. “Our resident kitties make the absolute coziest audience in Long Beach,” said Pam Leslie, Chief Feline Officer (CFO) of FGSC. “Whether you are stepping up to the microphone or just soaking up the creative energy, you get to cuddle with adoptable cats the entire time. It is a wonderful way to balance local art with vital animal socialization.”

Whiskers & Words takes place Saturday, July 25, 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m. at Feline Good Social Club, 301 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach. Tickets are $19.99; purchase tickets or sign up to perform at this link. All proceeds support local cat rescues.

Need a low-cost veterinarian, information about trapping community cats, places to volunteer, pet food, veterinary assistance, rescues and shelters to adopt from — anything pet related? Follow this link for resources. Please add your own ideas in the Comments section.