We recently connected with Crystal Tucker and have shared our conversation below.
Crystal, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
Pawsitive Tails Dog Rescue strives to be different in the rescue community because we aren’t looking to adopt our dogs out quickly, we are truly looking to match the right dog to the right family. We are looking to create furever families. All of our dogs live in foster homes as a member of the family, they live with people of all sizes, other dogs and sometimes cats and other animals! We get to know each of our animals and the personality traits that makes them, them. With this knowledge, we begin to look for a home that is looking for a companion with those personality traits. We are looking for a happy ending for the adopter and for the dogs.
Crystal, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
When my daughter, Kelcey, turned 12, she started begging to volunteer at our local animal shelter. I had been putting off her requests because she has such a tender heart, I knew that she would want to take all of the dogs home!
And I wondered if it would be too sad, and too hard, on both her and me. But, we attended a volunteer orientation and she was hooked. Because of her age, I had to volunteer with her, and I never expected to love it as much as I did.
Pretty soon, we were spending all of our weekends at the shelter, walking dogs and playing with them, hoping to make their days just a little bit brighter.
Our volunteer work with the shelter led us to foster dogs from our home, and it was then that I felt my soul was fulfilled for the first time. I found a passion that I hadn’t known that I had, and I soon found that I wanted this to be my life.
We started Pawsitive Tails Dog Rescue, in August of 2015. I am exceptionally blessed to have an amazing family for support, especially my children, Lantz and Kelcey, and my husband, Joe, who ‘almost’ never asks, “why is there another dog here?”
In March of 2020, life dealt our family a devastating blow. Our son, Lantz, died suddenly at the too-young age of 22. Lantz was my number one volunteer, and my biggest cheerleader. He did so much to help our rescue, his mark is all over our littlhe was so proud of the work that we did, and losing him and moving on was the most insurmountable challenge that I’ve ever had to face.
I didn’t know how I was going to survive another day, and to cope with that grief, I poured everything I had into the dogs. I was supposed to be saving them, but instead, the dogs have truly saved me and given me a reason to go on.
Pawsitive Tails Dog Rescue is my passion. I am so proud to say that we have the most dedicated team of loving, compassionate, and passionate people. Every person on my team is doing what we do because we love dogs and are committed to making sure that they have the best life possible. From our fosters, to event volunteers, to transporters, to our social media manager, to our event coordinator and our amazing application team, everyone volunteers the best of themselves for one reason..the dogs.
We aren’t just a team of volunteers, we are a rescue family and we love and support each other as well. Since opening in August of 2015, Pawsitive Tails has taken in 4,474 dogs from shelters and owner surrenders. As of June 2022, 4,334 of those dogs have found their furever homes.
Pawsitive Tails takes all breeds of dogs, of all ages, sizes, and colors. But our “specialty” is in mommas and babies, bottle babies, and medical cases. Until I became involved in rescue, I truly didn’t realize that some shelters euthanize pregnant moms, mommas with brand new babies, and some shelters will send babies to rescue and euthanize the moms. We are blessed with a team of extraordinary whelping fosters who take these mommas and babies and love them as their own until they all find their homes. We also have an incredible baby bottle team and these amazing ladies are experts at tube feeding and bottle feeding the tiniest of babies to give them a fighting chance. We have fosters for every sort of dog in need. In addition, we also take a lot of medical cases, I am always happy to help with the broken ones, the sick ones, the mangey ones. With a background in the medical field, these are my favorites!
In addition to the rescue, I also run a special fund that is dear to my heart. When Lantz died, we had many donations that were made in his name. I wanted to do something special with those funds, something that would make him proud. One morning, I woke up and it just came to me. A conversation that I had with Lantz a few months before he left us. There was a dog that we were contacted about by a dog trainer friend who asked us for help because his owners couldn’t afford his care, and he was having a life or death emergency. We had asked if they wanted to surrender him to our rescue so that we could get him to care with our vets.
His owners did not want to surrender. His name was Pepe. He was going to die without vet care. His vet care was going to be very expensive. I was talking to Lantz about him, and mulling over what to do, when Lantz asked “why should they have to surrender their dog just to get it to care? If they’re good owners and the dog is loved, they should get to keep their dog. Can’t we just help them and not take him away from them? Mom. A dog shouldn’t lose the family who loves him just because his family doesn’t have the money”.
We helped Pepe. Pepe lived and he stayed with his family. I knew then that this is what Lantz would want me to do. The Lantz Tucker memorial fund was born, with the goal to help owned pets in urgent need of medical attention to get the care they need and to stay with the owners who love them.
To date, the “Lantz fund” as we affectionately call it, has paid nearly $200,000 in vet bills which has allowed many pets to stay in their homes with their families who love them.
Any big plans?
My ultimate goal is to open and run a community parvo hospital. Parvovirus is a highly contagious viral disease of dogs that commonly causes acute gastrointestinal illness in puppies Parvo is such a devastating virus and claims so many innocent lives every year. But it is so preventable and very treatable. Unfortunately, that treatment is quite expensive and many owners can’t afford treatment. My dream is to have a parvo hospital that will be donation-run and will be able to treat these fragile lives whether or not an owner can afford treatment.
So many lives could be saved each year with access to affordable medical care. My future plans are to continue to save more lives!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I should have saved this for this question!
March 4, 2020, life dealt our family an unimaginable blow. My son, Lantz, was found unresponsive in his bed. My sweet boy was gone, at just 22 years old. Lantz was a HUGE part of helping me to start Pawsitive Tails. He was my right hand man. Lantz was taken from us because he had gotten a couple of pills that he believed to be oxy, from a friend for a backache. He took one and went to bed. He never woke up. The ONE pill that he took was not oxy, it was 100% fentanyl. My baby was dead, taken from us by something he had no idea he was taking, he was poisoned.
In addition to the rescue, I also run a special fund that is dear to my heart. When Lantz died, we had many donations that were made in his name. I wanted to do something special with those funds, something that would make him proud. One morning, I woke up and it just came to me. A conversation that I had with Lantz a few months before he left us. There was a dog that we were contacted about by a dog trainer friend who asked us for help because his owners couldn’t afford his care, and he was having a life or death emergency. We had asked if they wanted to surrender him to our rescue so that we could get him to care with our vets.
His owners did not want to surrender. His name was Pepe. He was going to die without vet care. His vet care was going to be very expensive. I was talking to Lantz about him, and mulling over what to do, when Lantz asked “why should they have to surrender their dog just to get it to care? If they’re good owners and the dog is loved, they should get to keep their dog. Can’t we just help them and not take him away from them? Mom. A dog shouldn’t lose the family who loves him just because his family doesn’t have the money”.
We helped Pepe. Pepe lived and he stayed with his family. I knew then that this is what Lantz would want me to do. The Lantz Tucker memorial fund was born, with the goal to help owned pets in urgent need of medical attention to get the care they need and to stay with the owners who love them.
To date, the “Lantz fund” as we affectionately call it, has paid nearly $200,000 in vet bills which has allowed many pets to stay in their homes with their families who love them.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Pawsitive Tails has a wonderful reputation in the rescue community, and I believe that’s because we are transparent, we keep our word and we are honest. All things that I value and hold dear.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pawsitivetailskc.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pawsitivetailsdogrescue
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/pawsitivetails/?ref=bookmarks
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZwVBz8TVM3d9H_IOJhwvxg
- Other: TikTok: @pawsitivetailsdogrescue