We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sherri Franklin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sherri, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

I have made many friends and donors. It’s so important to me that everyone feels deeply appreciated for what they contribute to Muttville. For some it’s hours volunteering, or adopting a dog, donating to help cover the costs of our vet clinic!
One thing I did for a special couple that never asks for any recognition. We were moving into our forever home, which they were partly responsible for, and I wanted to acknowledge them without their names! They had adopted three dogs from Muttville, so I asked their daughter to send me plenty of photos of them.
I then took those photos to a mosaic artist, who made a ten-foot mosaic of them for the building’s front entrance. I never let them know till the day they showed up for the special opening day!
They burst into tears at the sight of the entrance. Their dogs now greet every person and dog that walks through our doors!

Sherri, 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?

I created Muttville without a blueprint. There was no such thing as a senior dog rescue at the time. It was NEEDED! After volunteering at shelters, I saw so many deserving, happy senior dogs with so much love left to give, heading to the euthanasia room. I started taking them home, just one at a time, finding them homes and seeing them thrive. While the situation changed for that one animal, the problem remained! Routinely, older dogs wouldn’t even be put up for adoption. Abandoned and left to spend their last days in a cold, loud shelter. This needed to change, so that’s why I started Muttville!
Since those days, we have saved over 13,500 senior dogs in danger. AND, others have taken notice of our success, and today, 19 years later, many shelters and rescues are adopting out their senior dogs. Muttville made senior dogs sexy!
We turned sheltering on its ear by opening the first cage-free shelter in the country! No more scary, loud depressing shelters for Muttville. It is a joyous, love-filled campus where you are welcomed in, and a dog or two might crawl into your lap for a cuddle! It’s a place where the community grows and comes together. We hold seminars about caring for your older pets and grief workshops for when you lose them We celebrate the human-animal bond. We keep our message positive-that’s our brand! New Beginnings, we truly believe that at any age, you can have one!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Dogs were dying, so many, what can one person do?? Start a nonprofit to save them! I continued to style hair by day and start Muttville every other waking minute. There were plenty of non-believers: “You can’t get these old dogs into homes”, “No one wants to take on the problems of a dog that has ended up in the shelter!”
I can and I will! There were a few people who rallied around, new friends I made. Believers in the mission, believers that had talents, too! PR and marketing skills, website-building skills, retired people who wanted to care for dogs, and veterinarians!! I loved to empower those who could do the things I didn’t know how to do!
This was when social media was very new, and someone came in and handled that for me, too!
It was a crazy time, for sure. It was slow and fast, and I was still styling hair to make ends meet. We showed all the doubters that these dogs were special, and many people wanted to adopt them. All kinds of people, seniors, young families, students, singles and newlyweds! We changed the trajectory of so many lives and not just the dogs, but the humans along the way! Dogs are magic.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The process WAS, you go to adopt a dog, you fill out a long application, then you get interviewed AND then you get a home check! Wow, that takes a week or more. In the meantime, dogs in shelters are still being euthanized, and people are still wanting dogs!
I learned a very relevant lesson and we changed our whole process!
I was waiting on a home check for two dogs getting adopted to a family about 30 minutes away. That took a week, and they passed with flying colors, family, a fully fenced yard, and they own their home, all good, right? We adopted the two dogs to them. 4 months later, I got a call on my cell phone, one of those wonderful dogs, a beautiful lab girl named Fancy, was picked up by animal officers, the microchip came back with my name on it. I immediately called the family, wondering how she had escaped their yard or home. They had let her out and they said they didn’t want the other dog either. Well, what a waste, a home check isn’t what matters to the dog, it’s the people! We rewrote the rules to adopt a dog! Listening and having a conversation is what is needed. That can happen in a day! Now the amount of time a dog stays at Muttville has been cut in half! And the faster a dog gets adopted, the quicker we can save another! Another idea that is now more common practice than ever before.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Muttville.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muttvillesf/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Muttville.Senior.Dog.Rescue
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/muttville-senior-dog-rescue
• Twitter: https://x.com/muttville
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MuttvilleSeniorDog
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/muttville-senior-dog-rescue-san-francisco