(heartwarming guitar music)
- [Rocky] Hi, who's this?
All right, this is, no name right now.
Unknown. Mister Unknown. Or Mrs. Unknown! I'm sorry. Hi!
♪ I'm looking from the start ♪
♪ I am nothing new ♪
♪ Been roses at the side of a busy road ♪
♪ I'm crying for a worthy girl ♪
- Sit. Good girl.
This, right here, right here, is a really big improvement.
I gotta tell you that this dog's calm demeanor
right here is such a big deal.
And I'm gonna tell you that backstory.
It's a backstory I almost didn't tell, but I gotta tell you,
I was recently encouraged by the Ace family,
who made a video called "Secretly Filming Dog Shelter...
We Want To Bring Him Home!!! (Very Emotional)".
I want you to check it out because
it's encouraging when other YouTube people in the community
put out videos that focus on adoption first.
They're thinking about getting a dog, and they've said
"Let's go to the shelter and check this out."
And that, to me, is really awesome because
it's one of the main goals with this channel,
is showing you how adoption is a really great way to go
if you're thinking about getting a dog.
So the Ace Family, Catherine, Austin, awesome.
Thank you so much, and if you need any help,
or you wanna be a part of Dog's Day Out,
then just get a hold of me and we'll do something together.
So we're gonna jump into this story right away.
I'm gonna tell you the backstory of this amazing dog
right here and the journey that we're taking together.
If you're new here, make sure you subscribe.
Turn on the notifications, leave a comment down below.
I'm gonna try to respond to everyone I can and say
thank you and welcome.
And also, if you're following me on Instagram,
make sure you leave your Instagram handle,
'cause I'm gonna follow five of you
as we build this dog rescue loving community.
Okay. Let's dive right into this one's story,
and you'll see why this calm demeanor
right here is so amazing.
(gentle guitar music)
[Rocky] Okay, I got a call.
There's a situation.
So, let's go find out how we can help.
Hey. I'm in the middle of the desert.
There's nobody out here.
(car engine)
That guy. But other than that, nobody.
And I'm out here for a very specific reason.
There's a hoarding case in this area,
150, 160 dogs, unfortunately, have been turned in.
So, I'm gonna go see how we can help.
I'm meeting up with Zach from Marley's Mutts
and we're gonna go to the shelter and just,
kind of assess the situation and see what we can do.
- [Female Reporter] Animals that were rescued from
that alleged hoarding situation in Tehachapi
are now here at shelters in Bakersfield.
- [Male Reporter] Well, Dave, Rochelle and I arrived,
I saw about 10 animal service vehicles
being loaded with dogs.
Agents just kept pouring out of the house
carrying dog after dog for hours.
Animal Services booked Lee on suspicion of
120 felony counts of animal cruelty or neglect.
(door creaks)
(gentle guitar music)
- [Rocky] What's up, buddy? - What's going on, man?
- [Rocky] So, what's the plan today?
- Uh, the plan is to do our best to assess these dogs
and try and keep them as calm as possible,
as comfortable as possible.
But get a feel for what they're gonna be like
with other dogs, what they're gonna be like in transport,
and then what the socialization process
will be like for them.
'Cause they are completely shut down,
in constant fight or flight mode.
- [Rocky] Yeah. - So, anytime you have dogs
in constant fight or flight mode,
they're gonna need socialization, they're gonna need
a lot of other dogs to help bring them
out of their funk and kind of become pets.
Right now, they are not man's best friend.
They will need to transition to man's best friend.
It's gonna be a process.
- [Rocky] So, you can tell with these guys,
they're not hoarding case dogs.
You can just tell.
Let's see what the...stray.
Brother and sister.
I mean, obviously.
You guys look like each other.
But you can tell, right?
There's no fear of humans versus
the hoarding puppy dogs over here.
They're all stepping all over each other
and just cowering away because they don't know humans.
(clang) Right?
So, a lot of them are really scared.
Like these guys, these guys are pretty timid
because they've never really been in an environment
outside of the house where it was just,
hoarding a lot of dogs.
(barking)
Oh, it just breaks my heart.
(gentle guitar music)
I'll try - I don't wanna scare 'em,
but I'll try to go 'round to the other side.
They'll probably just run away.
(gentle guitar music)
It's tough because they don't know where they're at,
or what's going on, or what they did wrong.
Of course, they didn't do anything wrong,
but they don't know that, you know?
(gentle guitar music)
[Rocky] All they know is each other, from being hoarded
in the house together.
The only thing they know is just to kind of group together
and just, just, you know...
try to find some comfort in each other.
[Rocky] What always strikes me as tough is
when you come to a shelter and the names are unknown.
Unknown.
Imagine being a couple years old
and you never have had a name.
Obviously, names are important for humans,
but they're also important for pets, right?
Because then you have that identity.
You know that that's who you are.
That's me.
I will come to you for food, for treats, for love,
and if you don't ever have that, it's tough.
Every dog deserves that.
(gentle guitar music)
[Rocky] Okay, that's tough, I know,
but the good stuff starts happening next, right?
It's when you get in, and you start working with these dogs,
and you go, "You know what? It's gonna be okay,
it's just gonna take time and effort."
Zach really started leading the charge on this
and he's just so good with these pets.
We started working 'em out, one by one,
and taking 'em out into the yard
and letting them just breathe and open up and see outside.
It was really awesome.
(gentle guitar music)
- He's using his nose, he's clearly a little shut down.
(gentle guitar music)
- [Rocky] Okay, so we're working with all the dogs,
we get 10 out, 20, 30, and we think we have them all.
But someone says we're one short.
Zach and I head back in there and we're trying
to find this one dog.
- [Zach] 'Cause we, we cleared this one.
- [Rocky] We did. Great.
- Yes, there is. You were under there?
(barking) - [Rocky] Oh, yeah.
Sure enough, there's this one dog.
Scared, scared, but curious.
There's something to this dog,
as Zach and I are spending time, that you just know.
They look at you with those eyes
and you know they're scared,
but there's also a curiosity, a moment where
they catch your eyes and you see them say,
"Can I trust you?"
(inspirational acoustic music)
[Rocky] I just knew in that moment,
sitting in the cage with her and Zach, that I had to help.
If you've ever adopted, you know what I'm talking about.
It's hard to explain, but there's just a connection
that just happens.
And for me, when that moment happens,
I listen to my heart and I take action.
Because if not me, then who?
And what's fun is, we were doing an Instagram live,
we got everyone involved, and we decided
to name her Blossom.
And what's so great about that name is
it can be a guiding light for her to blossom into her name.
That's her, but we had...
This might be the sheet, which isn't,
it's not her picture. - [Woman] Yeah.
So we're trying to figure out, we're trying
to match her up. - [Woman] I think this is
probably the right one, but it's just the wrong...
- [Rocky] After that I was determined.
I was happy.
I was excited because I knew that it would be a journey,
but whether it took a day, or months, or years,
she deserved that opportunity
and to know that life is worth living.
We got all her paperwork sorted out,
we got her loaded in the car and she came home with me.
(gentle piano music)
Pretty cool, huh?
I mean, now that you know Blossom's story
and you just...I can't wait to even show you more.
But really what we've been doing is,
I've just been giving her the time
to just decompress, right?
Just be a normal dog.
Like, even this moment right now, I enjoy these moments
because she takes a lot of steps backwards,
and she hides, and she just - she's very skittish still, so.
But it's in those little moments
that she makes progress that are such a big deal.
We'll do more on her, but -
oh, and if you are interested in adopting her,
it's gonna be a journey, right?
She's gonna need someone with patience,
and with a lot of love, and it's just gonna take a while
for her to continue to come out of her shell.
But if you're up to the task, she's healthy
and it's so rewarding every positive step you make forward.
So I'll put the link down below on next steps
of what you wanna do if you're interested in adopting her,
and I'll see you in the next video.
Good girl.