Animal shelters are often filled with older dogs -
Once faithful companions to people who can't, or won't, take care of them anymore.
But one shelter in San Francisco is devoted to giving senior dogs
all the love and attention they deserve.
Welcome to Muttville.
We are a cage-free facility where dogs and
humans can intermingle and get love from each other.
We are able to give these old dogs a new beginning
and help them find their forever homes.
The first year, we only adopted out 27 dogs.
But now we're saving 1,000 dogs a year.
She's created this culture where people understand how amazing it is
to have a senior dog and they're repeat adopting.
This is Miss Sally and she is my fourth Muttville dog.
I just can't imagine life without her now.
Created and run by Sherri Franklin, Muttville takes in senior dogs
coming from a variety of often difficult circumstances.
Some may have come from a loving home and somebody passed away.
Others have come from shelters where they've been there for months
waiting to be adopted.
We make the animals feel better when they come here.
It's very homelike.
They can expect to be spoiled rotten.
They'll automatically get a new outfit and a new name tag and we have a vet team here
who's basically able to see the dogs within 24 hours upon arriving.
The idea for Muttville surfaced in 2007
when Sherri was volunteering at animal shelters and witnessing
too many senior dogs being passed over for younger puppies.
So I started taking a dog home at a time
and finding it a home.
And the problem was not going away so I started Muttville.
I didn't know if it was gonna make it,
but we are here celebrating 10 years.
Adopters and pet advocates have taken notice of the shelter's good work.
So today, it's getting a much needed makeover.
We're in the heart of San Francisco, so real estate is not cheap
and we've got to maximize every bit of space for this room.
Sherri, tell us about this space.
We've been using this for a lot of different things,
like if we need to timeout a dog, or if we have something to hide
we just put it in here, but I'd really like to make it people friendly.
A place where a potential adopter could come in
and meet one of the dogs.
It's time for the work to begin.
Volunteers and staff can't wait to transform this utility room
into a welcoming adoption room.
It's really important that Sherri knows how important
the work that she's doing is.
And a space like this, it really says "thank you."
Senior dogs, their more soulful. They are there to comfort you
and they appreciate the smaller things in life.
And that will soon include a new cozy adoption space,
which is almost done.
The room is coming along nicely. I'm a little concerned about the time,
but the team is really jumping in there.
They won't let me go look.
I'm so excited.
While Sherri's waiting, the shelter gets a special delivery from
our sponsor, Chicken Soup for the Soul Pet Food.
Wow! This is gonna feed our dogs through Christmas.
I swear. This is so awesome.
Shelters as busy as this one go through a lot of food.
And older dogs have special nutritional needs.
It says "mature" on it.
This is perfect for our dogs!
Volunteers put the finishing touches on the new adoption room
and it's finally time for the big reveal.
So, are you ready?
Yeah. I'm ready! I'm ready!
Oh my!
Wow!
I never even could have imagined that this would look like this.
It looks twice as big!
It's amazing.
For every senior dog she has saved, and the endless love in her heart,
Sherri is a true hero to animal advocates.
she gave a voice to animals that didn't have a voice for themselves.
She's just totally compassionate and
inspires people to give back.
She's just always been so dedicated to the senior dogs, no matter what it takes.
Creating Muttville has been the most rewarding thing
in my life and every day I get to feel really good about what we're doing, saving lives.