Presley’s Playlist

I want to tell Presleys story from the beginning of his time at VCAS. And then move on to how we got involved. My rescue and the wonderful volunteers at Ventura County Animal Services. Silvia, Valerie, Lisa, Lauren and the others. Send me your names and PICTURES of yourself with Presley.

I want to make this an interactive process. Offer your suggestions and content. Let me know if you would be willing to narrate some of the film. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Songs/Background music suggestions, submissions.

Send me any thoughts or submissions to:

Director@pyreneesrescuenc.org

Include the pictures of these volunteers with Presley. Include music suggestions

Ventura County Volunteers
Interacting at the shelter

Narration:

 

Noah Back:

First, I want to let you know that Presley ended up where he needed to be. It took  a while …tooo long. The system failed him for 8 months. People that didn’t understand him or his breed failed him. People overlooked him because they didn’t take the time to get to know him. County workers went about their job, performing their duties but they failed Presley. They wrote him off as ‘aggressive’ , ‘too big’ , stubborn and selective. Each one of these issues could have been resolved much earlier in the process but kennel staff just took care of the easy ones. An all too familiar problem with guardian breeds, especially Great Pyrenees. But the volunteers at Ventura County Animal Services didn’t fail Presley. they constantly tried to find him a rescue, mostly looking at the west coast pyrenees rescues. None of them would take him. NONE! And so he lanquished for 8 months. Spending 23 hours and 45 minutes a day locked down in a cage. Some days he didn’t go out at all. Totally up to the discretion of the kennel staff. He scared them, so they left him alone. If they did take him out, he didn’t want to go back in, so that was an issue. And so he suffered.

 

 

Noah Back:

Volunteers persisted. One of them contacted  a friend of mine that lives in Los Angeles area and she passed along the info to me. I IMMEDIATELY contacted VCAS and told them that I would take Presley if they could get transport here. We investigated  airlines and professional dog transports and eventually worked out a plan. But when the transport arrived to pick him up in early August, Presley would not get in the van. Mission aborted. We talked with other transports and communication with VCAS and volunteers seemed to break down. Everyone was going on vacation. Kids going back to school, so the system continued to fail Presley. During the course of all of this, I maintained contact with 2 of the volunteers who vowed to never give up on Presley. Valerie Elvine and Silvia Casas. Their emails contained so much passion for Presley that I knew they saw something in him that the system was ignoring. So I tried to work out details with them. The idea was put out there that we should arrange to rent a vehicle and make the cross-country trek with Presley and 4 of the volunteers. They could switch off driving and make the trip without hotel stops. The plan was eventually to trim it down to just 2 volunteers. VCAS cut me off completely in early August, telling me that they had found a rescue to take him, someone local. But the volunteers were secretly planning his ‘Escape From LA’ in coordination  with a wonderful rescue. They did finally ‘pull’ Presley in late August and began the 5 day transport. Silvia had to drive alone because the other volunteer was not greeted warmly by Presley. So we followed Silvia each day as she crossed the country with Presley. They bonded, even more deeply than they had during her volunteer time with him at VCAS

Noah Back
Actual videos of  Presley and how he was interacting with the volunteers and staff at Ventura County Animal Services

Friendly and playful. He loved the time that he  spent with the volunteers

And they loved him.

 

Noah Back:

 

How did Presley end up in Ventura County animal services?

This is from an email back on June 6, 2023 that was sent to Nancy Sayle, the director of Fur N Feather rescue in LA

. I didn’t get this email until early September.

Lauren or Silvia:

 

“Presley is a 2 year old Great Pyrenees who came to us as an owner surrender.  The owner reported some behavioral concerns that she felt she was too old and too scared to work with.  Admittedly, she had never had a livestock guardian breed before, but Presley‘s face reminded her of her previous dog and she fell in love.  Presley does not have any reported bites on his record, but the previous owner did indicate that there were a couple of times where he would seemingly guard the property and ran up and barked and growled at the neighbors.   When she relinquished him to us she said that she was worried about him around her granddaughter as he had barked and lunged at her as well, however, it seems to have been exacerbated by the owner grabbing his collar and pulling him away from her after he scared her by sniffing.  We have noted some barrier reactivity with some members of the public and volunteers, but he is great with most of the volunteers and staff that interact with him.  He can sometimes be people selective.

Talk about communicating with VCAS staff

I started emailing VCAS
I reached out to VCAS for the fist time on June 21, 2023.

Charlie:

 

Lucy,

Nancy Sayle from FurNFeather rescue  reached out to me about Presley. She mentioned that you are trying to find transport options for Presley to a rescue that would be willing to take. I am able to take him if you can get him here. I would like to make another post about him and your heroic efforts to save this guy. Hopefully, we can help you get some donations to cover the transport costs. I will start working on a post and let you, Nancy and Sandi look it over and approve it before we make it public. I’m not sure that this is your personal email and/or the best way to contact you. Are you on Facebook? We are listed as Pyrenees Rescue of Western NC. Charlie Fisher is my page.

Charlie
Scheduling Air Transport
I filled out an application on June 22 to schedule air transport for Presley. They scheduled it and then cancelled it because of several factors, weather, breed restrictions and weight, size of kennel needed was too much for the scheduled aircraft. They cancelled in early July
Ground Transport
I contacted a ground transporter as soon as I found out about the cancelled air transport. They made arrangements to bring Presley here but when they went to pick him up, he would NOT get in their transport van. Mission Aborted.
Other options
So we started looking at other options. I had been conversing with several of the VCAS volunteers about the possibility of renting a van and driving them out here. It sounded crazy at first but Silvia Casas started developing a plan to make it happen. We were still talking to several other ground transports but everything hinged on how Presley would react.
Spiraling down into Solitary
Presley on the other hand was not taking all of the delays well. He had been at VCAS for 7 months. He was getting unpredictable, so the shelter staff decided to put him in a kennel and basically ignore him. Which made it worse. They denied access to him from the volunteers. They asked me not to communicate with them aboutPresley.

 

Noah Back:

Headed to the Long Black Train
It appeared that Presley was headed for a ride on the Long Black Train. Volunteers were frantically looking for information and answers and it seemed like I was being given the runaround. I’ve been down this road before and I know where it goes. I kept pursuing the option of a volunteer driven transport to NC
My Motivation
I had 4 main motivating factors
I promised Nancy Sayle that I would help!!!
I wanted the best for Presley
I received several emails from the volunteers during this time. They were heart-breaking. Full of emotion and compassion for Presley. It showed me that he was a boy worth fighting for.
I could NOT let him down
Persistence
Early August, 2023. The volunteers were relentless in their communications with me. I was getting bombarded by their emails, Facebook messages, text messages. Which only strengthened my resolve to get him here.
They continued with their plan. They got SPARC involved. They would pull him and then send him off to me with a couple of volunteers that he trusted.
The Journey

Noah Back:

 

Arrangements were made to bring Presley to North Carolina.
Van was rented
Volunteer Silvia Casas picked up Presley from SPARC and began the journey
Presley didn’t accept the other volunteer in the van, so Silvia made the extremely brave decision to make the journey alone.
Day 1 of the journey
Silvia spent most of the day getting out of LA
She drove a couple of hours and spent the night in a hotel with Presley. He slept on his own bed. He must have been so exhilarated to have so much freedom. If only he knew how much more was to come

Meanwhile: Back in LA
The volunteers have created a support staff for Silvia. They are following her progess and helping out with directions, roadside assistance (if needed) and booking her stops and Hotel rooms on the fly. Finding hotels that accept BIG dogs is not easy but they manage.
Silvia NEVER complains, not once, that the accommodations are not superb
Day 2. Sunday Drive
Silvia continued to drive across the deserts of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico

 

 

Insert Sivlia slide show from the Ventura County Commisioners meeting
Insert images from location sharing

Meanwhile, back at the Rescue
Charlie and Sandi are busy getting things ready for Presley, and helping with the GoFundMe that will help pay for the transport
The GoFundMe campaign project manager was Lauren Rogers, back in LA. She’s one of Presley’s biggest supporters along with Valerie, Lisa and Silvia!

Campaign goal is raised, due to expenses related to single driver transport. Donations increasing as everyone shares and pitches in.
Day 3, Texas, Oklahoma,Arkansas
Silvia is very upbeat and enjoying the drive
It’s an experience of a lifetime and she’s loving the bonding time with Presley. Her love and devotion is overwhelming. I think about the 2 of them making the journey. They spend time enjoying the scenery, listening to music, just being together with nothing to interrupt their thoughts. Silvia communicates with me and her friends but mostly just enjoys the journey
Her location is shared with me and a few others back in LA

Day 4…….Nashville, Music City!
Silvia and Presley get to Nashville in the early evening and they enjoy a little site seeing in downtown. I can’t imagine how beautiful it must have been. Just a girl and her big beautiful dog strolling around music city

Destination reached!!!!!!

I could write a book about all of the emotions that we went through on this day.
Anticipation
Anxiety
JOY
Love
Friendship
Satisfaction

 

 

Settling In. Home, Sweet, Home
Presley did great his first night
Handling him cautiously
Eating well, drinking lots of water
Peculiar habits(coughing up water). Sleeping under tables. ROTFL

 

Decompression

The first few weeks have been all about letting Presley enjoy his new found freedom. New friends and new accomodation. No more cages, chains or kennels. He comes and goes as he pleases.

Socialization

Presley learns to play with the other dogs here. He’s introduced to Luna, Titus, Cayce, Dallas, Jake, Austin and Sammy without incident. Play, Sleep, Eat, Play

Observation

Presley is such a joy to watch. I’ve been doing Facebook live at least once a day. I promised Silvia Casas that I would.  It’s good therapy for him. He’s encouraged to show off his playfulnes and progress. I’m not sure that he needs much improvement so it’s best to get outside comments

Rehabilitation

I thought that Presley was going to need lots of time to recover from the trauma of being caged for 8 months. It didn’t take very long at all to see that he was putting all of that in the past. Presley is very affectionate towards me but he really enjoys his time with the other dogs and he usually settles down in a quiet spot to guard and nap.

Adoption?

We are going to keep Presley here for at least a few months. I will have him independently evaluated by a professional dog behaviorist before he is allowed to be adopted.

And just to be clear, Presley is happy here. He is welcome to stay as long as he needs to.

 

More about our rescue

Video

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, I want to let you know that Presley ended up where he needed to be. It took  a while …tooo long. The system failed him for 8 months. People that didn’t understand him or his breed failed him. People overlooked him because they didn’t take the time to get to know him. County workers went about their job, performing their duties but they failed Presley. They wrote him off as ‘aggressive’ , ‘too big’ , stubborn and selective. Each one of these issues could have been resolved much earlier in the process but kennel staff just took care of the easy ones. An all too familiar problem with guardian breeds, especially Great Pyrenees. But the volunteers at Ventura County Animal Services didn’t fail Presley. they constantly tried to find him a rescue, mostly looking at the west coast pyrenees rescues. None of them would take him. NONE! And so he lanquished for 8 months. Spending 23 hours and 45 minutes a day locked down in a cage. Some days he didn’t go out at all. Totally up to the discretion of the kennel staff. He scared them, so they left him alone. If they did take him out, he didn’t want to go back in, so that was an issue. And so he suffered. Volunteers persisted. One of them contacted  a friend of mine that lives in Los Angeles area and she passed along the info to me. I IMMEDIATELY contacted VCAS and told them that I would take Presley if they could get transport here. We investigated  airlines and professional dog transports and eventually worked out a plan. But when the transport arrived to pick him up in early August, Presley would not get in the van. Mission aborted. We talked with other transports and communication with VCAS and volunteers seemed to break down. Everyone was going on vacation. Kids going back to school, so the system continued to fail Presley. During the course of all of this, I maintained contact with 2 of the volunteers who vowed to never give up on Presley. Valerie Elvine and Silvia Casas. Their emails contained so much passion for Presley that I knew they saw something in him that the system was ignoring. So I tried to work out details with them. The idea was put out there that we should arrange to rent a vehicle and make the cross-country trek with Presley and 4 of the volunteers. They could switch off driving and make the trip without hotel stops. The plan was eventually to trim it down to just 2 volunteers. VCAS cut me off completely in early August, telling me that they had found a rescue to take him, someone local. But the volunteers were secretly planning his ‘Escape From LA’ in coordintion with a wonderful rescue. They did finally ‘pull’ Presley in late August and began the 5 day transport. Silvia had to drive alone because the other volunteer was not greeted warmly by Presley. So we followed Silvia each day as she crossed the country with Presley. They bonded, even more deeply than they had during her volunteer time with him at VCAS

Presley wants to know

Presley wants to know,

Where did I go wrong. What did I to?

Why do these people want to lock me up, why do they do they want to end me?

I did a lot of good things. I’m just a dog trying to fit into a world that I didn’t ask to live in

If I growled at you, I’m sorry. I was scared. Shelters are scary place.

If I bit you, I thought you deserved it. You didn’t back away when I growled.

You came at me with a big stick. You pushed me too hard

Where did I go wrong?

And then, she came along.

She gave me space. She gave me love

She saved my life

She knows how to share this space with a dog

A dog that is used to being in charge

A dog that is used to being at large

I don’t want to be told what to do

where to go , where to sleep

I can make those decisions, we can make this work.

Give me some time

Give me some friends

find me a space where I can save my life

Presley’s story is just one of 150 stories that we have to tell, just from 2023!

A lot of them are similar, although Presleys journey was the longest, it is certainly not the most dramatic.

About 70 of the stories start out the same. “hey, I bought a puppy but I don’t really want a dog. Great Pyrenees are too big and they bark too much”

And we have 60 stories that start out with “Hi, my Great Pyrenees had a litter of puppies, and I need to get rid of the puppies. I thought I could sell them but I am not able to. They haven’t been vetter or spay/ neutered, can you come pick them up?”

and about 40 of them came from Animal control departments across the south. ” We found a stray Great Pyrenees. He/She ain;t liking it here at our shelter, can you come pick it up?”

our answer is almost always “Yes, we can help”