Zone 16
No. 14 Vol. 8
New View Media Group • 1-800-691-7549
April 25, 2018
Scooby Doo’s Rescue Mission Hosts Paw-tique
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By Stefanie Sears or Christine Bakelaar, rescuing dogs was always a part of her everyday reality. Throughout her life she constantly had dogs as pets. She recalls her father, a police officer, bringing home stray dogs, and eventually she too would even take dogs from Craigslist ads, vet them, and find them homes. When social media became popular, she found that it was beneficial in
aiding her cause. Although she was at first adamant about not needing to become a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, a local family made her one anyway and asked her to devise a name. “I had a dog in my car that was deemed aggressive from a shelter in Lodi,” she says. “I’m talking to this dog. Two years prior, I had my Scooby Doo, which was a Rhodesian Ridgeback. We had res-
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cued him from an animal shelter at 12 weeks old. He was supposed to be a small to medium dog, and he ended up being a 130-pound Rhodesian Ridgeback. So I’m talking to this dog in my car and we were at a red light and I turned around and looked at him and I said, ‘That’s the name of the rescue! Scooby Doo’s Rescue Mission.’” Bakelaar got approval and founded the Lincoln Park based Scooby Doo’s Rescue Mission on May 25, 2016. The organization operates solely on donations and right now they have foster homes all over the east coast. Bakelaar and her team visit various shelters to look for dogs to rescue and have even accepted dogs, and occasionally even other species… Bakelaar fondly remembers that one time she rescued piglets, from outside of New Jersey and the United States. They take them to the vet to have their health
examined, find beautiful homes for them, and then make sure to keep in touch with their adopted friends. “We’ve had such amazing adopters that they’ve sent us pictures,” she says. “It’s just really sweet. Every now and then I’ll look at my email and it’ll be like, ‘Hi! I just wanted to send you some pictures of Scrappy!’” Scooby Doo’s Rescue Mission also hosts fundraisers. In 2016, they started pet photo taking opportunities
with “Santa Paws” (a man dressed as Santa Claus) at Bakelaar’s dogs’ vet All Creatures Great & Small Animal Hospital in Fairfield, which has turned into an annual gathering. For Easter they even hold photos with the Easter Bunny there. “They’re always doing events for me,” says Bakelaar of the animal hospital. “It’s been a really positive experience with them.” Scooby Doo’s Rescue Mission’s first huge fundraiser was this past
October’s Fall Boutique. Now their latest one, “Spring Shopping Pawtique”, took place on Saturday, April 14 at the Lincoln Park Hose Company #2. The goal of this particular function, which included vendors, basket raffles, and dogs up for adoption, was to crush canine cancer. There is a dog limit in Lincoln Park, five to a home, and Bakelaar’s abode just makes that limit with her five dogs in tow. Three cont. on page 2