Speaker: 00:00:02

unwanted feline's video recording-1:

Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast

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dedicated to the people and rescues making

a difference in the lives of animals.

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Dixie: Hi everyone and

welcome back to Animal Posse.

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I wanna thank everybody who is supporting

us and listening today's guest is

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Brittany Barnett, and we are gonna

talk about the lemonaid stand Nola.

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Welcome to the show, Brittany.

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I'm excited to talk

about . The lemonaid stand.

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Nola.

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Before we get started with that, can

you tell us a little bit about yourself?

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Brittany: Sure.

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So I got into animal rescue

'cause I work at a vet clinic.

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I'm a receptionist.

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I've always been an animal lover.

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I just took a little break from doing

an animal stuff in college and teaching

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and then I got back into it once.

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I was like, I need a

break with animals again.

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And then the past four years I've

been working at this vet clinic

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and got hooked up with all of the

rescue organizations in New Orleans

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that kind of came through our doors.

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But yeah love animals, love plants.

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Love working for the hospital and

helping the community with their animals.

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So I'm from Florida and moved to New

Orleans with my partner about four years

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ago, and I feel like this has been my main

community here, and it's been awesome.

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Dixie: Great.

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Can you start by telling us the origin

story of the Lemonaid stand nola?

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What specifically inspired you to

create it around animal welfare

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in the New Orleans community?

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Brittany: Yeah, so it was a

convergence of a lot of things.

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It started out we were in this era

of a lot of dog bars popping up.

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A lot of cat cafes popping up and I

always thought that was super cool.

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And I wanna be a part of something

like that where people can just

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hang out with their animals and

enjoy other people's animals.

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I feel like there's not

enough spaces where it's both

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recreational and appreciative.

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For the humans and for the animals

Being in the like, foster and

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animal rescue community, a lot of

my kind of free time revolved around

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adoption events, which are super fun.

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I love adoption events, but you almost

feel like you're on the clock with those.

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So I wanted to do something that's

a little bit more recreational,

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but also with that rescue

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element.

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And around that time that I was thinking

about all of this I'd already been

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involved with take, paws, rescue.

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But we had this dog named Clara, who

came into our clinic for a bullet wound.

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She was paralyzed.

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We were hoping that she would get

over it, but she ended up living at my

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clinic for about four or five months.

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Just recovering.

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It was with Mid City Mutt Mamas and.

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They were coming to visit her every

week, every few days, trying to get her

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back to where she could maybe walk or

have some sort of mobility function.

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She was with us for a really long

time and I'm front desk, so we do

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a lot of the billing and every week

since she was with us long term.

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I'd have to give them a call and go

over the bill and I can tell the stress

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was just increasing as the rescue

organizations do when they have these

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mounting bills with a hard health case.

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And so yeah, I was trying to

like, troubleshoot with them

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how they could save money.

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I was like, bring your own food.

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You're gonna save money if you

bring your own food because we're

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gonna be charging you an upcharge.

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Like we're not a nonprofit.

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So they were just spending a lot

of money that I was like, I really

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wish I could help with this.

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And then also around that time, I got

an idea from a nine and 7-year-old kids.

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They were this wonderful family

that adopted my first foster dog.

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I fostered her with Take, paws rescue

and sweet little girls, they threw a

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lemonade stand for Take Pawss Rescue

just in their own neighborhood.

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And I was like, that is so cute.

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Like I love lemonade

stands and I love the fact

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that, they're raising

money for a good cause.

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And so I was like, what if I

could do this kind of recreational

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thing for adults and families?

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But it's also a place where people can

come together and network and raise money

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and have fun and showcase adoptable dogs,

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which Clara was technically adoptable

even though she had a lot of issues,

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medically that they were trying to fix

and weren't even thinking about that.

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But we see being at a hospital.

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I see all of these owners who are going

through so much with their animals.

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I'm like, there's definitely people who

know how to deal with this kind of issue.

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So it's just a matter of finding

the right fit for this dog so

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that you're not paying for medical

boarding for four or five, six months.

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So I decided to do this lemonade stand

and I advertised it right at the time.

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The Barkus Parade was happening.

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One of my throws that I do for Barkus

with Take Pause Rescue is a zine

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which is like a little mini magazine.

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So I put my first kind of

advertisement for the lemonade

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stand coming soon in my throw.

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I was like, I guess it's happening.

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And we got Clara there and

we sold lemonade, we sold

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brownies, stuff like that.

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And we had a pretty good turnout.

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People who had been following Clara's

story and who wanted to support

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her and see her out in the wild.

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Not just, at the hospital looking

pitiful, but being a dog and enjoying

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the company of people and other dogs.

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And so after that I was inspired

to foster her to try and get, idea

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about how she would be in a home.

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And so I ended up fostering her

for about two months and decided to

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keep on doing this Lemonade stands

just from that kind of concept.

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And I didn't wanna focus

on one particular rescue.

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I had been working with Take

Paws and Spaymart and Mid City

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Met Mamas, but I wanted to.

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Also highlight other rescues

'cause they're all doing

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the work, that's for sure.

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And I've found, each organization

has their different niche

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and their different vibe.

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And I think it's good to give

people access to, different rescues.

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One, if they ever need help.

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Networking an animal that needs help.

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But also if they do wanna volunteer

or foster, sometimes you just

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click with one over the other.

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So it became this like every month

or two thing when the weather was

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good, just it was mostly in my yard.

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There was one other one that's

been in a friend's yard.

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One I did at Spaymart thrift

store back when it was in Metairie.

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And it's just little pop up where we

sell lemonade and have a good time.

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Let the dogs play.

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Not at Spay Mart.

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We had a little par after party

where the dogs could play after.

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Otherwise, when we did it at Spay

Mart, it was play with the kitties

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that are at the thrift store.

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Dixie: The dogs wouldn't

have done good in there.

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Brittany: No.

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No.

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And I love cat rescue and I'm a big

part of cat rescue, but I really, it's

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really fun to let you know dogs that

are typically in rescue and might not

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always have that opportunity to have

an off leash adoption event, be able

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to play and have this more low key.

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Atmosphere.

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So I've focused on dogs in the

past, but I usually tend to have a

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litter of kittens at the same time.

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So I'll be like, go visit the kittens

in my guest bathroom while you're here.

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And so we outreach the

cats in that way too.

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And then on the off season, it's really

hot for having a playdate like that.

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I just, I'm going to Spay Mart,

thrift store and doing outreach

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with them and posting in that way.

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Same with Take Paws, I Foster would

Take Paws, so trying to go to events

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and show off different dogs and then

ones that come into my clinic just

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trying to advertise them as well.

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The ones that have been stuck

or have larger medical bills.

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Dixie: I love how you came up with the

idea with the children too, because

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I was gonna say, lemonade stand, it

often evokes youth entrepreneurship

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and making the best of things.

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And now

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your lemonade stand is

a little bit different

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can you tell us how you spell it?

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Brittany: Yeah.

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So it's lemon which is.

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What we call dogs and cats

that have a lot of issues.

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And then in the medical field at

least, so oh, that dog's a lemon,

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they're always coming into the

vet for this, that or the other.

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And then aid is AID so yeah, just

combines this lemon and aid to be a

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little play on words so that people

are like, okay, but what is that?

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It's not a typical Lemonade

stands a little different.

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The Lemonaid stand.

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Nola was born.

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Dixie: Now you said you do

the stands in your yard.

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When you do them, how many people

do you have normally showing up?

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How many dogs do you have showing up?

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Brittany: Yeah, so usually

ends up being somewhere between

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20 and 35 people showing up.

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So it's not big.

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I don't have a super large yard,

but one of my first priorities was

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making sure it was super dog friendly.

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And double gated and everything so

people feel safe to let their dogs off.

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So yeah, it's pretty intimate and it's

usually over a span of three hours so

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people can come and go if people wanna

hang out like the first 30 minutes

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or just stop by for a drink and say

hi to the pet that we're showcasing.

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And there's some people that stay

the whole time and hang out and.

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Yeah, just play the whole time.

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It's pretty fun.

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And it depends on what we're selling.

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Sometimes we get a

really good raffle item.

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I love when I get raffle donations.

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So usually the best way to, to gain

money from it is have a raffle and

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then if you sign up for the raffle,

you get free drinks the whole time

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and as many baked goods as you want.

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So you could munch the whole time.

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And then you get entered into the raffle.

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And that usually is how we make

the most money instead of just

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a dollar a cup for lemonade.

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And it's great.

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Usually people come out with a

hundred dollars gift cards to the

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dog house, which we love and has

always been supportive of rescues.

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Winston's Pub and Patio has

always been great with donating.

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We've had really good

donations from some of the.

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Boarding facilities around town.

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So that's always helpful.

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So we usually end up.

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About two 50.

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Our largest one for Clara was almost 700.

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Sometimes it seems like it doesn't

make a dent, especially when her bills

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were on the, like $2,000 a month.

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Part of the reason we do it

is for outreach of the animals

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and outreach of the rescues.

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Dixie: You get them the exposure,

but even if you think of it in

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terms of things like for 250.00,

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like for a cat, how many

spays and neuters is that?

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So it does definitely make a difference.

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Now how do you go about like

getting all of your supplies and

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getting everything that you need?

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Do you have a setup or

anything specific that you use?

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Since it's technically a lemonade stand?

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Brittany: Yeah.

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I pretty much donate the actual

food and supplies on my own.

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That's kinda like my

donation portion of it.

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So it's pretty easy though.

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It's just go get some lemons sugar.

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Cups and then baked goods.

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We love our Costco.

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We always get bulk stuff from Costco.

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So just like kids when they're making

a lemonade stand, you're not making

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a ton of profit, but like when you

do it in bulk and we're selling

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it one at a time it's not too bad.

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Otherwise we always just have.

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Bug spray and sunscreen, but it's really

not that many people, all at once.

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So it's pretty low cost and ends up being

a really good time for not too much work.

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My main work that I put into

it, honestly, is trying to get

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people to come and outreaching it.

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And then just day of making sure we

have the lemonade all set up and.

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Depending on the weather and

praying for good weather.

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Dixie: Do you have a lot

of, the same people coming?

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Do you have a lot of new people coming?

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Brittany: Yeah.

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I love that We usually get different

groups of people for different rescues.

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And then, there's some people who

have been coming from the get go

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who are just clear supporters.

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Of course, personal friends of mine have

been super helpful in spreading the word.

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So a lot of my personal friends come

out and support animal lovers of New

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Orleans that I've made over time.

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And then each rescue, does their

own outreach for it because

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all the money goes to them.

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And so then we get those avid supporters

and their friends, their family.

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Comes on out and then just a lot

of people in the neighborhood.

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I always put out flyers all

around the neighborhood, so

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sometimes it's just local people.

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You'll see the flyers on the

Lafitte Greenway, 'cause I

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live in Mid-City Treme area.

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Put 'em out around the Bayou St.

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John, and so people are out walking

their dogs and just stop by sometimes.

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Dixie: Do you get any kind

of permits to do these?

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Brittany: I don't.

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I have a liability waiver

that I have everyone sign.

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When they come in.

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So I have a little sign in

sheet and suggested vaccines,

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spay neuter and everything.

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But crossed my fingers So far hasn't been

any issues, but I've been thinking about

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maybe trying to make it a little bit more

official, but so far it's just been like,

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sign this waiver.

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Please don't hold me.

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Or anyone who comes liable.

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Just a little private party.

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Yeah.

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That's pretty

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Dixie: cool.

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Have you thought about going

to, pop-up in other areas too?

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I know you said you did one at the thrift

store for Spay Mart, but have you done

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'em, like pop-ups anywhere else too?

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Brittany: Yeah, so I have a friend

down the road who hosted one.

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In her yard for us.

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And then another friend will take pause

who hosted one in her yard and she even

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got some friends to play some music.

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It was around Christmas time last year.

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So we had some Christmas music

playing did instead of lemonade.

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We did hot toddies and hot chocolate.

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And live music.

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So that was really cool.

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I really appreciated when other people

host, they have good yards for dogs.

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The main thing I say is just safe

plants and a good gate so that

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everyone's safe when they get to play.

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Dixie: Being that you are from Florida.

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Do you notice that there's any different

obstacles, in rescue, in the New Orleans

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area that you didn't see in maybe Florida?

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Brittany: It's the south, it's all bad.

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I was in north Florida,

so it's still pretty bad.

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There's a lot of rural areas that have

a hard time getting people to spay

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and neuter and, that being said, I was

not nearly as plugged into the rescue

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community when I did live in Florida

since I moved pretty soon after college.

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But as a kid I, they had this

camp at the Animal service Center.

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It was like our Tallahassee, Florida

humane Society, and they had a camp

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called Camp Barkley, and it was so fun.

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We bathed puppies.

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We cleaned litter boxes.

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We learned about heartworm prevention,

flea prevention, spay and neuter.

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I still get the songs stuck in my head

every once in a while about spaying and

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neuter and, they were teaching us the

same stuff that I'm trying to teach people

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about why we spay in neuter and why we.

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Try to support rescues over

breeders the ill effects of

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backyard breeding and all that.

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And unfortunately after COVID

it ceased to exist, I found out.

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So I think the rescues in North FL for at

least are still struggling a little bit.

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Post COVID and the increase in

adoptions during COVID, but then

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the increase in returns after.

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People started going to work.

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I hear a lot of issues with that.

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Back from friends from home.

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It seems like South Florida

is a little bit better though.

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'cause I hear a lot of people ship

off animals to rescues in South

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Florida, one of the lemonade stands

we had for Spay Mart was for a dog.

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That Lynn, the director, ended

up being able to get into a

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shelter in South Florida, and he

was adopted quite quickly there.

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So I think it's just an education thing.

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I think it's a population thing.

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I think the higher the population, like

the bigger cities, tend to have a better

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grip on making sure that the public is

educated about getting their dogs and

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cats spayed and neutered and rescuing just

because they can't handle overpopulation.

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It's too obvious in the

bigger cities, I think.

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Dixie: I wish we had some kind

of little camp like that here.

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I think that would be something

that would be very beneficial

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to get the youth involved.

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Brittany: Yes, I know if I

could find something like that

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or start something like that.

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I have a friend with Take paws Rescue,

actually, who works at a school.

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: 00:18:08

And she is done field

trips to the Stray Cafe.

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: 00:18:12

So things like that I think are awesome.

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: 00:18:14

I know L-A-S-P-C-A used to

have something like that.

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: 00:18:18

And same with the Inner Pup.

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: 00:18:19

They used to have something like that.

320

: 00:18:22

But I think they, they lost their funding

and I think there was a lot of red tape

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: 00:18:27

involved with taking animals to schools

or getting, kids to go with the animals.

322

: 00:18:33

So I think there's just been a lot

of barriers and not enough funding

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: 00:18:39

to make it happen, but it was

really beneficial to me as a kid.

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: 00:18:44

Dixie: What is an aspect of animal

welfare in NOLA that you believe the

325

: 00:18:49

general public is least aware of?

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: 00:18:52

Brittany: I think there's just people

who don't realize how many animals

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: 00:18:55

there really are, which is why I

think it is so important to show kids.

328

: 00:19:01

Shelters, I think everyone needs

to visit a shelter at some point

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: 00:19:04

in their life while they're young.

330

: 00:19:07

And then they'd realize just how sad

and how dire it is when people don't

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: 00:19:14

keep their commitment to their animals.

332

: 00:19:16

And of course things happen where

people die or, illness happens and

333

: 00:19:20

we need those shelters and we need

those rescues to be able to, help

334

: 00:19:26

with those emergency situations.

335

: 00:19:27

But it really truly should

be emergency situations.

336

: 00:19:33

Not people choosing breeders, backyard

breeders, or deciding not to spay a

337

: 00:19:39

neuter just because they want their cute

cat or cute dog to have one litter or.

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: 00:19:46

Feel bad about spaying or

neutering their animal.

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: 00:19:50

'Cause yeah the shelters are

just in such dire situations.

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: 00:19:53

Every rescue, if you follow, I'd say

at least once a week, they're posting a

341

: 00:19:58

plea for someone to foster or a plea for

someone to take in a returned animal.

342

: 00:20:05

Just, there's just such an

overpopulation, unfortunately.

343

: 00:20:10

Dixie: Maybe with your lemonade

stand, since it does like

344

: 00:20:15

I said before, evoke youth.

345

: 00:20:17

Maybe that's a way too,

to get children involved.

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: 00:20:19

Like maybe they'll see something

like you doing that through social

347

: 00:20:23

media and maybe they'll think, oh,

that's something that I could do too.

348

: 00:20:27

Brittany: Yeah, that's

definitely the goal.

349

: 00:20:29

I always try and make it as

family friendly as possible.

350

: 00:20:31

It ends up being mostly adults,

but we've had some kids show up.

351

: 00:20:35

And definitely my neighborhood

kids are always like, Ooh,

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: 00:20:38

can we get some lemonade?

353

: 00:20:40

Can we come help?

354

: 00:20:41

And I'm like, I need

you to bring a parent.

355

: 00:20:43

I cannot let you come and

play with a bunch of strange

356

: 00:20:45

dogs without a parent around.

357

: 00:20:47

But they always have fun, like

seeing all the dogs come in and

358

: 00:20:50

out of my yard and everything.

359

: 00:20:51

And they do come with a parent.

360

: 00:20:54

They do learn a lot about the dogs and

the stories of the dogs that come in.

361

: 00:20:59

'cause most of our attendees are rescues.

362

: 00:21:03

'Cause they were adopted through the

rescue that we're supporting that day.

363

: 00:21:07

Or they're part of the foster community.

364

: 00:21:10

So yeah, everyone who comes is

able to share some story about.

365

: 00:21:16

Why they love and care for their animals

or how they came to be involved with

366

: 00:21:21

the rescue which is really great.

367

: 00:21:24

Dixie: When you set up your stand,

do you do it all by yourself or

368

: 00:21:27

do you have a friend helping you?

369

: 00:21:30

Brittany: Yeah, my partner's been great.

370

: 00:21:31

Very helpful.

371

: 00:21:32

And then I always recruit one of my

friends or someone with a rescue,

372

: 00:21:36

Hey, you wanna kinda tackle the

telling people about the rescue,

373

: 00:21:41

giving them the information?

374

: 00:21:44

Or if I'm talking to someone

you can help give some education

375

: 00:21:48

and serve the beverages.

376

: 00:21:51

Yeah, it's usually a hodgepodge of friends

or my partner or one of the volunteers

377

: 00:21:56

with the rescue helping out with it.

378

: 00:21:58

But we keep it as low key as possible and

most of the time it's just honor system.

379

: 00:22:05

Self-serve half the time.

380

: 00:22:07

Once I tell them this is what the raffle

is, this is the suggested donations and

381

: 00:22:13

people have been extremely generous.

382

: 00:22:16

Dixie: That's great.

383

: 00:22:18

When you're gonna set it up the stand for

a rescue, how do you go about selecting

384

: 00:22:24

the rescue that you're gonna go with?

385

: 00:22:27

Do they approach you or do you just

see the stories of the things that

386

: 00:22:31

they're sharing and their direct needs?

387

: 00:22:35

Brittany: Yeah.

388

: 00:22:35

So Clara, I approached them and

I approached them about the idea.

389

: 00:22:40

And, they were totally on board.

390

: 00:22:42

They were a little nervous

about the off leash aspect.

391

: 00:22:45

But once we had some rules in place

and like a plan in place and we kept

392

: 00:22:51

Clara separate until she got used to

all the dogs 'cause she hadn't been

393

: 00:22:55

socialized it just fell into place.

394

: 00:22:58

And everyone, has always

been really respectful.

395

: 00:23:01

Usually it's rescues that

I've met from my work.

396

: 00:23:07

Like my next one that I'm having

is gonna be on November 1st

397

: 00:23:12

for New Orleans Bulldog Rescue.

398

: 00:23:14

And Lydia Plants is , one of

the volunteers she brings in

399

: 00:23:19

a lot of dogs where I work.

400

: 00:23:21

And so I was like, are there

any dogs that need outreach?

401

: 00:23:26

Because I had been really wanting to

work with New Orleans Bulldog Rescue

402

: 00:23:30

and she thought of two right off the

bat that had been in rescue for a while.

403

: 00:23:34

So I approached her, but then I'm

like, who do you need outreach?

404

: 00:23:40

And then my last one was Take

Paws and it was actually my foster

405

: 00:23:47

that I had for a whole year.

406

: 00:23:48

It was his foster-versary.

407

: 00:23:50

He is a really timid guy, and so he

had a really hard time getting adopted

408

: 00:23:55

because every person that he met, he

acted like their hands were made of lava.

409

: 00:24:00

And just did not wanna be touched

or approached by anyone except me.

410

: 00:24:03

So we had a little.

411

: 00:24:04

One for him.

412

: 00:24:05

So it is, it's definitely

personal connections.

413

: 00:24:10

When Lynn told me about the dog that

she undertook, which was Spay Mart,

414

: 00:24:16

they normally do cats, but every

once in a while a dog comes through

415

: 00:24:19

and Lynn doesn't say no very often.

416

: 00:24:23

She approached me, she was like, Hey,

can you help me outreach this dog?

417

: 00:24:26

And I was like, let's do

a lemonade stand for him.

418

: 00:24:29

So it tends to be collaborative or me

seeing a lot of posts from particular

419

: 00:24:36

rescues and wanting to help 'em out.

420

: 00:24:38

'cause I could see that they're

having a lot of cases and

421

: 00:24:43

could use some public outreach.

422

: 00:24:45

Dixie: Yeah.

423

: 00:24:47

How many total stands have

you done and have you seen any

424

: 00:24:51

success with the adoptions?

425

: 00:24:53

Through hosting the stands, either

by maybe making people aware of a

426

: 00:24:58

rescue that they didn't know existed

or through a direct adoption.

427

: 00:25:03

Brittany: Yeah.

428

: 00:25:03

So Clara, I fostered her after my stand.

429

: 00:25:08

But because I always put the flyers up

at my clinic we were able to find her

430

: 00:25:12

a long-term foster after the stand.

431

: 00:25:17

Giselle with companion rescue,

one of her fosters has taken

432

: 00:25:22

a lot of special needs dogs.

433

: 00:25:24

And so once she heard about my stand and

that we were looking for a foster for

434

: 00:25:29

Clara, she reached out to her foster who

thought would be a good fit, and we found

435

: 00:25:34

a foster for her, which ended up being.

436

: 00:25:37

A long-term fospice Unfortunately,

Clara passed last month from lymphoma.

437

: 00:25:45

So they end up being her fospice.

438

: 00:25:48

So that was my first one.

439

: 00:25:49

My second one was with Take paws.

440

: 00:25:54

Let's see, I think I probably

had about 12 in total.

441

: 00:25:57

I haven't counted, but we did take paws.

442

: 00:26:01

We've done Mid-City Mamas.

443

: 00:26:03

We did Spay Mart next,

and then we did next.

444

: 00:26:10

We did Zeus's Rescue right

around the time that Scrim was

445

: 00:26:13

out on his second adventure.

446

: 00:26:15

And we did a scrim one to

fundraise for all of his issues

447

: 00:26:22

when he came back into rescue.

448

: 00:26:25

We did Abadie, which is now

Harahan Veterinary Hospital

449

: 00:26:31

for a dog that they had.

450

: 00:26:32

It was an owner surrender that they

had in their clinic for many months

451

: 00:26:38

with no luck on getting him adopted.

452

: 00:26:40

During that time, he did get adopted

just within a week of the stand.

453

: 00:26:46

Because one of our rescue partners

who helped with that stand was able

454

: 00:26:51

to get him into a Northern transport.

455

: 00:26:54

So I think just getting him

out in public was helpful for

456

: 00:26:59

getting the networking done.

457

: 00:27:01

Not directly, but indirectly.

458

: 00:27:05

And then the inner pup was our sixth one.

459

: 00:27:13

I think we just did it for like

general, the inner pup, because

460

: 00:27:16

they don't do specific adoptions.

461

: 00:27:18

They help owners get

care for their pets and.

462

: 00:27:24

Get heartworm treatment for

pets all around the city and

463

: 00:27:28

the New Orleans general area.

464

: 00:27:30

So we didn't even have a specific

pet in mind for that one.

465

: 00:27:34

It was more just to get people in the

know about the services that they offered

466

: 00:27:39

and raise money for the inner pet.

467

: 00:27:42

Then.

468

: 00:27:44

This one was personal.

469

: 00:27:46

My next one was for Maverick with

Trampled Rose, who was found by one

470

: 00:27:53

of the technicians who I work with.

471

: 00:27:56

And he needed heartworm treatment

and he had a whole litter of puppies

472

: 00:28:00

it seemed to be a backyard breeder

situation where they ran outta money

473

: 00:28:05

and then just abandoned this litter.

474

: 00:28:09

So we, we did a fundraiser for Malcolm,

and then the next fundraiser was for

475

: 00:28:14

the mom who also was heartworm positive.

476

: 00:28:17

And that was for Shell's Rescue.

477

: 00:28:21

It's a very small rescue, but she does a

lot of special needs cases as well, and.

478

: 00:28:29

Quite a few of the puppies that were

present at that stand, they all were held

479

: 00:28:34

because they were not fully vaccinated,

but they got passed around a lot.

480

: 00:28:39

Quite a few of the adoptions with them

were from people sharing from the lemonade

481

: 00:28:44

stand about them and showing all the cute

videos of them snuggling with people.

482

: 00:28:50

And being generally precious.

483

: 00:28:54

Dixie: That's great.

484

: 00:28:54

It's very inspiring because it just goes

to show you that you can get involved

485

: 00:29:00

any way you can, and you don't need a lot

to start getting involved with rescue,

486

: 00:29:04

where I think people think that, you

need to have something really structured

487

: 00:29:08

if you wanna help, if that makes sense.

488

: 00:29:12

Brittany: Yeah, I totally agree.

489

: 00:29:13

You can do so many things.

490

: 00:29:16

You can be supportive by coming

to one of these fun adoption

491

: 00:29:20

events or outreach events.

492

: 00:29:22

Temp fostering, volunteering once or

twice, like every time that you help out

493

: 00:29:30

with a rescue or a shelter, you're at

least telling one or two people about

494

: 00:29:36

it and raising awareness, and just

putting it more in the forefront of

495

: 00:29:41

your mind so that you bring it up more

so that more people know about rescues

496

: 00:29:47

and why we do the work that we do.

497

: 00:29:50

Dixie: Definitely.

498

: 00:29:51

Where do you see your lemonade stand

going in, say, the next five years?

499

: 00:29:58

Brittany: I hope to keep on doing them.

500

: 00:30:01

It's been a really fun journey.

501

: 00:30:04

I do want to figure out

more ways to involve cats.

502

: 00:30:09

I really love like kitty cafe ideas,

so maybe I'll try and do something

503

: 00:30:14

a little bit more inside at some

point, because we've always struggled

504

: 00:30:18

with the really hot weather 'cause

we don't wanna overheat dogs.

505

: 00:30:22

And that's right at the

peak of kitten season.

506

: 00:30:24

So maybe I'll try and find a

venue or something where we can

507

: 00:30:30

have more people meeting kittens

to outreach about kitten season.

508

: 00:30:35

I really like that.

509

: 00:30:36

'cause this past summer I've

done a lot more kitten fostering.

510

: 00:30:39

I'm like, it really does never end.

511

: 00:30:43

Dixie: Yeah.

512

: 00:30:43

Brittany: No, it did Never ends

as cute as kittens are and like.

513

: 00:30:48

They always have gotten adopted

much quicker than my foster dogs.

514

: 00:30:54

I'm still getting litters where I'm,

returning back to PetSmart where my

515

: 00:30:59

kittens end up and I'm like, oh my God,

they've been here for three months.

516

: 00:31:04

They're barely even kittens anymore.

517

: 00:31:07

And yeah, it's just sad.

518

: 00:31:09

So I think having something with

kittens where people can see how

519

: 00:31:14

many are coming into rescue and how

many requests there are for someone

520

: 00:31:19

to take the kittens that are living

underneath my house, or the mama cat

521

: 00:31:23

that I trapped that now has six babies.

522

: 00:31:26

Oh, they all have panleuk

But not everyone does.

523

: 00:31:31

So I'd love to do something more

with the cat so that we can have it

524

: 00:31:34

a little bit more, less seasonally.

525

: 00:31:37

And yeah, I think just trying to find a

better way , I think a lot of people are

526

: 00:31:43

a little nervous about coming because I

don't do like official vaccine checks.

527

: 00:31:49

And I think maybe I could make

my waiver a little bit better.

528

: 00:31:52

Some of the rescues have definitely

been like a little nervous about it.

529

: 00:31:57

And, thankfully everything's been well.

530

: 00:31:59

But I would like to have more

protections in place for people,

531

: 00:32:03

if anything ever went wrong.

532

: 00:32:04

'cause I love dog parks, but,

animals are unpredictable sometimes.

533

: 00:32:09

So safety is definitely

always a concern for me.

534

: 00:32:14

Dixie: It definitely sounds like

you're doing a lot of good with

535

: 00:32:16

it and I think it's a cute idea.

536

: 00:32:19

I used to be a lemonade stand kid,

so I would always pop up my little

537

: 00:32:24

lemonade stand when I was a child

538

: 00:32:25

Brittany: yes.

539

: 00:32:26

Yeah.

540

: 00:32:27

My, my nephew served it too.

541

: 00:32:29

They just shot me, $30 to help with

my litter of kittens from their

542

: 00:32:33

lemonade stand a few Sundays ago.

543

: 00:32:36

Oh, that's awesome.

544

: 00:32:36

Awesome.

545

: 00:32:36

So even they're involved

and they're in Florida.

546

: 00:32:39

Dixie: Oh, that's awesome.

547

: 00:32:40

Like I said hopefully that may be

a way to get more kids involved,

548

: 00:32:44

make it fun for them, and they can

see the need that animals have.

549

: 00:32:50

Brittany: Yeah.

550

: 00:32:51

No, that that's a really good point.

551

: 00:32:53

I think that would be a good step to

make is trying to get more kids involved.

552

: 00:32:57

'cause we need the youth to help with

the next generation of animal rescue.

553

: 00:33:03

I think we got a lot of, great retirees

who are doing animal rescue and a lot

554

: 00:33:10

of young people, but I think more young

people is what we really need to, keep

555

: 00:33:15

the cycle going and make lasting change.

556

: 00:33:19

Dixie: Absolutely.

557

: 00:33:19

I loved hearing about your stand.

558

: 00:33:21

It's a very interesting idea

and you're definitely out there

559

: 00:33:25

doing a lot of good for sure.

560

: 00:33:26

Helping with all these rescues

and every little bit helps.

561

: 00:33:31

Brittany: Thank you so much.

562

: 00:33:33

Dixie: That's it for today's episode.

563

: 00:33:34

I wanna thank everybody for

listening and supporting us.

564

: 00:33:38

If you wanna take that an extra

step, consider becoming a member.

565

: 00:33:43

We just added this to our

website, animalposse.com,

566

: 00:33:47

scroll down, look for the support tab.

567

: 00:33:49

Our membership program is going to

help us directly support animals

568

: 00:33:56

in need, whether that be through

vaccinations, food or spay neuter efforts.