Have you always wanted to help a dog out, but weren't sure how to — short of adopting one yourself? Your short-term (or long-term) help is definitely needed, especially by rescue centers. And if you watched Dogs on Netflix and feel like you need a little puppy energy, you can volunteer with Hearts and Bones, as seen in Episode 6.
The rescue charity is based on New York City, but also does a lot of its work in Texas. Its website says it was created by its animal-loving founders, who met in 2012 and are dedicated to saving as many lives as they can. The name comes from needing both the heart — aka the compassion — and the bones — aka the persistence — to help these animals in need. Their website says they're looking for volunteers in both their New York and Texas locations. In the episode, they said they rescue dogs primarily from Texas because it's one of the states with the highest kill rates for shelter dogs. Hearts and Bones takes the pups to New York to find them loving new homes, in a city with more dogs than all of Cleveland, per a Netflix press release.
The rescue needs help from volunteers in a number of roles, like taking photos, editing videos, fundraising, coordinating adoption events, and more. In the episode you can even see that volunteers will be called to action to help walk pups on the drive from Texas to New York, which is not a bad way to frame your next road trip. If you're interested in volunteering, you can fill out an application on the rescue center's website. You must be 22 and, for obvious reasons, never have been convicted of animal cruelty, abuse, or neglect. After all, they're looking to give the dogs second chances, not subject them to more strife.
In addition to basic volunteering, Hearts and Bones is always looking for people to help foster their dogs. Their site says that, until each dog finds their forever home, the rescue makes sure the pup has a warm place filled with love to go to in the meantime. As the site adorably puts it, "All of our dogs are 100 percent certified pre-loved." If you want to foster, you need to be in the Dallas-Fort Worth or New York City area and fill out an application.
If you want to help in another way, you can just straight up adopt a dog from the center. They have this great marketing campaign where they name the pups after beloved celebrities and TV show characters so that you just can't say no to adopting Jim Halpert or Liz Lemon.
Even if you can't volunteer, foster, or adopt, you can still spread the word about Hearts and Bones and adoption in general. Perhaps you have a friend in Texas or New York who would want to help. Maybe a co-worker's been looking to foster or adopt. There are so many pups in this world in need of love, and giving a dog a second chance at a family is always a worthy cause. So whatever way you can help, it's sure to be appreciated by both the humans and the pups involved in Hearts and Bones.
