YORKSHIRE TERRIER NATIONAL RESCUE 2019 MOVES FORWARD TO AN EXCITING NEW YEAR By: MaryElizabeth Dugmore, Patricia Kushnir
Y orkshire Terrier National Res- cue, Inc., is heading toward its 23rd year as a National Rescue for Yorkies and other small little dogs. Yorkshire Terrier National Res- cue (YTNR) is a nonprofit 501 (c) 3 organization that is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The purpose of YTNR is to rescue abandoned, lost abused or unwanted Yorkshire Terri- ers. This includes getting appropriate medical evaluations and treatment, providing foster care and place- ment evaluations of all Yorkies taken into our rescue, and finding suitable screened and evaluated homes for our rescued Yorkies. YTNR also works to provide public education about its rescue work and to raise funds to pay for care of rescued Yorkshire Terriers taken in by YTNR. Because YTNR is a national orga- nization, our volunteer database is nationwide. Our leadership team is an accomplished and multi-faceted diverse group of committed people from many different walks of life that range in fields from education to technology to healthcare. There are several distinctive qualities about the organization. We are well es-
tablished and sustainable. We were founded in 1997 by Mary Elizabeth Dugmore who has lead the organiza- tion for 22 years. Under her auspi- cious leadership, we have rescued and rehomed over 4,000 dogs since our founding. At our annual boardmeeting, in 2014, several board members mentioned that it appeared that rescues with more medical complex conditions were being rescued into our rescue. Dr.Linda Connor, PHD recommend- ed we develop an acuity scoring tool to track the medical complexity of rescues coming to YTNR. Corrine Ellison, Vice President of Rescue Op- erations and Dr. Linda Connor devel- oped a tool. Corrine retrospectively scored res- cues from 2012 through 2014 using the new tool. All rescues, starting in 2015 were assigned an acuity score. Over the past 6 years, the number of 1-acuity scored rescues has increased. Meaning, we are rescuing more Yor- kies that are healthy requiring mini- mal costs. The number of 2-acuity scored rescues has significantly de- creased. Meaning the rescues that require minimal medical attention
had decreased. The number of res- cues rated as 3-acuity has remained consistent. There has been no change over the past 6-years. The number of rescues rated 4-acuity score has significantly increased. This indi- cated that we are caring for rescues needing more medical attention. The number of rescues rated at a score of 5-acuity has remained stable. There has been no change over the past six years. We were able to implement this pro- gram and it is now part of our opera- tional workings. This in turn allows YTNR to operate more efficiently and quantify the impact of the work we do. We continue to take in non healthy and healthy little dogs and provide the necessary care to ensure these lit- tle rescues find a loving forever home. The most important thing we give them is Hope! Hope as defined in the dictionary is “What one believes and wishes for will happen”. YTNR relies solely on donations and we are so grateful for all of our sup- porters. Without them, we could not accomplish the work we do for these rescues. We sincerely thank them for their generosity and support. >
T op N otch T oys , J anuary 2020 • 59
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