Kristen and Marc Peralta in Rhode Island are committed to finding senior dogs forever homes and giving them all the love and care they deserve while they wait to be adopted. Vintage Pet Rescue is a non-profit retirement home that takes in senior pets from shelters and assists owners who can no longer care for their senior pets.
We recently visited Vintage Pet Rescue for a segment of YurView’s Simply Southern New England show and had the pleasure of meeting some new furry friends that were oh so sweet. Watch the show segment above or read the full video transcription below (lightly edited for clarity).
How It All Began
Kristen Peralta, Vintage Pet Rescue (00:02) – Vintage Pet Rescue is a retirement home for senior dogs and hospice dogs. And over the past few years, we’ve also expanded to special needs dogs. This all started with a little white dog named Rue McClanahan that we met at an adoption event in Los Angeles.
Marc Peralta, Vintage Pet Rescue (00:21) – At the very end of the day, there was this really old 18-year-old, little white girl, kind of somewhat similar to this dog, but much worse condition.
KP (00:30) – She was not adopted at the event, and Marc and I just did not want to see her go back to the shelter. So, we decided to take her in temporarily.
MP (00:41) – We had her for over a year. And then when she passed away, we thought, well, let’s take another one from a shelter in her memory.
KP (00:48) And from there, it just kind of snowballed into what it is today. When we started this, I thought we would take in maybe 20, or 30 dogs a year to now doing about 200 adoptions a year.
MP (01:07) – We adopt out most of them, even if it’s for a few weeks or a few years, and you can kind of get yourself mentally prepared for that. But they’re so thankful. With helping animals, you help people because I don’t know what I would have done during the pandemic without animals. So don’t just think of us as an animal rescue. Think of us as a people rescue as well.
Celebrating Senior Dogs
KP (01:26) – A typical day here is never really typical. The day consists of a lot of cleaning. Obviously, feeding the dogs.
MP (01:38) – We do have preroutines. It’s kind of blue hair. Dinner time, three o’clock. But a lot of sleeping, a lot of napping. And we usually have a good set of volunteers that come in and pet or just give some of these guys attention. So those are usually the kind of standard day things we’re doing. And we’re posting a lot of fun videos and pictures online, of course.
The online following is everything to Vintage Pet Rescue, frankly. Most of our money is raised from $5 $10 $20 constant donations from people.
Vintage Pet Rescue Adoptions
KP (02:12) – I call us the Bernie Sanders of rescues, because we’re never out there asking for thousands of dollars from people. We’re asking them to maybe skip their Dunkin’ or their Starbucks for the day and just throw us $5.
MP (02:24) – That’s how we find our volunteers. That’s how we get our funding. Everything is online. So, we have an old church that a previous owner converted into a home. But it’s a church. It’s huge. And it’s kind of perfect to have animals here. We do live here as well, so it’s tricky.
Part of building up Vintage Pet Rescue is to celebrate old dogs. I always like older dogs because I’m a terrible dog owner and I like them lazy. And so yes, sometimes you have medical. But that can happen with young dogs too.
KP (02:54) – If you are looking for a new dog and you’re thinking you don’t want a puppy. But maybe you want a four-year-old…maybe consider the eight-year-old or the 10-year-old because they have a lot of life left and a lot of love to give.
For more information about Vintage Pet Rescue, visit vintagepetrescue.org.
To watch more videos from Simply Southern New England, check out SSNE on YouTube. The show airs on YurView New England – Saturdays at 2pm & 9:30pm, Sundays at 7:30pm and Wednesdays at 9:30pm on Ch. 4 (Providence, RI), Ch. 128 (Hartford, CT) and Ch. 2 (Holland, MA).
