Finding ‘forever homes’: Nonprofit Turquoise Paw rescues dogs, pups

SHIPROCK

Rescued rez dogs and puppies wagged tails as Turquoise Paw members cleaned their kennels and fed them on Dec. 11.

Turquoise Paw is a Navajo-owned, nonprofit animal rescue organization in operation since 2019. Its mission is to rescue animals within the borders of the Navajo Nation to support population control, provide education and to offer a humane choice of no-kill sheltering.

The organization is foster-based and does not adopt out. Turquoise Paw focuses on providing shelter, food, attention to dogs and fostering dogs that may need medical attention.

“Some of the dogs are a little skittish,” said Yvonne Todacheene, founder and executive director of Turquoise Paw. “We work with them and move them out to rescues that can adopt them out and find them a better home.

“It’s all about rescuing and taking care of the animals on the reservation,” she said. “It’s all in their (animals) benefit.”

Todacheene has been rescuing and fostering rez dogs for over 15 years with the nonprofit animal rescue organization, Soul Dog Rescue, based out of Fort Lupton, Colorado.

Todacheene saw that one rescue organization was not enough to help control the animal population that was growing in the Navajo Nation and decided to start Turquoise Paw.

“The problem with overpopulation on the reservation is there are just so many dogs,” Todacheene said. “So, we decided that we should start our own 501(c)(3) and hit the problem with two organizations instead of one.

“When we started out, it was actually Soul Dogs, Shelby Davis (founder and director of Soul Dog Rescue), who helped us out by putting up kennels, getting us food and supplies,” she said.

Todacheene approaches Turquoise Paw with the values of Navajo culture.

“I like to try and incorporate the Navajo teachings like hózhó (and) k’é,” she said. “We are here to take care of everything that is living. That is what we are here for.”

The dogs get rescued from adoption organizations and are adopted out, said Todacheene. She adds that she receives feedback and photos of where the dogs find their “forever home.”

”These rez dogs who were found on the side of the road – skinny, with mange – are in a beautiful home, living inside and sleeping on the couch,” she said. “That makes it all worth it.

“The feedback we get sometimes is that they (rez dogs) went off and became therapy dogs,” she said. “Some of these rez dogs make good therapy dogs.”

Moving forward, Todacheene is planning a Turquoise Paw facility/clinic built on the Nation to provide a safe space and medical attention for the animals.

“Everything is for the animals,” Todacheene added. “We try to get them from bad situations, to a good forever home where they are treated as family.”

Todacheene is Kinyaa’áanii, born for Honágháahnii.

Other groups

Turquoise Paw is not the only organization rescuing animals on the Nation. Other nonprofits include Rez Roads Adventures, Blackhat Humane Society and Soul Dog Rescue.

Rez Road Adventures, based in Shiprock, is run by Chantal Wadsworth and Vernan Kee, who catch rez dogs out of their van as they drive through the Nation.

Dogs that they capture are usually on the side of the road, living in rural areas and when caught, are sent to foster or adoption organizations.

“We recently captured dogs who were living along the side of the road on Buffalo Pass,” said Wadsworth. “When we see stray dogs, we pick them up and we are on our way.”

Blackhat Humane Society, based in Chinle, has been operating on the Nation since 2001 and is run by Cindy Yurth, a former reporter for the Navajo Times.

The nonprofit specializes in rescuing and rehabilitating abandoned stray dogs and fosters and adopts the animals.

“It’s a horrendous problem and more needs to be done,” Yurth said. “Spay and neuter is definitely where it’s at and educating people on the proper care of animals, so they don’t just abandon them and put them on six-foot chains.

“Availability of vaccinations and spay and neuter is the main thing I think would help,” she said.

Soul Dog Rescue is a nonprofit run by Shelby Davis and conducts spay/neuter services and vaccinates rez dogs throughout the year.

Soul Dog Rescue also rescues and accepts dogs that are no longer wanted by their owners.

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