http://www.ulstercountycanines.com/

Ulster County Canines, 3539 Route 32, Saugerties, NY (2026)

09/06/2026

Tonight, I've got an axe to grind...

Call comes in. After hours. Voice on the other end records a request to surrender a male boxer. No other details given beyond a call back number. And a threat to euthanize the dog if he isnt accepted.

Listen, dipstick, the Rescue system suffers an epidemic of underfunding and by association, understaffing to wade through a volume of need that is, almost palpably, suffocating. Putting a gun to your dog's head to guilt us into easing your burden by adding it to our own is a dick move.

I see why your wife left.

Initially, it is Town of Saugerties Animal Shelter dialed in. Shelter remains in a medical quarantine, as they isolate amd treat a mild but lingering pest of a contagion.

Im the town Dog Control Officer, employed there on an on-call basis; managing UCC when not responding to Town animal complaints. For purposes of quarantine, ucc has been the first stop for strays. For the surremder request? We ask for further information from the caller. No further info is forthcoming. At no point did SAS nor UCC turn the dog away; our requests for basic information were ignored.

Roughly 72 hours pass. Within those 72 hours are contained 19 more surrender requests, 6 stray calls and one bite complaint in addition to caring for 28 dogs at UCC. Stray call number 7 is for a boxer. Male.

Now. My days as a bonafide pet detective are behind me, but...yeah, even in this era of fake news, 2 +2 still equals 4.

Meet Duke. Confirmed to be the boxer from the surrender request. Lost or dumped? Thats not clear. Hes not euthanized, so lets take the win.

Duke is now officially surrendered. He has seen the vet, had his vaccines brought to date, and is now officially up for adoption. Purebred Boxer. Male, neutered, 80lbs of goofy good nature.

Applications for adoption at ulstercountycanines.com

Now. Disclaimer. This post, and any i write on this page can be considered my opinion- or the opinion of UCC. They are synonymous. As the founder, president, and ceo...I get to say what I please on this platform.

And that opinion is fed by 27 years in Rescue. Certified Trainer. Former Kennel Manager, shelter manager, animal cop and executive director of a local spca. Current Dog Control Officer for Ulster, woodstock amd Saugerties. President of UCC since its founding nearly 9 years ago. There are few people with more experience in the trenches than me.

I get desperation. I get that situations driving you to give up a pet can be urgent.
I also get that sometimes those situations are of your own making. And threatening euthanasia of a giant goober like Duke so someone else cleans up your f****** mess; while clearly believing your mess is more important than the needs of everyone else the local Rescue system must aid; or all the animals already inside that system; makes you a selfish prick. Trust me, the comments on this thread, if you read it, will likely make my language seem...soft.

Duke was not neglected.
Nothing in his behavior suggests he was abused. Hes a happy, friendly goofball decidedly good at following humans around. This is not a dog that likely wandered on his own. Hell, it would take a concerted effort to dump him; and the thought of his innocent confusion when you drove away saddens me.

I look forward to his smile when he meets his new people; a pendulum swing out of the shadows and into the light. As exhausted as I am, As fed up as im after 3 decades of stories this bad and far, far worse; I am glad we were here for Duke.

You can support our work, to help ensure we continue to be here for the next Duke, amd the others already under our roof, via venmo:

(6184)

PayPal.me/UlsterCountyCanines

Or via check to UCC PO box 98 Saugerties ny 1247u

09/05/2026

My favorite post to write weekly festires our recent adoptions...

But content for that post is created when adoptions occur

Which brings us to our adoption hopefuls this week!

Applications are available on our website, ulstercountycanines.com

And meet and greet appointments are available once the application is filed!

09/04/2026

This is an adoption post, of sorts.
Long term readers likely remember some mention of Otis...
Obviously, we here at ucc have an affection for dogs. All dogs, really. Its a general positive regard for the species, a willingness amd desire to surround ourselves with them instead of our fellow man (sorry, not sorry).

But even for us; on occasion, we meet one that just...grabs us; an immediate feathering of the cerebellum that links a pair of kindred souls despite the disparity in leg count. Otis was one of those for me; I instantly liked him, and he quickly became a staple in my dog packs; eager as he was to hang out. Over eager, as it were.

Otis, in his haste, injured his spine, and i woke one morning to find him paralyzed from his hips back. Veterinary diagnosis suggested a slipped disc; possibly corrected with surgery; possibly not. Possibly corrected with PT and patience, possibly not.

What followed was slow months of walking with a sling and range of motion leg exercises...and, I admit, one heart to heart with the indominatble little dude where I told him if he healed, he could stay with us.

This was a promise made despite our pack already being 9 in number, a crowd leaving little room for a tenth; a carrot hung in a language he could not understand. But the little fella healed. Mostly. Hes wobbly. He loses balance in a run. While he can muscle himself up the stairs, the trip down can be hazardous. But he walks. He wags. He hangs. He spends his days with a portion of our pack- questie, Beatrice and Rella.

I, stubbornly, have brought him our for meet and greets- quietly convincing myself he will be happier with a less crowded home; while jamie quietly admonishes me for trying to 'give him away'.

Isn't that what we do?

No. In this case, it is not. So today; just past the 2nd anniversary of Otis arriving at UCC, an unwanted stray unclaimed despite a microchip, address and owner; i am bowing to fate. Otis is adopted, an announcement nearly 2 years late. This is his home. We are his family.

You can support our continued work via venmo (6184)
PayPal.me/UlsterCountyCanines

Or via check to ucc, po box 98, saugerties ny, 12477

09/02/2026

This one's and axe to grind...

About a week ago, the admin of one of the local Lost Pets pages reached out to me for help placing a dog in need; a dog listed 'for sale' on another social media site.

Two things:
Those of us in Rescue are rightfully concerned with the sale of pups or dogs, of the sieve through which these souls can slip with no barriers or even mild background checks beyond cash in hand or a venmo balance to determine placement.

Aside from the contribution to overpopulation, which is among our issues with breeders: the monetization of a life; the puppy for profit business model; combined with the frequent necessity for the non profit sector to clean up after the for profit animal industry when those non existent approval filters lead to surrenders and abandonment- or backyard breeding hoards of neglect and abuse.

And...the local Lost Pets pages are volunteer run, and do a phenomenal job or reuniting wandering animals with worried families. Take it from me, im old enough to remember the frequent fate of strays before reunions were simplified by the advent LPHV and HVLP. Every pet owner owes the admins of these pages endless gratitude- if not for the time they listed your lost dog; then against the possibility they may need to in the future.

This time, one of them stepped outside their normal wheelhouse and experienced the vitriol and condemnation that many of us in Rescue experience daily. You see, you can't stand between abuser and victim without risking abuse yourself. In dog behavior, we call it 'redirected aggression'. And in Rescue, when confronted with their own bu****it, abusers often turn on those of us holding the mirror.

UCC boasts a 96% positive rating on FB, suggesting our work is almost universally well regarded.

Hell, I've been at this so long that with increasing frequency I am.adopting dogs to people.i first met 10, 15 or even 20 years ago; now adopting a second or third dog from me after the others have lived their full and wonderful lives. Some of these folks ended up at ucc by accident, surprised to see my (somewhat older) face; others have followed my own local travels through the ucspca, sas and now ucc- coming here specifically because they trust my honesty- and my appraisals.of dog behavior.

But that reputation doesnt protect me from the vitriol of the occasional critic. It doesnt protect my wife from the venom of employee gaslighting and backstabbing to cover their own inadequacies; anymore than the admins of Lost Pets can avoid stepping into the s**t dropped by some portions of humanity. And despite the good days, the lives saved, the success you savor and relive; the things that make you stick with an emotionally brutal line of work; it is the character assassinations that linger, that wound us, that would make us question clocking in tomorrow...if any of us had ever actually gotten the chance to clock out.

Because in the time the troll took to spit their venom across a keyboard, we fielded 3 calls, saved two more dogs and arranged for safe passage of another. Humanity, as a whole, treating their animals with proper care and respect would put us out of business...I beg all of you to put us out of business, while being painfully certain you wont.

You can support our work via venmo

PayPal.me/ulstercountycanines

Or via check to ucc, po box 98, saugerties ny 12477

Reel of Choppy and Reah attached for interest. Both adoptable at ulstercountycanines.com

08/28/2026

We are on a roll, lets encourage that momentum!
Here are some featured adoptables this week!

Applications available at ulstercountycanines.com
Meet and greets scheduled once an app is filed!

08/27/2026

Adoption Post!!!

I had two posts drafted for the ucc airwaves, that we're as yet unpublished.
One was to highlight our lone adoption for the week, notable as it was, to congratulate Clarke's journey from emaciated neglect case, to a star player in my ucc dog socialization program, to a newly adopted dog, now living with ucc alumni Maverick.

And the other was an 'axe to grind' screed lamenting the publics tendency to flock to the puppies or fluffies while the great dogs occupying the peripheral are unnoticed or ignored.
Id planned to feature Ricky, approaching his 3 year anniversary with us...the 451 dogs that have arrived and been adopted during that stretch of time; 451 times that Ricky was rejected or more often, dismissed and not even considered.

Then, today, that person with a slightly singular idea of the perfect dog looked at RickyBobby, remarked on his gentle eyes and adopted ucc's perenially unadopted boy.

Tears reached the cracks in my tired and hardened heart.
Go grow up, both of you. Y'all made my week.

08/26/2026

Welcome back to Tales from the Ledge, here at UCC.....featuring Apollo and Royal!

Most of this post series has focused on a Rescue-related topic somewhat adjacent to the stories of the dogs in the posts.

I have no great insight this evening, beyond what's not terribly obvious on the surface, but written between the lines-
Time and progress.
For Apollo, he arrived unexpectedly and in dire shape, thin, suffering rampant hair loss, enduring painfully inflamed and infected ears.
For Royal, she arrived physically healthy if somewhat mentally shut down. At 7 years of age, plucked from all she had ever know following the overdose death of her owner, Royal found herself at ucc, shellshocked and uncertain- and rarely directly engaging with human or dog, though content to exist in proximity to both.

This video shows an Apollo with ears cleared up, and his fur returning gradually. Hes been deemed healthy enough for neuter and is scheduled for that in early September. Time and progress.

And this video shows Royal actuvely engaging with a new dog friend, even making overtures of play. Just before I turned the camera on, she visited me for an extended pet; a first. Time and Progress.

Both will soon join new families, both will enjoy a second half of their lives happier than the first. We are just standing in the threshold, propping open the door.

To support our work, as always:
(6184)
PayPal.me/UlsterCountyCanines

Or via check to UCC, PO box 98 saugerties ny 12477

08/20/2026

I admit it.
I've posted these dogs before.
If they could speak, they'd prefer i be in a position to feature new dogs, or none at all, as well.

Applications for adoption available at ulstercountycanines.com

08/11/2026

Thank you all, for the help refilling the food pantry!
As promised, lets take a moment to celebrate what its all about, adoptions!!!!

Congratulations to sweet Emma, after 6 months at UCC!
Congratulations to Auggie, now living with ucc alumni Hercules!
Congratulations to Duke! This amazing dude hit the jackpot.
And my personal favorite story of the week; congratulations to Maddie; after rescue from an abusive home, a few weeks of trust building here at ucc, followed by another 8 months being passed over for more conventionally desirable dogs, her stunningly sweet personality overlooked; my dear maddie found her people!!!

Go grow up, everyone. We love you.

Ulster County Canines

09/06/2026

09/05/2026

09/04/2026

09/02/2026

08/28/2026

08/27/2026

08/26/2026

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08/11/2026

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