Sense of Home w/ Elli Frank

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Home Is Where Your Dogs Are

About The Episode

Elli Frank moved to New York City and was working in the event marketing field, but felt a desire to do something more selfless. When she adopted her first dog, Charlotte, she discovered a whole world of compassionate people who care about animal welfare. A new door was opened.

Within two years, Elli had a foster fail on her hands, a dog named Mr. Bones – who would go on to become a transformative figure in her life. He was not an easy dog, and unfortunately even had to be put down for behavioral reasons later in life, but he challenged what Elli thought she knew about training and taught her a lot of positive lessons along the way. Elli wanted to keep his legacy going, so she has maintained the Mr. Bones & Co nonprofit she founded to focus on quality over quantity in her rescue work. Finding people to match with harder dogs instead of just as many as possible. In addition, spreading awareness and educating people around these behavioral issues and normalizing euthanasia.

However, the rescue field can feel daunting, overwhelming, and like you're never doing enough. There is regular burnout around those who work in it, and it's hard to always stay motivated and positive. Elli decided she needed a reset, to find new inspiration. To accomplish this, she decided to see how shelters really are across the United States: to compare them by region, to see which dogs were in the most need of assistance, to see what worked and didn't, and what kind of takeaways could she use to implement change through her own work. Thus, the Tin Can Kennel Tour was born.

Elli did end up finding new ideas and positive signs of enrichment approaches and such in the shelters, and got to know eight shelters intimately over this initial run (some municipal city shelters, some that were privately run, and others humane societies or SPCA's). The biggest story, however, came halfway through the trip.

When getting to Los Angeles, Elli found a dog named JR who was a senior pit bull and had tumors that looked cancer-related. It was not looking likely he would find a home, but Elli couldn't stop thinking about JR and put up a heartfelt post on Instagram about it. Somehow that found its way to the right person, and JR got a new home and even his main tumors removed. He's currently thriving with his new family.

As part of the Tin Can Kennel Tour, Elli put up for sale her 28 acres of farm in Upstate New York and bought a used airstream. She adjusted it to retrofit for her now three dogs (Charlotte, Joey, and Jasmyne). It was, of course, also filled with challenges – but Elli has never felt closer to them. They were away for four months, but are planning to go back on the road again this year to see more. But no matter where they go, Elli no longer thinks of home as the farm they had. It's wherever she is with her dogs.

About The Guest - Elli

Elizabeth "Elli" Frank founded Mr. Bones & Co. in 2013, which is an all-volunteer based animal welfare non-profit supporting animal rescue and advocacy in both New York City and across the country and world – specializing in dogs facing extraordinary challenges, whether it be extensive emergency veterinary care/surgery, unfair breed discrimination or those languishing in municipal shelters with behavioral issues that make them harder to place. Elli currently has three dogs (Charlotte, Joey, Jasmyne) who she is mostly traveling the country with as part of their ongoing Tin Can Kennel Tour.

Featured Links

InterviewJack SommerRescue / Service