VENTURA COUNTY NEWS : Old Dogs, No Tricks : Fillmore Kennel Pampers Pooches That Are Past Their Prime

The worn wooden sign in front of the retirement home says it all.

“Please! Watch Out for Old Dogs!”

No insult intended. The 36 clients spending their golden years at this peaceful sanctuary lined with sycamores and rose bushes are old dogs.

Some are toothless, some blind; most have a wobble in their walk. These dogs have outlived owners, or become too inconvenient to take care of.

They come from all over the nation and vastly different backgrounds. There are pampered show dogs and beloved house mutts. Some were abused by their owners. Some came as their owner’s last wish.

Whatever their medical problems, they are one batch of lucky dogs. For they have landed in the only retirement home for canines in the western United States: the Humane Animal Rescue Team kennel, set on 5 acres of a 26-acre avocado ranch in rural Fillmore.

This is a place where four-footed retirees can live out their final days with dignity, as repayment for years of companionship and loyalty.

“We have a tremendous amount of love and affection for these animals,” said Executive Director Jamie Pinn,, bending down to caress a dog’s gray-whiskered face.

“There’s a tenderness about it. You figure all those years of loyalty to someone,” she said.

Take Dusty, who could fill a doghouse with the trophies she won during her glory days on the show circuit. Although her coat has turned to silver and her bark sounds more like a cough, the pure-bred German shepherd still has the grace of a performer. When she is walked, she moves with the elegance of a canine used to hearing applause.

“She walks beautifully, don’t you think?” asked Pinn, 52, a former public relations executive who once represented Tom Selleck. “As if she’s back in the ring.”

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Most of the time, however, Dusty, 14, and Otto, 15, another German shepherd, lie around a spacious kennel, basking in the sun. They were taken in 10 months ago, when their North Hollywood owner was stricken with breast cancer.

The owner’s younger sister learned about the kennel from a social worker and called Pinn. The owner was a German shepherd breeder and her home was filled with dogs.

Pinn visited the house and chose Dusty and Otto, who were the oldest.

“I never spoke to the woman herself,” Pinn said. “But when I departed with Dusty and Otto, I heard her faintly call from a back room, ‘Thank you.’ She died shortly afterward.”

The kennel was founded in 1984 by Suzanne and Phillip Kane, lifelong dog lovers who saw a need in the West for a home for aging pets, which are the hardest to adopt out.

There are two homes for old dogs in the East: Silver Streak Kennels in the Leatherstocking region of central New York state, and Bide-A-Wee in Westhampton, N.Y., which also takes in old cats.

Suzanne Kane founded her first rescue group in Hawaii when she was 9, calling it Dog-a-teers.

When she and her husband decided to establish the Fillmore kennel, Suzanne Kane was working for the Ventura County Public Works Department and her husband was a physical science professor at Cal State Northridge. The Kanes converted a tennis court into kennels and put wooden doghouses in each.

Last year, the Kanes retired and moved to Northern California, selling the dog sanctuary to the Humane Animal Rescue Team, a nonprofit organization.

Pinn is one of six paid staff members. For the 1998-99 fiscal year, the foundation received close to $526,000 in donations and $26,000 in bequests. Total expenses came to nearly $339,000.

About 30 local volunteers help feed, walk and bathe the dogs and shower them with affection.

“There are a lot of parallels between our place and some of the finest facilities for elderly people,” Pinn said. “The nurturing, the activity level, the beautiful surroundings.”

The sanctuary also puts out a small newspaper, Muttmatchers Messenger. Even though the 15-page paper is distributed only to animal clinics and shelters in Southern California, the publication has found its way to shelters in the South and Pacific Northwest. One dog came to Fillmore from Oregon, another from Texas. Since the kennel established a Web site, it has been getting even more calls from around the country.

Board and care for each dog costs about $250 a month. Because the pets are elderly, they require extra care and visits to the vet. Some, like Rusty, a briard-wheaten terrier mix who is 14--or 98 in human years--need medication daily.

After fighting a mental illness for years, Rusty’s owner ended up in a hospital. At 83, the owner’s mother could not care for the aging pooch, who suffers from kidney failure, but also could not find it in her heart to euthanize the dog, her son’s greatest comfort.

“She was respectful of that bond,” Pinn said. The woman has even visited Rusty, since his arrival a few months ago. “Her son loved him so much.”

While healthier dogs roam around the former tennis court, dogs with serious health problems, such as Rusty, are placed in a quiet enclosed kennel in the back, equipped with heat lamps and fans.

“Ohhhh, Rusty, how are you doing today?” Pinn asked, sweeping long, white curls from the dog’s eyes. Rusty just cocked his head and blinked.

“At this age, all they want is affection,” Pinn said. “They have real modest needs.”

The healthier animals are sometimes offered for adoption, Pinn said. They are ideal companions, because they are more mellow and patient than many of their younger counterparts. The workers hand out “Young at H.A.R.T.” brochures to prospective owners and point out that messy puppy training is not necessary.

“We tell them these dogs are experienced,” Pinn said. “They just want a home for the rest of their lives--and they deserve a home.”

Still, it’s a hard sell.

“Many will spend their last few years or weeks here before their hearing, eyesight and everything else goes,” Pinn said.

Such was the case with Sarah, a foxhound-beagle mix who at 17--or 119 in human years--could no longer muster the strength to stand. Sarah was the shelter’s unofficial mascot, said Marty Ming, who lives at the sanctuary with her husband, Roger.

For five years, Sarah greeted anyone who entered the grounds with a wag of her tail or a wet kiss. Her favorite resting spot was an overstuffed chair inside the front office, where oil paintings of other favorite dogs hang on the wall.

But last week, the Mings carried out the hardest part of the job: putting a dog to sleep. Marty drove Sarah to the veterinarian and while holding Sarah in her arms, the doctor administered a lethal drug.

“It’s painful for us,” Marty Ming said. “It’s like losing a member of the family.”

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The day after Sarah was euthanized, her lifelong mate, Jessie, a pit bull mix, walked around the kennel nervously. Jessie appeared to be searching for Sarah. The Mings spent extra time that day with Jessie, hoping to console him.

“They were like an old married couple,” Marty Ming said. “We want to give him his time to mourn.”

Even after they die, the dogs are treated with respect.

On a shelf in the office, Sarah’s ashes are preserved in an urn that has her photograph pasted on the front. Dozens of urns crowd the shelf. The number has grown so large that the agency’s board of directors is meeting next week to decide whether to keep the ashes on the shelf or scatter them over the hillside, where the dogs spent their last days in peace.

A couple of youngsters live among the elderly. The team rescued Chloe, a foxhound mix whose owner tried to suffocate her. Still, it is the senior dogs that leave a lasting impression on those who care for them.

“It’s wonderful to be their guardian and protector until they return to their original owners, who are waiting for them in heaven,” Pinn said.

For details about Humane Animal Rescue Team, call (805) 677-5541.