Fi Spotlight: The HIT Living Foundation

Fi has an extensive network of Rescue organizations nationwide that we provide Fi collars to during a dog’s time in foster care, and eventually extend this safety net to their new forever families. This allows the organization to keep an eye on the location & activity of each dog within their care, ensuring that every pup is where it’s supposed to be and getting the appropriate amount of physical activity. If you know of a rescue who we should be working with, email us at rescues@tryfi.com.

Honesty, Integrity, and Trust are the three main pillars of the mission at The HIT Living Foundation, one of Fi's Rescue Partners. The HIT Living Foundation, located in California, focuses on animal and human welfare by providing financial, physical, and emotional assistance during times of crisis, as well as implementing every day small acts of kindness.

We chatted with the crew over at HIT to learn a bit more about how they’ve persevered through COVID-19 and continued their mission despite the hurdles of these last few months, and how is Fi helping to keep these pups safe :

Tell us about some outstanding adoption stories that have taken place during the pandemic.

It’s outstanding that we’ve had over 85 adoptions during the pandemic! One of the most moving stories of this pandemic is about Kiba & Romy - as COVID quickly crept its way into the U.S. and rumors of business and shelters closing down, the HIT crew went to various county shelters every day to pull as many dogs as we could. One day, we saw a gentleman crying as he signed his cattle dog Kiba, over to a county shelter. Because of COVID he had lost his job and needed to move in with a friend who had a young daughter that said Kiba was too energetic and was afraid Kiba could hurt her. As he's sharing his story with us and showing us what an incredible dog Kiba is, knowing all his commands and a true love full of kisses, we vowed to get Kiba out of the shelter the next day and find him an amazing forever home. Kiba’s energy level and intelligence was a perfect fit for Tyler Acord (or Lophiile, as he goes by) - a popular record producer and songwriter who, at the time, assumed he would only get one pup...but a couple months later also adopted Romy, a dog HIT pulled from the same shelter as Kiba!

We’ve even had some of our other pups get some love from the media - Wolf & Bear were spotlighted in Reader’s Digest as a bonded pair who found a new home together.

Sweetie & Rowdy are another bonded duo that found a home together during the pandemic, and now they’re sisters for life! Trust us, it’s not always easy to adopt out two dogs at once. You can also read on HIT’s blog about Lennie the Boxer mix, who had a tough start but found a family during the pandemic!

(Left) Sweetie & Rowdy (Right) Lennie and his new family

Any lost/found dog stories you think are unique that we should spotlight?

We pulled Bruno from Devore shelter on March 16th, 2020. Having everything working against him, an adult, black bully breed, his chances of getting adopted were slim and his time was running out, but he was a staff favorite with zero aggression history. Bruno went into foster care with an amazing woman, but Bruno managed to find his way out of her fence and ran across the street and into a Universal Studios production lot! Although Bruno made it past security and onto various movie and TV sets, our foster was immediately stopped by security as she tried to run in after him. Luckily, security pulled up the live feed of their cameras and just as they bet, Bruno was clearly shown on camera in what they called, "dog ally”. Apparently dogs in the neighborhood are notorious for running away and into their lot, it makes us wonder if they’re seeking the spotlight themselves.

As much as we wish it ended there, Bruno managed to escape a second time (from his trainers home!) and was missing for days before we were able to track him down again. Luckily we did, and Bruno now sports a new Fi Collar 24/7.

Any dogs in need of forever homes you’d like to spread the word about?

Yes! Millie and Ranger are two extra special dogs still in need of homes.

We rescued Millie in April of this year from an animal shelter where she had been red-listed due to the sole fact she had simply been in the shelter system for too long. Millie was used as a backyard breeding dog, ears clipped far too close to her head, and was dumped at the shelter when she was considered too old to continue breeding. Millie is a total love bug. She is gentle, kind and loves to dance! Millie is house-trained and adores snuggling. She is reveling in this new life outside of the shelter and she has so much love to give.

Millie before and after she was pulled from the shelter

We rescued Ranger in February of this year from a shelter where he was red-listed for biting a child who was taunting him outside of his kennel unsupervised. We pulled Ranger so he could work with our behaviorist on a ranch where he had the space to relax and learn peacefully. Weighing in at 85 lbs, Ranger is looking for a quiet forever home with minimal foot traffic in and out, a backyard, and enough patience to give Ranger space and time he needs to trust again as so many people before him have failed to do. We’ve seen it in action: once a trusted relationship has been built with Ranger, he immediately starts to show his soft side asking for pets and loves to be brushed. We believe every dog deserves a second chance, and already Ranger knows all of his basic commands, is very intelligent and is ready to bring his love and loyalty to his forever home!

How does Fi help support your mission?

We have had about 4 dogs go missing in the 1.5 years we have been a rescue. These instances are the most painful, frightening, and agonizing, and Bruno’s story is one we never want to relive. Pandemic or no pandemic, this will never again happen as long as we can help it, and with Fi Collars, we can!

What are the best ways for folks to support the organization at this time?

Honestly, money! The majority of our donated funds go directly to medical procedures, whether it’s to spay/neuter, providing flea and tick care, treating skin issues, or removing tumors or masses.

We recently rescued a bunch of dogs from Mexico and they all had distemper which needed to be treated. We even brought up one dog who was pregnant, so we have a bunch of new pups on our hands. Spay and neuter is so essential, we can bring tens of thousands of dogs up from Mexico - but to really control the population we are committed to spaying and neutering. Due to COVID-19, county and city shelters in LA have had to halt their spay and neuter programs, so HIT is doing even more spay and neuter procedures now.

If you’d rather donate supplies than cash, you can shop our Amazon wishlist! It’s like a wedding registry, but for dogs.

Visit The HIT Living Foundation website to view their adoptable dogs, apply to foster, or donate!