I want to profile more people doing amazing things in the dog rescue world. Pali Boucher is a stunningly beautiful example of someone who has given her life to help dogs after a dog named Leadbelly saved hers. Here is a little more about her story and her rescue, Rocket Dog Rescue.
According to their website, Rocket Dog Rescue is “a volunteer based organization serving the greater Bay Area, dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned dogs from over crowded animal shelters. We also help dogs from other areas that have compelling situations where they are in danger of abuse, neglect or euthanasia. Rocket Dog Rescue places non-aggressive dogs into temporary foster homes where they are socialized, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and treated for any medical or behavioral conditions limiting their adoptability. RDR actively searches for permanent homes for its foster dogs by producing and distributing photo-biographic posters, by hosting an actively updated website and by organizing mobile adoption fairs and special events that provide exposure to potential adopters. Rocket Dog Rescue also provides assistance to individuals and animal rescue groups fostering dogs in need of permanent new homes.
Founded in 2001, Rocket Dog Rescue’s ultimate goal is to create a world where all companion animals have loving and permanent homes and where no good natured dogs, no matter what their age, are killed in shelters because they are considered to be surplus or un-adoptable.”
To donate to Rocket Dog Rescue, please go HERE.
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And now more about Pali’s journey…it’s an incredible, must-read story!
Interview by the San Francisco Chronicle:
Pali Boucher, 43—a San Francisco native, founder of RocketDog Rescue and recipient of a 2001 Points of Light Award for outstanding volunteerism—is an inspiration to behold.
A onetime homeless spirit, burdened with the diseases of addiction and HIV, this human capsule of high energy found a better existence though recovery, the arts, the adoption of a dog she called Leadbelly and the formation of a nonprofit that saves canines. Woof!
Of “Run Lola Run”-image—with burgundy tresses, tats, split-pea green jeans and striped stockings—Boucher invited me into her colorful Bernal Heights human-size pooch house. There, with a volunteer named “Patty the Pooper Scooper” standing by amid many a woman’s barking best friend, Boucher bottle-fed the sweetest-ever 1-week-old abandoned pup as we yelped about her tumultuous life, made sane, if even more chaotic, through puppy love. Bow-wow!
Q: You haven’t always had a roof over your head.
A: No. I grew up with a mom who was on drugs, homeless and had a lot of problems with mental health. It was the ’60s. They called them communes, but we were really livin’ in the bushes. She died when I was 10. For a short time after, I was in a foster home, then with my dad. But soon I was back on the street.
Q: This went on for how long?
A: Until about eight years ago.
Q: What sparked the life change?
A: My dog Leadbelly.
Q: How did you meet him?
A: Back when the SPCA was a “kill shelter,” I would visit the animals once a week just to say hi to all the dogs. I loved the animals. But there was too much trauma in my life. I wasn’t looking to adopt. But there was this one hound dog always baying at the top of his lungs. I fell in love. So somehow, I got the money, faked an address and adopted him.
Q: How did you take care of Leadbelly?
A: It was a struggle. He was such a good guy. I was always worried about him. I’d get so worried that it set my mind in motion . . . I mean I was in and out of jail all the time. I narrowly dodged the bullet of losing my dog so many times that it just stressed me out too much, man. I had to make some changes. So I went into a drug program. While I was in recovery, Leadbelly stayed with a friend of mine. More than a year later, my subsidized housing came through, I was clean and sober and I got him back. All that time I never had a plan. I just got on the right path and did the day to day.
Q: What was life like for you then?
A: I went to City College and took a lot of art, ceramics, writing and photography classes—like full time. It felt really amazing to me. And I got really good at it. I even did a photographic documentary about the homeless camps I lived in called “Angels, Outlaws and Outcasts.”
Q: When and how did RocketDog Rescue come about?
A: I had been fostering for other animal rescue groups for years taking care of a lot of really difficult dogs. I’d get the crazy bruisers, which became a huge advantage for me because now there’s rarely a situation that I can’t handle. I mean, right now, I have one with no teeth and another who’s blind.
So a year ago—just after Leadbelly died—I wanted to go the next step and create my own nonprofit. My core group of about 10 friends became my board of directors and volunteers. RocketDog Rescue is a tribute to Leadbelly. He helped me learn how to take care of myself by taking care of him.
Q: And that’s why it’s important for you to save dogs’ lives now?
A: Absolutely. Leadbelly was a gift sent to me. And every step of the way it was my responsibility to follow through. Now, I want to devote my life to animals.
Q: So how does it work? Do people who can’t keep their dogs call you? Shelters?
A: I get tons of calls. But I can only take the dogs that are about to be killed at a shelter—that day. But I will help people place dogs into permanent homes.
Q: How many animals are under Rocket Dog’s refuge?
A: Currently we are fostering about 12 dogs. I’m the main foster home.
Q: How much dog food do you go through in a week?
A: Eighty pounds or about $70 worth. We feed them high-quality dog food.
Q: How many dogs have you saved?
A: In this past year, over 150.
Q: That’s amazing. How are you funded?
A: We run totally on donations; and none of us are ever paid. . . . We pay for spaying and neutering, vaccinations. Usually we do a lot more medically, or for dental work, than we should. I just had a dog come out of ear surgery. I took another dog to an eye specialist yesterday. What I do is sit out with a jar in the Castro or Noe Valley and collect money. I’m proud to do that.
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Tags: dog rescue, leadbelly, pali boucher, points of light award, rocket dog rescue, san francisco bay, san fransico chronicle, volunteerism
Thank you for sharing. I’m so happy that Pali has a better life, and is giving these dogs a better life too.
I think this article doesn’t give you the clear story of Pali who has made her addiction to hoarding dogs her new “drug”. She does not conduct her rescue in a reputable fashion and lies about how much she spends on her dogs care and then when asked for proof of care it all comes tumbling down.
Her “adoption events” are a chaotic display of who she really is. Attend one, you will see.