Goodest

Goodest Goodest is a foster-based dog rescue saving tails, one good dog at a time.

05/31/2026

Friday at 8:52pm, my phone rang. Vic Smith, a networker, connecting me to Kirk at Animal Rescue Center out in the desert. They had a 2.5 year old Great Dane whose owner was about to be homeless and couldn't take him.

By 4pm Saturday, Gatsby was in my living room.

The owner isn't the villain in this story. Her son is on dialysis with a failing kidney. Between getting him to his appointments and working full time, she ran out of room for everything else. The volunteer driver made Gatsby nervous, so she drove him to me herself. She did the harder thing every step of the way, including the last one.

I want to name the network out loud, because rescue does not work without it. Vic at 9pm on a Friday. Kirk in the desert. The people who text, who connect, who know exactly which rescue pulls Great Danes. My job would be impossible without them.

Gatsby has spent his entire 2.5 years as an outside dog in the desert. Indoor life is new. Potty training is in progress. He's a little underweight, a little scared, but already crate-trained and doing great with the pack. Very, very sweet.

Neuter and gastropexy on the calendar this week. His adoption profile is live now.

King is 13 months. Violet is 6. Same family, surrendered the same day at Palmdale, after their owner spent a year trying...
05/30/2026

King is 13 months. Violet is 6. Same family, surrendered the same day at Palmdale, after their owner spent a year trying to hold on while her husband stayed in a coma.

We promised we wouldn't split them up. Today they went home together to Rayanne and Josh in Valley Center. 2.5 acres, horses, chickens, three outdoor cats, a Weimaraner named Greysen, a Great Dane named Quinn, and two empty dog beds.

Rayanne and Josh lost Logan in February. Olive in March. Two Great Danes, three weeks apart. On their application, under why a dog now: "Our house just seems empty without them."

Under monthly pet budget, Rayanne wrote: "What do you mean budget? I would go bankrupt for my dogs."

King and Violet have a property to run on, a dad who works from home, and each other. The two empty dog beds aren't empty anymore.

Forever Friday: Ruby. 💙🩷Bernie is up above smiling down on us this Friday.... When Ruby flew to Oregon, we said she'd gr...
05/29/2026

Forever Friday: Ruby. 💙🩷

Bernie is up above smiling down on us this Friday.... When Ruby flew to Oregon, we said she'd grow up beside him, learn from the best, and carry the torch when the time came. We didn't expect that time to come this soon.

Bernie got his beach days. He got his RV. He got every last good day this family promised him. And in his final months, he showed Ruby exactly how to be the next great Dane of this house.

Now, Ruby is the one curled up with the boys at bedtime. The one the kids fold themselves into on the couch. The soft place this family is leaning on while they grieve.

This weekend, she takes her first camping trip.Bernie would be so proud.

Ruby could not have landed softer. And this family could not have raised a better one to carry him forward.

Go get the woods, Ruby girl. 💙🩷

05/29/2026

Meet Dora, our little explorer đź’•

Dora is a 6 year old female that was surrendered to Bakersfield shelter under unknown reasons. As many of you know, it’s Brennans job to name them all and she was exploring every inch of the house hence the name. She was dropped off and as you guys know, my first step here is a nice bath…I had to wash her 3 times to get the shelter and grime off of her. She ate her dinner, found her favorite cow stuffie and is taking a little snooze after a long day. She was a little nervous at first, but poor girl is starving for love ❤️

Stay tuned for more of her glow up

05/28/2026

It’s almost Friday people 🎉

Princess's medical bill: $5,591.Adoption fee we charged Mike and Lily: $1,000.People ask all the time if rescue is a bus...
05/28/2026

Princess's medical bill: $5,591.
Adoption fee we charged Mike and Lily: $1,000.

People ask all the time if rescue is a business. This week I pulled her invoice and put the numbers on a carousel.

She was hit on the 405. FHNO surgery on her right hip. Anesthesia, IV catheter, three surgical injections. The pharmacy bag she went home with was $56 total. Twelve weeks of physical therapy and hydrotherapy because she had to learn to stand again.

$4,417 was the surgery day alone. 79% of her medical spend in one ten-hour window.

Donors covered every dollar of the $4,591 gap.

And this is just medical. Doesn't include food, microchip, transport, foster supplies, or the four months she spent in someone's house while she healed.

Princess isn't unusual. Rufus cost $7,000 and we lost him before we could place him. Boots was $2,700 and we still ran $500 in the red even with a higher adoption fee. This is most of the dogs we pull.

The reason any of it works is the people who fund the gap.

She lives a life people can only dream of. Her name is Dusk. She visits the horses, goes camping with Mike and Lily, and walks on all four legs.

Tag someone who thinks rescue is a business.

If you want to be one of the people who funds the gap: goodestdogs.org/donate. Zelle .

05/27/2026

Bella Rose update.

We spent the day at VCA. Bella came in with a lot on the table and we have answers on most of it.

Both eyes have chronic ulcers. The right one is active and we're treating with bacitracin every six hours. The left came back clear for a mass. What's left is cherry eye and entropion, and the ophthalmologist is already on it.

Her urine has been dark and she's been straining to start. The internist's working theory is a blood clot from her recent spay that's currently dissolving. We repeat the ultrasound in a week and decide from there whether we need to escalate to CT and cystoscopy. If she gets worse before then, we go sooner.

She is not subtle about letting you know she has opinions. We like that about her.

The next week is a waiting game. We're watching her closely and following the data. If you want to help cover what's already on the board, link in bio. đź’™

Bella update.Bella came into our care Thursday morning. By Friday, the team at CARES had flagged swollen lymph nodes, ey...
05/27/2026

Bella update.

Bella came into our care Thursday morning. By Friday, the team at CARES had flagged swollen lymph nodes, eye inflammation, and structures in her bladder they couldn’t explain. Today she went back for a full abdominal ultrasound.

The read: a large structure in her bladder, concerning for a clot, a mass, or a hemorrhaging lesion on the bladder wall. Bilateral kidney changes on top of it. The internist wants a CT scan to figure out which one it is. The mobile CT unit CARES partners with isn’t available until next Wednesday.

Tonight she is in pain and holding her bladder. That’s not a wait-until-Wednesday situation.

I called 40+ emergency hospitals across Southern California. Then I called hospitals in Tijuana, trying to think out of the box. Nobody runs CT after 5pm. UC Davis is the only facility in the state with overnight CT capacity and the drive lands us there at sunrise, which is the same time VCA West Coast Emergency Specialty opens with the imaging and the internist already on site.

If you know us, you know we don’t wait when something is small. This is not small, and we are not waiting.

She’s stable tonight. Pain managed. We’re at VCA West Coast Specialty at 7am.

Emergency CT, specialist consult, cystoscopy if indicated, and whatever the imaging tells us comes next. Every dollar goes directly to Bella.

Zelle: PayPal: GOODEST / [email protected] goodestdogs.org/donate

I’ll update when we know what we’re dealing with💙

05/26/2026

Bren and I visited Wilson on Sunday and it was the highlight of my weekend. I am reminded every single day what unconditional love truly means and for that I am eternally grateful. These dogs are Angels and I thank God everyday for allowing me to be a part of their lives. If you feel the same way I do about dogs or Danes, keep Wilson in your thoughts and prayers…. He needs all of the good vibes he can get. Oh and, F**k cancer.

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