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Sonoma West

September 7 2011

Charity finds homes for senior dogs

Muttville may be for the dogs, but if humans associated with the nonprofit group had tails, they’d be wagging while talking about the organization devoted to saving elderly canines.

Since its inception in 2007, Muttville has placed more than 1000 senior dogs, many with elderly people, according to founder Sherri Franklin, a San Francisco hairstylist in her spare time. …

Franklin’s inspiration to start Muttville took root when she was volunteering at the San Francisco SPCA. “I was watching senior dogs get passed over for adoption … I became fairly obsessed and started taking dogs home, one at a time, and finding them homes,” she said. …

At a Muttville fundraiser in July, [Emily] Pottruck, [a founding donor of Muttville], … said: “If there was ever an organization that combined time, effort, compassion, volunteerism with swimming upstream and being a game changer, Muttville would be it.”

After giving credit to the small grassroots organization, Pottruck likely struck a chord with her audience when she said: “These dogs are the ultimate survivors. They are more resilient than most people I know. When I talk about Muttville, which I do constantly, the response is always the same; ‘When I am old, I hope someone takes care of me the same way that Muttville takes care of their charges.’ And maybe that is one of the answers as to what motivates us; the desire and hope that given enough unconditional love out there, we too will be taken care of at the end of our life this go around.”