We had the good fortune of connecting with Jaz Hendrick and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Jaz, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
During our work at various shelters, my cofounder and I noticed that a large population of animals were being surrendered because their families were going through turbulent life events. The complications brought about by these events resulted in the owners being unable to provide homes for their pets, in the short term. Although these situations were temporary and the owners would be able to care for their pets again in the near future, their only option for them was to surrender their animals. Owners going to rehab, families who were temporarily unhoused, and people living alone that need an extended hospital stay are some of the common reasons for owner surrenders. Temporary animal care is costly, and many people do not have the funds or the social support to arrange for it, until they are able to bring their pets home again.
Until They’re Home was started because we wanted to offer help to keep animals out of the shelter when they already had loving homes. We provide temporary fostering for animals so their families can focus on the parts of lives that need it the most right now. While we have evolved to encompass more than this, our temporary fostering program was one of the largest factors in starting Until They’re Home.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
“How did you get to where you are today professionally.” This question made me laugh. I feel perpetually lost and *definitely* not professional. There’s a fair bit of imposter syndrome that I have to work through on a regular basis. UTH was still very much in its infancy when the pandemic hit and the first couple of years were a mad scramble. I didn’t have much time to learn *how* to run the organization because we were too busy actually running the organization. Now that we’ve got our feet under us and hired a couple of people, I’m able to spend more time on organization development which is leading to an increase in my own confidence.
As UTH grows, we are starting to see the very real impact that we are having in animal welfare. I am very proud of the fact that we are able to provide a high standard of care for all of our animals. We carefully screen our applicants and in many cases we provide a trial period with full behavior support to help new adoptables get settled in. We have a high success rate, with a return rate of less than 5% of our adoptables and a reunification rate of over 90% of our temporary foster animals.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Molly Obert, my co-founder. She and I have been on some crazy adventures together! And UTH’s amazing Crëw – fosters, volunteers, adopters, clients. And especially our amazing staff. They are constantly going above and beyond to help further our mission.
Website: untilhome.dog
Instagram: @untiltheyrehome
Twitter: @UntilHomeCo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/untilhome.org
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwd-B8ibyoPKCzXkoyrLZA