Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors:
Deb Bird ~ President
Kathlene Harmon ~ Vice President
Cathy Meunier ~ Secretary
Chris Meunier ~ Treasurer
Members At Large:
Nancy Champion ~ Crisis Coordinator
Lisbeth Garecht ~ Intake Coordinator
Karin Thill ~ Foster Home Coordinator
Leslie Savoie ~ Fundraising Coordinator
Maria Lachney ~ Applications Coordinator
Lark Kruse ~ Webmaster
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I was born in Virginia and grew up on Bradenton Beach. I live with my husband John (who is a social worker), on 10 acres in Myakka City near Bradenton, Florida. I have been with FLDR for 7 years as a foster Mom. Fostering is the backbone of rescue. I have fostered over 250 dogs and I feel like I have learned something from each and every dog. It truly has been a learning experience.
People often say to me, “how can you give them up after saving them”, and I say “I have to, another one needs me now”. Fostering for FLDR is the most rewarding thing I have ever done and it’s been an honor to work with the amazing people at Florida Dachshund Rescue.
Deborah Bird, President
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I was born in Huntington, West Virginia (the center of the known universe) and left there at 14 for boarding school in Ohio, then to college in Texas and Maryland and finally back to Huntington to finish college at Marshall University. I lived in Morgantown, WV for three years while completing law school and in Charleston, WV, for nearly 20 years in private practice. I now live with my four dogs and one cat in a house with a carefully fenced yard in New Port Richey with my husband (we are newlyweds!), Rick. He has been the blessing of a lifetime and my dogs are crazy about him.
My Phoebe (11) is a chocolate/tan/smooth Dachshund; Roxie and Butch (8) are border collie/lab mixes plucked from the side of a country road when they were a month old; and my precious baby Zia (just over 1 year) is a Dachshund mix adopted from FLDR. I am also owned by S’Moochie, an American Bobtail (dilute calico) who is 4 and teaches fosters how to behave around cats!
I have been with FLDR for almost two years, starting out as a foster home and became VP last year. I also assumed the mantle of fundraiser and have a quilt out there being raffled (buy some!). I have fostered only six dogs but each of them has been a blessing beyond explanation. They, like my own pets, have made me a better person. I too have had adopters say to me, “how can you let them go?” but my reply is “look how happy this has made you, I get to experience that too!” And mostly what I focus on is what’s good for the dogs. Most of them have been through enough, already, and need love and proper attention.
I have previous experience in fostering/rescuing cats personally, and in dog rescue from a greater distance than fostering and being on a board, having done fundraising, home visits, and application checks in the past. The people who are involved in this rescue are some of the finest folks I’ve ever had the fortune to know – loving hearts, kind hands, and excellent minds are all here, in FLDR.
Kathlene Harmon, Vice President
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I have been a member of FLDR since 2008. I am a FLDR foster mom and FLDR secretary.
Cathy Meunier, Secretary
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I have been a member of FLDR since 2008. I am a FLDR foster dad and FLDR treasurer.
Chris Meunier, Treasurer
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I’ve had dogs all my life; big dogs, medium sized dogs, little dogs. I never even considered dachshunds until my younger son brought home a little old geezer guy he found wandering the streets. Zaida was 15 years old and 6 scrawny pounds when we found him. But we doctored him up, took care of him, and he was a delightful addition to our family until he passed at 18. Zaida made me a firm convert to dachshunds. Every doxie we’ve adopted or fostered or helped in any way since, is his legacy.
We’ve been rescuing with FLDR for nine years now and have been a foster home for most of those years. Since 2010, I’ve served on the Board as a member at large and as Crisis Coordinator. I handle referrals for behavior and health issues. This is available to all our members, but I also take outside requests for help via the website. This keeps me pretty busy. There’s no shortage of dogs and people needing some help on behavioral challenges and illnesses.
When there’s a local applicant, I work applications and do home visits. I’ve done home visits for other rescues, and every once in awhile we’re able to help on a transport. What I’ve found over the years is that being able to help these wonderful little dogs in any way I can is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.
Nancy Champion, Crisis Coordinator
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I recently started working with FLDR, but I have known Deborah Bird, FLDR President, for over 7 years. I adopted my first dachshund, Muffin, from Deborah about 6 years ago. We have kept in touch and when I was ready for a companion for Muffin I told her my husband and I would foster, until I found an older female that would bond with Muffin. So Deborah brought me Sadie. She and Muffin were instant best buds. She followed Muffin everywhere. Sadie was a mill puppy and scared to death of people, but she LOVED Muffin. We have had her about a year and a half and it is still very scary for her to allow me to pick her up. She is so sweet though and she finally wags her tail and jumps on our leg when we bend down so that she can give us kisses. Her first 8 years were rough, but the rest of her life will be nothing but love and belly rubs and I think that’s the way she expects it now!
After that, Deborah called and said she had another difficult dog and asked if I would evaluate it for her. He was, let’s say, very difficult. He was possessive and nasty and was not afraid to bite the hand that fed him. Needless to say, we knew no one would put up with him and he would not get adopted, so we kept him. We have had him a year now and he is much better. Our little family has grown and if we had more room we would have our own herd of dachshunds!
Lisbeth Garecht, Intake Coordinator
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My husband, Jeff and I have been FLDR members since Jan. 2005, starting out as a foster home. Fostering requires the efforts of everyone in the household to be successful. Even though this has been a passion of mine, Jeff has loved and cared for all 70+ fosters like one of our own until they find their forever home and I couldn’t have done this without his support. Not only have we had 2-3 fosters all the time; we have 4 wonderful miniature dachshunds of our own.
I have been an active FLDR Board member for several years and am currently the Foster Home Coordinator. I have enjoyed getting to know all of our foster homes through this position, as the foster homes are the backbone of our organization and we couldn’t save as many doxies as we do every year without them! Rescue work can be very tiring, sometimes stressful, but also extremely rewarding!
Karin Thill, Foster Home Coordinator
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I have had dachshunds in my life for more than 15 years now. My husband (Steve) and I adopted our first dachshund (Bingo) from FLDR in September 2005, after our first 2 dachshund boys died. It was such a wonderful feeling to help a dog that had been severely beaten and abused and become the center of our worlds. In 2007, we decided that Bingo needed a playmate as our Samantha was getting older and didn’t want to play nearly as much. This is when Louie came into our lives and became (as we dearly call him ‘Loopy Louie’) the second member of the family from FLDR. After Louie’s adoption I started to get more involved with FLDR. For 2 years, I was doing rescue events in Brevard County and getting the FLDR word out to our local community. Fostering was something that Steve and I had discussed but were not ready to commit to. In the fall of 2009, I was contacted by our local shelter that there were 2 little guys found wandering around I-95 in Brevard County that had been recently brought in. I went to see/possibly remove the 2 from the shelter. Well, let me say this, I came home with 4 dachshunds that day and dove, head first, into fostering. Talk about a feeling! I thought adopting a rescue dog was incredible; but not nearly the experience of fostering an unwanted/abused dachshund and finding the perfect home for them!!!! One of those 2 little guys from I-95 became our third FLDR dog, Scooby Doo. He became best friends with Bingo and Louie and that is how our ‘Three Little Doxies’ changed our lives forever!
If you are around the Brevard County or Orlando areas, please keep an eye open to see when we will be near you at an event. We are working on getting more involved in many areas of Florida and can use your help. Please consider being a volunteer and support FLDR in your local community. If we can get some dedicated people in areas throughout the state and work on getting ‘Florida Dachshund Rescue’ out there, this will aid our organization with increased adoptions, increased foster homes and ultimately, increased supporters/donators. Keep in mind for every dachshund that gets adopted, TWO lives are saved; the one with the new home and the opening of a foster home for another unwanted/abused/neglected dachshund.
Please feel free to email me at: fldrfundraising@gmail.com or saveadoxie@yahoo.com for more information or to volunteer.
Leslie Savoie, Fundraising Coordinator
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My name is Maria Lachney. I am the Applications Coordinator for FLDR as well as a foster home. I have been working with FLDR since September 2010. I have fostered 15 doxies in 12 months and have enjoyed every minute of it.
My history with doxies began just over 10 years ago when I was given a 6 week old wheaten wirehaired doxie, we named her Gizmo. Gizmo went down with her back at age 6 and with surgery she completely recovered. She is still with us and doing great. My second doxie, a longhaired dapple Misty, I purchased from a puppy store. This was before I was aware of FLDR. We lost Misty at age 7. Our third doxie, Heidi we got from a friend in 2008, she is a smooth red and she lives up to the red personality. In 2010 after losing Misty, I discovered FLDR and adopted Alexandra, a longhaired chocolate brindle and the rest as they say is history.
Working with FLDR has been one of the most rewarding experiences, of course second to raising my 4 children and having 10 grandchildren. I hope to keep helping FLDR and the many doxies out there needing help for many years to come.
Maria Lachney, Applications Coordinator
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I have been with FLDR for over a year now. I decided to adopt another dachshund in February 2011 as a companion for my 10 year old blind dachshund, Nathan, and because I figured 2 doxies were better than 1! I adopted Max from FLDR and he was a great match for my family. After that, I really wanted to help this great organization and am now privileged to be a board member, the webmaster for the Florida Dachshund Rescue website, an admin for the Facebook page and Twitter page.
I started fostering in December of 2011 and fell in love with my first foster, Charlie, so I adopted him too. I am still fostering and have learned many things from all my doxies and the friendly people from Florida Dachshund Rescue. Please email me with any questions about the website or Facebook page at fldrwebmaster@gmail.com.
Lark Kruse, Webmaster