Jennifer Fischer (President) I have always been a big believer in rescuing dogs. All of the dogs my husband and I have ever had, have been rescue dogs. In 2016, we adopted Danika, a German Shepherd Dog/Saluki mix from Qatar through a local rescue. She absolutely stole our hearts! Because of Danika and her story, I started helping with dog rescue. A few months later, we fostered Nigel, our second Saluki mix from Qatar.  After a week, we decided to adopt him. . Since then I have been involved in helping other dogs find loving forever homes. In 2019, I helped co-found Traveling Tails Dog Rescue. In 2020, my family helped foster a TTDR dog, Rocky,  from Qatar who was returned from one of our adopters. He was a bit of a challenging case and we ended up adopting him, too. We love our three Saluki mixes from Qatar! As far as my TTDR rescue work goes, I play a key role in maintaining our rescue partner relationships and coordinating intake. I also help with puppy parties in Chicago, fundraising and adoption events, coordinating spay/neuter and vetting of dogs, coordinating foster placement, listing and posting dogs, adoption screenings and record keeping. I especially love to stay in touch with adopters and help coach them through challenges as their pups settle in. Seeing the progress is so amazing! It is very rewarding when you know the oftentimes, harsh and devastating circumstances these dogs come from can be transformed into wonderful, happy endings. We are blessed to have so many animal lovers here in our country who welcome rescue dogs with open arms. It is truly an amazing symphony of teamwork and heartfelt love that gets these dogs to their happy endings in their forever homes. I have met some absolutely amazing people during my rescue journey. We all share a common goal and I am honored to be a part of it.

My family members have always been huge animal advocates and often volunteer with local shelters. In 2018, I began fostering dogs from overseas.

I fell in love with the mission to help give dogs from overseas a better life. Without the chance to come to the United States, most of the dogs would struggle to survive. Some of these dogs would never know what love is, which is extremely heartbreaking! Living on the streets as strays can be dangerous as these animals are often poisoned, tortured, and killed even though they are very sweet and affectionate. My husband and two young children have loved the experience of fostering so much that we adopted Lucy, a young German Shepherd from Qatar in early 2019 after I helped co-found Traveling Tails Dog Rescue. I play a key role in maintaining our overseas rescue partner relationships, assisting with the airport arrival and transport of dogs, and airport volunteer coordination, listing and posting dogs, adoption screening and home visits, and keeping us connected with the larger rescue community. Co-founding the rescue has been a family affair, we are all involved and my kids love meeting the various dogs and transporting them to their forever homes too!

I’m an animal lover.  My first dog was when I was young.  I loved that dog.  I taught her to retrieve shoes, carry the mail to the mailbox, as well as regular dog tricks. I was with her when she gave birth to 9 puppies.  I wanted to be a veterinarian; however, college wasn’t an option, so I went to secretarial school and worked & retired for/from the Federal Government where, like Casey, got to see firsthand how poorly dogs & cats were treated and seeing them roam the streets just looking for their next morsel of food was heartbreaking.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a position to rescue all of them but when living in Europe, I was given a kitten.  Then I adopted another.  Knowing animals needed to be part of my life, I worked part-time, evenings, at a veterinary clinic. 

I unknowingly became involved with Traveling Tails Dog Rescue in August 2019 when they posted their need to fill the first leg of a transport.   I picked up Sassy & Daisy, two dogs who had just arrived the night before from overseas.  They were beautiful.  Remembering what I witnessed living/traveling overseas, I was so intrigued with TTDR.  I carried on chats with the TTDR team about how the two dogs arrived, the rescue, the dogs’ story and became very interested in helping TTDR.  I was so impressed with TTDR, the work they did, the professionalism, and the caring, I became a full-time volunteer.  I fell in love with the Saluki breed with the introduction from TTDR.  I offered to assist with airport arrivals, to foster, to help find fosters/adopters in my area of the East Coast, and to transport.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Now, as a member of the Board, my added duties include assisting with contracts, vetting of applicants, and promoting TTDR.  Looking back, I should have kept a log of all the dogs from TTDR we’ve fostered.  There will always be that special dog or two who has captured your heart.   One is Bambino who needed major surgery when he arrived and thankfully was adopted & living only 2 miles from me, so I’m able to visit.  The next one was Erwin (now Charlie), who was a domestic rescue during Covid.  It broke my heart to say goodbye to Erwin (that’s him in my picture).  Even though you know you have to say goodbye, it brings me so much joy to help these dogs, knowing the life they left and the love that awaits.  I’m so appreciative to be a part of this team.  

I have always loved animals for as long as I can remember, especially dogs. 

When I rescued my dog Tina, I always wanted a friend for her, however my husband just wanted one dog at a time, so I began fostering for TTDR. In January of 2020 I got my first foster, Ashley (Nala) who came from Turkey. She was very shy and nervous when it came to people, but was great when it came to my dog Tina. We had Ashley until March of 2020 when everything shut down. It was very difficult to give her up, but TTDR found an amazing family for her which made it so much easier and eased the heartbreak of giving her up. After that it was a little slow due to Covid restrictions, but I had a few more fosters. In August of 2020, TTDR needed an emergency foster for an owner surrender who was recently adopted but it wasn’t working out so I agreed to take in Riley from Jordan. In the beginning Riley definitely had some trauma. Her first night was spent in our garage and she totally needed to decompress. The next day she saw a squirrel in our yard and ran out of our garage to never go back in again. We worked with her fears and issues but knew deep down that she belonged with us, so in October 2020 we officially adopted her. After that, I took time off from fostering because we needed to let Riley settle in. While Riley was settling in, I started making custom dog bandanas. I still wanted to help TTDR, so I started selling these bandanas and donated1/3 of the sale to TTDR. I am still making bandanas today.

I wanted to get involved even more with TTDR, so I started helping with airport pickup. I eventually started fostering again and have fostered several dogs since. Then, in July of 2021 the CDC banned the importation of dogs from the areas we rescued from so TTDR got more involved in rescuing from US shelters. I started fostering puppies a few at a time or whatever was needed. I also started helping with reference checks and virtual home visits. Earlier this year, I was asked to be part of their Board of Directors and was very honored by that. TTDR is more than a rescue, it’s a family consisting of the board, the fosters, the adopters, and our rescue partners.

I love the fact that we are a family and not a corporation. We genuinely care about everyone in the TTDR family.