The ultimate goal of Potcake Place, a dog rescue organization in the Turks and Caicos, is to be "run out of business."
The adoption center was opened in 2011, though founder Jane Parker-Rauw was rescuing before that, she told "Good Morning America."
Potcakes are a name given to the dogs of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. They generally grow to between 40 and 55 pounds. The adoption center, located in the Grace Bay area of Providenciales, places about 400 dogs each year.
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"The rescues that come into our care are pups and adult dogs that have been born on the streets here in The Turks and Caicos Islands," Parker-Rauw said. "Many, many dogs were not owned and so not spayed. The first time a young female dog here has a litter of pups she can have easily 10 pups in that litter. So if six of those are females, seven months later they are all having 10, etc."
Though many visitors to the Turks and Caicos do return from vacation with a potcake, even more stop by Potcake Place to visit with the dogs and take them for walks.
"Some days in the busy tourist times throughout the year we will have people lining up over two hours before we open to be able to get the chance to take a puppy out for a couple of hours. Other times of the year people can just walk in at opening time and be in luck so there is really no way to tell," she said. "They only go out if we are sure they are happy to go out and healthy to go out, many times it is just too hot. The welfare of the puppy always comes first."
Some people inquire about adopting after spending times with the dogs.
"Some people have never head about us before they arrive and so find out about us on vacation and come in," Parker-Rauw said. "We ask them if they were already thinking about adopting a puppy before they came in. I would say that we either turn people down or more often talk people out of adopting about 50 percent of the time. We would not put all of this hard work in if we did not care about where they end up. The last thing we want is for these pups or any dogs to end up in shelters or a bad situation."
Potcake Place is volunteer run and is in need of monetary donations. Items like puppy toys, food, treats, dog bowls, pee pee pads, Sherpa bags, puppy formula and blankets are very expensive on the island. Donating these supplies is a way for people to help even if they don't want to adopt, Parker-Rauw said.
"It is wonderful seeing a puppy that was rescued from people throwing rocks at it to one day just lighting up and wagging it's whole body when they see a family come through the adoption center door," Parker-Rauw said. "And then when that puppy gets to go home with that family for good, well that's even better."
