SANDRA FLEISCHMAN + RASCAL + JACK
Irrational exuberance
Sandra Fleischman has worked to save hundreds of dogs since becoming a Florida Boxer Rescue volunteer in 2000. Foster dog Jack, left, is temporarily sharing her South Tampa home with Rascal, two of the many boxers she has owned or helped rescue. Photograph by James Borchuck
Honey was her first, the family’s pet boxer when Sandra Fleischman was a toddler. Next came boxers Coco, Flash, Boo, Cosmo, Shoona and Katie to share her adult life. Now she has Rascal and recently rescued Jack, whose exuberance she finds irresistible. “I love their personalities ... silly, goofy, loyal. They’re like kids, wiggly, energetic, in your face, and they remain that way till whenever. That’s the breed. They love life.” Her husband, Tampa architect Sol Fleischman, who didn’t grow up around dogs, quickly became as enamored. “We call them Velcro dogs because they love their humans,” she said. “Wherever you are, they want to be.” And as a Florida Boxer Rescue volunteer since 2000, Fleischman wants to be wherever she can help. She estimates the Largo organization has saved more than 4,000 boxers. “They averaged a dog a day,” said Fleischman, who answered the statewide hotline for 14 years, fielding calls to come get strays, injured and abandoned pets. Today, she visits prospective adopters, serves on the board of directors and fundraises for the agency. She also monitors free-to-agood-home advertisements so those dogs don’t end up sold for dogfights. “Boxers are favorites because they are close to pit bull size,” she said. “It’s a big business.” Fleischman intends no pun talking about her pet peeve: dog owners who don’t research the breed first. “Boxers make the perfect family pet if people know about their high energy levels. If not, too many times they call us and say, ‘I can’t handle it.’ ” Thus the ongoing demand for volunteers and foster homes. “Without them, we cannot pull in every dog in need and that’s a tragedy,” she said. Of course, Fleischman’s eagerness to help extends to keeping any breed out of a shelter. She begins to laugh, relating an unforgettable drive home after attending a wedding in Atlanta with two relatives. “I put out the word that I would be happy to transport a boxer rescue,” she said. “Somehow we ended up with a schnauzer and a 250-pound Great Pyrenees in a tiny Volkswagen. We looked like a clown car,” she said. “Hilarious.” — Amy Scherzer
AUGUST 2016
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