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Zach Skow was diagnosed with end stage liver disease in July of 2008. At this point, he didn't care much what that meant, only that he could continue living day to day as he had been-constantly drunk, constantly numb. Zach explains in hindsight that his inebriated state was his baseline-this was his normal, and a necessity to his everyday life. He needed to be drunk to drive, to work, and certainly to interact with other people, especially if those other people were new faces. Without alcohol, he was vulnerable and scared-much like the dogs he now rescues from shelters daily.
When Zach walks into a shelter, he sees himself in the destitute dogs, and they in him. He knows intimately what it is like to feel worthless and unwanted. He felt like a "throwaway human", and to most people, the dogs in the most hard-knock shelters are throwaway dogs. He tells that he had begun a life dedicated to transformation, and the dogs were a parallel existence in which he could find meaning and progress that he often didn't find in himself. And now, these dogs and Zach work together, creating magic out of fear and rejection, lifting each other up and infusing an infinite amount of love into their surroundings wherever they may be.
Zach's ultimate wakeup call came in October 2008, when he resolved to take on life without the crutch of alcohol. The inception of Marley's Mutts coincided with this decision. Through working with the Humane Society, Zach knew that he had a connection with rescue dogs and had fostered several, but he saw a hole in the world of rescue-no one was taking on the really tough cases. The giant Mastiffs, the mangled and mangy mutts, the aggressive and the scared. . . Marley's Mutts would be a home (albeit a temporary one) for these "undesirables." What happened in the process though is that Zach and the Marley's Mutts crew has begun to change the conversation surrounding these types of dogs. They relentlessly educate and inform their followers and fans (350,000 and growing!) to let them know that the dogs are not the problem, but their training and circumstance. The crew at Marley's Mutts provides training resources to dog owners too, to help prevent new problems from arising. Their holistic approach to dog rescue extends even to the community and to their ambitious future goals.
Marley's Mutts has plans to expand their human/ canine programs in which rescued dogs will help to rehabilitate people-prisoners, addicts, the mentally challenged. Zach calls the symbiotic relationship between the people and the dogs a "benevolent mechanism" which he experienced first hand, and plans to focus on and fully utilize in the future of the rescue.
Today, Zach is healthy-he has worked hard to create a lifestyle in which his liver can heal, and his focus on a work of pure service keeps him grounded and connected to a purpose. Zach knows that he owes his life to the dogs, and through Marley's Mutts, he makes good on a daily debt of gratitude that is truly a labor of love and his life's highest calling.
