Saving and helping animals has been a goal and a passion of mine for a very long time. I even remember being in middle school and talking about having a barn with rescued raccoons in it (not sure why it was raccoons). Eventually the focus moved to mainly dogs, and saving dogs became what felt like my purpose - although my big dream is still a large animal sanctuary for ALL animals (raccoons included).
Once I decided I wanted to open a dog boarding and daycare facility someday, I thought that could also help fund a rescue. A decade later, when I finally opened my small boarding business, I realized it was actually kind of too small-scale to do both. At my current property, I didn’t have enough physical space for several 24/7 boarding dogs and rescue dogs.
I closed the boarding business and wanted to rebrand to focus on rescue and community - the goal still being to start a dog rescue, but also to help people keep pets in their homes and out of shelters. That was in January of 2022. And then… time passed. Not much happened. I started feeling very overwhelmed at the process of starting a rescue and non-profit organization in New Hampshire (they don’t make it easy), I started feeling like it was all too much money, plus I had ongoing health issues.
Fast forward to January 2024 and I still feel all those things. It’s still daunting and scary, it’s still a lot of work, it’s still expensive, there is still a risk of a personal financial burden, and I still have health problems and chronic pain.
So why start NOW?
I follow so many rescue groups and shelters on social media, I’ve been a foster for a local rescue, and I’m a volunteer weekend Instagram monitor for Best Friends Animal Society’s Los Angeles account. So, daily, I see heartbreaking pleas from overcrowded shelters and good humans who are begging people to help save dogs off the dreaded urgent lists. All kinds of dogs - senior dogs, puppies, dogs who get along with everyone - make it to these lists when shelters need to make space for new dogs coming in (which never, ever stops). Daily, more and more dogs and litters of puppies are dumped at shelters, or found as strays, or worse. To give some perspective, one shelter I follow in the south has had 300 animals come into the shelter since January 1. Less than two months and 300 animals. There is a serious crisis in this country’s shelters right now and there simply aren’t enough rescue groups, fosters, and adopters to help.
All of that has been hurting my soul in a BIG way. I really feel like I need to DO something, and now. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to do it, physically or emotionally, but I will try. I can’t save all the dogs, but I can at least save some.
AND… Jezzie was a rescue, Phoebe and Chester were rescues, and Maple and Opie are rescues. I wouldn’t have had the chance to have these amazing dogs in my life if it weren’t for rescues saving them from uncertain fates.