Our Mission
Our mission is to protect and improve the lives of lost, discarded, abandoned, abused, and unconfined dogs through acknowledgment of dog behaviors, education initiatives, love, trust, patience, rehabilitation, and placement of street dogs into caring forever homes.
It is our belief that neighborhood street dogs are not invisible, disposable, or less valuable because they take a greater investment to gain a return. We believe we can make a significant impact on the city’s euthanasia rate one rehabilitated neighborhood dog at a time.
According to Metroplex Animal Coalition statistics, an average of 200,000 healthy, potentially adoptable animals are euthanized in the Dallas Fort Worth area every year due to overpopulation. That equates to 548 animals EVERY DAY. A dog or cat is euthanized every three minutes in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Every dog we rescue stops the cycle of births and stop another unnecessary death.
Every pet owner can have an impact on the 200,000 animals that the city puts to death every year. Our education goal is for pet owners to see the impact of their decisions to comply with confinement laws, vaccination laws, and spay and neuter laws. All of these individual decisions have a collective impact on the animal population and enforcing these laws is an important part of changing perceptions and lowering the overwhelming number of animals put to death every year.
Our initiatives
- Neuter, spay, and rehabilitate neighborhood stray animals and find them forever homes
- Work with city services to promote best practices that respect and humanly treat the animal population
- Educate the public about low cost spay and neuter options available through various organizations
- Educate the the city and the public about the feral dog population problem in the city of Dallas
- Educate the public about the importance of vaccinations and the availability of low cost vaccinations available through various organizations.
- Educate the public about the importance of heartworm preventative
- Educate the public about the importance of micro chipping your pet
Why we started
We started rescuing dogs out of simple need. Dogs would wander into my front yard and need help and off we would go. It made me wonder why there were so many dogs wandering around the neighborhood like Gypsies? The answer is found in the problems we see suppored by statistics. The zip code 75208 is among Dallas’ top zip codes to produce the greatest number of 311 calls about loose dogs, aggressive/dangerous animals, sick or injured animals and “pick up for unwanted animals”. This zip code also includes the city’s top 10 originating areas for intake at Dallas Animal Services. That means that a good majority of the dogs in the shelter come from our hood. To add insult to injury, a survey of pet owners (funded by the Summerlee Foundation) identified the city’s southwest region as “home to the greatest portion (36 percent) of respondents who were least likely to spay/neuter their pets.”
This is a clear pattern in my Winnetka Heights neighborhood as there is an unending stream of unaltered dogs loose in the neighborhood. These dogs are often feral, in large packs, sick, injured, fighting, crossing main roadways in traffic, and in general, in need of help. The neighborhood has had spotty results with the dog catching abilities and resources available through animal control. Animal control’s lack of results added to the need for the neighborhood to take action on its own. So from the humble beginning of the first rescue dog, the occasional rescue has grown into a steady stream of dogs that now include the challenge of rehabilitating feral unsocialized dog pack dogs.
What we are not
We are not a rescue organization in the traditional sense. We do not accept owner surrenders or stray animals found by others. We refer those animals to services already available in the city such as the breed specific rescue groups, the SPCA, or the city animal shelter.
What we are
We are a small organization that works with strays on a case by case basis as presented by the needs of the neighborhood. In short, we let the animals find us. We have a very limited capacity but our individual level of focus allows us to have a high rehabilitation success rate in an area that has a high concentration of need.
Unlike the city shelter, we do not make rehabilitation decisions based on medical needs. We have been able to do what it takes to get the dogs well regardless of the challenges. We have treated and rehabilitated dogs for heartworms, distemper, cancer, dog fighting, and abuse. We make decisions based on what is best for the dogs.
Also unlike the city shelter, we have the luxury of time. We are able to invest time with varying levels of socialization issues to rehabilitate the dogs into adoptable well-adjusted dogs. We crate train, potty train, leash train, and work on basic manners – which for some of these dogs is a big change from being loose on the streets of Dallas.
We strive to make sure our dogs and our families are a perfect match. We make basic profiles for our dogs and send our dogs on trial dates. We do not put a time limit on the trail period. When the potential families are ready to say the dog is the right fit, only then do we call it a match. Our goal is to find the dog the most fabulous forever home. If the dog is not a perfect match, we want the opportunity to get the dog back and find the dog the right home. We always stress that we are happy to take the dog back if there are any issues.
Forever Homes
Our forever homes are committed to a high standard of care and to a lifetime commitment to their dogs (or the occasional cat). We have invested a considerable amount of time, money, and donated services to the dogs and we want our rescues to become spoiled rotten forever family members. Nothing less will do.
How we are changing the world one dog at a time…