Has it only been a year? It's amazing, the rest of our lives seem to fly on by, but the past year has been so busy and we have come so far with Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, that it seems like much more than that.
For a few years, the idea of starting a senior dog rescue has been developing in our minds. It kept getting clearer and clearer, the name, the ideas, the implementation.... Michael and I had been volunteering with another rescue group, and although they are a good group with great intentions, I knew that we could do so much more on our own. Besides that, the seniors needed us. That was where our hearts pulled us.
For the first few months of the year we talked more and more about a "senior dog sanctuary" the name "Old Friends" (the idea from an old Simon and Garfunkel song) and just how it would work. In mid-March, I had one of those defining moments, it was time...
By mid March, I had set up a facebook page, a website and a blog. After inviting friends to join, we had under 20 "likes" but we were on our way. It would be a slow start, but by the end of 2012, we are strong with over 4300 likes. Facebook has proven to be an amazing tool in spreading the word about what we do and in finding out about dogs who need our help.
In April, we started to work on our legalities and on becoming an official non-profit organization. We filed our paperwork and by the end of April we were a registered non profit Corporation in Tennessee, Old Friends Senior Dogs Inc.
On April 26, our effective date of incorporation, we had thirteen dogs with us at the Sanctuary. Two of them were, and of course, still are, Ginger and Gracie, our protector and recreation director. The other twelve ranged in age from nine to over fifteen, and averaged out around 13 years old.
By May, we were getting the word out very slowly. Early in the month, a friend of ours who had lots of other friends in rescue, put up a Facebook post about us, talking positively about what we do. This was our first push. Our Facebook friends grew to over 50 (WOW!) and as a result we rescued Zuzu, who we consider to be our first Old Friend at Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary.
Through May and June, I meticulously worked my way through the paperwork required to file our application to become an IRS registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We worked on our plan for that time and did not feel comfortable soliciting donations or volunteers until we had that completed. We are thankful to those who donated, in spite of our not having received our 501(c)(3) prior to verification of our status. As it turned out, our effective date of non-profit status was April 26.
Over the July 4 weekend, the paperwork was ready to send in. I had gone over it time and time again. We had heard stories of applications taking up to a year to approve due to questions and things that were a little bit out of line. We wrote the check and sent it in....and waited.....In the meantime we were really starting to set our goals and deciding how we were going to achieve them.
It was early August when we received our first acknowledgement from the IRS, they had received our application (the check had been cashed weeks before) and were reviewing it. The letter said that we would hear from them again and that we could expect to be contacted within 90 days. UGH!! We settled in for a long wait.
In early August, we took in one more senior dog, Lucky Penny. She is a fifteen year old hound/German Shepherd mix. Although skinny and sickly when she got here, she is a beautiful senior girl now. She is completely deaf and almost blind and doing great.
On August 22, our long (not) wait was over! Without any further questions or delays, we received our determination letter from the IRS. Old Friends Senior Dogs, Inc had an effective non profit date of April 26. We were ready to rock!!
We were ready to solicit donations and volunteers. At the very end of August, we placed our first Forever Foster Dog, Bandit. We were now one step further on our way to achieving our dream.
In early September, Princess Leia joined us at the sanctuary. She was originally thought to be a senior in need of a hospice home. Once she went to see Dr. Benner, we realized that she was under six years old and had had a terrible beginning to her life. Although she only lived for three more months before she passed on to the Rainbow Bridge, she had a huge impact on our hearts and our will to continue to do what we do. She had a chance to live a "normal" life, and although it did not last long, we were able to allow her to have some of the good life.
At the end of September, Arty and Bennett flew in via Pilots 'n Paws from Chicago to Lebanon, TN. We were impressed with the network of volunteers that allowed us to so easily take in two dogs from a Chicago Shelter. Arty and Bennett are a lively little pair with TONS of bad habits (but we love them).
In October, we were pretty quiet. We temporarily took Bandit back from his Forever Foster Home so that he could have an enforced rest period after continually injuring his back. After seven weeks he returned to his Forever Foster Home and has been doing well ever since. We also took Max into our program at this time. Max is a big lovable black dog, but unfortunately no one has agreed to Forever Foster him. He has been in a temporary foster situation for three months. We are anxious to find him a permanent placement. He is over twelve years old and needs a place to curl up and relax. He is unable to stay here with us because he gets stressed out with lots of dog activity. He will do best in a home with only a few, if any, other dogs.
Also in October, we placed our second Forever Foster Dog, Gracie. The placement is a match made in heaven. When Gracie went to her new home for the first time, she looked at us as if to say "can I stay, pleeeease, can I stay here?"
In mid October, Rannie, our nine year old Beagle, went to the Rainbow Bridge after having battled liver problems since mid summer. She had been with us for almost all of her nine years and we miss her crazy energy and smiling face.
In early November, Michael and I went to a workshop at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah entitled "How to Start an Animal Sanctuary". We signed up for the workshop in early April and it was finally time to attend. It was a life changing experience and completely energized us in our goals and dreams.We were able to come home with a solid path to follow. Instead of trimming our dreams, we fortified and expanded them!
Soon after we returned, Asteroid, our little papillon Old Friend, passed to the Rainbow Bridge after a brief illness.
In mid-November, after his rest period, Bandit returned to his wonderful Forever Foster Home where he was happy with his friends Flower and Cotton. Keller, who is blind, had been rescued by a Smyrna police officer, and came here from that same Foster home where Bandit returned. He was sharing the recovery room with Princess who had been there since September when she came to us.
They enjoyed one another's company on walks but tended to get a bit "argumentative" when left alone together so they continued to share the room with a divider in the middle. Princess was making great strides. She was starting to play ball and enjoy cuddling and walks. She ran a little and even wagged her tail.
Princess's progress came to an abrupt stop and she began to lose weight. Her previous life had done irreparable damage to her internal organs and she was unable to overcome that damage. On December 8, Princess passed peacefully to the Rainbow Bridge in my arms. She was at least able to discover that life didn't have to be bad.
In early December, our third Forever Foster Dog, Ellie, a sweet as can be senior Beagle, went to her Forever Foster Home. She has three new sister Beagles and is settling in nicely.
Later in December, our sweet thirteen and a half year old Maggie, who'd been with us for almost a year, went to the Rainbow Bridge. She did well up until the last day when something inside her gave out suddenly.
By the end of the year, we had lost six Old Friends. Rosie and Ozkar passed early in 2012. We miss them all, but we know that they were happy while they were here.
December went out in a flurry of activity. During the last week of the year, Peanut, our fourth Forever Foster Dog went off to his new home.
At the same time, we brought in three more Old Friends. Biscuit is deaf and blind, Meisha is a cute as can be little Pug and Dolly is a mellow girl who just wants a place to rest her sweet bones. We expect to place one or two more Forever Foster Dogs early in January 2013.
At the end of the year, we have nineteen Old Friends at the sanctuary, two of whom we expect to have in Forever Foster homes very soon. We have Four Old Friends in Forever Foster homes and one in a Temporary foster home. We have rescued thirteen dogs since April 26, our official start-up.
We feel that 2012 has been a very successful year for Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary. We are through the first steps and on our way to achieving our goals through 2013 and beyond. I will elaborate on those goals in a future blog post. We are excited and ready to move ahead!
