At 40 years old, I was not a “seasoned” rescue person by any means – I had always had my own personal pets and had fostered a miniature pinscher now and then for a national rescue group.

However, in April of 2006, after having moved to Tipton County, TN (from the big city of Memphis), I got a phone call from a friend of a friend who also lived in the same county; her white Lab mix named Snowflake had run away in a thunderstorm the night before and did not come home so she asked me if I’d go into the Tipton County Animal Shelter (about five miles from my office) and see if Snowflake was there (the owner did not get off work until after the shelter had closed). I did not know where this “shelter” was located or how to get to it, but I found my way there that morning (sneaking away from work to do so).

Snowflake was not at the shelter (she was found alive and well later that day), but my entire life was profoundly affected that spring day. The pitiful dogs and cats that I saw there that morning – some injured, many sick, cold and wet – and the absolute hopeless expressions on their little faces made my heart sink to my feet.

The shelter employees told me that most of them did not get adopted and that they needed and wanted someone to help them – the euthanasia rate at this very small, very rural “shelter” is very, very high. I had to return to work that morning, and so I cried and despaired about the situation of these poor helpless, homeless animals that people had just thrown away.

I knew that I had to do something because those faces haunted me endlessly. I could not save them all, but I could at least save one at a time, so that’s what I did.

Starting the next morning, I went to the shelter every other day and took pictures of the dogs there and posted pleas about them on the Petfinder forums, along with sending out mass e-mails to various rescue groups around the country asking for help. And so it went for a few months – I’d pull one dog at a time, find it a home (the first one was a coonhound named Lily and she now lives a pampered life with her family in Phoenix, AZ!), and then move on to one more dog.

Later that summer, along came Kelly – Kelly Parker contacted me from the Boston area after seeing my repeated Petfinder postings and said “What can I do to help?” With Kelly’s unending support and assistance, we moved on to being able to rescue two or three dogs at a time from the Tipton Shelter. Then a few months later along came Joanne, then Liz, and so on. The rest truly is history!

We now have the most wonderful group of volunteers, foster homes, adopters, veterinarians, and supporters in the world!

It amazes me beyond words when I look back and realize how very far we’ve come and how many animals we’ve rescued and successfully re-homed – hundreds of them! Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be where we are now, and, for this, I am so eternally grateful to all of the men and women who are our volunteers and who work so hard and give so much of their lives and themselves to save these animals and get them to their new forever homes!