Thank You for Being a Friend
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We realize it’s been quite awhile since we’ve done a Dog Blog post. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter just make it way too easy for us to keep up with everyone on a day-to-day basis.
We did, however, want to tell you that it’s a week of giving thanks, and we are so thankful for all of you and what you do to help us keep doing what we do, every single day. Whether it’s volunteering, supporting us, adopting from us, fostering for us — anything and everything from picking up poop to giving a dog a forever home, it all comes down to you. There were so many “dark” years when we had no one, had no idea how we were going to keep going, and like a Jack after a squirrel — there you were!
Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now …
As we’ve grown over the years in support, we’ve also kind of “shrunk” in terms of numbers of rescues at any given time. This has a lot to do with our owner, Donna Durham-Thornbrough, and our (volunteers’) desire to see her have a “normal” life/retirement after years of losing family members to cancer, working full-time at a corporate job, and trying to hold down rescue with only a handful of people. She sacrificed a lot, for a lot of years, and now it’s time for her to have a little fun between the stressful “job” that is rescue. Let’s clarify, only the people who don’t understand how rescue works and the politics of it all are stressful; the dogs never are.
We’re Just Ordinary People
Most people will never know the faces behind the rescues (or shelters, bless them) they love, but we’ve always tried to be transparent. We officially formed Team Russell about seven years ago and it has grown beyond leaps and bounds. Because of these beautiful dogs, we’ve seen many friendships form, not to mention marriages and babies! Wow! Sometimes we come, sometimes we go, sometimes we come back as our own dogs and families grow. But we’re all “in it to win it” in some form or fashion with our talents and time.
Almost all of us have full-time jobs and, even if we’re retired, are often part- or full-time caregivers. Everything we do for the rescue is in our “spare time.”
With that said, we don’t operate like your typical rescue. We’re not in it to make money off the dogs and we’re often willing to take on some of the “special” dogs that others just simply can’t because they’re fighting to survive. As you may or may not know, we do not receive any money from government, the big humane/animal rights organizations, etc. We fly by the seat of our pants … and sometimes those pants get really thin.
Everybody Needs a Little Time Away
With that said … we are going to take the “week off.” OK, well, maybe some of us … Taking 10-15 dogs in and out several times a day in the inclement weather, feeding and loving on them, every day is a job some of us must always do. (You know who you are and we love you ladies!) But Donna and the volunteers who help with “the paperwork” are going to take a much-needed week off.
We have had a lot of applications (and some pending adoptions to announce – stay tuned) lately and we’ll try to finish up on those as soon as we can. We welcome anyone who wants to put in an application (adoption, foster or volunteer) to please apply, but please know that our usual turn time of 3-4 days (we do follow up thoroughly with vets and references) will be a little longer. We apologize, but … hey … our dogs are worth it.
