We can help more senior dogs!

2019 was a great year for St. Martin’s Animal Rescue, but with it came some incredible news and opportunities.

My boyfriend proposed to me and I said, “yes!” I am over the moon with joy! But what does this have to do with dog rescue? Well, all along my boyfriend has known that the dogs come first in my world. He knows that I would never give up fostering dogs and that some of the dogs for whom I care are “unadoptable” and behavioral. My fiancé has been bitten and he doesn’t like it, but he knows that the dogs are a part of me and my life.

Our plan is for me and my foster dogs to move onto his property after we get married. His property is on a beautiful country setting and is zoned residential and commercial! There is plenty of land to build a home like setting to house the dogs in comfort and create a play yard with enrichment activities. The building we envision will be open to the public so volunteers can interact with the dogs (except for the behavioral ones), have an area for food preparation and storage, and built in sleeping areas for the dogs at night.

This type of building would allow us to take in dogs when needed and not have to scramble for foster homes. Potential fosters and adopters can come and meet the dogs and then decide if they can commit to the dog after a home check. We could also take in large breed senior dogs as we could easily separate them from the littles. Our inability to take on large breed senior dogs has always been such a sad thing to me. We have a very difficult time finding fosters for large breed dogs, especially when we do not know their behavior. With this building we can take in large breed seniors and evaluate their behavior in order to recruit a fitting foster or adoptive home.

So many of our rescues are with us for life, thus in reality what we have is a “sanctuary.” However, I have always hesitated to use that term because it has been my experience that so many “Sanctuaries” really end up as horrible living situations for animals collected by hoarders. We would definitely have a cap on the number of dogs we can properly care for and keep the rescue solvent financially. With being able to open up to the public for volunteers to come help love on the dogs, we are completely transparent and everyone will know that the dogs are well loved and properly cared for. This “open door” policy is crucial to me as my vision has always been to provide a loving home environment for these special seniors. We want people to come visit the dogs and to hold them and love on them just as they would be in a home.

So, we need to fundraise to help with building expenses for this structure. Our goal is $20,000 and that is a LOT of money, but will allow us to help more senior dogs, involve our community with our mission, and to be able to take in large breed seniors. We have the labor donated and we already have the lumber. The biggest expenses will be the concrete for the foundation and the heat pump/ac unit. If you know anyone who can donate materials, labor, concrete…etc….then please pass along our email to them: stmartinsanimalrescue@hotmail.com. If you can donate through our fundraiser, then please do and share it as well. We have NO paid staff and all money donated will go to create an amazing sanctuary for these abandoned seniors in their greatest time of need. We would like to get married on August 4, 2020 so we hope to have this built by then. All donations are tax deductible and our EIN is 46-1438330.

Thank you!

• Susan Licari, Executive Director