Photo by Kathy Ziegler Lots of folks want to know how we started in Senior Dog Rescue and ultimately founded Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary.
This story starts with a little background. We have been "rescuing" dogs for about fourteen years, since I picked up a six pound Charlotte (who grew to eventually be 75 pounds) in the middle of Charlotte Avenue in Nashville.
We became officially involved in rescue four years ago when we adopted 18 month old Gracie from Middle Tennessee Golden Retriever Rescue (MTGRR) to be a friend for Ginger, an eight month old among seniors. It was at a time in our lives when we were beginning to have more time to volunteer. We had been working 40 to 60 hours a week and were involved with our son's activities as he went through grade school and high school. As we were coming on to our more senior years, we finally had some "spare" time and wanted to put it to good use.
In spring of 2010, MTGRR had an urgent plea for someone to foster a very senior golden/pyr mix named Bandit. He was disoriented and had some problems getting around. They had no where to place him other than at a vet's office and that was no place for him to spend his final days. Although he only lived with us for less than a month before passing to the Rainbow Bridge, we started to see a need for what was being called at that time a "long term" foster for senior dogs. It didn't take us long to discover how extreme the need was as we continued to volunteer heavily with MTGRR. We were beginning to find our calling.
Just a couple of months later, we brought Lucy-Lu to our home. She was a ten year old Golden Retriever rescued from a terrible situation where she was kept with other dogs in small cages in a basement, underfed and uncared for. She was not expected to live, but pulled through and came to us with a happy attitude and a "don't let it get you down" way of looking at life. Lucy-Lu proved to us that senior dogs could get over their past and appreciate and enjoy the rest of their life. They just needed a safe, comfortable, caring place to do it. Lucy continued to inspire us until just last month when she passed to the Rainbow Bridge. She will forever continue to be the symbol of why our place is with Senior Dogs.
As we continued to volunteer and take in senior dogs from MTGRR we became more and more aware of a pattern. Senior dogs were the last to be adopted (if ever) and often ended up being bounced from one foster home to another because of their unique needs and problems and people's general unwillingness to bring in a new family member with potentially higher vet bills who may only live for a few months or years. Over the two plus years that we were involved with MTGRR we took in Bandit and Lucy-Lu, Rosie (15 years), Hunny Bunny (early teens), Toby (10 years), Bo and Daisy (a 10 and 13 year old bonded pair) and Maggie (13 years), All of these dogs, except Toby, have now passed to the Rainbow Bridge, but we would not have given up one minute with any of them.
Beginning in late 2011, an idea began to develop in our minds. As we and our canine family grew older we knew that our love and passion was for the senior dogs who were being overlooked by adopters and turned away by many rescues because of the difficulty in adopting them. We were learning more and more about rescue in general through MTGRR and had solid backgrounds in business and engineering that would be a huge help to us.
Our name was inspired by the song "Old Friends" by Simon and Garfunkel, a favorite of mine. We continued to discuss our ideas and refine them. We wanted to celebrate senior dogs and to show folks that senior dogs were not "poor things", rather they had the potential of being happy, loving family members. We wanted to learn and become a resource for folks living with or interested in senior dogs. We wanted to create a network of folks from around the country and, ultimately, the world to share their senior dog experiences and to ask questions relating to senior dogs. By sharing photos and stories of the seniors of OFSDS, we hoped to open this line of communication.
Our vision was to have a home based Sanctuary, set up for senior dogs and to expand our capacity with a "Forever" Foster Home network where senior dogs would be placed in loving homes in our area. OFSDS would pay for their preventatives and vetting and the Forever Foster Homes would provide love and food for the rest of the Old Friend's life. This eliminated the fear of high vet bills and allowed those interested in taking in a senior dog, but afraid of the costs, to enjoy the company of and help a senior dog in need. We would also provide a safety net. By keeping the Old Friend in our program for life, they would be guaranteed to never be homeless again. In March of 2012 I started the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary Facebook page which has been our biggest tool in sharing the OFSDS dogs, raising awareness of senior dogs and in communicating our foster home and other needs. I also started our website and blog. In April 2012 we incorporated as a Non-Profit organization in the state of Tennessee and applied for our 501(c)(3) non-profit status. We would not start to solicit fosters and donations until we received confirmation were an official non-profit a few months later.
Later in the summer of 2012, we brought in our first Forever Foster Dog, Bandit, who is still in our program. We had our first Forever Foster Home. By September, things were getting so busy that we stepped back from volunteering with MTGRR and started to focus all of our energies on OFSDS. By the end of 2012, we had four seniors in Forever Foster Homes and seventeen seniors at the sanctuary. We had begun! In the coming year we would see huge growth.
Michael and Zina Goodin are senior dog lovers and co-founders of Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary.
This story starts with a little background. We have been "rescuing" dogs for about fourteen years, since I picked up a six pound Charlotte (who grew to eventually be 75 pounds) in the middle of Charlotte Avenue in Nashville.
We became officially involved in rescue four years ago when we adopted 18 month old Gracie from Middle Tennessee Golden Retriever Rescue (MTGRR) to be a friend for Ginger, an eight month old among seniors. It was at a time in our lives when we were beginning to have more time to volunteer. We had been working 40 to 60 hours a week and were involved with our son's activities as he went through grade school and high school. As we were coming on to our more senior years, we finally had some "spare" time and wanted to put it to good use.
In spring of 2010, MTGRR had an urgent plea for someone to foster a very senior golden/pyr mix named Bandit. He was disoriented and had some problems getting around. They had no where to place him other than at a vet's office and that was no place for him to spend his final days. Although he only lived with us for less than a month before passing to the Rainbow Bridge, we started to see a need for what was being called at that time a "long term" foster for senior dogs. It didn't take us long to discover how extreme the need was as we continued to volunteer heavily with MTGRR. We were beginning to find our calling.
Just a couple of months later, we brought Lucy-Lu to our home. She was a ten year old Golden Retriever rescued from a terrible situation where she was kept with other dogs in small cages in a basement, underfed and uncared for. She was not expected to live, but pulled through and came to us with a happy attitude and a "don't let it get you down" way of looking at life. Lucy-Lu proved to us that senior dogs could get over their past and appreciate and enjoy the rest of their life. They just needed a safe, comfortable, caring place to do it. Lucy continued to inspire us until just last month when she passed to the Rainbow Bridge. She will forever continue to be the symbol of why our place is with Senior Dogs.
As we continued to volunteer and take in senior dogs from MTGRR we became more and more aware of a pattern. Senior dogs were the last to be adopted (if ever) and often ended up being bounced from one foster home to another because of their unique needs and problems and people's general unwillingness to bring in a new family member with potentially higher vet bills who may only live for a few months or years. Over the two plus years that we were involved with MTGRR we took in Bandit and Lucy-Lu, Rosie (15 years), Hunny Bunny (early teens), Toby (10 years), Bo and Daisy (a 10 and 13 year old bonded pair) and Maggie (13 years), All of these dogs, except Toby, have now passed to the Rainbow Bridge, but we would not have given up one minute with any of them.
Beginning in late 2011, an idea began to develop in our minds. As we and our canine family grew older we knew that our love and passion was for the senior dogs who were being overlooked by adopters and turned away by many rescues because of the difficulty in adopting them. We were learning more and more about rescue in general through MTGRR and had solid backgrounds in business and engineering that would be a huge help to us.
Our name was inspired by the song "Old Friends" by Simon and Garfunkel, a favorite of mine. We continued to discuss our ideas and refine them. We wanted to celebrate senior dogs and to show folks that senior dogs were not "poor things", rather they had the potential of being happy, loving family members. We wanted to learn and become a resource for folks living with or interested in senior dogs. We wanted to create a network of folks from around the country and, ultimately, the world to share their senior dog experiences and to ask questions relating to senior dogs. By sharing photos and stories of the seniors of OFSDS, we hoped to open this line of communication.
Our vision was to have a home based Sanctuary, set up for senior dogs and to expand our capacity with a "Forever" Foster Home network where senior dogs would be placed in loving homes in our area. OFSDS would pay for their preventatives and vetting and the Forever Foster Homes would provide love and food for the rest of the Old Friend's life. This eliminated the fear of high vet bills and allowed those interested in taking in a senior dog, but afraid of the costs, to enjoy the company of and help a senior dog in need. We would also provide a safety net. By keeping the Old Friend in our program for life, they would be guaranteed to never be homeless again. In March of 2012 I started the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary Facebook page which has been our biggest tool in sharing the OFSDS dogs, raising awareness of senior dogs and in communicating our foster home and other needs. I also started our website and blog. In April 2012 we incorporated as a Non-Profit organization in the state of Tennessee and applied for our 501(c)(3) non-profit status. We would not start to solicit fosters and donations until we received confirmation were an official non-profit a few months later.
Later in the summer of 2012, we brought in our first Forever Foster Dog, Bandit, who is still in our program. We had our first Forever Foster Home. By September, things were getting so busy that we stepped back from volunteering with MTGRR and started to focus all of our energies on OFSDS. By the end of 2012, we had four seniors in Forever Foster Homes and seventeen seniors at the sanctuary. We had begun! In the coming year we would see huge growth.
Michael and Zina Goodin are senior dog lovers and co-founders of Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary.
