When No One Else Would — Why I Chose This Path

Many won’t understand how or why I can uproot my entire life — leave the love of my life, the safety, the stability — and move across the country… just to save these dogs.

The truth is… I can’t fully explain it either.

What I can say is this:

At the heart and foundation of who I am as a human being is the human–animal bond — especially the bond we share with our dogs.

This is who I’ve always been.

Even as a little girl, I found my way to animals instinctively — drawn to them, connected to them, understanding them in ways I couldn’t yet put into words.

This is what’s sacred to me.

It’s been the compass for my entire life.

It’s what everything I’ve built is centered around.

I didn’t start this rescue effort with Ava and her babies because I could.

I started it because no one else would — and their lives were on the line.

I didn’t bring these dogs to safety just to wipe my hands clean when things got hard.

I won’t let Animal Control take them.

I’m not built that way.

And I didn’t start this rescue effort — or fundraise for it — only to hand them over to a shelter and gamble with their lives.

That’s not rescue.

That’s not responsibility.

That’s not integrity.

I have a deep sense of obligation, responsibility, and duty to any dog I bring into my care.

It’s something rooted in me — something I can’t deny or turn off.

It guides me in the same way my love for Steve does…

but this is one of those moments where my calling requires me to choose the harder path — one he can’t share with me right now.

People will question it.

People will judge it.

People will assume things.

And that’s okay.

My guiding mantra has always been this:

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Advocating. Teaching. Protecting.

Questioning. Deepening awareness and understanding. Calling out. Facing. Healing. Growing. Showing up (especially where others won’t). Following through.

This isn’t just what I do.

It’s who I am.

And to ignore this — to turn away from it — would break something in me I could never repair.

I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

So… I choose the hard thing.

The heartbreaking thing.

The thing that’s asking everything of me.

And the very thing that’s stretching me beyond the edge of myself.

And I’ll be honest — I’m second-guessing myself every. single. day.

Today I took the dogs to our favorite Sniffspot.

On the way there, songs came on my playlist — songs Steve sent to me when we were dating — and I just broke down.

This is unconscionably hard.

Choosing between Steve and my profound love for him… and the immense sense of responsibility, integrity, conviction, and devotion I feel toward these dogs.

The lives and fates of these three dogs rest in my hands.

There’s no turning back now.

It’s heartbreaking that we live in a time where shelters are operating beyond max capacity — where dogs’ lives are ending early every single day.

And yet… when someone steps up, takes action, and actually tries to offer relief — they’re the ones who suffer the consequences.

There is something incredibly wrong with this picture.

Beyond the grief, I’m angry.

I’m angry at the system.

Angry at the lack of responsibility, accountability, and basic level of compassion in “human kind.”

Angry that backyard breeding, irresponsible “ownership,” carelessness, and neglect — and the total lack of consequences for any of it — keep creating the very crisis those of us who don’t turn the other way pay the price to clean up.

People getting dogs and never stepping up to learn who they are or what they need.

People wiping their hands clean the moment the dog doesn’t meet their expectations — expectations the dog was never set up or properly equipped to meet in the first place.

Many of us who actually make the effort to address the problem — who don’t look the other way because it’s more convenient — are the ones left carrying the consequences of the very issues others create.

Responsible rescue takes a village.

Saving lives takes a village.

Because it requires us to stretch and carry in more ways than we ever can alone.

We’re now 51% of the way there with our GoFundMe, and I’m so thankful.

But seeing this rescue effort all the way through is taking so much, and I could still really use the support.

This is 100% to get these dogs to safety and give them their fighting chance at living their lives, finding their humans, and living well.

If you can share their story and their plight, thank you.

I’m gutted. And time is speeding by.

GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/83407a134d