A New Direction

I figured it was time for another blog with all that has been going on here at the Ranch. 

As most of you know, Wiggles arrived last week and has been settling in wonderfully with Etta.  The two are pretty much inseparable most of the day and are always into something.  They even sleep together on the couch, or if one chooses somewhere else, the other is never far behind.  It's great seeing them together again.  I do believe that they remember each other and I do believe that they are happy to be together again.  Something always seemed to be missing for Etta until Wiggles arrival.  Wiggles overall has a very strong personality and absolutely loves to play with all the other dogs.  She already has great 'recall' and can be trusted to go on walks without her leash which is all pretty amazing since she is so new here.

This week, I have done a lot of thinking about the direction which RRR is taking.  I want to make a few changes.  I do not want our focus to solely be on training dogs as service or companion animals for Soldiers.  I also want this to be a place Soldiers with PTSD and TBI can come to 'get away' for a bit, enjoy the sanctuary setting and learn to train dogs or simply spend time with them.  For those who want to interact and train the dogs, they can help to make the rescued dogs adoptable and ready for a new home.  I have decided on this path because I realize that not every animal we can, or want, to rescue can be made into a service animal and I feel that we are limiting the number of dogs we can help by only going by those criteria.  The dogs that still have potential to be a part of the original RRR program will still be put into training for it when the time is right for them to begin.    However, in order to implement this part of the program we will need a better set up.  We will need funds for vet care (as dogs pulled from shelters or bad situations will require more medical care), more runs, dog houses, crates, etc. 

We have our lawyer preparing more of our 501c3 paperwork this week and hopefully before long we will no longer be in the process of filing for our 501 but have our 501c3 pending.  This is going to be a key step in getting donations and the help we need for what we want to create here.  We're hoping to have the initial paperwork filed within the next few weeks and are excited for this huge step forward.

In other news we have two dogs pending adoption and who have a meeting with their potential new mom on the 22nd. 

That is all for tonight since it's late but I will update more soon.

Until next time!
*Nicole