NaNook & NaKoda's Big Paws Rescue has been in operation as a 501c3 non profit large/giant breed dog rescue since March of 2018. We officially opened in Jan 2018. In a short 7 months we have accomplished much. We cleared our land to put a portable building that will be converted into a human livable home; The Dog House. In this home the dogs will come and go as they please.
Cage free living! They will have crates or spaces for each individual dog to have a private "bedroom suite" if they choose or will be able to freely sleep and relax anywhere in the home. The kitchen area will be used to feed and treat any medical issues the dogs may have and the bathroom area will be used for grooming needs. The living area will be free roam so the dogs can learn to live indoors with a family once we find their furever homes!
We have built outdoor pens for the dogs to use when/if we have cases that are not able to free roam with all the other dogs. This will provide enough space for exercise and play for those who may not be quite dog friendly yet or for those that have medical issues preventing them from being able to be free with the pack but need outdoor time.
We have purchased wading pools for water play and cut hiking trails into a 10 acre section so far. We also have a tank that the dogs will be able to use for water play and have several rescue horses on the property as well as our cattle to help the dogs become livestock friendly if they are not already.
For the time being all the dogs we have been able to save through either owner surrender, stray pick up or pulled from Texas kill shelters have been split between the 2 founders homes and a couple of foster homes. This allows us to go ahead and save dogs (even though it's not as many as we want) while raising the funds to purchase the portable building.
We currently meet at the property at least 1 time per week to have the entire pack together for socializing and so that the founders can be together to work with any problem behavior issues.
What Started it all?
The founders have both rescued in different ways for apx 20 years. One of the founders rescued dogs one at a time and re-homed them over the past 20 years while the other rescued dogs and provided a home for them. These 2 soon began volunteering at their local high kill shelter to try and help save more dogs. However, there were many practices and situations that both founders disagreed with and even though they became more and more involved providing the shelter with ideas of ways to improve the housing of the dogs and create a less stressful environment for the dogs making them more adoptable, marketing the dogs for adoptions and trying to improve their overall care they felt that their words were falling on deaf ears.
After many long conversations the 2 founders decided it was time to step away from the high kill shelter that they felt would never move towards no kill and start a rescue on their own. The 2 soon filed all the appropriate paperwork, reached out to their rescue mentors and began. The day their 501c3 paperwork came in the mail the founders went to the shelter and officially pulled the dogs they currently had been fostering for the kill shelter and a couple more.
From that moment on it has been non stop. As soon as the public began hearing that their was a no kill rescue in the area the phone calls, emails and social media tags began pouring in begging us to take their dogs, litters of puppies, and strays in their neighborhoods. However, the founders knew they were limited on space. After all as of today the rescue has only existed for 7 months! The founders began trying to reach out to the community via social media trying to find people interested in fostering who would meet the fostering requirements. However, only 2 fosters that were approved stepped up and 1 of the fosters wasn't appropriate to foster the dog they were interested in. Eventually, a couple more fosters volunteered and were approved but that's still not enough room for the amount of dogs in need of rescue and some of the fosters are not prepared to deal with dogs that have issues of abuse or neglect. Since March we have been able to rescue 18 dogs, adopted out 8 to their furever homes and have temporarily boarded several others who were in transit for other rescues.
The next step was to start fundraising to purchase a portable building that could be turned into a livable space to house more dogs. This would also put the dogs all in one location making daily training possible, socializing, pictures for marketing, etc. After looking at several buildings a 16x40 building was decided to be the perfect start up space the founders needed however the cost of a building this size was apx. $13,000!!! Both founders had been putting their own money into the care of the dogs so far and were willing to put $1000 each of their own money into the building so the next step was to hold some fundraisers and bring in some donors.
NNBPR received a donation from a local girl scout troop, had a couple of girls do a T-shirt fundraiser for a school project, and had a few individual donors but it hasn't been enough! NNBPR reached out to a local business owner to organize and have a fundraiser at her pet friendly business. A band was located who played for tips because they supported our cause, a food truck was secured and one of the founders and a PR volunteer went on the local radio stations promoting ticket sales to the event in hopes of raising funds to purchase a building but to date have only succeeded in raising a little over $4000 through all our efforts so far. Still the phone calls, emails, and social media requests to take dogs in continue to come.
This month several supporters have created fundraisers to support the rescue and we've been able to add a few hundred more to the building savings but we are still desperate to raise more funds. With this building NNBPR would be able to house 20 possibly more dogs at a time as they establish processes and routines that ensure they can handle increasing numbers of dogs. NNBPR would be able to take many more dogs from that local high kill shelter and in turn help them euthanize less. NNBPR just needs to get the support of the community to help achieve this goal! Every person who gets upset when they learn the high kill shelter is euthanizing could help by donating a few dollars to help achieve this goal!
You see the 2 founders have 80 acres. The 80 acres also has rescue horses and their personal cattle on it but other than that it is plenty of space to be able to have cage free living, room for the dogs to run and play all day making them less stressed when people come to visit them and adopt. No crazy stressed barking and jumping; just excitement to see new people! 80 acres to work on basic obedience, agility and plenty of space for exercise helping the dogs be balanced when potential adopters come to visit them. Spring fed tanks for the dogs to swim and enjoy! 80 acres to work on basic obedience and learning to be loved and trust humans! The rescue building would sit in the middle of the 2 founders property between their 2 homes. The building would provide space for the dogs to sleep and be cared for without having to spend all their time in kennels with little space to run and play and get that energy out!
Eventually, NNBPR would like to have community days. This would allow members of the community to pay a small monthly donation to come out to the property with their fully vaccinated, spayed/nuetered, dog friendly furbabies and have off leash play, hiking, and water play! It would provide opportunities for family activities such as pic nics etc and socializing for the dogs of the community! A 2nd service NNBPR would like to provide is boarding or doggie day care for families who don't want to leave their furbabies home alone during the day or board in a traditional kennel facility while they are on vacation! All the proceeds from these services would go to fund the day to day operations of the rescue! As we grow with the community we have other ideas such as offering obedience training, grooming, search and rescue training locations, agility competition locations, etc. The sky's the limit and all to help save lives!!
The only thing we need is community support to achieve these goals! NNBPR is ineligible for most grants right now because they are less than a year old and grantors want to see that the community is going to support the organization. Some grantors want organizations to be at least 3 years old before they are willing to give grants. This is where we hope and pray every day that as our name gets out in the community and people learn of who we are and what we do that they will also help us save more lives!
If you would like to help please contact us at nanooknakodasbigpawrescue@gmail.com (also for paypal donations) 325 261 3849 or go to our facebook page and donate https://www.facebook.com/donate/1745041772217170/?fundraiser_source=external_url !!
They sit for you, will you stand for them!
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