Today was a good day

Today was a good day. 

Normally on Sunday’s I look back and think, wow I am exhausted. The weekends fly by for us.  We use the weeekends as dog days, and put in a ton of time to help each dog get what they need.

As a small team of three, now four, we all are stretched pretty thin and sometimes weekends are harder than during the week.

But this weekend was a breath of fresh air; it was a much needed break from our exhausting, trying weekends.

This weekend we met three great people!  After a long road of interviewing 4 serious, amazing applicants for Faye, we finally met two potential near perfect, forever families. Both families checked all of our boxes for Faye. Each family  came up to the ranch this weekend to meet Faye. Over the course of the past 12 weeks, the meet with Faye or the doggy meet was the stage where we lost people. We found that Faye was not what the past four applicants expected. Either people were looking for a old, mellow dog , or a young spunky dog.

Many rescues frown upon people who aren’t the right match. At the end of the interview, the relationship with the applicant is over. This is not our line of thinking at 2CR. We bonded with each of the four past applicants and established a strong connection based on shared interests in rescue or dogs.

We don’t look down upon the past applicants because they weren’t a match or they weren’t interested in Faye. We appreciate them for who they are and respect what they are looking for! We want to help the past four applicants find THE dog they are looking for.   

Since Faye is not your typical 9 year old... we weren’t just looking for any family... we were looking for THE family.

This family we met two families that gave us the special, warm fuzzy feeling we had been looking for for over 12 weeks.

Finally all of our hard work and dedication to our process paid off. But, in finding two near perfect families for Faye, we were faced with a tough decision to choose ONE family. ONE forever home for our gal.

Faye’s family ended up emailing us to share some positive feedback after our meet and greet. They emailed us and said “you guys are doing something really special. You are so different than other rescues out there”. To hear someone say this, really hit our hearts. We feel like we are doing something good. Wer challenging ourselves to think outside of the box and find new solutions to give our dogs the best days while in foster. In particular, one example of this is our “dog rooms”. All of our dogs right now in foster sleep in human guest rooms. Yup. Carpet, human bed, window, toys. No cement floors. No cages. (well yes crates in their room). But.. freedom. This seemed to resonate with applicants during our process with Faye. We feel keeping operations small, and focusing on rehabilitation IN our home.. wer able to give more to the dogs while they are with us. We also believe that being in foster or in rescue inside a home, eases the transition into a forever home. 

For Faye in particular, we spoke about this being an advantage of Faye coming to us. Since Faye lived in a home for NINE years .. she has only known a home. 

Through working with Faye for the past 4 months, it feels good to say, we know she had a GREAT time while in rescue. We can’t help but look back and reminisce as we near the final steps of her adoption process. 

Before moving forward today. I spent some time looking back and reflecting on the 4 months we have spent with Faye. The search for her perfect family has been actually really tough. We spent a ton of time screening, interviewing, and meeting with people.

Even when discouraged, we stayed focus on our process. We knew in time we would find the right family. We just didn’t expect to find TWO perfect family’s after such a long, emotionally exhausting search .  

After much contemplation and comparing of scores (no we don’t actually score. We just compare pros and cons!) we decided on who we wanted to move forward with. Out of the two final and amazing contenders for Faye, we made a choice of who we wanted Faye to spend her next and last chapter with .

As exciting as it is to say- yep, they are the ones.  It is heart wrenching to turn one family away. Maybe this is what it feels like to be a Bachelor (that crummy TV show?)  We really, really loved BOTH families this weekend. But, we nailed down ONE forever home for Miss Faye .

Now, the other person that I met this weekend was not a scheduled meet. This one came by suprise.

By chance, I had some time to myself this evening and decided to go out with a friend. While out I was (of course) repping to 2CR swag. 

A sweet, bubbly and generous woman approached me and asked “hey.. I heard you say rescue? Are you with a rescue?”

This wonderful woman, a vet tech, offered to help us with our rescue vet care. 

We have never found a local veterinary office who was willing to give us any sort of financial support, discount, or special treatment because we are rescue. We have made a point not to ask for such help. Because of our mission, we are small and have been fortunate to be able to cover costs ourselves. So we have been paying full price. 

This woman, who crossed my path by sheer luck, made my day. It is amazing to see a vet extend an offer for financial help and support. 

I just want to take a second to explain that this NEVER happens . Nobody ever knows why I look a mess or why I’m so tired or why I’m clipping coupons or driving around with dogs in the car. People assume that I’m a crazy dog person or I’m low income for I’m just a mess. Rescue does not come with some SHINY badge.  You don’t get special treatment!

But today, somebody saw me and recognized me as a rescuer.

Finally the universe sent us some support in our mission.

Even though we are small operation, and we work with only a few dogs at a time, we have been stretched very thin. We have been operating with the support of a handful of generous guardian angels and our own salaries from our full-time jobs.

So today, experiencing a moment where someone understands who you are and what you’re doing was really special. As a bonus- it is pretty amazing when someone offers you a discount. Any % off  will help us to save more dogs. It’s huge to have a vet who wants to partner with and help rescues .

I'll find time to write again soon.

Kristin