I grew up in a world surrounded by animals. We of course had our own resident dogs; Marley, Taz, Belle, & Lily that made affluent impacts on my childhood. My grandmother was an equine enthusiast, and I was fortunate enough to have had the privilege of riding horses alongside her for many years. Beyond that, my father was an avid outdoorsman. We spent many weekends in waiters, thigh high in mud and muck trying to reach bird nests that my dad had built himself to restore native populations. Along the way we would encounter whitetail deer, mallard ducks, garden snakes, etc.

I always had cats (and a dog!) growing up. I made extra cash as the neighborhood cat sitter. I "rescued" the litter of kittens that were born in my neighbor's shed when I was 10. My high school job was cleaning kennels and walking dogs at a nearby veterinary clinic. All this to say, animal rescue has always been in the back of my mind. I grew up, adopted 2 kittens of my own from a local rescue in Michigan and eventually moved with my family to Washington, DC. 5 years ago I lost one of those two kittens to cancer.

Like most things in my life, it has been a long and winding road to Lucky Dog Animal Rescue. Growing up, my parents were not dog people – my mother’s view was that if she wanted a dog, she would have had a third child. My husband, on the other hand, always had a dog but needed a way to convince me. As the story goes, one cold wintry day a very cold hungry stray puppy hopped into his car at the end of his work day, which began my journey to Lucky Dog!

I’m pretty sure my journey into rescue started before I was born. As long as I can remember, I wanted to save all the dogs I saw, because I always felt so good and peaceful when a pup was around. I drove my parents crazy with the constant begging and pleading for a dog. In 8th grade, all the students had to pick a charity to volunteer with, and, I chose an animal rescue, of course. That’s when the campaign for what would be a second pup became much more serious and targeted, complete with letter writing campaigns.

As a child, I never had dogs because my mom was allergic to them. I always knew as soon as I graduated from college and moved into my own place I was going to adopt. Shortly after moving out I started looking at the local animal shelter for an animal to adopt, but I hadn’t clicked with one just yet. I was following an animal rescue foundation in Aruba on Instagram for the past few years, so I started to look more into their mission and adoptable dogs.