-------------------------OUR STORY-------------------------
                          It's a long one, here is a summary:
My love of 11 years and I have collected three rescued Pitbulls. Dani California (Dani) Amun- Ra (Ah-mun- Rah, Ra for short) and Blueberry (Blue). Each unique,  beautiful, affectionate, loyal, friendly, and if "over socialized" is a thing, they're just that. My beautiful pack. My everything.
Brett and I were born and raised in MI, moved to and living in CO for three + years in the same rental since we arrived. But now our landlords are going to repurpose the home, and we have to be out be out by the end of July 2017. (It's coming up quick...gulp.) We are hard working, honest proactive people. I have forced myself through blood, sweat and tears to improve my credit after Sallie Mae. 20% interest car loans etc. and I've finally done it! But because of our dogs, three attack sharks some people also call pitbulls, make it IMPOSSIBLE to rent a home, anywhere!
You beautiful dog people feel our deep seeded struggle.   
 ------------------WHERE YOU CAN HELP-----------------
We've been pre-approved for a meager home loan. $120,000. (Thank GOD). NEVER would have been possible even 1 year ago.
Though I have been working 40-60 hrs a week for over 10 years and still have nothing financially to show for it. I believe most of America is intimate with this reality.
Brett contributes everything he can but we still come up short for a downpayment on a home. 
----------------------WHAT WE NEED----------------------
We need to pull together:
$5,000 dollars to keep a roof over all of our little heads. It doesnt seem like much, but we are at a loss without your help.
If you can contribute, it would change our lives forever.
Even one dollar gets us that much closer to our goal: A safe and happy home for our pack. 
We REFUSE to abandon our animals due to circumstance, We will NOT drop them off at a shelter becuase our struggle just got real. We will persevere through this as a family, period. We will not give up.
--------------------------DEADLINE--------------------------
                                          July 27th 2017 
We will need to be moved into a new home by this date.

If you'd like to know more, Ive posted our story for you below. (Family, there is a special note for you at the end<3) ***Super adorable family photos at the bottom.
                                 
--------------------GET TO KNOW US----------------------
In the beginning...I met a man and we fell deeply in love almost instantly. We have had our share of struggles and tribulations, financially, emotionally and otherwise but we always stick together. We always choose each other. He's my heart, my best friend and my favorite human. 
Flash forward 7 years to our first dog: 
-----------------------Dani California------------------------
I'd thought about that name for years. Daydreamed about her.  After working at a high end Pet Resort in Royal Oak Michigan for about 5 years, working hard, 50-60hrs every week (best stretch was 90 hrs in 9 days) we were finally ready for a dog.
It just so happened a couple of co-workers brought back 2 American Staffordshire Terrier (Pitbull) puppies from a road trip to California. I casually joked as they walked in, puppies tucked under their arms..."Oh, you brought me puppies?!"  (Little did I know I would own both puppies inside of 6mo.)
These two little tiny baby puppies. Good. Lord. There are no words for the cuteness. It was hard to believe they were real. Like they'd popped out of a rainbow.
For about a week she came to work with the woman who brought her home to Waterford, Mi from a little dirt pit out in California. 
I kept her at the check in desk with me which was fitted with gates at either end. "Front Desk Time" was something that Clients could purchase for their pet during their stay.  
The woman approached me after that week and told me she wasn’t responding to the name she had given to her: "Tawny"... (really?...) I told her I had dreamed of naming my first dog Dani California (After the Red Hot Chili Peppers Song). She turns to the puppy who is falling asleep on her little puppy bed behind us and says "Hey Dani..." and she lifted her head and looked right at us.
She said, "Well, you named her! Now you have to keep her..." She had learned that there was BSL (Breed Specific Legislation) in her hometown and could not responsibly keep Dani. I thought about it...I stared at her 12 hrs a day at work. Took her potty, loved her and began to train her. At 8 weeks she already knew sit! I tried to show Brett photos, tell her how amazing  she was.Brett's position: I don’t want a Pitbull. (Don’t worry, there's a reason we like him.)
Very straight forward.
Without any consent or even knowledge for that matter I had decided: I love her forever, she's coming' home with me! I rounded up many new puppy things and brought her home.
I'll have you know it took all of 15 seconds for Dani to melt Brett's icey point of view on Pitbulls. He went from racist to activist in moments. I watched it happen.
We are responsible pet parents: we vaccinated her, licensed her, microchipped her, got her spayed. And we fell so far and so deeply in love with her. She never chewed anything she wasn’t supposed to, no accidents, attentive, smart, and was BFFs with our cat. 
I dont know if you believe in spirits being drawn to each other, but Dani and I were meant to be together. I know it. She and I have a special bond. Jump Forward 6mo. to acquiring our 2nd dog we lovingly re-named.                                               
----------------------------Blueberry-------------------------This is Dani's biological sister and liter-mate. 
She came from the same dirt pit out in California and was owned at the time by another co-worker. 
I'm going to do my best to keep this story brief. 
I found out that Blue was being kept locked in a room in a home without heat or electricity being fed and let out once a day, maybe, by her current owners who could not afford their bills and had no mode of transportation other then the local bus system. (Not so great)
She had been locked in that room in that condition from January-March with another dog whom my close friend adopted the same day.  (I checked the historical weather during that period afterwards. It was getting down to -17 degrees some nights.) Her conditions were considered "Criminally Neglectful" and she endured it for over 90 days.
This resilient  little angel. Thinking about it still makes my blood boil.
Before I was even done describing to Brett he told me to go get her, and I did. She agreed to take me to her home and get Blue and bring her home with me. For good. Being Dani's sister we considered her family. I drove the girl to her abandoned home, picked up Blue wreaking of feces and urine and her words an "upset stomach from eating the carpet and drywall". Remarked to me in distain also...like she was a bad dog or something...(Blood boiling...) Blue's coat was corse and brittle. She had rashes from urine being on her skin too long and to top it off, she was showing signs of abuse. She would hide when we turned on the kitchen sink or crinkled a piece of paper. My heart still breaks to think about it.We cleaned her up, got her vaccinated, microchipped & licensed the next day and spayed within the month. A photo from her first day in her new forever home:

She bonded with Brett Immediately.  She was and is the most grateful, loving, patient and wonderful dog. From day one in my home. She's "The Good One".
She and her sister have a very special bond. I am obsessed with them and would stare at them on web cameras while I was at the resort working. During daycare one day I caught them doing this on the web camera and took a screen shot.
Her permanence in our lives was all but solidified in this moment. This beautiful moment. Never would they have to be apart again and they still love each other that hard to this day. 
After owning Blue for three months, the girl who criminally neglected her (whom I worked at the Pet Resort with at the time) insisted that I give her back because she was "getting her electricity turned back on."........ Needless to say I refused. Something to the tune of "Over my dead body". (Turns out she wanted her back to breed her….she thought Blue was potential income.) She did not know at that time I'd done the responsible thing and spayed her. There are over 50,000 stray dogs in Detroit ALONE, a high percentage of which are pits/pit mixes. Not to mention I was already Blue’s third home and Dani’s second.
The owner of the facility found out about the dispute and told me that I would “continue" to "foster" the dog for another 90 days and then give her back or forfeit my job.... Yes. They took the side of the criminally neglectful teenager.Over the next 90 days Blue became a point of passion and courage to do what was right to keep her safe. She had been through enough. I learned over those 180 days that her previous owner had struggled to care for Blue many times before she came in our lives for good. At 6mo old Blue had lived 30 days at the Pet Resort (free of charge because she had been evicted from her apartment) 30 days with another co-worker who watched Blue in her home, and now she was settled with us. I came to terms with the fact that I may lose my job over this... but I wasn't going to lose her.
Through the compassion of very generous fellow humans, who knew me well from the Pet Resort, I was able to raise $2,000 dollars in those 90 days to offer her for the dog. (Crazy right?!)Keeping it as brief as possible: the owners son,  myself, the girl and her boyfriend all sat down.  Summary- I begged her to see that Blue was in a better home and to take the money for her own personal betterment. Buy a car to get to work on time, pay off some debts etc.  Her boyfriend arrogantly refused the money for her, though debt collectors called work for her daily. They said they didn't want my money, or my help, and to give Blue back. Again I refused and the conversation ended there.The next day, after a full day of work, the Owner shows up at 5pm and called me into his office. My Manager is crying (We'd worked together 5 years and I was his star employee) and the Owner fires me due to "Company cutbacks...." Huh?...Fun right? 
I walked out proud and also confident that we'd made the right decision to protect Blue at all costs.
I had a feeling they would fire me, because I knew I would never let her go. Not after what she’d been through. So we were ready for this.
We were going to move.
The beautiful hearted and generous person who donated the $2,000 dollars offered that I keep it to help with the move, that honestly, would not have been possible without her generosity. She is still one of our heroes.
We packed up our home into boxes, picked a state to move to, narrowed it down to Colorado,  I got a job at a Pet Resort in the area, found a home to rent and we're unpacking 10 days later.
We don't play.
Safety First. Then Team Work.
Jump SEVERAL extremely financially trying months to the adoption of our THIRD Pitbull. (Yes, yes we are bleeding heart pitbull/animal lover crazy people)
--------------------------Amun Ra----------------------------
Named after the Egyptian Sun God- meaning Hidden Light (Amun- Hidden/Ra-Light). Just "Ra" for short.
A client of the CO. Pet Resort had recused Ra from a friend who found him abandoned at only a few weeks old about 20 miles outside of town in a common dumping area. 
After months of deliberation, preparation, conversations, he was dropped off for a weekend to "see how it goes". Of course you know he was ours from that weekend until forever.
He fit right into our pack. He plays hard and snuggles hard. Another client from the CO. Pet Resort who knew us well donated bags of dog food to us for months to help make ends meet.
I got full time sales job with better pay, left the pet resort after a little over a year, and the five of us lived happily ever....nope. Not quiet.If that were the case, I wouldnt need to be sharing  all of this...Our landlords, for the last three years in Colorado Springs have been wonderful. But the home is only 672 sq. feet. We can only shuffle our feet around. There are 12 little feet following your every step. It's like living in an obstacle course. So I have been diligently looking for alternate housing since we moved in! But the market here is INSANE. Not to mention the three beautiful, well trained, obedient, loving, gentle dogs some people refer to as "Pitbulls" we rescued, every Landlord in the state sees as three trained attack sharks with freakin lazer beams. It's IMPOSSIBLE to rent. In the Beginning of January 2017, our Landlords sent us a letter to let us know they will not be renewing our lease in August of 2017. (my heart sinks)You are now caught up to our present day dilemma.Thank you for you patience and continued interest.--------------------This is where you come in------------------
Renting is no longer an affordable option, we have no family in CO and we will not/cannot move back.We have been pre-approved for a meager home loan of $120,000 dollars. (But I don't plan on spending all of it, we need to choose the most financially responsible option.)That makes a small downpayment of $5,000 dollars the minimum down to get us moved in. It's only around 3%. Three percent seems small, but its something we just don't have.
I have been working very hard on improving my credit for years. Blood, sweat and tears. 
I have been working 40+ hours a week since I was 17 and now as a 30 yr old woman I still have nothing to show for it financially. I just keep getting the sh*t end of the stick in almost every financial deal whether student loans or vehicles. Paying on loans with upwards of 20% interest. I've conquered it all on my own until today.  

We chose to rescue these beautiful animals, we understood there would be judgement, difficulties and struggles because of this breeds stigma. But we will NOT abandon them just because we are forced to move.  We made a lifetime commitment to each of these dogs. We will make it through this together.

Family, Friends and dog lovers unite! Brett and I are hard working, honest, human beings that would move mountains for their dogs and each other. But we need a little help financially to make that possible.

$5,000 approximately.

Any amount you can contribute even $1 dollar is a helpful. 

                                     -TO OUR FAMILY-
If you can find it in your hearts to help Brett and I in our time of need I cannot express with words our eternal gratitude. We have shown over the last 11 years that we love each other, are hard working at our relationship, and through thick and thin have stayed not only together, but happy together. We have chosen not to marry and not to have any children (the dogs are PLENTY) and so we have not had any life events so far to participate in. Please help us, if you can,  with this. The downpayment for our FIRST HOME! <3
We are excited and terrified. If we cannot get this money together before July 27th 2017 I dont know where my family will go.

This is our only and best shot.If you can, please donate to help our family. 

                                       -PHOTO ALBUM-
Here are some more photos. Some of my favorites.yes, they have their own couch <3