Please note that your contributions on this GoFundMe are not tax deductible.

Because the level of crazy that Steph and I operate at…and the story that got us to this point goes far beyond the nonprofit rescue, The Pawerful Rescue, that we’ve built from the ground up.

But before we jump into all of that, we have a small favor to ask.

If you’re part of our social media community and one of us—or one of the dogs we’ve rescued—has impacted your life in some way, we’d love for you to leave a comment below. Maybe you have a favorite rescue, Revenge Tour story, or moment that has stuck with you.

For anyone coming across this campaign who may not know us or understand our purpose yet, we’d love for them to hear it from the people who have been along for the ride.

Now onto our story and goal for this campaign.

Most rational people say

“I’ll buy that big piece of property and rescue all the dogs once I win I’m rich or win lottery”

Spoiler alert, we never won and still haven’t won the lottery. We knew after a couple years into rescue though that we wanted to do more. So, we went all in and then some.

Leaving our family, friends and lives behind in CA, we moved to the middle of nowhere TX and spent every penny we had to our names on this piece of property.

We then took out every loan and credit card we could get approved for to personally pay for the buildout.

The turf, fencing, inside and out renovations you’ve seen. We needed a setup to responsibly care for the dogs we wanted to rescue and we created that place with everything we had. As the rescue grew over the years we had the opportunity to begin taking a salary from the non profit but opted not to. Which was and is silly… rescues should strive to get to a place they can have financial security and solely focus on the dogs. We've rescued and personally fostered over 800 dogs now. Fostering 30 plus dogs at a time.

No staff, team or employees… and despite our average day the past few years beginning at 6am and ending around midnight. We’ve maintained full time jobs “switching to remote” since Steph started the rescue 8 years ago.

This is our first year being “unemployed” thanks to partnerships and a social media that’s grown enough to keep us alive although extremely tight month to month.

Point being…. We’ve made life unnecessarily difficult on ourselves because we've never wanted to ask for help. Many of you however have made it clear you truly support the two of us and beyond the work with the dogs but the vision we have and the people we are.

So while the majority of this campaign will go towards building out the animal sanctuary.

Which includes two separate .

Building 1: Sammy’s Shop where we will have an indoor turf area to hold meet and greets, Training seminars, ana Volunteer days.

Building 2: Will have personal suites for our rescues…. They will feel like a little miniature living rooms with indoor and outdoor access.

We will also like to build out 4 more Tiny Homes in order to have quarantine space and Kitty Condos.

We will dedicate a percentage of the funds to “The Ruth Project”, with the goal of one day opening a rescue center and rescue veterinary clinic in South TX, to save the dogs who have truly been forgotten and abandoned by our society.

Another portion of the funds will go towards improving the layout and setup we currently have in our home and buildout and small repairs from damage that comes with fostering all the dogs over the years. Talking about you maligators.

And lastly, a percentage of the funds will go towards paying off the remaining loan and debt we have from the money we put into creating this safe place for the dogs we’ve rescued over the years.

Because we personally own this property, not the rescue, using rescue funds to “improve” the property, puts a limit on what improvements we can make….without it being considered for person gain. While we are sure there are ways to work around the “legalities” of it all….We’ve always preferred to just be fully transparent.

This campaign is for those of you that have followed and know the kind of hearts we have. Those of you who believe in the types of dogs we rescue and the vision we have for a better future.

For anyone coming across this campaign who isn’t familiar with the work we do (unless you were referred here by someone you know and trust) we actually encourage you to follow along on our social media before making a contribution. (We’ll include all of that information below.)

Unfortunately the rescue world has been plagued with organizations taking advantage of people’s generosity. People can claim to have animals’ best interests at heart while, unfortunately, their actions tell a very different story. That’s exactly why we encourage everyone to do their research, ask questions, and be responsible about where they choose to give. The more accountability we expect in rescue, the easier it becomes to weed out the people who are here for the wrong reasons.

We could tell you about the work the two of us have done. We could walk you through hundreds of dogs, their stories, their transformations, and the lives they’re living today….but instead, we’d rather let the work we do, and the way we choose to do it, speak for itself.

You’ll find our Instagram information below if you’d like to get to know us, our rescue, and the dogs who have made this entire journey possible.

And from the bottom of our hearts, to every single person who has been part of this journey: thank you. Thank you for believing in us, supporting this crazy mission, and cheering on every single dog we’ve had the privilege of rescuing over the years.

I have absolutely no idea how this campaign is going to go—and maybe that’s part of the adventure. But regardless of what happens here, there’s one thing I do know:

We’re never going to stop doing this work.

@ThePawerfulRescue

@Dukehemstreet

@Stephrodfit