Urgent Support Needed for Red’s House Rescue’s Move

Some of you may know me, some of you may not. My name is Tracy, and I’m the founder and Executive Director of Red’s House Rescue Network, a working breed dog rescue based in upstate South Carolina. We focus primarily on Belgian Malinois, with a heavy emphasis on Dutch and German Shepherds (and their mixes) as well.

Over the last decade, I’ve fostered, networked, and saved over 500 dogs; around 200 of those, Red’s House has been responsible for. These dogs are my life, my passion, and my calling. We take the hard cases. The high drive, nervy, scared, bite record, “too much” dogs. We’ve given hundreds of dogs a new lease on life, and some of them even have jobs—think Service Dogs, Civil Detection, Search and Rescue, and Customs and Border Patrol! (Cool, I know!)

We (my assistant director Samantha and I) have lived peacefully—if not a bit overcrowded—in our little home on just about an acre, nestled in the woods of Simpsonville. We’re very often the first—and sometimes second, third, and fourth—stop for the dogs that pass through our organization. But the news we got 3 days ago changes everything… Our rental property is being sold, and not with our tenancy in place.

As I’m sure you can imagine, finding a rental with an entire hoard of rescue dogs was next to impossible the first time around, and feels even more insurmountable now, with how much we’ve grown.

To add insult to injury, I lost my job the same day we got word we were losing the house. 30 days. 30 days is all we have to pack up the dogs, the kennels, tear down the fencing, and savor the memories of the dogs whose lives were saved here.

But… as of today, there is light at the end of the tunnel!! We have FOUND A PROPERTY!! A beautiful almost 5-acre slice of heaven, only 30 minutes from our current home base. It is considerably larger both in home and property size, and will allow us to effectively triple our efforts (and therefore the dogs we can help). And the best part? We have been offered a Lease Purchase option.

This means a new level of security that we’ve never had before, and the start of a whole new level up for Red’s House!

And we need your help to do it. There are many spots in the perimeter fencing that need to be repaired or replaced (& if you know Malinois then you know how important containment is!), kennel runs and dog buildings that need to be set up, minor repairs, the exorbitant moving costs of our entire current setup, and we are hoping to pay the annual lease fee in full.

I dislike asking for even our regular food donations, and I know this amount is beyond anything I’d ever dreamed I would seek out help for… but I have no other option. Without this move, Red’s House closes. Samantha and I are homeless, and so are our dogs. And the help for working breed dogs of Upstate and beyond stops.

It is still mind-blowing to me that Red’s has grown so much larger than just me. That there are people who I’ve never met that believe in our mission, and are watching what we do, hoping we succeed. I’m blown away by the outpouring of support we’ve received since I announced the impending move, and I’m hopeful that this ask, too, can be answered. Anything raised beyond our goal will go towards clearing more of the wooded areas on the property, food, vet costs, etc.

I am so grateful for anything you can give; for anything that moves us closer to the security and finality of this property, our peace, and the growth of a really cool rescue that just started as one girl’s dream. Thank you Red’s House! The Network is real, and I’m so blessed to be a part of this community who believes in us as much as we believe in them. ❤️