My husband and I were sitting in church with our children while listening to our pastor. His sermon was very emotional and moving to me. He was speaking about happiness. His message was, “if you aren’t doing what makes you happy, then stop; and do what makes you happy!” “It’s never too late to travel down a new road toward happiness.” I knew my current line of work was only causing stress and anger to my life and I thought about what makes me happy – Dogs! Dogs make me happy. We have already rescued all of our personal dogs and have fostered many. I wanted to make a positive change for the pups in our community and bring love into their lives, even if just for a short time until they bring joy to their forever family.
At that moment, I knew what I wanted to do. I began writing a business plan on the scratch paper from the back of the pew. An idea formed, and Saved By Grace Dog Rescue was born. When I was telling my husband, he just sat quietly and waited for me to finish. Then he simply said, “I always believe in you and I want you to be happy.” Then down this bumpy road we began.
First with a concrete slab. Then we picked up a puppy left in a dumpster. “Okay, let’s just turn our laundry room into her room.” Then we got a building with spray foam insulation, bam – pick up 9, 4 week old puppies that were being taken to the shelter the day after Christmas- oh, let’s move out our dining table and make a pen for them. We just couldn’t say no! Next to electric and an HVAC system. Then we started building our custom (by my husband of course) dog runs. All of our work has been done by us and our 4 children. We want to give the best to these pups and are trying everyday to improve and develop better routines, love, and certainly structure for these pups in our care.
From early morning feedings to late nights out rescuing abandoned dogs, we have done it all with our family of 6. It has truly been an amazing beginning to our journey and we look forward to a long adventure of rescuing dogs in much need of love and care. These dogs didn’t ask to be born into their situations, and we are so happy we can be a stepping stone in their journey to their happy forever lives!
Saved By Grace Dog Rescue, Inc is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to saving dogs from neglect and euthanasia. Our facility is located in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Sadly, most of the dogs we rescue come from neglectful situations and would be euthanized or they would continue to live in horrific situations if we weren’t able to get them into our facility.
We have house dogs and have indoor dog runs at our facility. We hope to soon be able to place our pups with foster families so they get the “home living” experience to better transition into their forever home. The more foster families we have with our rescue, the more pups we are able to save!
We are currently working on growing our facility to house more pups as well as give them indoor/outdoor runs. This will give them room to romp and play and enjoy the sunshine. We do understand it takes time and funds. We have been self funded and continue to self fund most aspects of our organization.
Thankfully, with getting our name out into the community we have connected with some wonderful donors that have been very helpful. We understand that the reality of being able to expand and grow depends on donations and our adoption fees. Sponsorship of our rescues and donations in any form are greatly appreciated and necessary for us to continue our mission, which is to save as many lives as we can and place them in loving homes.