My wife and I have always had dogs. When we met back in 1992, Tara already had two of her own, and we've been adding and subtracting dogs ever since. Too many to mention, none ever forgotten.
In more recent years, before Covid, Tara and her best friend at the time set up their own dog rescue. After five hard years, the partnership ended. Not one to be held back, Tara started all over again, only to be met by lockdown a few months after getting going.
This is going to sound a bit cliched, but Tara is what I would call a dog whisperer. Dealing with mostly scared, sometimes angry rescue dogs is not a job for the faint-hearted, or for those who give up easily.
Many times she would just sit in the kennel run, not pressuring or forcing, just waiting patiently to earn the trust of a dog that had no reason to give it.
Because of the coronavirus, the rescue could only survive as a network rather than a hands-on, physical place.
More recently, after being continually let down by employers and the system in general, we decided we needed something to aim for. Something that meant we were doing good, while not being beholden to anyone but ourselves.
So the plan hatched. Not a rescue in the traditional sense of the word, more a sanctuary. An answer to a question people often ask: where do the dogs go that can't be rehomed, the ones that are too old to start again?
It won't only be them starting again. We'll up sticks and move, all of us.
That's the aim. Everything from here on is in pursuit of that goal. I say goal. I could say dream, but a dream is a wish, and this will be a reality.
Rather than me trying to cobble together the right phrase, this sums it up perfectly:
A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.
Greg S. Reid