For over twenty years, I, my son, and my mother rescued abused Australian Shepherds. My mother’s job was anything behavior related, my job was anything nutrition or medical related, and my son’s job was running ~ any time, all around the yard, all year ‘round. 

One of our dogs was Sundance. He came to us at nine months old, from a  life chained in a cement shed, abused terribly and terribly damaged.  For days after he arrived, he ran around and around the yard, in amazingly expressive joyfulness at being free.  He learned boundaries in the house, behaviors with the pack, and how to herd airplanes as they flew overhead.  His coat shimmered blue in the summer sun, he chased empty milk bottles around the snow in the winter, and he greeted every pizza as if it had been made just for his lunch. He had a pack with us and our other Aussies, and he was safe and loved and warm. But every so often, we saw Sunny’s dark side and knew that he never forgot the shed, the dark, the cold and the loneliness of being without a pack. 

Sundance died in one of those horribly tragic accidents that will live with me forever. What he gave, though, was love and joy and an amazing example of what life looks like when all needs are met, when love is known and returned. This is what we take into the future with Sundance Rescue & Recovery ~ the promise to help rescue from pain, to help recover joy ~ given to any creature whose life is disrupted by loss or by damage.