Sandy appeared in a pasture soon after I moved to the farm in 2007.  My brother Samuel saw her in a field and someone who worked on the farm took food to her several days.  When it seemed that she was not leaving and no one was looking for her he had her taken to my house and put in one of the fenced dog areas.  When I checked voice mail after meetings in Murfreesboro I had a message that I would have a new dog when I got home.  After getting Sandy spayed and wellness exam and vaccines I planned to integrate her with the six rescues who had moved here with me but she had other ideas.  Sandy wanted to be the boss and this was not good for the other dogs or Sandy so I gave her a large fenced area.  Several months later a Hound mix came to the barn area and we took food for several days then decided that he needed a home and named him Rusty.  He and Sandy were compatible  and lived together until Rusty crossed The Rainbow Bridge.  Sandy continued to be very independent and my goal was to allow Sandy to live as she wanted in an environment which was enriching.  ​

From Oscars family:

Oscar, The Dog We Didn’t Want


On a January day in 2014 a dog wandered in our yard.  He was an adult dachsund mix dog.  We figured someone had let him out for a bathroom break and he was lost.  We tried every way we could think of to locate this dog’s owners because we did not need another dog.  Classified ads were ran in the “Lost & Found” section of two local newspapers and he was posted on social media sites.  We notified our local shelter too.  We had no luck finding this dog’s owners.


The next week it turned very cold and the dog had to come inside the house to survive.  Soon he was sitting in our laps, giving kisses and begging for table scraps.  Some where in between trying to find this dog’s home and keeping him safe, we fell in love.  Oscar, had us wrapped around his paw.  We could not eat a meal in peace without him begging for a bite or watch “Family Feud” on TV because he always thought the bells and chimes from the game show was someone ringing the doorbell.  He thought he had to go with us to the  convenient center every weekend to help take the garbage off, defend us from the UPS delivery man or chase us on the ATV when we went for a ride.


Life is a lot quieter without Oscar but we now have a hole in our heart as big as the holes he used to dig in the backyard trying to get a mole.  We love you Oscar.