Our Journey Begins

Our (all volunteer) team has been working endlessly for the better part of a year, establishing our nonprofit status and designing our program. We turned the CEO’s kitchen into an office. We asked six million questions of three million professionals, read thousands of studies and nonprofit business plans, studied hundreds of other successful senior dog rescues, and cried over dozens of dogs.

Those numbers are clearly exaggerated, except the last. There are many, many local seniors in desperate need, and our team cares very, very much. 

Our CEO, Angie, using her experience as a nursing coordinator for the State of California, gives me tips on task organization.

Exaggerations aside, I really have lost count of the professionals we met as we strive to create the most efficient, transparent, and responsible nonprofit business structure possible. We approach our abilities and qualifications with humility, which led to contracting professionals for several areas. (Thank you, Ben Watson, accountant extraordinaire!) 

Angie and I decode state and municipal code.

We researched, we laughed, we argued, we wrote, we made mistakes and started over, we argued again, we realized the real enemy was technology and took crash courses to learn how to defeat it (more accurate description: how to use it effectively). We lost sleep and gained weight. (Okay, that was just me. No regrets, I need my night chocolates! For the good of the mission!) We spent more hours on a laptop than I thought possible. We networked.

Brian makes important connections at a vet’s office.

Angie and I on zoom, having found our stride.

While the legal side of Slater’s is complete and overseen by professionals, the work is never done!

             My daughter admires the lighting around the Retirement Village construction site.

The retirement village itself is starting to become real. The first kennel is (structurally) finished, built by our very own Brian and Angie Armstrong- during that recent heatwave, no less! Concrete posts set two feet deep, twelve inch eyehook bolted frame, 2% incline, two inch closed-cell padding under soft turf, and surrounding landscape designed to direct rainwater- this thing is the Taj Mahal of dog suites. While our residents will only be closed in the kennels after dark and until sunrise, we expect some to take advantage of their rooms more often for naps or alone time with treats and toys. I say it’s structurally finished, because the final step will be turning it into a cozy suite with removable cloth walls (for maximum coziness while maintaining proper sanitization practices), and touches of home, like curtains and a nice bed. The residents who come to us from Hospice will also have framed photos of their owners. And twinkle lights- so many magical twinkly lights!

                        See how Bucket guards the Retirement Village? Very demure. Very mindful.

I’m beyond grateful for getting to work on this project, but it’s been hard. It really has. I co-founded this mission because I have seen, firsthand, what happens to most senior dogs that end up homeless. Now, as we approach our first intake, I look at the list of dogs we’ve already been contacted about. Every one of them with a long life of service behind them. Every one of them deserves a permanent home with dignity and respect. Over and over, I hear from their contact human- “They really just want a Person.”

We can do that, readers. We can be that for them, together. As many as we can possibly afford- it’ll never be enough, but we can do something. I tell myself the starfish story on repeat every day, so I’ll close our first newsletter by sharing it here. 

I’m so grateful you read this. Thank you for caring about our mission and for being the kind of person who stays till the end, be it a simple email or the life of your companion. If I haven’t met you yet, I hope to have the honor soon. Now, as promised, the Starfish Story:

A man was walking along the beach after a storm. The tide had washed thousands of starfish onto the sand, as far as the eye could see. Down the beach a ways was a young girl, picking up starfish one by one, and throwing them back in the water. He watched her with amusement. After a while, he walked over to her and asked, “Why are you doing this? There’s thousands of starfish. You’ll never make a difference.” The girl stopped, suddenly deflated and exhausted. She stared around her at the dozens of starfish at her feet. After a few moments, she bent down, grabbed another starfish, hurled it into the ocean as far as she could, and said, “It made a difference to that one.” 

Till next time, I am most sincerely yours,

Heather Meagher

Slater’s Sanctuary

805-748-4052