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My name is Brittni, and I need your help. On the road towards Clyde Texas there is an animal rescue with dozens of dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, goats, donkeys, rats, guinea pigs, and fish. A step on the premises is a strange mix of ordered chaos. Mindy, the founder of AM Farmer’s Sanctuary, commands an amazing presence. With a quick yell from her, barking and yipping ceases into wagging tails and wriggling behinds. As she wades into the animals, pathways open while she calls each and every dog by their name - Charlie, Thelma, Cooper, Tinker and Belle, Louise and more. She can tell you how she came to have them and knows each wet-nosed nuance of their personality. There’s always bags of pet food in rotation outside the front door, ready for her to lug it twice a day from kennel to kennel and pen to pen, a step she also repeats with large buckets of water like clockwork.
My first day there, come to surrender two lost dogs I’d found, was a bit of a blur. There was no sitting down, not for Mindy or Alex, so we talked as she made her rounds and checked on the animals. The couple have made it their mission to save the discarded, lost, and forgotten critters Abilene and the surrounding areas generate on a daily basis. As we walked around the property and she filled me in on each rescue, I quickly came to realize if there’s an animal in need somewhere in a few hundred miles, she’ll be hard at work trying to make arrangements to get it out to their place in the country.
The trailer they live in was previously occupied by tenants they rented to who trashed the home and were evicted after breaking into their main house while they, themselves, were away for a funeral. In October of last year, the same month they became an official 501 charity, their water line was poisoned with antifreeze, forcing them to move into the trailer they had previously rented out. They also lost 13 dogs, numerous cats, and over thirty rabbits to food laced with antifreeze. Nobody has yet been charged with the crime, despite a spot on the local news, you can see the article and video here: Over Thirty Animals Poisoned in Callahan County
The day of the poisoning was Alex’s birthday.
They could have thrown in the towel then, but that’s not in her nature. Their vet bill sits around five hundred dollars in perpetuity, because they always have new animals to neuter, spay, give shots, and medicate. As her vet said, “The conditions are tough. She does all of this on a shoestring budget, but she’s gets more dogs adopted than anybody I’ve ever met.”
To date, she’s adopted out around 150 animals, but the constant care and the poisoned water take a large toll financially. Mindy herself goes to sleep around 7 pm and wakes up at 1 am in a never ending routine to feed, water, and care for the rescues. Alex leaves at midnight just to get to the warehouse he works at, put in a fifteen hour shift, and come home to work a few more hours at the Sanctuary before crashing to do it all over again the next day. By the end of the week, there is little money left. To spay/neuter, get shots for, and get medical care for the incoming animals it is $150 per animal, and pet food alone is $60 a day. Yet, despite all of the setbacks and the financial worries, every Saturday Mindy loads up dogs and cats to take to local feed supply stores for adoption drives and to raise money for the vet, depending in part on the help of volunteers. When I asked her what she would do if we could raise a few hundred, perhaps even a thousand dollars, she immediately said, “Pay off the vet bill and buy a horse trailer.”
“Why a horse trailer?”
“Because then I could take even more dogs to the adoption events.”
She didn’t stop to think of herself once. That, too, is just not in her nature, despite my nagging her to take care of herself. Honestly, not only do we need people like her in this world, we need to help people like her, as well. That’s why I’m asking you and everyone I know to share this fundraiser. My goal is to help pay the vet bill, buy some food, and a horse trailer, but anything at all will help. This is a couple who have, and still do, spend their last dime regularly caring for lost and forgotten pets responsibly, even if it means they get little rest and no breaks from stress.
If you don’t feel comfortable donating money, the Sanctuary has a donation page where you can donate directly to their vet or make purchases for their wishlist on Amazon. You can find these pages at the below link:
http://www.amfarmerssanctuary.com/about.html
Again, anything will help them continue to save animals, so whatever you can do is appreciated! If you can’t do, then please share. EVERY little bit helps! I will update this Fundraising Page regularly so you can see the difference you make. Thank you!
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