09/23/2026
I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret..
I don’t want to stop rescuing dogs. It feels like a piece of me is missing without being involved in the rescue world.
But it feels like it isn’t possible. Not because you guys don’t support me and not because I don’t have the capacity to do it, but because I can’t clone me. Finding reliable people to truly be another me in this rescue doesn’t seem possible. OF COURSE there are amazing rescue people who show up and do amazing work! But there’s something about your own rescue with your own family that just no one will ever truly love the same way you do.
I love showing up for the dogs, nursing them to health, learning their needs, making tough decisions for them, and connecting with them. I have a different type of intuition when it comes to dogs. And I think they know I’m a safe place. I have massive support from all of you here, I have the heart and the drive to do it.
What I don’t have is consistent reliability. And I don’t mean that as a jab to my fosters or adopters. I have had some of the most amazing fosters ever. But I’ve also had some fosters that need support at all hours of the day and night, that refuse to follow my direction, and that return dogs without notice constantly. I’ve had just as amazing adopters too. Actually, my favorite part are the adopters who contact me to return, that I give a lot of pushback to, who hate me for awhile, but end up not only keeping their dog but being grateful they did. But again, like some fosters, they return over and over.
The reason I can’t take more dogs right now is because I can’t accommodate that. I can’t, as one sole person, be available for the 24/7 crisis and support. I LOVE my people and my dogs and it’s not that I don’t want to be their support 24/7, it’s that it consumes my life. I can NEVER turn my phone off because there may be an emergency. I cannot go on vacation, sleep with my phone silent, or do anything fully disconnected because if I do, something happens and I’m dragged for not being responsive.
I admit it’s been hard for me to be fully available. And fosters and adopters deserve to have that. It’s no dig on them. But I just can’t keep up with it on my own without it taking over my life and ruining my relationships and employment and everything else.
If I had a building where I could house my own dogs on my own property, it would be a different story as I wouldn’t need to rely on others 24/7 because the animals are under my direct care. I could work with volunteers to come out and help when needed. I couldn’t become overwhelmed with 5 returns with no space because the only dogs available are with me.
My current goal is to wait until I have an established building on my property before diving back in. But that takes money, loans, and resources I don’t have. I know rescue will always be there for me to come back to. But I have to admit that my heart truly aches not being able to do what I truly feel my heart was called to do.
I say it all the time, I miss my dogs. The dogs I’ve found amazing homes for, the dogs I’ve lost, and the dogs I haven’t met yet that deserve to be a Nickens Family Rescue.
I just miss my dogs.
