09/24/2026
🚨🐾 WE NEED OUR VILLAGE — AND WE’RE ASKING FOR HELP. 🐾🚐
Our breakdown in Arkansas last weekend taught us some difficult but incredibly important lessons.
When we purchased our transport bus, we truly believed it was the next step forward for AJC Rescue & Transport. It gave us the space to transport more animals at once, and after years of squeezing every available inch out of vans, that seemed like exactly what we needed.
But sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know — until you’re sitting on the side of I-40 in the middle of the night with 13 dogs and a transmission that has decided it’s officially done participating. 😩
That experience showed us some very real problems with using a bus for animal transport.
🐾 A breakdown requires a heavy-duty wrecker, which is incredibly expensive.
🐾 The bus cannot be towed with animals onboard, so every animal has to be safely removed and transferred first.
🐾 We had 13 dogs with us when we broke down. Had the bus been fully loaded, we would have had a serious problem finding another vehicle capable of safely accommodating everyone.
🐾 The fuel consumption is simply not economical for the distances we travel.
🐾 And most importantly, our air conditioning is dependent on the bus engine. If the engine stops, the AC stops.
Leaving Texas in temperatures that can easily exceed 100 degrees, that last issue is simply a risk we are not willing to take with the lives entrusted to us.
So we’ve made a difficult decision:
The bus is not the right vehicle for our mission.
We will be selling it and moving back to the type of vehicle that has proven to work best for what we do — a high-roof, extended-wheelbase Mercedes Sprinter van.
And we have an opportunity to purchase one RIGHT NOW. ❤️
The Sprinter is $20,000.
We currently have $10,000, leaving us $10,000 short of the purchase price.
We also need approximately $2,000 to install a rooftop AC unit and purchase a generator so that we can maintain climate control for our animals independently of the vehicle’s engine.
❤️ OUR TOTAL GOAL: $12,000 ❤️
$10,000 — Sprinter purchase
$2,000 — Rooftop AC & generator
We will be selling the bus and putting those funds right back into our rescue and transport mission, but selling a vehicle takes time.
This opportunity may not wait for us.
So I’m doing something that’s never particularly easy for me:
I’m asking for help.
If you or someone you know would be willing to help us bridge this $12,000 gap through a donation OR a loan, please reach out to me.
Maybe one person can help significantly. Maybe 120 people give $100. Maybe 240 people give $50. Maybe someone is willing to provide a short-term loan until the bus sells.
We are open to every reasonable option and suggestion.
This isn’t about upgrading vehicles.
It’s about taking what we learned from a frightening situation and making sure we don’t put ourselves — or more importantly, the animals depending on us — in that position again.
We transport animals thousands of miles because sometimes the difference between an unwanted Texas dog and a beloved family member is simply a safe ride to where they’re wanted. ❤️
We have the opportunity to purchase the right vehicle.
We just need some help getting across the finish line.
🐾 If you can donate, loan, share, or connect us with someone who might be able to help, PLEASE do.
I would truly hate to watch this opportunity disappear while we’re waiting for the bus to sell.
❤️ $12,000. That’s the goal. Let’s get this Sprinter on the road and keep saving lives. 🚐🐾
AJC Rescue & Transport
501(c)(3) Nonprofit Rescue & Transport
💙 DONATIONS
PayPal: [email protected]
CashApp: $AJCRescueTransport
Venmo: -Crain-8
Zelle: 713-449-1077
⭐ Zelle is preferred because there are no processing fees.
🌐 www.ajcrescuetransport.org
Can’t donate? Sharing this post costs nothing and could put it in front of the person who can make all the difference. ❤️
