08/23/2026
We have several new followers, so we wanted to share our founding story from 12 years ago. The picture below is of our Bernie.
He came to the clinic, where our director/owner worked, as a young puppy. He had severe kennel cough and fleas and didn't eat very well. His owner was a college student who could not afford his care and medications. She called her parents, but they couldn't help. (At the time, our shelter was not run by the same people it is today). The girl said she would have to take him back to the shelter. Unsure that he would get his medication, and with him being a puppy, he would be exposed to much worse than kennel cough in a general population setting with unknown animals coming and going, I was saddened by this thought. The doctor mentioned that I could see if she would allow me to have a dog. The owner said I could, if I could pay her back for what she spent on him. It was the best $90 ever spent.
The rest of the staff and I just loved him. We nursed him back to health, fully vetted, and neutered. Once he was old enough, he went to puppy training every Tuesday and to the park or lake on our days off work. He was such an intelligent, well-behaved dog. Once trained and vetted, a volunteer for a rescue group in Cincinnati asked if we would like help finding him a home. Our Bernie went on to All Dogs Come from Heaven rescue and was adopted immediately by a family with older children who love him very much.
At that moment, we knew we had stumbled onto something special. We try to help all animals we can who find themselves wandering the streets, dumped, or whose families loved them but were unable to handle unexpected financial developments.
Photo courtesy of Custom Creations Portraits
