BONIFAY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Tucked down a dirt roadway in Bonifay sits a totally fenced 30-acre farm that has actually grown to be a sanctuary for abandoned, orphaned, and overlooked dogs.
“It’s not like a normal dog shelter, you would say,” Teri Mattson, the Director of The Lucky Puppy Rescue, said.
The Lucky Puppy Rescue is a sanctuary. Equipped with indoor kennels with outside gain access to, walking tracks, and fields of green lawn as far as the eye can see.
“We, right now, this minute, are over 250 dogs and puppies, we never would’ve imagined that,” Mattson said.
The rescue focuses on taking care of pregnant pups.
“That means we do an intake, we might be taking a mom and 11 or 12 puppies,” Mattson said. “Ours come in large groups.”
Groups of dogs who require houses.
Mattson said down here in the Panhandle lots of individuals are bringing them dogs however not embracing. So, they’ve developed a service. Traveling 24-hours up the east coast to Argyle, New York where saves aren’t overruning, and households are prepared to adopt.
“What we do is we bring our dogs from here and take them up there and find homes,” Mattson said. “Then we come back down here. We use a big white bus. We drive another load up there. That has been an outlet for us.”
On top of these journeys, day-to-day feedings, laundry, and kennel cleansings back on the farm have a significant price.
“I stretch, I search, I budget, and we are probably at minimum at $60,000 a month,” Mattson said. “That’s just basics.”
Which implies they require contributions and volunteers.
“Come out and spend half a day, a day, once a week, once a month,” Mattson said. “Dogs need to be walked, handled, and socialized.”
Mattson guarantees volunteers lots of puppy kisses and possibly a couple of small bites. Which is a little part of what keeps her going day in and day out.
“I can’t not do it,” Mattson said. “I don’t know if that’s a curse or a mission I’m not sure which one that is. My life works around the mission now.”
An objective, that for her, is never ever total.
“We celebrate yay we got an adoption, we’re bringing in another dog,” Mattson said. “It’s never one and done kind of thing. We’re never done per say.”
With help and love from the neighborhood, Mattson said you might simply seem like the lucky one, too.
The rescue is constantly trying to find volunteers!
You can call Terri Mattson at 850-814-6500. You can likewise message The Lucky Puppy Rescue on Facebook here.
Copyright 2023 WJHG. All rights booked.
