I began my journey with Lucky Dog Animal Rescue as a foster parent in March, right as quarantine started. My husband and I already had one dog, Pooks, and figured we could open our home to one more dog! We spoke with Lorenna and went through the Foster Screening process - I was so worried something would go wrong and we would not be able to give our love to another puppy! Thankfully, we passed all of the tests and it was time to try finding a pup. Originally we wanted a small, female dog. We kept saying “Oh, she looks cute! Let’s try!” and we were always too late which was such a wonderful problem to have but hard at the same time. Finally, on April 18th, we applied for a foster dog. The dog we said we could foster was already going to another home and Ashley responded to us saying, “Al still needs a home”. We looked at his photo, saw that big grin and said, “We will take him."

We picked up Al, now Albert, on April 21st. I couldn’t stop staring at him during our car ride home; he has the sweetest eyes. My husband joked that we would never give him up and I was so against foster failing our first foster! But in the one week we had him, we knew we couldn’t give him up. He fit so well into our family and our other dog started to play and cuddle with him. I emailed our Adoption Coordinator, Maddy, and said we wanted to adopt him. Perfect timing, she said, someone was showing interest in adopting him!! On May 1, 2020, Albert became a part of our family.

I was so grateful to Lucky Dog Animal Rescue for completing our little family and I knew I wanted to give back but I wasn’t sure how! Colleen sent an email about two positions that they needed help with and one was The Mandy Devine Volunteer Team Lead. In this position I would receive volunteer applications, review them and send them off to the right team! I love talking to people and keeping things organized and I knew this was the right way to give back to Lucky Dog! I’ve been the Volunteer Team Lead since the beginning of August and I’ve enjoyed every second of it! I love the dedication and passion of every individual who works with Lucky Dog Animal Rescue. Even though it’s all remote, I immediately felt welcomed by everyone and was excited to embark on my new journey with Lucky Dog.  I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. CLICK HERE to learn more about Lucky Dog's volunteer opportunities.