Big Dog Ranch Rescue

Over 65% of American families own pets. In fact, moms, as we know, many pets are considered an additional family member, an important part of our family life. But as we have experienced over the last four years, the U.S. economy has taken a nosedive. Many families have had to surrender their pets to shelters. Lori Simmons, founder of the Big Dog Ranch Rescue, joins us today with some encouraging words for families on how to help animals in their own communities. Stay with us. Welcome to the Moms for America podcast. Each week, special guests tackle the issues facing the moms of America today. Discussions include personal stories and advice on how moms can build a strong foundation of faith, family and freedom in their homes and country. Hi, moms, I'm Debbie Carlitis, your host, and welcome to the Moms for America podcast. We're so glad that you're here again this week. We love you, moms. Right every week, we gather together to inspire, encourage and educate moms in their journey through motherhood. All right, on to today's program. Well, moms, as we know, the top request from our kids is often can we get a puppy? Can we get a kitten or some other type of pet? I think personally, my family has owned just about every type of pet underneath the sun, from dogs to cats to rabbits, just about everything we've had over the years with our kids because kids love to have pets. But we also know that they are an investment. Inflation today is affecting everything, unfortunately, including pet food and veterinary care. Ninety one percent of people say that they have experienced some degree of financial stress in the past year related to the cost of pets. And that unfortunately, that has caused a record number of surrenders to shelters. Lori Simmons is the founder and president of Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida. It's the largest cage free, no kill dog rescue in the United States. It's amazing. Welcome, Lori, to the Moms for America podcast. I'm so glad to have you joining us today. Well, I am thrilled to be here and I absolutely love what Moms for America has done with all of your grassroots efforts and making our country better for our children and what they learn. So big fan. Thank you. We met in an event and we just had a lot in common because, yes, we're both patriots, both moms, dog lovers and just really concerned about the future of America. And you are just such an interesting woman. I can't wait for our audience to meet you here. But first, tell us a little bit about your family. We always love to know about everybody's family. Well, I'm a mom of three grown sons, Chaney, Shane and Kyle. My oldest is 43 and my youngest is 37. And I have seven beautiful grandchildren. And the other family members, of course, are pets. It all comes back to the pets, doesn't it? I mean, everywhere you go, it's so funny. You wouldn't realize that everyone is just so crazy about their pets, usually. But tell me, you've always been a dog lover. Is that where all this began? We always had numerous dogs growing up in my family. And as I was raising my three sons, we had a minimum of two dogs that were family members also. And my sons got a Weimaraner. And unfortunately, we had a contract with the breeders that had to get its championship. And so I had to take it to the dog shows every other weekend while they trotted it around the ring to get its points and win its championship. And I was asked to help out with rescuing Weimaraners in South Florida. I literally had no idea, being busy running my building company and my interior design firm. Right, because you were a very successful entrepreneur at this point. Yes, I had two very successful companies with Simmons Building and Simmons Interiors and built upper end homes for millionaires and billionaires and had nine designers working for me and my design firm and literally had no idea. Well, you were busy. You were busy doing your thing. And like God always does, he just drops something new that he would like us to get involved with. And you ran full force. I was going 100 miles an hour with my businesses and raising my three sons. And getting into dog rescue was a real eye opener for me when I picked up my first dog at Miami-Dade Animal Services. And I realized how many dogs, innocent family pets, were in overcrowded shelters and being euthanized. My life changed. My mission changed. And I made a promise to all those dogs that were sitting in the shelters, I will someday end this. And I've been fighting every day since. So you get, I guess, just kind of educated about really the culture of dogs that are in the shelters and really kind of the hopelessness of it. And you then, through this experience, you decide to open up your own shelter. I did. Like I said, when I went to the first pickup as a volunteer for Weimaraner Rescue and saw all of these dogs' kennel cards getting pulled and was told they were out of time at the shelter, they were going to be euthanized, I said, this isn't right. These wonderful, adoptable family pets shouldn't be dying due to lack of space or resources in overcrowded shelters. And we need to save their lives. We need to do something about it. But Lori, most people, right, they maybe adopt a dog or they foster a dog or they, you know, volunteer. Usually people just don't start their own shelter. That's what I want to hear about. How did you then go from, I want to help, to literally starting a shelter? What did that look like? Well, that day I planned on picking up one Weimaraner. There were 14 other dogs going to be euthanized that evening. And I said, I'll take them all. I put them all in my Suburban. Such a great story. Called my husband and told him everything's got to come out of the garage. Please move all the cars, jet skis, everything out of the garage. I need the garages empty, the air conditions turned on by the time I get home in an hour. He thought I had, he asked me why. I told him just do it. Right. And of course he didn't. I got there and still had 14 dogs in my car, but I prayed all the way home. I'm like, oh my God, please don't get in the dog fight. We've got an hour and a half drive home. And that began the big dog ranch. That began the big dog ranch rescue. I mean, can you believe that? So your husband, when you come home with this, by the way, I think you've been married a long time with your husband, right? 40, 44 years. Yeah. And he still stayed with you after all that. He still stayed with me. And, uh, you know, he, uh, he loves what I do. He understands, he cries with me at night when he sees the massive amount of euthanasia lists that get emailed to me. And, you know, he, he's jealous of the time that 80 hours a week that I put into my free job of saving lives. Um, my kids are too, but they fully support it. They understand why I do it. And, and dogs lives are on the line and, you know, we have a big mission to get the word out there. Well, let's talk about the mission of, um, big dog ranch and really your passion, because we all as moms, you know, I'm just like bringing this down to my home of, you know, we've adopted our last two dogs from the, um, shelter here. Uh, and we love them. I actually, I just got a Rottweiler just six months ago. Um, and she's beautiful. And we got a call and said, would you like to take her? I mean, families love pets. Children love pets. I mean, I think we've had every pet under the sun here. And I, and I love that for my kids because that experience helps them on so many levels and it's just great companionship for the family. So, um, saving pets and dogs and animals and really trying to figure out a, a hope, hope for them, hope for their future. You just then took this and you ran with it. Tell us about the mission of, of, and what you're trying to educate people with through the big dog ranch, which is also a small dog ranch from what I understand big and small, big and small. So our mission here at big dog ranch is to save the dogs from the kill shelters, the stray dogs, the owner surrenders from ending up into a overcrowded shelter and being euthanized for space. People don't realize how bad it is right now. Um, it is the worst it's ever been in my gosh, going on, um, how many years, almost 20 years of rescuing dogs. Is that cause the economy is so bad or what, what's the cause of that? So dogs are entering shelters right now at record numbers. Um, back in 2020, um, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. There were less than 2 million pets, cats and dogs entering shelters throughout the entire country. Um, that was the lowest it had ever been in history. Um, and dogs were getting adopted. We're getting rescued. And why was that? Cause the pandemic and the whole country were being euthanized for space or overcrowding or treatable medical conditions that, you know, shelters couldn't do. Now it's well over 10 million. Um, last year, it was eight, 8 million this year. They're estimating it to be 10 million. Um, it's economy based, uh, the past few years under the Biden Harris economics, people are suffering and they're having to make really tough decisions whether to put food on the table for their families or feed or care for their dog. The other thing, rents and housing costs have gone up so much under this administration, um, due to inflation, people are downsizing. When they move from a larger place to a smaller place, a lot of the landlords won't accommodate pets. Black can't afford a $1,500 to $2,500 pet deposit. Yeah. I mean, all these things factor into family life, right? Like you said, even you downsize, you go to an apartment, they're not going to let you have a dog. You might have two or three dogs. And what do you do with them? What do you do with those pets? Where do you put them? And I know that's always so much stress on a family if they've got to rehome their, their pets. Um, you're saying back in during the pandemic, I remember so many of our friends adopted dogs because everybody was home then, but then it was the best year for adoptions, but also people weren't financially suffering during those years, that period, like they are now trying to make ends meet. Um, we have had very, very few COVID owner surrenders. People are trying to blame it on COVID adoptions. That's not the case. We've had very few people that adopted during COVID, um, surrendered their pets because they went back to work. Okay. Dogs are being surrendered because people can't afford to care for them, to feed them, to, uh, provide veterinary care for them. So owner surrenders right now throughout the country are up 70%. Wow. Even in the Northeast shelters that were empty that we used to send rescues from the South to the Northeast, because their shelters were empty, they're experiencing a tremendous amount of owner surrenders, therefore not being able to help out the Southern transports as much. But every shelter I go to, I interview, I talk to they're seeing so many people owner surrender, surrendering their pets due to economic reasons. And it's just been going up and up and up every year since 2020. Um, I think we can, I was just gonna say, I think we can all relate to that. I mean, even, you know, if you've had a puppy, a dog, a cat, you know, that they get sick, you know, that there's issues both actually this past year, I've really put quite a bit of money into our doggies too, because they just they needed well care, health care. They were sick, you know. Well, everything's gone up from dog food is up 45%. Housing costs have gone up 30%. Of course fuel to, you know, heat your home. It's tough. But fuel in your car, everything's gone up. And it's really, really sad that the dogs have become the victims. And we're not seeing as many cats have not increased on being owner surrendered to shelters. It's mostly dogs, but cats are easy. They require less food. They can be inside, outside cats. They require less vet care. We're not seeing an increase in cats. What we're seeing is a 70% increase of dogs entering shelters due to economic downturn and in the past few years economy. What can we do when you hear these stats and you realize, you know, I guess all of us have more room in our heart and our home, you know, for a furry one. But what is some of your advice to the moms, how they can help place? And there's adoption and then there's fostering. Let's talk about all that. We are getting ready to launch a national awareness campaign because being in rescue and talking to people every day, everywhere I go, 85% of America has no idea how many wonderful family, adoptable dogs, pets are sitting in a county shelter, rural shelter, city shelter. And these shelters are so over capacity when they have 40 kennels and you have 50 dogs coming in a day and they don't want to kill dogs. They have no choice. They don't have the space and the resources. And it's kind of brushed under the rug about how many dogs are euthanized in your own community, in your own backyard, because it's certainly not a happy subject. It's not something a mayor is going to win a reelection telling people or a sheriff that runs the county shelter is going to get brownie points for and shelter directors, shelter workers that work in these counties, shelters that are receiving all these strays and owner surrenders and abandoned animals that bring these dogs in and care for them. And they pray every day, these dogs are going to make it out alive. But the sad reality right now, their chances of making it out alive are maybe 40, 50%, especially in the South. Well, I think you're going to inspire a lot of moms as we're listening, because both of our dogs, I mentioned that, but they were both abandoned. They were both found on the street. In fact, one of our dogs was in such bad condition and we put a lot of, you know, just love and care into her because that's what's happening is people just letting them go. Well, when the shelters are full and they say we can't, we've closed intake, we're so full, and most county ordinances require them to hold a stray for five days for an owner to either find it, reclaim it if they're out of town and the neighbor was watching and it got loose or whatever. Owner surrenders if that shelter's full. And a lot of them are truthful with telling the people we're full. We have to hold the strays by county ordinance five days. Most likely your dog is going to be euthanized either today or tomorrow because we don't have a kennel open to put it in. Most people are not aware this is happening in their own community and their own backyard. And that's what I want to do this awareness campaign, just like you're doing with Moms for America, is getting the word out what you've done. We need to let dog loving, pet loving Americans know how they can make a difference, how they can get involved in their own communities, their own shelters, go volunteer, just photographing dogs for the shelter, helping put them on websites, adopting them, taking them out to an adoption event, to put them in front of people's eyes. And we need to start telling the truth and not sweeping this problem under the rug because so many people care about dogs as part of their family. And if they knew this was happening, how many innocent, wonderful dogs are dying, I just feel like millions of doers will get involved to go out and make a difference, whether it's attending an adoption event, promoting a dog, going out, helping, volunteering at the shelter, fostering a dog, fostering a dog that maybe on its last day, it's been there two days because it was an owner surrender, it's out of time. You taking it into your home, fostering that dog and promoting it keeps it from being euthanized. Yeah, we fostered kitties at one time, a mom and her kittens, and that just kind of got them to the next level so they could actually be adopted. So fostering is an important, and that's temporary, but it's a temporary help. It's really important because the other great thing about it is the foster learns the habits of the dogs that can help with housebreaking or whatever, you know, minor issues that had, it can tell the dog's story. Hey, it was great with my kids, great with my other dogs, easy to walk on a leash, all the stuff that shelters, county shelters don't have time for. Big Dog Ranch is very different. We are a rescue that takes these dogs on their last day at shelters before they're euthanized. We intake owner surrenders when shelters are full or people would, of course, rather them come here to Big Dog Ranch. I designed this facility for a happy place for the dogs to be while they're waiting for that, to find that forever home. I designed it to be a family-friendly place because so many people would tell me, I can't go to a shelter, it's just too sad. So we took the sad out of it here at Big Dog Ranch. You have to explain it to us because you tell me all about it when I met you in person. So I mean, it's a lot different than going to the dog pound. It's very different than going to the normal dog pound or dog shelter. It's a 33 acre or Palm Beach County facility, 33 acre cage-free facility, very ranch orientated, lot of separate buildings. The dogs live in 12 by 12 cage-free bunk rooms, like a bedroom. Each bunk room has a door that goes out to one of our four half acre play yards with swimming pools. The rooms have murals in them. So it's interesting. They get a massage. No, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. So we take a lot of moms, mom dogs that are pregnant or moms with nursing litters from kill shelters and that were abandoned out in the woods or on the side of the street or owners surrendered because unplanned litter from lack of spaying and neutering. And they're very vulnerable. Like a newborn baby is vulnerable because they have no immunity. Puppies have no immunities until they've had three sets of vaccines. So we get these vulnerable moms and babies. The babies have no chance of surviving in a shelter. One, they can't hold them eight weeks. They don't have the staff or the space for that. If they're there more than a few days, they're going to get parvo disease or kennel cough and not survive. So we race to get them out, get them in our puppy cabins where they have their own 12 by 14 cabin, their own 12 by 24 play yard. No exposure to any other animals. And we give the moms a safe place to raise their puppies. So nice. So nice. Until they're old enough for us to spay and neuter and find their forever homes. All right, moms, we're going to take a short break. We'll be right back with more with Laurie Simmons from the Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Stay with us. Hi, moms. I'm excited to share some news about our new sponsor, the Herzog Foundation. We know you're passionate about raising patriots and empowering your and the Herzog Foundation shares that passion. They're dedicated to promoting liberty through education, freedom and helping parents like you choose the best educational path. They offer a powerhouse of resources designed to support families and schools alike. Whether you're ready to dive in headfirst to the world of education or simply looking for more ways to empower your child's learning from free training events to their must read online publication, The Lion. They're committed to keeping you informed about what's happening in education. Also, if you've ever thought moms about starting your own Christian school or co-op, their school box online course will give you everything you need to get started on the right foot. Again, we are so proud to partner with the Herzog Foundation and we encourage you to explore all their amazing tools and the insights that they offer. So go ahead, visit HerzogFoundation.com to learn more. You won't want to miss these incredible resources. Again, find it all out at HerzogFoundation.com. You know, I've never really felt comfortable sharing pictures of my kids on social media. Then I found Tubu, a premium social app with an actual authentic community. No bots, no one trolling me or my family. Just clean, wholesome content you can trust. Welcome back moms. And before we jump back into that interview with Lori Simmons from Big Dog Ranch Rescue, I would like to remind you to like, subscribe and share our podcast. This is how we get our information out and our great guests and all of their wonderful ideas and accomplishments that they're doing. So please go ahead, like, share and subscribe this podcast. Also, if you have an idea or a topic that you'd like to suggest for the podcast, would you please email me at podcast at momsforamerica.net. I would love to hear from you. Lastly, I also want to invite all of our moms that are listening. If you are not a part of our movement, please join us here at Moms for America. It's moms like us all across the country, uniting for faith, family, freedom, and the constitution. We are moms fighting for our children, their future, and our country. So please join us. We have incredible information at momsforamerica.us. I always say this to everyone, we are the ultimate support group for moms. Everything that happens in your home, at your kitchen table, in your community, we have all kinds of resources available for you. momsforamerica.us. So how does someone find their forever home? They go online, they look at the pictures. Tell us about that. On our website, bigdoggranchrescue.org or shortened b-d-r-r.org, all our adoptable dogs and puppies are listed. The puppies don't go on until they're eight weeks, but people can start viewing them at six weeks on site. We have, you know, between foster dogs locally and dogs in our facility, we have 800 dogs in our Palm Beach County facility here. We have another facility in Alabama, which we just opened two years ago. We have over 650 dogs there, probably 200 of them are puppies under eight weeks. And we're partnering with a group in Texas to build a third facility and hopefully one starting in Nashville next, in Tennessee next year. Incredible, incredible. Wow. I know our moms are like, I'm going to check all this out. If they can't get to you, they'll get to their locals. But I also want to have you talk a little bit about when we're considering adopting and going to a shelter, what are some things we need to consider for our family? Like what type of dog, when we're home, if we have a fence, I was just trying to think of some of the things that are some nice advice that you would like to give our moms when they're looking at adopting. Well, matching up the family or the person with the right dog is energy level. You know, are you a runner? Then you can take a Weimaraner or Border Collie that can run with you five times a day or play fetch. If you're a couch potato, you might want a little bit older dog that's calmer and just what wants to sit in your lap or beside you on the couch. Right. You know, making sure when you have young kids that the dog is tail waggy and happy and, you know, introducing your children, seeing how the dog reacts around the child, some that have never been around young children might be a little leery. So the nice part about going to a rescue, we've had our dogs for a minimum of three weeks before they go up for adoption. We bring them in from the county shelters, from the strays, wherever they all go to quarantine buildings. At that time, it gives us that two weeks. A chance, right. Veterinarian is assessing all their medical needs, whether they came in with kennel cough or they've got, you know, broken leg that we're fixing or heartworm disease that we're treating. We've gotten to know the personality of that dog. And while we may not be 100 percent accurate, we're a in knowing the temperament of that dog. So that's the great part about going to a rescue. You know, county shelters too, you've just got to spend the time and get to know the dog. I would say that's true because when anytime we did our dogs, they were able to really give us good insight, which is very helpful. It's really important that you get the right match for your family. And, you know, some dogs that aren't so great with other dogs, they can do great in a home where the person doesn't have their friends' dogs come over. They don't care about going to a dog park. The dog may be dog selective. Maybe it was attacked as a puppy or something traumatic happened. It can still be a great dog, just not the right dog, you know, for that family that wants to take their dog to a dog park. Right, Lori, you don't want to be caught back up and surrendering the pet again. No. And that's really, at a county shelter, that's a death sentence for the dog. If it comes back and there was a problem, they're probably the first to be euthanized. But, you know, if everybody knew, if everybody got involved in helping in some way to solve this problem, and I fully believe through education, sterilization, with mass sterilization to stop these unwanted litters from being born. Right, it's been a new term. Legislation. What about legislation? Well, we had a bill a couple years ago, try to go through, you know, the Florida House and Senate, and we're really far along with it. And it was basically making anybody that wanted to sell puppies get a license. And in order to get a license, you had to be inspected. So you open a beauty salon, you open a restaurant, you open a real estate office, you have to have an inspector come out, make sure you meet all the guidelines. Sure. Before you are able to get a business license. That's not the case everywhere with people selling puppies. And what we're seeing is breeders only breeding for the benefit of dollars in their own pockets, at the sacrifice of these animals. And just even in our own community here in western Palm Beach County, every day when I'm coming to Big Dog Ranch, I see the signs out there saying golden doodle puppies for sale, Frenchies for sale, this for sale. You know, I send people in to see these dogs, they're living in outside filthy pens or living in dirty barns. The puppies are full of worms. They've had no vaccines and they're selling them for four or five hundred dollars. They're selling them out of the back of their pickup truck at the Walmart parking lot. So legislation is very important because like you said, there needs to be strict guidelines for humane care of these puppies and these moms that are just bred every six months until they can barely stand up. And you know, they don't care at all about the animals. They care about money in their pocket. And the backyard breeders are what we need to stop. Good breeders. We want purebreds. We want good breeders that care for their dogs. They're humanely housed. They're not bred every year. They're not overbred. They're, you know, vetting the buyer and taking their dogs back if there's a problem and doing it right. We want that. We want to continue. And they should have no problem wanting to have an inspection and be properly licensed if they're doing it right. Correct. The ones that aren't doing it right that are adding to dog centering shelters that we need to shut down. The puppy mills, the bad backyard breeders. Right. So legislation, that's one way. The other thing is somehow getting landlords and homeowners associations to stop breed restrictions. I mean, the Pit Bull, the German Shepherd, the Doberman, so many are restricted from homeowners associations. And it shouldn't be just. I didn't even know that. Oh, so many people give up their pets because they're moving into a homeowners association, even if they're renting. And they exclude Pit Bulls, Shepherds, Rottweilers, Dobermans. That's what I remember. Yeah. Yeah. All kind of breeds. Wow. So it shouldn't be judged on the breed. It should be judged on the dog. Correct. I would love to introduce legislation. That's another great idea. Yeah. With a canine good citizen test where they've been evaluated by a trainer and we're starting to do that here. We're adding. That's a great idea. Great idea. We're adding that program into our veteran dog training program that we do here with rescue dogs for training dogs for veterans with severe disabilities and PTSD. And then we're very successful with that, with changing lives for these veterans and also giving the dog a purpose that was rescued. Right. You hear this a lot with the veterans, you know, getting a dog, a partner, companion, you know, to care for them and just brighten up their day along with senior citizens. I mean, they bring they bring dogs into the to the nursing homes. Right. I mean, just the dogs are a great companion. They don't bring a lot of. An incredible healer. And we've seen that we have trained successfully 160 dogs with that for veterans with. I love their disabilities or PTSD and their full service dogs and the change it's made in their lives, the thank yous we get from them, their families to see these veterans who wouldn't come out of their house entering society again. And, you know, they keep coming back to the past and the joyful stories just keeps us pushing forward. We're actually expanding that program right now. We're building the new Langone Patriot Pet Boarding Facility to expand our veteran dog training to double the amount we can do each year. And they'll also give us numbers to do these canine good citizen training. So people and hopefully we can get legislation through where homeowners associations, landlords will not restrict these breeds with these dogs. I got it. Oh, wow. And going back to seniors. You're doing some incredible things over there, Lori. We have a senior sanctuary where you're talking about seniors where senior dogs roam. They live free in a six bedroom house. A couple of our veterinary technicians live there at night. A couple of our kennel technicians that work here during the day. And then we have special staff that cares for them. And that's for dogs, you know, eight and older that still have a lot of spunk in their life, but they need extra care. And we have a program for senior citizens that are lonely, have lost their pet, have lost their significant other, live alone, giving them a pet and providing them the resources. The vet care will do form free. They need us to deliver food if they're not able, but if they're able to have that senior dog sit next to them every day, give them a reason out of bed, take a walk, something to keep them company. It makes a world of difference in their lives. Absolutely. Like you said, dogs are a healer and they are really a man's best friend. There is nothing. Boy, their life is you, right? The dog's life is you. That's it. That's all they're focused on. They live for you. They live for their owners. And, you know, it's so sad. We picked up a dog yesterday that had been sitting, that was dumped down in Hialeah. On the side of the road, people saw the guy dump the dog and it sat there for three days. It would not move. Everybody tried to come get the dog and it would, it kept thinking that owner was, left me here. I'm going to stay here until he comes back to get me. And, you know, opened his back seat, threw the dog off, took off. Clearly dumped. We see that daily. These dogs, you know, it's, they would, it's horrible. We had one brought to us last Friday, put a garbage can, garbage can, the guy picking up the garbage truck, ran it to us. Well, brought his garbage truck in, ran us in this dog and said, I was picking up a trash can, get ready to dump it. Heard the dog, you know, and he brought it to us. The dog was dehydrated. So, you know, it's, it, there's a lot of states. It makes me think of with the hurricane run right now too, right? When the, when those hurricanes hit in Florida and the Carolinas and all the dogs that would be homeless there because of disasters. We were out there within three days in North Carolina and shelters, dogs that were already in shelters. We cleared out space for the incoming stray dogs. We had owners showing up at our bus saying, I've lost everything in my home. My home is totally destroyed. I don't know where I'm going. I've nowhere to care for this dog. We offered them to keep their dog for them or free until they got back on their feet. And so many of these people were so devastated. They said, we don't know when that's going to be. We have lost everything, our cars, our home, our furniture, our possessions. We just want you to go, please take our dog. And you took him. And you know, one of them was the cutest pair of poodles that was handed to me and my heart just broke for them. Both their cars were destroyed. Oh, such tough stories. Devastating. We've made three trips up there to bring supplies, not only for people, but for families that, you know, had no way to stay. I saw this on your website. Yeah. Incredible. You know, dogs for outside igloos for people that's dogs live outside to keep warm. We do a lot of hurricane efforts. We're usually one of the first on the grounds. And we were up in North Carolina on our third trip up there when Milton hit Florida. So then we refocused on. I know you were really doing great work there. Dogs suffered during disasters and crisis, because people, you know, are devastated with their loss. Sure. And they don't know where to turn. So having a rescue to go to, to take their dog or even hold their dog for them, you know, is is what we're about here at Big Dog Ranch. Give us a website there to Big Dog Ranch. So make sure that everybody gets a chance to check it out. I know not everybody lives in Florida, but just to see what you're doing. They may want to donate. They want to support. We're always looking. You know, our moms are always looking to help. Well, we survive on donations. We couldn't rescue 7,000 dogs a year. Absolutely. We've rescued over 71,000 dogs since we started. We operate 100 percent on donations. I know. We also would love to guide you to make a difference in your community. So you can go to our website at BDRR.org. That's initials for Big Dog Ranch Rescue.org. Either one will get you there. Get involved. Make a difference. So many wonderful, adoptable family pets are being euthanized and overcrowded county shelters. What does that conversation look like, Lori, at the kitchen table with a family about this topic and maybe adopting? Let's close with those words of advice for our moms. And maybe this is something that everybody has, you know, this month, they kind of get together as a family and say, we'd like to, we like to go above and beyond a little bit. Give some advice to the moms on how to handle this with their family. If you can't open up your home to foster or adopt a dog, there are so many wonderful, adoptable, precious dogs out there on death row in county shelters. Us rescues are trying to keep up, but there's just way too many. So by going to your county shelter, finding a rescue, or come to Big Dog Ranch website. We deliver anywhere throughout the U.S. Oh, yeah. From Chihuahuas to Great Danes to everything in between, to mixed breeds, to puppies, to seniors. There's a match out there waiting for that chance to be part of your family or just to live when they're on death row at a county shelter. So think about adopting, adding another family member. It'll bring a lot of joy to you. The dogs will bring a lot of love to your family. You're not saving just one life. You're saving two because you're opening up a spot for another dog in need to come in. Lori, you are amazing. I know I just, I'm going to come out and see that Big Dog Ranch when I'm in Florida. Well, I welcome all of you to come see it. What we built here is a different kind of shelter. We're not a shelter, we're a rescue, but it's quite different and definitely a wonderful place to bring your family. Good work and very inspiring. And yes, we as moms, you know, you know this Lori, and as I'm talking to the moms, we're the ones that always bring up topics like this. It's not usually your husbands, right? It's the moms. Moms are the ones that make a difference. And like I said, I'm so honored to be on your podcast. I'm so honored to be associated with Moms of America and all the great work you do. Thank you. Not only do my grandchildren benefit from the work that you do, and I'm out there saving dogs, so get involved. They're needing help more than ever right now. Go to bdrr.org and get involved. We'd love to have you join the rescue family. Absolutely. Thank you, Lori, and God bless you and your team and all those pups out there. Thank you for doing such good work and making a difference. Boy, this is something all of us really need to kind of just give a second thought to open up our hearts and our homes for another puppy. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks, Lori. Okay. One dog at a time. Thanks again, Lori. Wow. I just loved today's discussion because it's something different and it's something that affects all of our homes. Pets, dogs, cats. How do we bring them into our home? How do we kind of spread the love? How do we save them and make a difference in our community? So thanks, Lori. Thanks for what you're doing there. And to you moms, consider this. Have a discussion at home and see if you can bring another furry friend into your family. All right, moms, I was here at the end of the show. I thank everyone for joining us. I do ask you to please share this podcast. Join, like, and subscribe. Also join us here at Moms for America. We are here every week, every day with incredible, every week with the podcast, but every day with resources on our website. You go to momsforamerica.us. You sign up for our newsletter and you can check out all our amazing programs and incredible resources from webinars to seminars, from booklets to everything you can imagine that would help you on your journey through motherhood. Again, that's momsforamerica.us. We say this always because we have everything from parental rights to public policy, from the kitchen table to Congress. Moms for America is here to help you. All right, moms, I can't wait to see you next week. And as always, let's keep changing our country, one home at a time. I'll see you soon. A special thank you to our sponsors, the Herzog Foundation and Tuvu. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Herzog Foundation.