From Burnout to Breakthrough pt. 1

The Story Behind Unleashed Impact

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”

— C.S. Lewis

Working in animal welfare is so rewarding. The moment you see a dog click with their new guardian and know that they are safe and will thrive in their forever home is incredible. But it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. At the end of 2023, after a really tough year, I thought working in dog rescue would finally break me. I thought the overwhelming and constant anxiety and stress of it all would cause me to leave and never come back. That’s certainly not what I wanted, but I don’t think I can truly convey how those feelings are with you all day every day when you’re in the thick of it. I have never admitted it until now, but I think the final straw for knowing this was not a sustainable lifestyle was when I let a call about a dog bite ruin a full day of a very special birthday trip for my husband. The husband who sacrifices so much to support my heavy, sometimes burdensome passion of saving all the dogs. Something had to change. At the time I thought something had to change with me. Now, I believe something has to change in the culture and the systems that got us here in the first place.

And then, Unleashed Impact was born. A nonprofit organization aimed at reducing the number of dogs entering the shelter and rescue system by increasing access to humane resources for guardians to address the reasons dogs wind up in shelters in the first place. I like to say I founded Unleashed Impact, but really it was founded by three tough dudes with fragile and loving hearts. Allow me to introduce them.

HOW WE GOT HERE

In late 2022, I was running a dog rescue with my two partners. Our mission was to find homes for overlooked shelter dogs. That’s a nice way of saying the dogs that no one wanted to adopt from shelters because they seemed like a lot of work - sometimes, that was true, they were. More often, they were just victims of breed stereotypes or overlooked because of how they presented in the shelter — not because of who they were, but because of the space, the stress, or something as simple as being positioned across from another very stressed out dog. I don’t say this to blame the shelter. Most shelters are doing the absolute best they can with limited resources, limited access to education for the staff and handlers, and loads of bureaucratic red tape to Mission Impossible their way through just to run their daily operations. That’s why they relied on organizations like us to step in when they ran out of leash.

Our rescue was a small, but mighty organization. Like many rescues, we did not have a facility and we relied on fosters to house the dogs in our program. We functioned best with one dog in the program at a time, but could usually handle two if we absolutely had to. I’ll be completely honest with you, the timeline and sequence of the events that lead to our dissolution as an organization are hazy. But the gist of it is this, we had three dogs that needed VERY specific homes. And every time we would put out one fire and feel like we were getting our footing, another Jenga block would get yanked out. Yes, I know I’m mixing metaphors here, but I feel as though that actually adds to the picture I’m trying to paint. It was a quiet kind of chaos. The dog rescue system as a whole was in crisis since…well, maybe even before Covid. But Covid sure as heck made it abundantly clear that homes were full, no one is taking in new dogs or even temporary fosters. And healthy adoptable dogs would be euthanized in shelters every day, while dogs were staying in rescues longer than ever, eating up every ounce of resources they had.

OUR (IN)ELIGIBLE BACHELORS

Jet

I believe Jet was the first to join the group, at least the first one we planned to join the group. We had just adopted out our easiest case ever and were feeling good about how we wanted to grow as an organization. We got this lowkey, reserved black pittie mix with dark eyes from the local shelter. The suspicion was that he used to be tied up or confined in a space without a whole lot of ability to move around, because he did not have very developed muscles in his hind legs (which did improve greatly with daily exercise and play). He continuously escaped his owner and ended up at the shelter. Eventually, the last time the owner came to claim him, he said “Nah, just keep him.” He was not on the euthanasia list at the time we pulled him for his freedom ride, but had been at the shelter for a while and the staff was concerned he wouldn’t make it much longer as he didn’t present well on the shelter floor. The shelter environment had shut him down. So we took Jet in. Little did we know, he would go on to break the record for the longest consecutive stay in our program by any dog (over a year).

Tim

We had a plan for Jet. It involved him staying at our partner boarding facility until a beloved and trusted foster would be available post Thanksgiving. And then….we got the call about Tim. I wish I could remember what the shelter named him, because it was quite different from the unassuming name we landed on. But the shelter reached out to us because Tim had been on the floor too long, and recently gained a note on his record that he growled at children. They knew he didn’t have much time left. Tim was an owner surrender who kept him separated from the family in a back room and was eventually given over to the shelter. We don’t know the exact reason, but about six months later, the same owner surrendered the other dog in their home as well. I was the one who received the call about Tim and let me tell you, our first instinct was not to take him in. We knew we were best suited for one dog at a time. But I could tell the shelter staff was desperate, so I started reaching out to other rescues in the area to see if anyone could take him. It was a no go, then low and behold, the shelter received THE LIST, meaning the list of dogs to be euthanized if the shelter had to start making room for other intakes, and of course Tim was at the top. My partners and I discussed it and decided since Jet would be going to the foster, Tim could hang at the boarding facility while we searched for both of their forever homes or at least a foster for Tim. Financially, we could afford it and it all seemed to fit together, so we did it. We pulled Tim!

Capone

Oh Capone……I could write a whole other post just about Capone. He is a 67 lb American Bulldog/Pit Bull mix and professional dog treat tester (literally, at one point he lived with a woman who ran a dog treat company). Aka a giant couch weight with a personal vendetta against cats and squirrels! Capone was adopted from our rescue early on in its founding, before I was part of the picture. Two years later he was returned to us because the family was moving out of the country. Oh, and did I mention he needed double ACL surgery? Fun! With the help and support of our community and partner vet, we got him his surgery, rehabilitated him, and handed him off to his previous foster…..of course that was the foster we had set aside for Jet.

So now, here we are. In a pickle. Three dogs, and we’re now having to pay for long term boarding for one of them. Not ideal, but we were managing. Fast forward through general rescue shenanigans - adoption events, fundraising, attempts to make the adoptable dogs go viral on social media. Then, we caught a break! Capone got adopted and I had to go on a long term assignment out of town for work, where I was able to take Tim as my foster! Now we just had Jet chilling at our partner boarding facility. But, the financial drain was at least gone for the time being, Capone was loved and cared for, Tim got the benefit of living in a home, and I got to learn more about him and prepare him to be adopted!

CRISIS STRIKES….AGAIN

About three months later, one of my partners drops a voice message in our Voxer thread. Capone got in a fight with his new(ish) dog brother, and the family needs to return him. There were so many thoughts, emotions, questions, and fears we had running through our minds, and again, a whole other post on what happened, where it all went wrong, could it have been prevented or had a different outcome? But the reality was it wasn’t and it didn’t. He came back to us and went back into his former foster’s home. At this same time, we didn’t know exactly when my work assignment would end and Tim would need to be housed somewhere again, but all we could do was take one day at a time.

The foster worked hard to reacclimate Capone back into her home and with her dog who he had been best buddies with during his first tenure with her. She was taking it slow and could tell he had been through a lot. Then one day, they were out on their normal routine, a walk through the neighborhood to rid it of any pesky squirrels. During their walk, Capone drug her across the street to attack another dog. They were able to break up the scuffle and both dogs walked away ok with just a few minor scrapes and scratches. But this was something so far out of what we had known of Capone’s character for the last three years that we all agreed it was best for Capone that he not stay in that home any longer. So, back to the boarding facility he went, while we figured out what our next steps were for our big boy who obviously needed this next home to truly be his last. Safe, secure, appropriate for him. He was amazing with people of all types. All he wanted out of life was to sit on the couch next you and sun bathe while you worked in the yard. He had earned the right to an only-pet home at this point, but let me tell you, those were few and far between at that time.

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH (of Foster Home)

Tim had been a great companion for me during my time on assignment. I got to work on my training skills and had a big cuddly dog to keep me company at my AirBNB. He really was a big dope. One of the harder dogs I’ve ever done basic training with. He was engaged when we would work on commands and skills, but struggled to put two and two together sometimes. There was very much the lights are on, but nobody’s home vibe. But he was a great dog! One of my favorite things was how he loved to cuddle. My dog at home is not a cuddler. She’s a little more cat-like. Only wants attention when she wants it, and the closest thing she will do to cuddling is curl up real tight to your feet - again, on her terms. But Tim and I had a nightly ritual. Every night after I would clean up the kitchen and lay down on the couch to watch Ginny & Georgia (low key great show btw), he would come over and put his giant snout directly on my cheek or lay his huge block of a head in the center of my check and just lay there for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then he would curl up beneath me on the floor and we watched tv together until it was time to go to bed.

We were holding it together — barely. Juggling the needs of three incredible dogs, rotating foster homes, fundraising, and navigating the nonstop chaos of a system not designed for sustainability. It wasn’t easy, but we had a rhythm. We were making it work. Until we couldn’t.

It wasn’t one big explosion — it was punch after punch, until the whole thing finally knocked us out.

So… where did it actually start to fall apart?

We’ll get into all of that — and what came next — in Part 2. Hope you’ll stick around.