dogs and puppies we saved, and the love and appreciation of the adopter and the love and appreciation of the owners we have been able to help that needed help to re-home for one reason or another along the way. This is what keeps me going every day. I feel when you are where you are supposed to be in your life, things just flow naturally and systematically at the same time. I see beauty and pain in everything doing this work and the beauty overcomes the pain and so you just keep going. As far as how the industry as a whole has changed since I started... I would have to say that I was very lucky to have an amazing mentor and that at the beginning of it all I was told to keep my head down and save only what I could. Don’t ask any other rescues to take your problems on and know your limits. This was the best advice, as I came from a sales and marketing career. I would have used all my networking skills to connect with anyone else that was in this industry, not knowing that there are many that should not be in this industry or many who are in it for the wrong reasons. It has to be about “the dogs,”always. I followed that advice and it has kept me and the Lovejoy Foundation out of harms way. It is a very narcissistic industry and alot of the players are not kind. I knew with the success we had there would be
haters but thankfully we have been able to built year after year to do more and help more because of the advice I strictly have followed. I think the social media platforms allow anyone to represent themselves as a rescuer and that part is scary when you hear the horror stories of high pledges for a red listed dog in the shelter system taking the money and then no accountability for where that dog went or where it is presently. I have always worked from the stand point of “full transparency” and that is how it will always be. LM: How can we turn the misrepresentation of the breed around. Can we? LF: Well, what I know is that this breed is not for the first time dog owner. It is not for the person who wants just a watch dog and leave it in the back yard alone. This breed is not for the person who is looking to be scary and rough by owning the breed. I feel the perception of this breed is about this breed ending up in the wrong hands, with people who are not educated about their needs and how to have them grow from puppies
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