Chapter 2
Lindsey Sagwey drove the truck loaded with animals, hoping to God that this was the right thing to do.
That particular rescue in town was so quickly running out of space that one of the women there convinced Lindsey to just take a load along with her, even before she did any inspection of the Haven to confirm it was a proper setting for these dogs.
So, she didn’t just have a load, she had all fifty-one of them.
Thus, every square inch of the truck was filled with cages and dogs.
Some of the dogs were in a little rougher shape than others.
Whines, barks, and howls could be heard as every animal understood that a big change was happening.
As she finally made her way to the gate and the cattle guard, the land opened up to a clearing, with this massive two-story cabin and other buildings spread all over the place.
She almost hit the brakes in shock. As she drove closer, looking for a place to park, she just pulled up in front of the cabin, not sure where she was supposed to go.
Even now as she sat here, she wasn’t sure if anybody would come talk to her.
Everybody seemed to be busy, each with a destination, and they were all moving with purpose.
She hopped out and looked around. Nobody took notice of her, so she walked up to the front door of the cabin and knocked. When a holler came from inside, she opened the door and called out. A couple men turned to look at her, one carrying bags of groceries.
He smiled and nodded. “Hey.”
She smiled back. “I’m Lindsey. I was asked to come here and check out the place. I’ve also brought dogs,” she pointed out, “a lot of dogs.”
Another man stepped out of a room to the side, and he asked, “Hey, so you brought all fifty?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “Actually, fifty-one.”
“Of course it is,” he said, with a smile.
“Do you guys really have room for all of them?” she asked, as she looked around, halfway frowning.
“Are you part of the animal center?” the man asked, as he stepped forward and held out his hand. “I’m Timber, and this is my place.”
“Hey,” she said, beaming at him, reaching out her hand, which was engulfed by his.
“Yeah, I’m an occasional volunteer for the centers in town, but I am also their accountant.
So sometimes I get asked to confirm that new places are safe for the animals,” she explained, with half a smile. “Please don’t take it as an insult.”
“I understand. Plus, we are a new rescue operation, so I would expect nothing less,” he acknowledged. “The animals deserve something better than they’ve been rescued from.”
“These ones especially,” she noted. “Some of them have had rough times, and you’ll see that some are in better shape than others.
” She sighed. “We’ve got some that came from a disreputable local breeder.
It’s been an ongoing scenario. He changes the name and reopens, but he doesn’t necessarily change anything else. ”
Timber nodded in understanding. “Come on. I’ll take you for a look around, a quick one, so we can get the dogs unloaded and situated.”
She was given a tour, and, even as fast as it was, it was thorough, and it made her head spin. “Good God,” she muttered. “This place is huge. I had no idea.”
“I didn’t really expect it to get so big this fast,” he admitted, with a chuckle. “However, I’ve had a lot of great help, so we’ve got some capacity now to take in animals. We’re still building infrastructure to help support it all long-term.”
“You’ve got horses too,” she noted, as she stared out to the pastures.
“Only a dozen or so at the moment, but we hope for more as we get more space allocated, more fences built, barns, all that goes along with it. We also have llamas, although they were a surprise addition. We’ll probably end up doing some local boarding too, since I do have a lot of space here,” he shared.
“Meanwhile, we’re still getting paddocks and shelters set up. ”
She nodded. As she turned back around, a man came up from behind them. He had been the first man who had greeted her, while he carried groceries inside.
“I’m Sterling,” he said, with a smile. “I understand we have a lot of dogs to unload.”
“Not just unload,” Timber clarified, “but we’ll need to set up intake, check them out, and see what their individual needs are. The good news is that I’m expecting Tiffany at any minute.” Hearing a vehicle nearby, he turned and looked. “That’s her now.”
“You’ll have to bring her on full-time at this rate,” suggested one of the other men standing beside Sterling. “I know she’s a vet with a clinic of her own in town, but, at this rate, you’ll need one here permanently.”
Timber nodded. “At this rate you’re right, but the trouble is, there is no money in rescues,” he pointed out, coming from his first-hand experience.
Just then a woman joined them, a bright smile on her face. “Hey, a truck full of dogs is out there.”
“Yes,” Lindsey agreed, as she turned to face her. “I just brought them in.”
“Good enough. So you’re from one of the local shelters in town, aren’t you?”
“Yes, and we’ve kept sixty, but we just don’t have space for any more.”
“Ouch,” Tiffany murmured, shaking her head. “Let’s get intake set up.” She looked over where Sterling stood and asked, “You’re new, aren’t you?”
“I am,” he stated, as he held out a hand. “I’m Sterling, a friend of Timber’s.”
“Ah, good to hear that.” She gave him a smile. “You want to give me a hand?”
And, with that, they walked out to Lindsey’s truck, where she quickly unlocked it and started unloading crates. When they got them all down, Lindsey added, “And I know it’s an imposition at the moment, but, depending on your circumstances, we’ll also need the crates back.”
“Of course you do,” Tiffany noted, with a knowing smile, “if for no other reason than so they’re available in case anybody else needs them.”
“It’s been a rough spring,” Lindsey noted. “Maybe it’s the economy. I don’t know. But we have had a lot of surrenders and, of course, they all come in needing to be spayed or neutered.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to set up surgeries for that,” Tiffany replied. “I may take them to my clinic in town.” With that, she looked over at Timber. “Unless you’ve got my surgery suite set up.”
“I’m working on it, but apparently we need to work on it faster,” he said, as he looked at the crates filled with animals.
“Any idea how many of these are fixed?” Tiffany asked Lindsey.
“None of them,” she said. “The adults are all still nursing mothers. We just got this load within the last couple days. And, if you’ve got room for another ten or fifteen, we’ve got more,” she added, as she walked into the medical center and stared. “Wow, this is huge.”
“It is massive because I had Timber make it a little larger than he originally planned,” Tiffany shared, with a laugh. “On the other hand, I think you and I both understand that, once this starts, it just snowballs. We’ll be forever expanding.”
Lindsey nodded. “Exactly.” By the time they had all the crates unloaded, she shared, “All these dogs got fed earlier, but I haven’t had a chance …”
“It’s fine,” Tiffany interrupted. “They need baths, some fuel, and the workup.”
“Most of them, yes,” Lindsey replied. “We were literally just overrun when we got this delivery of dogs,” she admitted.
“Got it.” Tifany frowned at her and asked, “Are you heading out right away?”
“No, don’t have to. I can stay and lend a hand if it would help,” she offered. “That’s the least I can do.”
“Good. Are you okay to get soaked?”
“Definitely.” She chuckled, giving a wave of her hand. “It goes along with the territory.”
Tiffany led Lindsey over to where they had a series of large wash tubs connected.
“I like this set up,” she murmured. “This makes life a lot easier.”
“When it comes to this many animals—and we knew we would be dealing with large quantities—this setup really helps.” Together, about five men and Lindsey each started bathing a dog, with Tiffany toweling them off and setting them aside in one of the exam rooms.
Lindsey found Sterling beside her, and he very quickly helped in the bathing process, freeing up Tiffany to do the initial check-ups. Lindsey smiled at him. “You’ve got a hell of a place here.”
“Not me. I just got here today,” he shared, with a smile. “I’m still learning my way around.”
“It’s amazing out here,” she exclaimed. “We’ve heard lots of good things, but none of us had made it out here yet, always being on the busy side.”
“And the fact that you’re doing that is really appreciated.”
She shrugged. “There is such a need right now,” she declared, and the need broke her heart every time she went into the shelter and saw the animals. “These animals need so much more than we can give them. Yet we’re giving them so much more than many other animals get,” she added, with a sigh.
“That’s how life works though,” he murmured. “Don’t feel bad about giving just what you can give.”
She looked over at him. “If you just arrived today, what are you doing here?”
“You mean, what’s my job?” he asked, with a smirk. “Anything and everything. I came in with the grocery run this morning,” he noted, “and, holy cow, I’ve never seen anything like it, except for the mess hall in the military.”
“Are you in the military?”
“I was,” he said cheerfully. “I’ve just come out of rehab, like a lot of the other guys here.”
She turned to face him. “Hopefully whatever was wrong is now well and truly fixed because, if there’s one thing that these animals need, it’s somebody who cares.”
“We’re all working on that. I just got here and already know the people here definitely care.
We’ll work on getting these animals feeling safe and getting healthy,” he vowed.
“I haven’t been here long enough to know where they’ll want me to spend my time, but I’ve worked with a lot of trainers and have done a fair bit of training myself. ”
“Really? I wasn’t expecting that.”