Everyone comes to BRSM to adopt their ideal beagle --- young, active,
occasionally a couch potato --- but those dogs are rare compared to those who
have been left behind, the ones who were discarded in favor of obtaining a
newer, younger dog.
What is the story
behind the older dogs in shelters?
Sometimes these dogs had spent their lives loving a family, only to
be abandoned when their age meant they were more couch potato than
playmate, and the costs of veterinary care rose. Sometimes they were used
as hunters --- penned out in the back of someone's yard --- never knowing a warm bed
in winter or the love a house pet takes for granted. And because they are
older dogs, it doesn't matter that they are friendly, loving, outgoing, and make
wonderful house pets. Because of their age, they are either dumped in
shelters or put out of a car and left to fend for themselves. Their last memory is
often an emotionally exhausted shelter volunteer closing their eyes forever, or
of finally starving to death outside in winter . . .
They deserve better than that!
What is a "Friend of Winston?"
Winston was the founding dog of BRSM, an older gentleman who never
made it out of foster care, but found himself loved nonetheless. BRSM took care of his health concerns and allowed him to die
peacefully at his own time, not
earlier because of someone else's neglect or indifference. Most of Winston's
friends are in the same situation, and will never be adopted --- but we rescue
them from the shelters anyway. BRSM provides them with veterinary care and
finds a permanent
