Dogs Forever

Siblings Janie (left) and Joey arrived at Dogs Forever Safe Place on Saturday, April 28. They will move to a Dogs Forever foster home soon where the extremely skittish and frightened dogs will receive patient, loving care until a forever home can be found.

Drum roll, please….Our Dogs Forever Safe Place will be open for business this coming Saturday, May 5, from 11 to 3 as we celebrate with an open house. Please join us to learn about the important “goings on” at our new home and meet the wonderful dogs we have available for adoption. We are located at 3800 Wilson Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids. We are in the former Dog Zone space. Our entrance is on the north side of the building, which is located behind Hills Bank and Genghis Grill. If you can’t make it to our open house, come back on any Saturday. We will be open 11 to 3.

Dogs Forever Safe Place provides refuge for homeless dogs, where they receive loving care, free of fear and free of the threat of being euthanized. This is their sanctuary until Dogs Forever places them with a reputable rescue, a no-kill shelter or a forever family.

Safe Place also provides:

• A Meet ‘n’ Greet area where you can get acquainted with dogs available for adoption.
• Dogs Forever Store, filled with quality new and used items for dogs and the people who love them.
• A Memory Wall that celebrates the memory of your beloved pet when you make a $25 donation.

Hope we see you on Saturday! ~Nancy Crist, Co-Founder

Last Monday, we learned of a litter of seven six-week-old lab mix  puppies in Jones County who were in need of rescuing. By Tuesday morning, the pups were snuggling in a kennel at our Dogs Forever Safe Place in Cedar Rapids. Since we are not officially open yet (our opening day is May 5), I had to hop to it and buy cleaning supplies and line up volunteers to help care for our young visitors. There’s no disputing their cuteness, but they are pooping machines, that is for sure. Those of us watching over the pups were exhausted from the Olympic-style cleaning by the end of the week! While in our care, the pups received their first shot (distemper/parvo) and Panacur wormer three days in a row (most puppies have worms). The vet declared our young charges to be “sturdy, healthy puppies.” On Saturday a Dogs Forever volunteer transported the pups to Grinnell, where he met a volunteer from AHeinze57 Rescue in Adel. The pups are now in the care of the rescue’s foster homes. It’s a great feeling to play a part in saving a litter of puppies, to know they are alive and well because we stepped up to the plate. ~Nancy Crist, Co-Founder