HAVRE — RezQ Dogs of Dodson laid the foundation recently for their new shelter in Havre thanks to a $5,000 grant from MuttNation.
The "Mutts Across America" campaign awards one shelter per state a grant every year. MuttNation is a foundation fueled by Miranda Lambert through the Tractor Supply Company. Shelters don’t apply for the grant, and that’s where the surprise comes in. MuttNation independently researches shelters to find their top pick.
The elements MuttNation considers when researching shelters include:
- High Adoption Rate
- High Volunteerism
- Fiscal Responsibility
- High Activity/Fundraising
- Specialty
- Community Presence
- Website & Social Media Presence
- Advocacy
“It was really a huge surprise. We are so grateful and humbled by it. We had no idea it was coming so it was really fantastic,” said Anita Wilkie co-founder of RezQ Dogs.
With the grant. RezQ Dogs is moving their shelter from Dodson to Havre. The shelter experienced many floods in their Dodson location, and now they have bought land in Havre at the top of a hill to prevent floods from happening again.
“The shipping container we are converting to an inside/outside are, so each dog will have an outside run. The runs on the outside will be ten feet by ten feet so when we have a litter of puppies they can have more room to hang out. But the best thing about this is with the cement and the plastic panels on the inside everything will be able to be fully disinfected and we’re just super excited about that,” said Wilke about how rewarding it is to be able to build the shelter from the ground up exactly how they want it.
Wilke and her team hope the new shelter will be finished within the next few months.
Though RezQ Dogs is preparing to move the shelter in Dodson will remain fully operation until a moving date is set.
If you are interested in helping, or finding out how to adopt a dog, click here to visit the RezQ Dogs website.
