Somewhat officially founded in 2003 DachsieHaven is a wonderful little dream that started out as a rescue and has morphed over the years into an old age home for an old ball assortment of old and disabled dachshunds.
Starting in about 2000 my little pack of dachshunds started growing. I seemed to be a magnate for homeless and abused and unadoptable dachshunds. We even had one dropped off by the pizza delivery guy when his neighbor decided to dump his dog. After my home filled up and I ran out of friends to place these dogs with I decided that I had better become an official rescue. With friends to help with fostering and training DachsieHaven was born. DachsieHaven came to occupy a little niche that wasn’t being filled by the larger rescues. I could take in dogs from the shelters that had a history of aggressive behavior that would otherwise have been put down. I didn’t have to worry about boards of directors, complicated budgets (we were always broke) and layers of unbending rules. I would take in nasty dogs and spend as long as I needed to turn these unwanted brats into wonderful forever companions. Then we would find them the homes they were always meant to have.
Now 15 years later our mission has turned more from active rescue into a refuge and old age home. Over the years we have ended up with a couple of dogs too emotionally damaged to re-home. We have also taken in three paraplegic dogs that will not leave here until they are ready to cross the bridge. And since our policy is that any dog that is adopted from here is welcome back at any time we have ended up with a couple of doddering old guys who will live out their final days here at Camp Dachsie.
DachsieHaven still tries to do adoptions on a smaller scale but in reality I’ve become more of a facilitator. My goal for now is to hook up people with dogs they can no longer keep with forever homes who are looking for dogs. This way we can bring in new dogs but only on a short term.
