In 2012 Paul and I produced our first calendar called
"Rescue Dog to Therapy Dog". It featured Paul's paintings of 12
rescued therapy dogs and told their story along with a dog/owner photo. We did
this to bring awareness to the overwhelming problems the dog rescue world was
facing due to the recession.
Someone purchased a case of those calendars to use as a
fundraiser for an organization we had never heard of before -Paws and Stripes.
Curious, we looked up this website and listened to founder and veteran Jim
Stanek discuss his PTSD and TBI symptoms and how his specially trained service
dog Sarge restored his life when nothing else worked. Long story short, we were
so impressed by all we found out over the next year about these specially
trained dogs and their vital work, that we decided to devote our 2014 calendar
to telling their truly amazing stories.
When we looked to our state of MN to find a
Veteran with PTSD and a service dog, we could only find one. We made his the cover dog on our 2013
Calendar "Rescued Heroes". In order to find 12 rescued service dogs of Veterans for our 2014 calendar, we
needed to go to other states that had programs that trained these special dogs
specifically for "invisible wounds". After studying many, we
chose two we really admired- Paws and Stripes in Rio Rancho, New Mexico and K9s
For Warriors in Ponte Verde, Florida.
During the next 2 1/2 weeks we are traveling to meet 14
rescued service dogs that belong to Veterans that received and trained their dogs through one
of these incredible programs. We have
made arrangements to meet our Veterans in
Louisville, Memphis, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Dallas and Albuquerque and
places in between. We'll photographing
each of them and getting information for their stories, eventually turning it
into a 2014 Calendar "Rescued Heroes- Veterans Edition".
Stay tuned and follow along with us as we meet our
"Heroes" over the next seventeen days!
