Volunteer Highlight

Volunteer Highlight:

Saralynn and Michelle

Volunteers are an essential component to any non-profit;  the volunteers for Great Pyrenees Rescue Society are dedicated and selfless individuals who work tirelessly to rescue dogs in need.  GPRS is always looking for dog lovers who are seeking to foster or volunteer in other positions.

Saralynn is a REALTOR ® with Better Homes and Gardens Preferred Living in College Station, Texas. Saralynn and her mother Michelle have been volunteering for GPRS for a little over a year and are this month's volunteer highlight!

Here is their story:

Prompt:  What volunteering do you do with the rescue?

My mother and I foster the Texas puppies together.  I handle all aspects of the puppies including intake, foster, foster coordinator (if we have any open puppy fosters, which is not often), medical needs, paperwork, and anything else that needs to be taken care of for them.  I sometimes screen applications if I have a break in puppies or if we are overloaded with applications.


Prompt:  When did you first learn about GPRS?

I grew up with a Great Pyrenees mix (Maggie, she lived to be 17 years old) and that is when we fell in love with the breed.  We used to foster for a Houston based organization, and we fostered 4 Pyrenees puppies, but decided it was too hard to let them go so we didn't take another litter after that one.  Then I adopted my first Pyrenees in June of 2014 from SPIN (Saving Pyrs in Need) in Dallas, but I was familiar with GPRS at the time.  In April of 2016 my mom and I saw a foster plea for 3 puppies that needed a place to go, so we applied and we haven't stopped since!  So far, we have had 106 (and still counting) puppies through our home.  It is not always easy to let them go, but we know that each one that is adopted out, is another one that can be saved from a shelter, the side of the road, or a bad situation!

Prompt:  Who are your furry family members?

Buckley is my Pyrenees that I adopted from SPIN in 2014; he is 3 years-old and a hot mess on fire!  Bennett was my first foster failure;  he is a Pyrenees and Australian Shepard mix and almost a year old.  He is my sweet/VERY sensitive guy.  He came to us at 5 weeks old with a fractured skull and I just couldn't let him leave.  He LOVES to play big brother to all the puppies and he shows them the ropes!  My mom has Bella, a 3 year-old Cairn Terrier, and she is the boss around our house, even Buckley, who is 120 pounds knows she's in charge.  She has little dog syndrome but man, does she LOVE my mom!  My mom adopted her from a rescue in November of 2013.  Trooper is my mom's first foster failure (she was from our first litter of foster puppies, the group of 3).  She is a little over a year old and is a Great Pyrenees mix with short hair.  Blakely is my mom's second foster failure, we were told she was a Great Pyrenees and Airedale terrier mix; but she is currently 6 months old and already weighs 55 pounds.  Our vet thinks she may have some Wolfhound in her due to her size!

And then there is Dug; (yes, we do have a girl named DUG, you know from the movie UP?  If you ever met our Dug you would completely understand why we named her that, lol.) Anyways, Dug is also known as "momma momma".  She is our newest addition, as she and her newborn puppies arrived at our house and we just fell in love with her.  All of her puppies have been adopted, and we decided that she was not going anywhere.  Her and Bennett are also in love, they are inseparable.  They lay in the sun together, like to be touching each other at all times, and can frequently be found licking each other in the mouth (we always say that they are newlyweds, lol).  We may seem like crazy dog people, and that is mainly because we are, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Prompt:  Do you have additional comments on volunteering?

Taking on as much as we have in just one year, has not always been easy, but we wouldn't change it for anything. It is frustrating, and can be downright heartbreaking when these puppies arrive and are in such terrible shape, sick, or terrified of the world around them.   But to see the transformation that they make and the updated pictures months down the road make it all worthwhile.   Sometimes I hear people say "I can't foster, because it would be too hard to let them go" and to that all I can say is try it, because the satisfaction you get knowing that you have saved a life will outweigh any reservations you have about fostering.  And you may enjoy it far more than you think you will, because at the end of the day the real question is...who saved who?  

To foster or volunteer for GPRS visit our website here and click on "how to help".  Please enjoy the pictures below of Saralynn and Michelle with their own dogs and some of their fosters!