Nickens Family Rescue & Sanctuary

03/25/2025

It seems little Hopps home fell through. If you’re looking for a kid friendly bunny that loves to be brushed and help- Office Hopps might be the one for you. 🥰

03/25/2025

Take a peek at all of our pups ready to go home today!!

We are a small family owned rescue! We are mostly foster based but do house on our property when available. Our mission is to create a safe, loving, and comfortable place for animals at risk of euthanasia or in need of a home. We are their safe space before finding their forever. While in our care,....

03/22/2025

I’m truly going to have such a hard time letting go of this one. She has come SO far and has taken a liking to our family. Ruby had her spay yesterday which means she’s about ready for her new home… I guess. 🥺

03/21/2025

Rita is not feeling so hot after her spay today, but we are glad she doesn’t have any babies in her future!

Rita is a sweet middle aged girl looking for her forever family. She will be available as of Monday!

She is your picture perfect goodest girl.. usually. She loves kids, dogs, is okay with cats the longer she’s with them and learning they don’t always want to play. She loves to snuggle and gives great hugs! She has wonderful manners and is potty trained! But she has a little quirk… Rita is a runner 🏃! Rita has jumped fences and squeezed through to get out the open door. She will need a family with a tall fence or a family with patience who can train her.

We promise she’s worth the extra patience and love. ❤️

03/21/2025

Rain is healing from her surgery and looking AMAZING already!!! No more cherry eye!!

03/19/2025

One of our wonderful adopters has a large outdoor dog kennel they are going to donate to use until we get a fence but really need help transporting it! If someone has a flatbed or something to haul large pieces of outdoor kennel/fencing please let me know!!

This is going from Genoa to Fremont and we will pay for your gas.

03/19/2025

Little latte is the last one of her litter wondering why she hasn’t found a forever home. 🥺

Latte is SO sweet and has the best temperament. She will be smaller to medium sized breed- we think!

03/18/2025

WE HAVE EXCITING NEWS!!!!

We are moving!!! The Nickens Family is officially moving out of Genoa and headed to Fremont. Our family is so excited to have more space for our family and our rescue!!

The downfall is this property has no fencing. We are in desperate need of help finding a company that will help us and work with us on fences. It is on quite a busy road so this is going to be essential for new rescues coming in.

We will eventually be looking to build a small barn on this property to convert into a mini rescue building!

There are so many things we hope to do with this property and we can’t wait to share it with you all!

If you know someone who can help with fencing, please let us know!!

03/17/2025

The rest of Ruby’s litter has officially joined us ❤️

First photo we have Emerald & Sapphire. Second photo we have their brother Onyx!! Last photo is Ruby girl being the sweet angel she is 🥰

03/17/2025

03/17/2025

🚨URGENT NEED🚨

Dory is a young girl at wood county dog shelter that is declining rapidly. Dory needs to be the only dog in the home. I know this is a big ask, but we have done it before. We saved Oscar and Jackson, I think we can rally for Dory too.

Dory needs to get out before she declines to a point of no return, and that is approaching likely within a matter of days. Her team believes she can come back from this and can go back to the sweet girl they met when she arrived.

If you have no other pets in the home and are open to helping Dory, please please reach out. She is having a hard time with men in the kennel, so ideally a woman to mainly handle her until she can fully decompress. She may be totally different after she can decompress, but for now she’s quite fearful.

Please let’s save this girl.

03/16/2025

🚨URGENT NEED🚨

Dory is a young girl at wood county that is declining rapidly. Dory needs to be the only dog in the home. I know this is a big ask, but we have done it before. We saved Oscar and Jackson, I think we can rally for Dory too.

Dory needs to get out before she declines to a point of no return, and that is approaching likely within a matter of days. Her team believes she can come back from this and can go back to the sweet girl they met when she arrived.

If you have no other pets in the home and are open to helping Dory, please please reach out. She is having a very hard time with men, so ideally a woman to mainly handle her until she can fully decompress. She may be totally different after she can decompress, but for now she’s quite fearful.

Please let’s save this girl.

03/16/2025

This beautiful boy joined us last summer as just a pup! He is now in need of a foster or a new home- at no fault of his own.

You probably remember him as Cactus! He is a pittie boxer mix. He has grown up with kids and dogs. He just turned a year old. He has not been with cats and it seems he would do better in a cat free home.

Please message if you can help!

03/16/2025

There’s something about small wins with fearful dogs. I love rescuing all sorts of dogs, but these fearful babies just hit a little different for me personally.

Ruby isn’t flinching anymore when we reach to pet her. She looks for me and approaches MOST of the way and even wags her tail. Tonight she has been following where I go and will lay by my feet. Something that seems so small is actually so massive for her.

I’m proud of her progress ❤️🥺

Update: I made it to the floor with her. She can use my arm as a pillow any day no matter how uncomfortable this floor is 🤭

03/15/2025

Looking for transport help from Waverly, OH to Genoa this weekend

03/14/2025

It’s been awhile since I gave a little “about me.” For those of you who are new or newer here- I felt like it was a good time to introduce myself.

I’m Bri, I am the founder/owner of the rescue here! I have three children and a wonderful husband! And while my entire family puts in work for our rescue, I am the sole person keeping up with all of your surrender, adoption, and foster forms. I coordinate the transfers/surrenders, the adoption events, the adoptions, approve and meet the fosters, do all of the ordering for fosters, plan the fundraising, make the social media posts, complete all new intakes, track expenses, and am the direct point of contact for.. well.. everyone.

In addition to rescue, I am also the Director of Operations for a primary care & behavioral healthcare facility. That’s right- I also work full time, sometimes 50 hours a week or more. How else do people pay for nonprofits? So sometimes.. I don’t get to rescue messages right away or I might be hard to catch during the work day. But weekends for me are for animals.

We are foster based meaning I do NOT have a centrally located building.. however.. this is my long term goal. Eventually I would love to open a sanctuary shelter that is completely different than your open kennel, cold, loud shelter. My shelter will be a quiet space, a space to feel safe and decompress. A place with proper quarantine procedures. I want the cats with low chance of survival, that no one will take due to being contagious. The cats that spent their lives stray and underweight, unsure when they might get a real meal. I want the dogs that are too fearful in a shelter setting. I want the dogs that are overlooked because they’ve shut down completely. I want the dogs who deserve a second chance in their own quiet space. Obviously my goals are expensive ones (think soundproof rooms set up like mini living rooms for each pup with ample sunlight and outside time, cat condos leading outside with fresh air), but my goals are closer each day.

Until then, I have an amazing group of fosters and volunteers on my team. Our foster family is continuing to grow and I am so thankful for those who choose us!

I’m here because I haven’t agreed with so many things in the animal shelter world. I saw things I didn’t like, so I decided to change it. My bad experiences triggered me to start asking questions, to start researching, and to stop being a complainer. I woke up and stopped making excuses, I became solution focused, and started making a change. I found mentors and shelters in need of help and I got to WORK.

I’m different than most of the people I know and love. It seems everyone I meet are 1 of 2 things, an animal person or a people person. But me..? I love people AND animals. I’m passionate about helping both, and I work every day to do that.

Some days, I struggle balancing it all. Most days, I’m tired. But everyday, I get up and make a difference. I am doing my best & I’m proud of myself for that.

Thank you for your consistently kind words, for supporting my rescue animal family, and for being a part of my journey. I couldn’t do this without you.

❤️

03/13/2025

We got our estimate for sweet girl, Rain, today. Her surgery will be scheduled for next week!

Any and all help towards her care is so greatly appreciated! She is SUCH a lovely little girl! So sweet and playful. She’s going to be the best family dog ❤️