Dog Heaven LLC

09/20/2024

It is a very, very special day here at Dog Heaven. 🥹

It’s Sprinkles and Brownie’s gotcha day!!!! These sweet senior horses were technically our very first rescues at Dog Heaven. They had been living on the first sanctuary property, before it came into our possession, for 10 years. But when their owner passed, they were going to be euthanized due to their old age. We, of course, could not let that happen.

Fast forward two years and Brownie + Sprinkles are happier than ever. They moved with us to our new property and love their pasture land and snuggling up together under the shade of the trees. These gentle giants remind us every day that none of us deserve to be left behind due to age, past history, or high needs.

We are so grateful that these two get to live out the rest of their days at Dog Heaven. Wish them a Happy Gotcha Day in the comments? ❤️

09/13/2024

Calling local and non local photographers! The Aspens will be turning here at Dog Heaven LLC soon!! We are opening up the opportunity to come and take photos on our 35 acres surrounded by National forest in Woodland park during peak leave changing season in exchange for a donation to Dog Heaven! You can take family photos or wildlife photos or some with the horses https://dogheavenllc.com/ Dm us if interested

09/11/2024

We get it - it’s so easy to get caught up in the rest of your busy life. Kids, work, cleaning the house, tax season just finishing, trying to maintain a social life, it all gets to be a lot sometimes, especially when you add a dog in the mix.

There’s no shame in having off days or needing to take a moment, but, at the end of the day, we always have to remind ourselves that even when we’re not at our best, there will never be a moment where we will regret the time we spend with our animals while they’re here with us. ❤

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09/09/2024

This is Ringo on his very first hike in the National Forest bordering the new Dog Heaven property! 🥹Landon, our incredible animal caretaker, took him out for a 3-hour trek - and Ringo was in love the whole time. He’s another big inspiration behind Dog Heaven LLC.

Before moving here, Ringo was always so excited to see other dogs that he’d jump the fence into the neighbors’ yard. Those neighbors weren’t too thrilled—actually, they even called animal control on Tizzy once. After enough fence-jumping and video recordings, Nita and Dustin ended up with 10 tickets. They tried everything—dog collars, trainers, even boarding up the fence. Nothing worked, so they had to put in an electric fence that cost $3,300. They didn’t have the money, so they had to put it on a credit card - they couldn’t imagine giving Ringo up.

We know how tough it can be, and one day, with enough grants and donations, we hope to offer financial support to dog owners in hardship, so no one has to make that impossible decision. ❤️‍🩹

08/30/2024

It’s been such a big week here at Dog Heaven!!

After 12 hours of moving on Wednesday, our co-founders Nita and Dustin, along with the rest of the animals and their twin daughters, finally made it. This moment marks another significant milestone in their lives and the life of Dog Heaven. 🥹

When Dustin first moved here, his dog Tizzy (pictured here at the new property!) couldn’t play outside in their backyard because she barked when she played - a totally normal dog behavior!

Despite it only lasting 10 to 15 minutes while they played frisbee with her, the neighbors kept reporting them to the HOA and even the humane society. It was heartbreaking and only the beginning of issues with their neighbors.

Tizzy became the inspiration for Nita and Dustin to start Dog Heaven. We live in a world today that doesn’t always support animals. Many pets are caged all day, waiting for their owners to come home as everyone runs the rat race. Others have small backyards because buying property is so expensive, and many pets are not tolerated for their natural behaviors because people live in such close proximity to one another. Most pets aren’t in their natural habitat and don’t get enough interaction and playtime.

Over the past five years, Nita and Dustin have worked incredibly hard—often 12 to 14-hour days—and they finally have a place where they can help save animals. They’ve also created a space for pet owners to come and take hikes in the National Forest that borders their property and to educate them on ways to keep their animals stimulated, healthy, and happy (more on that coming soon - lots of big things are happening here at Dog Heaven! 👀).

We are all so grateful for this next chapter of life and can’t wait to keep sharing it all with you. ❤️

08/30/2024

Who agrees?

Great news - here at , every day IS ! We love sharing the funny and sweet behind the scenes moments of our life at our dog sanctuary. ❤️

08/19/2024

You have to be a special kind of person to be trusted with our dogs!!

Anyone else have such a hard time leaving town because you don’t trust enough people to take care of your dog while you’re gone? 🫣🙋‍♀️

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08/14/2024

None of the big changes Dog Heaven is embarking on would be possible without this incredible guy right here!! Dustin is the other half of our amazing co-founder duo - and he’s really poured his soul into our mission.

There aren’t many men as committed as he is to taking care of the dogs at Dog Heaven! He sacrificed a year and a half of his life living with the rescued in a cabin with no electricity besides a generator and no running water that didn’t have to be pumped! He walked miles back to the cabin in snow on multiple occasions when the cars couldn’t make the drive, plus had to weather snowstorms with very little heat.

Now that we are in our new place he’s just thankful for running water and electricity lol! He’s taken it all by stride and we couldn’t be more grateful for him.

Thank you Dustin for being so committed to Dog Heaven. It wouldn’t exist without you!

08/09/2024

As we prepare for the next chapter of Dog Heaven, our founder, Nita, reflects on her last day at the ranch and the memories made there. We wanted to share her heartfelt thoughts with you:

"Yesterday was my last day on our ranch before I will probably never see this again in this way. I was emotional, sad to let it go. I completely put my heart on the line for this dream. I worked endless hours to be able to maintain it. We invested thousands of dollars on fencing for the dogs, renovating our cottage for our ranch hand, constructing a structure for the horses, and purchasing equipment.

"Dustin and I got married there; we claimed our wedding tree there, and we had spiritual awakenings there. As God gives, He also transitions us to different, to better, to the next chapter. Just as in death, He never leaves us; we are just transformed to a new beginning. I will be forever grateful for the time we had at this magical place."

We are filled with gratitude for the memories and experiences shared on the ranch and are excited to continue our journey with all of you, our Dog Heaven family. ❤ Stay tuned for more updates as we move forward into this new adventure the next few months.

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08/08/2024

Who else is one of the lucky ones? 😌

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07/29/2024

Rescuing animals at risk really makes us the happiest + richest people alive - debt and vet bills and sleepless nights and all. 🥹❤

It’s always hard knowing we can’t save every dog, cat, or horse that needs a home, but we’ll keep working until we can help as many animals as possible towards their own health and happiness.

Did you rescue your happiness?

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07/24/2024

WE’VE MOVED!!!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

3 years ago, our co-founders Dustin and Nita put money down towards a property that they thought would be their forever dream home for the Dog Heaven animal sanctuary.

After two years of owning the property, however, it became clear that what we would need to do to keep the property was not in alignment with our mission or goals.

And so, last month, we put the 1300 acre ranch up for sale and reached out to a few potential buyers. Divine intervention happened when we got a cash buyer within 2 weeks and found another place that had everything we ever dreamed of for Dog Heaven already built!

The new property, still in Woodland Park, CO, features indoor/outdoor dog runs, a 10,000 square foot indoor dog arena for training, play time and obstacle courses, an outdoor arena for horses and a house already built on it! Not to mention still having all of the wildlife we loved on our previous ranch because it’s backed by National Forest. It’s a perfect forever home for Dog Heaven Animal Sanctuary. The dogs and caretakers are already mostly settled in at the new place and love it so much

We so thankful for our realtor Vicki (pictured here) who was a godsend with this and to the puzzle pieces that had to come together to make it happen.

We plan to have this new place full of people, animals, and celebrations of God’s grace every day!!

Welcome to the New Dog Heaven!!!

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07/16/2024

Anyone else have a favorite dog breed? 🐾

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07/15/2024

Triple dog (cat?) dare you to send this to your crush. 🤭👀

07/08/2024

We just know our dogs would get our meme humor better than anyone!!! 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

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07/05/2024

So beautiful!!

This is a beautiful letter from Fiona Apple explaining to her fans why she must postpone a concert date. I am impressed at the way she was instantly able to make the decision to choose love over her career. Indeed, the world needs more of this. Enjoy the story...
It's 6pm on Friday, and I'm writing to a few thousand friends I have not met yet. I'm writing to ask them to change our plans and meet a little while later.
Here's the thing.
I have a dog, Janet, and she's been ill for about 2 years now, as a tumor has been idling in her chest, growing ever so slowly. She's almost 14 years old now. I got her when she was 4 months old. I was 21 then — an adult, officially — and she was my kid.
She is a pitbull, and was found in Echo Park, with a rope around her neck, and bites all over her ears and face.
She was the one the dogfighters use to puff up the confidence of the contenders.
She's almost 14 and I've never seen her start a fight, or bite, or even growl, so I can understand why they chose her for that awful role. She's a pacifist.
Janet has been the most consistent relationship of my adult life, and that is just a fact. We've lived in numerous houses, and joined a few makeshift families, but it's always really been just the two of us.
She slept in bed with me, her head on the pillow, and she accepted my hysterical, tearful face into her chest, with her paws around me, every time I was heartbroken, or spirit-broken, or just lost, and as years went by, she let me take the role of her child, as I fell asleep, with her chin resting above my head.
She was under the piano when I wrote songs, barked any time I tried to record anything, and she was in the studio with me, all the time we recorded the last album.
The last time I came back from tour, she was spry as ever, and she's used to me being gone for a few weeks, every 6 or 7 years.
She has Addison's Disease, which makes it more dangerous for her to travel, since she needs regular injections of Cortisol, because she reacts to stress and excitement without the physiological tools which keep most of us from literally panicking to death.
Despite all this, she's effortlessly joyful & playful, and only stopped acting like a puppy about 3 years ago. She is my best friend, and my mother, and my daughter, my benefactor, and she's the one who taught me what love is.
I can't come to South America. Not now. When I got back from the last leg of the US tour, there was a big, big difference.
She doesn't even want to go for walks anymore.
I know that she's not sad about aging or dying. Animals have a survival instinct, but a sense of mortality and vanity, they do not. That's why they are so much more present than people.
But I know she is coming close to the time where she will stop being a dog, and start instead to be part of everything. She'll be in the wind, and in the soil, and the snow, and in me, wherever I go.
I just can't leave her now, please understand. If I go away again, I'm afraid she'll die and I won't have the honor of singing her to sleep, of escorting her out.
Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes just to decide what socks to wear to bed.
But this decision is instant.
These are the choices we make, which define us. I will not be the woman who puts her career ahead of love & friendship.
I am the woman who stays home, baking Tilapia for my dearest, oldest friend. And helps her be comfortable & comforted & safe & important.
Many of us these days, we dread the death of a loved one. It is the ugly truth of Life that keeps us feeling terrified & alone. I wish we could also appreciate the time that lies right beside the end of time. I know that I will feel the most overwhelming knowledge of her, and of her life and of my love for her, in the last moments.
I need to do my damnedest, to be there for that.
Because it will be the most beautiful, the most intense, the most enriching experience of life I've ever known.
When she dies.
So I am staying home, and I am listening to her snore and wheeze, and I am revelling in the swampiest, most awful breath that ever emanated from an angel. And I'm asking for your blessing.
I'll be seeing you.
Love, Fiona

06/27/2024

We firmly believe that every dog is the perfect dog for their owner. Our dogs have a way of finding us that way - they know we must be just as right for them as they are for us. ❤

06/22/2024

Is it a fox hiding in the trees? Or is it a Toby? The world might never know… 🧐

How long did it take you to find Toby in this picture? We want to know!

06/15/2024

It might be cliche, but every day, we ask ourselves who rescued who. And the longer we are rescuing dogs, the more we’re convinced our dogs rescued us. ❤️

06/12/2024

We woke up this morning to find chance had been kidnapped and replaced with a tired father waiting for his kids at school pick up. 😂👴🏻

06/08/2024

It is such a treat when we get multiple members of our team in the same place at the same time!!!

We had a blast at the Colors of a Woman Fashion Show on Thursday. The show, organized by , features amazing local models, designers, and vendors to raise money for local causes - including Dog Heaven!!! We loved getting to chat with people about what we do here, and our caretaker Landon shared a gorgeous story about some of the transformations he’s watched happen with the dogs at the sanctuary.

This year’s event raised over $1,000 after expenses, one of our most successful fashion shows yet! We are so grateful for everyone who put so much time, energy, and love into the event - it was such a success because of you. ❤️

06/05/2024

At Dog Heaven, we witness the transformative power of love and care every single day. Each rescue story is a testament to the resilience of these beautiful animals, and it reminds us of the profound impact compassion can have. Our dedicated team works tirelessly to provide a safe haven for dogs who have faced unimaginable hardships, ensuring they receive the love and attention they so deeply deserve.

The journey of animal rescue is filled with moments that touch our hearts and souls. We see dogs who were once scared and broken slowly begin to trust again, learning to play and love without fear. It's in these moments that we truly understand the healing power of compassion and the difference a caring hand can make.

Consider making a donation or becoming a monthly sponsor to support our mission at the link in our bio. Every contribution helps us provide the care these dogs need. You can also help by liking, sharing, and saving our content to reach more people passionate about animal rescue. Together, we can ensure every dog experiences the joy, security, and love they deserve. ❤️🐾