01/11/2025
Since I refuse to die, I’ll probably start hanging out here.
Yesterday we told you about the hardships that animals, shelters, and rescues are facing. It’s a weird place to be when your life’s work/passion/every thought is facing extinction. We’ve had a lot of meetings about what can we do? How can we evolve? How can we think outside the box and find a creative solution? It seems so simple in hindsight but one day it was just all of a sudden decided that if people aren’t coming to us, then we’ll go to them. Where are the people? Heck if I know, but Siri told me that they are at popular retail and restaurant corridors. So off we went to find a place to lure in unsuspecting peoples. After being turned down by every available commercial space for lease in the metro Richmond area including both “dog friendly” malls, the fine people at Westchester Commons welcomed us with open arms. Thank you, Westchester, for not just talking the talk but also walking the walk when it comes to saying Dogs Welcome.
So here’s the concept and how you can help:
We are opening a pet boutique at Westchester Commons right beside Latitudes. We’re going to sell niche pet products, pet-themed gifts for the humans (hello, Christmas shopping for all those hard to buy for pet lovers!), and branded Sanctuary Rescue merchandise (come get your calendars, SR sweatshirts, and all the swag!). But that’s just one half of the store. The other half? Shelter dogs! We’re going to position ourselves in a busy retail and restaurant corridor just like Siri told us to, lure the people in with an aesthetically pleasing boutique and then lay the puppy dog eyes on them - literally. We hope to be a destination for anyone that’s out looking for a new pet but also introduce a whole new audience to the concept of rescue animals; people that would never dream of stepping into an animal shelter will suddenly find themselves surrounded by perfect, adorable shelter dogs in a clean, friendly, welcoming environment. We are working with ten local shelters that will be “loaning” their dogs to Sanctuary Rescue for 30 days at a time. We will foster them each night and they’ll come hang out at the store each day. This also means anyone that’s thought of fostering can now help out in a way that’s a lot less of a commitment. We will have a large Buy Local section to encourage shopping products made by our neighbors and supporting community makers and small business.
There’s a whole lot of moving pieces to this, and as far as we know it’s never been done before so there’s no blueprint. It’s a big risk with what will hopefully be a big reward for shelter dogs that just need a chance to get seen by a different audience. We’re looking at this like a perpetual, consistent BetterTogether. We will try it out for three months and reevaluate. If it’s successful and no one loses their mind in the process, we’ll extend a few more months and keep assessing, tweaking, and adapting.
Of course this is only successful with a huge involvement from our volunteers to help run the store, transport the dogs, foster, keep us organized and on track, and tell everyone they know. We also need our community’s help to spread the word and come by and do some of their holiday shopping with us. Put Saturday, November 15, on your calendar for the big grand opening.
We’ll put links in the comments for our volunteers and foster applications if you’d like to get involved that way. We’ll also have a link to a wishlist for things we need specific to the store and our donation link because we’ve been rolling pennies for months to try to make this dream a reality.
And that’s Part 2, thinking outside the box and being brave enough to try something new in hopes of saving lives. We can’t wait to see what the next three months look like, and hope you’ll come along for the ride.
