(Seguin) — When the new pet spa, Uptown Collar, opened its doors in Seguin, it used its grand opening event to connect more people to the various pet-related services offered in the community.
Uptown Collar owner Tasha Montez says they wanted the grand opening event to be more than just what they had to offer inside their own establishment. She says that’s why they created vendor booth space outside for people to find a wide variety of services and opportunities that have a direct connection to people in Seguin and beyond. These groups offer services that support pets of all kinds, from service animals to rescue agencies to pet photographers.
“The vision is just to let the area know the amazing individuals that we have in the Seguin area, that offer different rescue services for pets. They are such a big part of our lives, and everybody’s always looking for different things to do with their dogs. People have birthday parties, so we had a vendor over there who has birthday boxes. It’s just to bring a little more awareness,” said Montez.
One of the organizations on hand for the free event was the non-profit group, K9s For Warriors, which has a direct connection to Montez and Uptown Collar.
Ashlyn Henning is the group’s K9 Assistant Placement Manager. She says they work to bring dogs together with military veterans, who need the love and support of a well-trained service animal.
“Our main mission is to end veteran suicide by pairing veterans — diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) — with a highly trained service dog. We try to get…dogs from the area shelters and rescues, as we can. We train those dogs for six to eight months and then they go to get paired with their veteran,” said Henning.
In addition to being there to help spread their message in Seguin, K9s For Warriors also has a special connection to Montez and Uptown Collar. It’s another example of how these businesses and organizations try to work together to try to connect to as many people as possible.
“Two of our dogs came from a friend of the owner. So, it’s a big community, everything with dogs, especially the rescue community. It is a group effort. We trained those two guys, and they graduated from our program. One graduated as a service dog with a veteran, and the other one went into our station dog program and is a therapy dog in Edinburg,” said Henning.
Henning says they want to educate people about the work that they do daily, but they also want to share more details about how people can help to support their mission.
“The biggest thing for us is our volunteers. There’s kind of something for everyone. Whether it’s fostering one of our dogs for the weekend so that they get the in-home training before they go to their veteran, or whether it’s adopting a dog that didn’t quite make it through the program,
so that we then have a kennel free to go pull another dog from the shelter. If you’re not interested in being on the dog side, our veterans stay with us for 21 days and we have a program where you can provide a meal to them while they’re in class and give them that sense of home while they’re away from home training with their new service dog,” said Henning.
Pairing these dogs up with veterans is an amazing bit of work. Henning says K9s For Warriors isn’t just helping the veteran and the dog, but the pairing really helps them to spread an amazing amount of love and support. She says it touches more lives than you might first suspect.
“There are so many parts of our program that are benefiting more than just that individual. The service dog is saving the veteran. The veteran is saving the service dog, because they’re no longer in the shelter system. When it comes to fostering (a dog), you’re helping both the dog, and the veteran get ready for their next chapter. If you’re adopting a dog from us, you’re saving the dog that you adopted and the dog that we pulled to refill our kennel. So, it’s a lot of multifaceted aspects,” said Henning.
Sweet Dreams Senior Pet Sanctuary is saving dogs and families in a totally different, but also extremely important way. Carole Harrison runs the non-profit shelter in Seguin. Harrison says they are not your typical animal shelter.
“We are a nonprofit based here in Seguin. We support elderly individuals in the community that have to surrender their senior pets because of a life change. Sometimes they have to go to a skilled-nursing facility, assisted living, or maybe they’re going to one of their kid’s houses and they can’t take the animal. So, we have a sanctuary. I bought an old house on 10 acres of land and they live out there with me. They are treated beautifully. We do visitation. If for example, the owner goes to a local nursing home, we will take them to visit so that they can keep a relationship going if they would like,” said Harrison.
Harrison’s work is a labor of love, and she does it willingly for those who need it. She also gets help from others, who might be able to help care for some of the animals. That means there are opportunities for caring individuals to help in a variety of ways. She says you don’t have to be intimidated by this work, because they’ll be there to help you along the way.
“So, somebody thinks they would love to have a senior dog, but they’re afraid of the veterinary bills or the heartworm medication is too expensive. (For those people), we do forever fosters where they can become the – we call them — guardian angels to one of our seniors. They go live with the other person. We remain by their side for any health reasons or any respite time. When we have guardian angels that will take one of them, that makes more space at the sanctuary for more animals,” said Harrison.
Harrison says Sweet Dreams Pet Sanctuary is always looking for financial support, and she says they are also looking to grow the number of people who are available to lend a hand.
“We are building a volunteer group, and we need volunteers to help at the sanctuary, or come to an event with us, or help spread the word, (or) whatever they feel comfortable doing. We are also looking for additional board members, if there’s someone in the community that feels that this would be their calling. We have a website that we just revamped, so we take all sorts of donations. We are a 501c3, so it is tax deductible,” said Harrison.
Harrison had a friend with her during our conversation. She introduced us to Sandy, a handsome little furry gal, who recently lost her mother. Sandy was sweet during our interview with Harrison. It’s just a clear example that, although Sandy’s mom was gone, there was still plenty of love to be given and received to this makeshift family at the sanctuary.
“Mason isn’t here with us today, but Sandy and Mason’s elderly mama passed away unexpectedly, and the sister to this person was left with her four dogs and a horse. (The sister) was able to find homes for the horse and the two younger dogs, but the two older dogs — nobody wanted. So, she contacted us, and I said that is absolutely our mission. It’s very sad that mama passed away, but they deserve a home,” said Harrison.
More information about both non-profit organizations can be found online at sweetdreamssps.org and at k9sforwarriors.org.
Uptown Collar helped to bring those two organizations together along with many others during its grand opening event at the new pet spa and resort, located in the 1100 block of North Camp Street. You can find more information about the business at uptowncollar.com.