Daily Inspiration: Meet Miranda Munden and Jen Dulski

Today we’d like to introduce you to Miranda Munden and Jen Dulski.

Miranda and Jen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Our founder, Jen Dulski, had absolutely no rescue background when she decided to move halfway across the country and establish a senior dog Sanctuary. Her dream began by converting an old horse barn into a warm, home-like space for senior dogs to spend the rest of their days surrounded by love. Eventually, volunteers began to trickle in and then the first adopter – causing Jen to have to relicense as a rescue and not just a Sanctuary. Fast forward a few years, and we are now nearing almost 3,000 animal lives saved!

Our focus is on saving senior dogs, extreme medical cases that most rescues don’t spend the money on, and any of the pups who are last on the euthanasia lists. We have no requirements or guidelines for which animals we help, if we can find a spot for them then we will always help. We also don’t charge adoption fees and run solely on donations as we do not believe you can put a price on a life. The world will never change until people realize that animals aren’t something to be bought, they are to be loved Furever as family members. Our ideology is to teach the world how to treat animals by showing them how we care for them while in our care. We post a ridiculous amount of videos and photos every day that show us feeding the dogs, playing with the dogs, and tucking the dogs in at night.

We hope to spread joy to our followers and inspire them to do good themselves, even if we made one person smile that day then we will feel complete. We are very involved in our community through fun event participation or hosting as well as donations to rural shelters in need. We also strive to be as honest with our followers and adopters as possible – we disclose all known backgrounds and issues (medical or behavioral) and have a very thorough adoption process.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We make mistakes every day and we will always keep making new mistakes, but we thrive on learning and growing from these mistakes. Our organization has blossomed and transformed SO much over the years. When we first started out, Jen was absolutely buried in loan and credit card debt just trying to keep our doors open. We now have an amazing fundraising team and so many generous followers who help us reach our goals.

Most of our donations come through Facebook as we don’t have angel donors or huge corporate sponsors – just a bunch of fellow Animal lovers around the world who believe in what we do and want to help make a difference. We have also experienced extreme heartbreak in every possible aspect and worked ourselves to death every day for this cause, and in turn, we have grown into such a devoted crazy family.

Every day we are presented with new challenges but we throw faith to the wind, trust our gut, and know that we will make it through.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As I mentioned before, our founder Jen had absolutely no rescue background when she established A&F. Honestly, none of us do. Jen is a full-time lawyer, our foster Coordinator is an HR rep, and I (the adoption Coordinator) am an analyst. Jen truly believes that good attracts good and that the right people will come along at the right time.

And truthfully, once you rip your toes in you will be sucked incompletely! It’s very exhausting work but so ridiculously rewarding to be saving and changing lives.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The pandemic has completely transformed the rescue world. In the beginning, when everyone was staying home, adoptions around the country skyrocketed – it was a beautiful time. But then the world reopened and all the dogs started getting returned. It was (and still is) unprecedented in the worst way. Shelters and rescues just cannot keep up. Every day the euthanasia lists are entire pages long, full of young, perfectly healthy, well-mannered dogs. The shelters just have absolutely no room.

Cages are stacked in hallways, dogs doubled or tripled up in every run to try and make space. Pleas for rescue assistance fall on deaf ears because we too are all full, adoptions have slowed and we only have room for so many pups. We are all doing the most we can to save as many lives as possible. In an effort to reduce our own return rate, we have completely transformed our adoption process. We conduct many levels of home checks, reference checks, and background checks.

Adopters have many conversations with adoptions team members, medical coordinators, barn staff, trainers, and fosters (if applicable). We require multiple meets and greets and work our hardest to ensure both the dog and adopting family are finding their perfect match and that they will be set up. for success for life. We also have an outstanding follow-up team who keep in close contact with all our adopters to ensure all is well with them.

Pricing:

• We do not charge adoption fees as we do not believe you can put a price on a life.
• Some recent dogs we have saved this year have resulted in medical bills topping $10,000-$15,000 PER dog.
• We will never back down from a bill if it means we can save a life.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: Alwaysandfurever.org
• Instagram: @alwaysnfurever
• Facebook: @nevertoolateforhappilyeverafter
• Tiktok: @alwaysandfureverkc