adopt don't shop - Nicole Buys a Farm

Currently in Rescue: Beginning of 2022

It has been a very active few months with foster dog and kitten adoptions along with some new faces joining the pack so far this year. I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible for this update on my rescue efforts and will dive into some details in other posts. I get lots of questions about supporting my rescue efforts, so I have lots of links at the bottom if you’re interested. I am always, always grateful for all of the support to help me help more of these sweet and innocent rescued souls. On to the updates: I […]

Happy 1st Birthday, Sadie!

Today my first puppy puppy in many years had her first birthday! And while Sadie is always celebrated – she brings a lot of life to this sleepy senior retirement home every moment – today is a special one. Today also marks our 10 month anniversary together, and that part really feels unreal. Time with her has gone so fast, and her size has increased several times over. Sadie is such an unbelievably loving, sensitive, nurturing soul. When I was going back and forth in my brain last fall about whether I “should” foster fail and adopt her, I believed […]

Currently: My Little Rescue June 2021

It’s been a busy few weeks here in my wannabe farm. The litter of four foster kittens I’d had since early April when they were only six days old left on Tuesday to find their forever homes. I’m really hopeful that they will be adopted in pairs. And since they’ve yet to be adopted at the humane society, I’ve also got my fingers crossed that they will join the wonderful program that puts adoptable kittens in storefront windows in our lovely downtown in Lawrence, Kansas, called the Mass Street Kitten Academy. And right after I brought those four loves of […]

Adopt a Senior Dog – Chicken’s Story

My dear, tiny, little Chicken was one of my senior rescue dog pack for many years. She is one of the main reasons I am passionate about senior dog rescue, and foster them often. Supposedly, a dog hits their senior years when they are 7 years old, but from my experience, that milestone is just the beginning. Caring for Chicken’s special needs really allowed me to learn what I was capable of figuring out on behalf of someone I loved, and each dog I’ve fostered since I lost Chicken has benefitted from my belief that it’s always worth it to […]

So Many Pandemic Fosters of 2020

We all know 2020 had its challenges. For me, I took one of what probably could have been 4 or 5 work trips in early March and came home just in time to be with Chicken as she passed from this world. And a week later, the world came to a screeching halt as the coronavirus pandemic became a global threat. I’d had a couple fosters early in the year, and once work travel was off the table for awhile that turned into well over 18 months at least, I was able to foster like I’ve never fostered before. When […]

Losing Chicken

As the world dealt with a pandemic beginning in the early spring of 2020, I lost one of my very special angel dogs, Chicken. Chicken was a spunky, 2 pound local celebrity and retired therapy dog, so her loss was felt deeply. Chicken was approximately 15 years old and had been without teeth for about 5 years. In the last three years of her life, her entire jaw had dissolved. (This happens sometimes when dogs lose all of their teeth, which is why I’ve had several fosters foster fails who have had major extractions, but the vet has left a […]

Foster Love in 2019

I always do a year-end review at this time of year. And the number of fosters I’ve hosted each year is always a bright spot for me. Being able to look back on the memories with each precious soul who spent some time in my home with my pack learning how to be loved (maybe for the first time) warms my heart just when I need it most. I started 2019 with two hospice foster dogs, Muffin and Tina, and they have both moved on to new homes after a few months because they weren’t quite as in need of […]

Finding Myself Finding More Heart Space

Today is December 9, 2019. It wasn’t until I was at an intersection on a gorgeous stretch of a Kansas county road on my way to pick up my fifth foster dog this year that I realized it has been exactly a month since I turned 40 and on the same day put down my beloved Coco. Coco – a dog I had adopted nearly two years ago when she was 10 – had been the third loss of my sweet old dogs I’d experienced in six months. She had diabetes when I adopted her after being featured on Susie’s […]