We recently connected with Geri Hormel and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Geri, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I’ve always been a huge dog lover, and that passion naturally led me into the world of animal welfare. The more time I spent volunteering, the more I yearned to make a bigger impact. When I asked how I could best support the overcrowded and underfunded shelters, the answer was clear: we needed space for large breed pregnant dogs. Already a foster, I pivoted my focus and welcomed my first furry family home.
The experience was nothing short of magical. I witnessed firsthand the difference we could make for these dogs. At the shelter, those newborn pups with fragile immune systems were at high risk for disease. But in my home, their mom found a clean, safe haven to raise her little ones. Instead of being exposed to a noisy, stressful environment for eight weeks, they enjoyed a calm, nurturing space where they could thrive.
We provided daily interaction, socialization with new people and dogs, exposure to household noises, and plenty of playtime with new toys. All of this helped shape them into well-rounded pups, ready for life in a loving home. Watching the impactful difference I could make for these families was so rewarding—and addicting! I knew then what I wanted to do.
In the early years, we were called Almost There Foster Care, fostering on a larger scale for other rescues. Fast forward a few years: I had a dedicated team helping me to do our own rescue work where we were caring for up to six furry families at a time. That’s when we evolved into Almost There: A Mom + Pups Rescue.
In late 2020, we moved into a beautiful new facility, complete with 19 kennels, an amazing team of 25 passionate dog lovers, and a network of over 500 volunteers and fosters. In 2023 alone, we saved and adopted out 669 dogs! It’s been a wild ride, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
A little bit about myself- I am a HUGE animal lover (as you would have guessed). As a kid, I wanted all the dogs! I would constantly beg my mom for another pup, ask to babysit friend’s dogs, and study dog breed books. The second I turned 16, I began volunteering for the Arizona Humane Society- the best way to ensure your day is filled with puppy love! From that day forward, I knew my calling was in animal welfare.
At Almost There Rescue, we specialize in the care and adoption of pregnant and nursing dogs and puppies. We have an incredible team that ensures top notch care of each dog that comes through our doors. We strive to be the best at what we do.
A few things that make us unique to other shelters, aside from our Muttenity niche, are our quarantine practices, puppy preschool, and adoptions support.
We built our shelter with a quarantine corridor containing 6 kennels. Each of these kennels has its own filtered air space, drainage system, and entry room housing all supplies needed. Additionally, our staff fully suites up in PPE to ensure no germs enter or leave that room. Every single dog that enters our care goes through a 14 day quarantine. These strict quarantine practices ensure that if any dog becomes ill, that illness stays within that kennel and does not spread to the other vulnerable residents. We have had extremely contagious illnesses on site, and these practices have prevented these cases becoming outbreaks.
Our puppy preschool program is intended to help socialize and shape these puppies to be well rounded dogs. Many puppies that grow up in a shelter do not experience much during this critical time in their lives, which greatly impacts their behavior as an adult dog. We do all that we can to give these pups the best experiences that set them up for success. This includes being introduced to new sounds such as fireworks, new textures like turf, many different types of people during our events, and the beginnings of crate and leash training.
During this time, their mamas are working closely with our Behavior team on basic manners, trust, and socialization to get them adoption ready.
Our adoptions support is a point of pride for us as well. Our adoption appointments are an hour long, during which the potential adopter spends time with our trained staff or volunteers to learn about which dog or pup may be the best fit for them. Our Adoptions team follows up with adopters post adoption, and our Behavior team is there to offer any guidance when needed.
Another program that is unique to us is Mutternity Leave. Dogs that find themselves pregnant – that already have a good home – are eligible for “Mutternity Leave.” Essentially, ATR takes the mama dog and her pups in until the pups are old enough to wean. Then, mama and pups are fixed, vaccinated, and chipped. While the pups are adopted into loving homes, mama is returned to the loving home already waiting for her.
Not everyone has the resources to spay their dogs, and dogs should never be taken permanently from loving homes because of that.
How did you build your audience on social media?
We are lucky to have such adorable content!
But honestly, growing social media is tough- even if your content is cute, squishy, fluffy puppies!
I’m not going to pretend like I know anything about social media, but we started by asking friends and family to share. Our audience grew pretty organically, but slowly.
It wasn’t until we hired someone to focus on growing social that we actually saw big growth.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
I owe a lot of our growth to Megan Wiewel! When I first met Megan, she was new to AZ and was making a few extra bucks as a dog walker. I quickly took advantage of her love for dogs, and recruited her to work for me at the rescue. Megan dove in head first and starting bringing a new level of structure to ATR. She quickly climbed the ladder to Executive Director, setting big goals and seeing them through. Megan has since retired from life as ED to start a family of her own, and now sits on the ATR board.
Another HUGE person of importance in our journey is Heidi Richmond. I was lucky enough to meet Heidi through a recruiter friend of mine who was keeping an eye out for someone to help us raise the much needed funds to keep our rescue going. Heidi joined our team in 2020 as our Development Director, and even though our budget was small, she took the role. Heidi truly gave all of herself to the rescue. She showed us she could wear many hats, always helping where help was needed. When Megan decided to step down at the beginning of 2024, Heidi moved into the ED role. She has done so many incredible things for ATR in this past year, and I could not be more grateful for her!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.almostthererescue.org
- Instagram: @almostthererescue
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/almostthererescue
