We were lucky to catch up with Carlynne McDonnell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Carlynne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I have always wanted to have a dog sanctuary for homeless dogs. A lot of people say that, but they don’t realize how absolutely difficult it is to do. We started our non-profit 2 years before we started looking for a brick and mortar location. We took in in senior dogs and hospice dogs in our home in our HOA neighborhood. Fortunately our neighbors were snowbirds and were gone most of the year. It became obvious that we would not be able to continue doing this in our home and we started looking for a place to call home. We looked for over a year to find a property that was big enough safe enough and also met our County zoning requirements. We found a place we were really excited about. It was very rural It had electricity, septic and water and a metal large building but not a livable building. We sold our home and bought an RV to live in while we built a structure. Sadly we lost that property after what seemed like a sure thing. We kept looking for properties while living in our RV with six dogs and we did that for 14 months. It was frustrating and discouraging because we couldn’t find the right property that met the county’s zoning requirements and was large enough to have growing space. One night while scrolling through real estate for our area. We came across this property that we were able to purchase and now is the home of the Barkee LaRoux House of Love Animal Sanctuary. We never gave up.

Carlynne, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are a senior dog, sanctuary and hospice. Our goal has always been to rescue senior dogs abandoned at the end of their lives in the animal shelter system. When we started 8 years ago, we were one of a few senior dog sanctuaries in Southern California. Now there are more rescues that take in senior dogs. We provide the utmost care for the dogs we rescue. Working with veterinarians we assess the quality of their health when we rescue them and try to help them as best we can to live a comfortable and well-loved rest of their lives. The ages of some of our dogs is a testament to how well we care for them and how well we love them. We have had a 22-year-old, 18 and 19-year-olds and right now the oldest one we have with us is 18.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One of our greatest challenges is fundraising. With the high cost of veterinary medicine, we have to search for new sources of funding constantly. But we are always reaching out for new friends and new donors. If you believe in your work you do the hard work. We say that we never have too much, but we always have enough.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I worked as an environmental professional in New Jersey and we were transferred to California. I realized I didn’t want to continue to in this field. It was very male-dominated and I was tired. I made a list of all the talents and skills I had and opened a small consulting practice. My first job was organizing a home office. But work is work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.barkeelaroux.org
• Instagram: @barkeelaroux
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BarkeeLaRoux?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Image Credits

Carlynne McDonnell