We recently connected with Marla Pugh and have shared our conversation below.

Marla, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I adopted my dog, Josie, when I was transferred to North Carolina for work, far away from my family and everyone I knew. She had been scheduled to be euthanized an hour before a rescue saved her. She became my family as I continued to move to new positions for work in different areas including New Jersey. I had always loved animals, and had cats. But Josie was special, and when I thought how close I came to a life without her it upset me. I wanted to do something to help other animals like her, facing euthanasia through no fault of their own. When I moved back to Washington State to be closer to family again, I found a 10-acre piece of property that was perfect to help other dogs. My idea was to use it for rescue SOME DAY. I started fostering for another rescue to learn more about it – taking in mostly special needs animals. I soon figured out that the problem facing animals was just too great to wait. So I started Josie’s Misfit Ranch in 2022.

Marla, 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?

I have worked in corporate communications most of my life, primarily in the pharmaceutical industry. I believe my background in communications and PR has made a dramatic impact on the success of Josie’s Misfit Ranch, because when you start any new business, especially a non-profit, you need to clearly communicate your vision to people and create partnerships.

Josie’s Misfit Ranch specializes in taking animals that are wounded in body and spirit – animals that need specialty medical care, or who are so shut down they are unable to get adopted in shelters. We currently help dogs and cats, but hope to also help farm animals some day, as we are located in a rural community.

The animals we help are usually the first to be euthanized, and so they come to us when their hope has all but run out. We literally save their lives, placing them in foster homes and giving them the care they wouldn’t receive otherwise. We work closely with the shelter to alleviate their overcrowding by taking the cases that often don’t do well there, or drain their resources.

Our rescue also helps senior animals through a Seniors for Seniors Program, which pairs senior dogs and cats with senior humans. Studies show that seniors who have pets live longer, more fulfilling lives, are less lonely and depressed, and are less likely to suffer early onset of dementia. But many seniors are on fixed incomes and can’t afford a pet or are concerned about what happens if they get a pet and then become unable to care for them.

Josie’s Misfit Ranch is bridging these concerns with our Seniors for Seniors program. Qualifying seniors ages 55 and older become permanent fosters to senior animals at JMR, meaning the animals won’t be adopted to anyone else. JMR retains ownership in case the senior is no longer able to care for them and they need to go back to the rescue to be paired with another senior. We also pay for all expenses for the senior animal, including medical bills, food and supplies – making it affordable for seniors to have a pet.

We also have launched a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program and host low-cost cat neuter clinics to help with the increasing number of feral cats in our area.

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

When I first started an animal rescue, there were other rescues in town with very bad reputations. Because of this, people did not take me seriously. When I tried to find veterinarians to help us, no one would take us on as a client for fear of never getting paid. When I asked other, reputable rescues if I could meet with them and get advice, they turned me down because they were worried about aligning themselves with a new rescue that they did not know would do the best thing for animals.

One thing that helped was that I was able to put together a Board of Directors who were very influential in the community that could help build the reputation. We also put together protocols, procedures and bylaws we could show people how we planned on running the rescue. We crafted a mission and vision as well. And we built a website early on … which legitimized us. We have a very professional website too – and I think a lot of non-profits just starting don’t realize how important this is. If you look professional online, it gives you a lot of street cred.

Finally we just hit the streets. We had booths at farmer’s markets, pet stores, vet clinics, local festivals. The more people saw us, the more people learned about us. And slowly we became known.

After that first year, we started growing fast, adding to our group of supporters who play significant roles within the organization. With more people representing us in the community, we wanted to make sure they were the RIGHT people. In a small rural area, if you have one person who rubs the wrong person the wrong way, it can instantly negate all the positive work you’ve done. We created principles for Josie’s Misfit Ranch that we make sure all our team knows, understands and EXHIBITS. If we feel someone doesn’t fit these set of principles, we simply don’t have them be on the team. I know it sounds harsh, but it has really helped strengthen and preserve our reputation. Our principles, by the way are: •

KINDNESS –We lead with compassion, not judgment.
QUALITY OF CARE -We treat our rescue animals like they are our own.
HIGH-TOUCH -We provide excellent support to our fosters, adopters and communities.
EDUCATION –We teach others to be better animal caregivers and owners.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT -We push ourselves to always do more.
INCLUSIVITY –We advocate for a world in which all animals and humans deserve love and acceptance.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As the rescue grew, so did the work involved to keep it going. I was essentially working two jobs – my paying job in corporate communications; and my non-paying job at the rescue. It was exhausting and I was afraid I would burn out, as was my board of directors.

We made the decision to do two things:
1) Hire a part time person to run the day-to-day operations (like take animals to the vet)
2) Have me download my brain to others, so that they could help.

The first was a hard decision because of money. We were still relying on $20 donations and our vet bills were around $100,000 a year. We had to take a leap of faith that if we hired someone, we would be able to continue to grow and in turn grow our revenue. That turned out to be the case, and we actually increased her hours over time.

The second was a hard decision because this was my baby. It was hard to let go of certain details of it. I had to first determine what I could let go of … what was important for me to remain involved with. That took help from the board. For example, letting go of updating the website could mean I could work on making new relationships for the rescue, which was far more critical. I had others I could rely on now, and I had to do just that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.josiesmisfitranch.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josiesmisfitranch
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josiesmisfitranch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JosiesMisfitRanch

Image Credits

All are from Josie’s Misfit Ranch.