American Lab Rescue

We had just finished building our house in the summer of 2005 when a couple of boys we knew went to a horse action outside of Phoenix. As they were driving on the frontage road to head home the truck in front of them slowed down and tossed something out of the window. At first they "thought it was a bag of trash but then it stood up and wagged it's tail." They picked up this little 7-8 week old Black Lab/Border Collie mix. They brought him back to Tucson and gave him to us saying "you need a dog." The boys were cowboys and had named him Winder because he flew out the window and the name stuck. We had been thinking about getting a dog but hadn't started looking yet. We lived just outside of Tucson down in a wash with a lot of coyotes and were a little afraid he would be to small to stand up to them. He had a little cubby hole he slept in and every morning he would pull the comforter he slept on out of the cubby hole so he got the nick name Windermonster. Little did we know he would grow into it he now stands as high as a large Lab and weighs in at around 115-120lbs. He is now 11yrs old as of Nov 2016 and we hope to have him around another 5yrs or more. You see in the pic he is showing a little age with the white in the ears, on the muzzle, and around the eyes also the back of his front legs are all white but he is all love. Little did we know that 11yrs later we would be looking back at taking in 40-50 dogs some rescues some fosters for other rescue groups. We thank Rica with Smiling Dog Rescues in Tucson for all the help she has provided over the years as well as Sue Bea down in Patagonia for her help. We started with Lab and Lab mixes but as time went by we seen so many dogs abandoned and just could not turn our backs on them so we finally decided to become a 501c3 and officially rescue all breeds. We have also started checking dogs to see if they have the aptitude to be good therapy dogs so that we might not only help dogs but maybe some of those out there who need a special companion to make their life better. We moved farther out of Tucson in 2010 but now we have out grown our location and are going to have to move to a bigger piece of land. We are hoping to get maybe 10 acres +/- so the dogs can have plenty of room to play. Right now we take them for walks in the dessert where they can chase rabbits and really stretch their legs. Of course ol Winder doesn't run much any more but the walks keep his hips from stiffening up. If things work out we hope to be able to care for up to 100-125 dogs once we get moved.