Never Forgotten Ranch
Doing our part to help create a world where no dog is ever left behind, or forgotten.
Who We Are & What We Do
Never Forgotten Ranch is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, tax ID #84-2141190, providing lifelong sanctuary care for dogs with unique behavioral and/or medical special needs in coastal Washington state. We are 100% volunteer-run, operating fully off of the kind and generous donations received from our amazing animal-loving community.
Our Mission
Simply put, the mission of Never Forgotten Ranch is to serve dogs who are at risk of being “forgotten” by humans who have failed them. To do this, we provide lifelong sanctuary care to some of the most at-risk and immediate-need populations in the canine world: those who have found themselves unwanted and homeless in their senior years and struggle to be adopted due to their age, and those who have been labeled "unadoptable" by shelter staff due to special behavioral and/or medical needs, often due to trauma, abuse, and neglect. We strive to rescue these dogs from the strained and overburdened shelter system, and offer them a true home where they can live their lives in peace, thriving as their true doggie selves. We offer a place where the sick can find comfort, the old can find rest, the frightened can find peace, and all can find acceptance and love. We are a place where souls can heal.
Over the years, the Ranch has provided lifelong sanctuary care to many such dogs. Each one came to us from a city or county shelter, after either finding themselves alone on the streets or surrendered by their "owners," often during their golden years of life. Over the years, the Ranch family has nurtured sweet seniors through battles with cancer, encouraged them through physical therapy for orthopedic issues, cared for them through life-saving surgeries, sat by their sides through seizures, comforted them after night terrors, and more. We have spent countless hours sitting quietly with dogs working their way through fear and trauma, patiently paving a way for them to find the confidence to let their true selves show and begin to thrive. The blind, deaf, frail, frightened and forgotten are always welcome here, where they find the love and care to regain their strength and remember their smiles. Our senior and special needs pack is quite the bunch of strong souls and charismatic characters, so full of life and inspiration!
Although we accept dogs of any breed to join our ranch house retirement pack, our organization also offers unique accommodations for dogs of livestock guardian and other outdoor working breeds. As opposed to a life of all the creature comforts awaiting inside the ranch house, these dogs prefer to live their retirement years in an environment that closely mimics the working lifestyle of their youth. And our comfortably refurbished retirement-ready barndonimium and rural acreage, shared with the horses, goats, and chickens, offer just that! You see, over the years it became increasingly obvious to us that the rescue and sanctuary community was lacking in resources for dogs who spent their lives happily working on farms, ranches, homesteads and the like, yet found themselves abandoned, homeless, or surrendered to a shelter in their senior years. These dogs LOVE their work, and have deeply-ingrained breed instincts for that work. And old age doesn't change that. So when they spend their entire lives happily working in the great outdoors, they don't always adjust well to a traditional house-dog retirement. Shelters from coast to coast have reached out to us seeking retirement placement for former working dogs, seniors who served their humans for countless years before finding themselves abandoned or "retired" to a shelter. Despite their best efforts, shelters often struggle to place these dogs in traditional adoptive homes, often due to both their age and working instincts, which can lead to them becoming at-risk in the shelter system. They miss the lifestyle they love, and less-than-ideal behaviors can begin to show as a result. We've had shelter workers contact us with story after story of retired working dogs experiencing countless failed adoptions, watching their spirits diminish as they are returned to the shelter time and time again. And we've had the most loving shelter fosters come to us saying, "She doesn't want my couch, she wants a farm." So that's what we offer - a place where working dogs can retire with all the comforts they could desire, masquerading as a "working" farm. They have their lifestyle, but with zero expectations. They have their livestock friends, but are not expected to guard them. This is a place they can rest and retire in absolute comfort, without having to fully say goodbye to the beloved ranching days of their youth.
If you'd like to learn more about our residents, just click on the "Meet the Dogs" tab above, or visit our Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok pages where we post about them often. We hope they inspire you as much as they inspire us.