Founder and President of A Freedom Journey nonprofit rescue, Mandee Jones, joined us with details on their upcoming adoption events, and how you can help find some adorable pups a fur-ever home!
afreedomjourney.com
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ABOUT A FREEDOM JOURNEY:
A Freedom Journey began with one dog - Journey. Journey was found malnourished and severely neglected. She was withdrawn, confused, and really lacked the self-confidence to just be loved. Amanda dedicated her whole heart and home to rehabilitating Journey. Here is that story...
January 2022. This is when a very special dog entered my life. I was tagged in a social media post about a Doberman who had lived her life in a 10x10 pen with another dog. The other dog was found deceased and the one living was skin and bones, unable to stand on her own. I offered to foster her and do everything in my power to rehabilitate her. She was brought to me the next day. While I awaited her arrival, I was praying to God and asking for guidance and asking for my heart to not turn hard while caring for her. I didn’t want to be so angry at humans. And I felt that anger startng to rise up. As I was praying, God spoke loud and clear and said “This is Journeys Journey”. So, her name became Journey and through social media, we were able to show her beautiful face to many people who loved and prayed for her.
Then comes April 2022. I got a call from my dog trainer who assists his girlfriend in running her dog rescue. They had taken in 3 dogs that were in a bad hoarding case. Little dogs with hair matted badly to their skin, covered in their own waste. The video text came in when I was getting ready for bed. I had just recovered from a major surgery and was scheduled to get back to work the next day. I saw the text and instantly told him to bring me the babies. I would groom them. He told me it was late at night, so I looked at my clock. 10:00pm. I told him to bring them to me anyway. I didn’t care how late it was, those babies needed to spend their first day of freedom in comfort. So he did, and I cried like a baby as I carefully groomed and loved on each of their little bodies. He offered to pay for the grooming and I refused. I didn’t do it for money. I did it for the babies. I posted them on social media to show the love this rescue was showing them. My friend called me and asked me which rescue they were through so she could donate to their care. As we spoke, she told me she thinks I need to start a rescue. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do that. I had a full time job with my very successful mobile grooming business that was about to hit a 10 year anniversary mark. I knew I didn’t have time to spare for such a dedicated task. But I was still caring for Journey, as well as another foster that was found wandering the streets. It kept tugging at my heart. The calling was there, I just couldn’t see how it could work. What I wanted was to be able to train and rehabilitate severely neglected dogs but I wasn’t sure how to go about that. Financially I felt I couldn’t afford to change careers or pay for schooling to learn a new skill. But through Gods intervention, all of the pieces began to fall together. My trainer offered to pay for my dog training classes so I could become a trainer. My friend offered to find a way for me fund a property to run such a rescue. And my husband came home from work one day and told me he got a raise and he thinks I should sell my mobile grooming business and focus on rescue. God LITERALLY paved this path. And I chose to follow it.
In October 2022, I did just that. I stopped grooming, posted my mobile unit for sale (this story is another God move), and A Freedom Journey Inc was born. Named after our girl who started it all and her journey to freedom. Since October 2022, we have miraculously saved over 200 dogs. Many who were in euthanasia rooms simply because they were “aggressive breeds”, had skin conditions, were scared, or had medical needs like spinal injuries or heartworms. Through the community’s help, we have been fortunate enough to continue receiving donations that allow us to provide each dog we rescue with top quality food, monthly preventatives, vetting, and most importantly...LOVE. We have taken some of the saddest cases and transformed them into well trained, gentle, loving, happy, healthy, thriving pets for people to love. Journey is right here greeting them all and showing the world that LOVE MATTERS!
