Judy Haushahn: A dog's best friend

Judy Haushahn has a passion for helping man’s best friend.

Haushahn, a finalist for the Freedom Torch Award for Community Service, started Seven Bells Sanctuary five years ago to help rescue dogs and place them in new homes. 

“I was tired of seeing old dogs, sick, being called vicious, being put down in the shelters. They don’t deserve that,” she said.

Many are older dogs or have special needs, and some live out their lives in Seven Bells foster homes.

The Cole Camp resident maintains a network of foster homes and a Web site to help get rescued dogs adopted out.

“It’s a home; it’s not metal, it’s not a kennel, it’s not concrete,” she said.

Her focus is senior pets for senior homes, so while the rescue takes in big dogs, its focus is on smaller animals.

“Our volunteers are mostly seniors and disabled,” she said, and those are the kinds of dogs the organization serves.

The organization adopts out animals locally and across the country, so long as homes meet the group’s standards and expectations. Many out-of-state adoptions occur because people find the group’s pets on the Internet. She said the group’s Web site and the animal adoption site Petfinder.com have made a lot of the group’s work possible. 

Haushahn said she makes it a point to show pictures of happy families on the organization’s site.

“It shows that we’re building families. We’re not just placing dogs, we’re building families,” she said.

Haushahn also works with families who try to give up their dogs to find ways they can keep them, because the group has about 50 dogs — and a few cats — and can’t always take in animals. The group recently applied for nonprofit status so that it can help more in the community, she said.

Andrea Richards, of Carrollton, who fosters animals for Seven Bells, nominated Haushahn.

“Her dedication is just endless (as is) her commitment to the cause of improving the lives of a lot of unwanted animals,” she said.

Haushahn works with other communities and organizations, and helps implement programs to spay, neuter, vaccinate and release feral companion animals. Richards said those efforts decrease stray animal populations and help keep both humans and animals healthier.

“It’s just a safer environment and stops disease spread,” she said.

Haushahn has a way of making people want to help out, Richards said.

“She’s really just a remarkable person. Even when I go home at night —  I have quite a few animals — there are some days I have trouble getting motivated, and I think Judy, she does it all day long every day, and it really motivates me,” she said.

Haushahn was also nominated by Cole Camp resident Audra Koehn, who wrote, “She has made such a difference.”

Koehn, who adopted a Bichon Frise named Elmo from Seven Bells, said that Haushahn helps “the beautiful fur-kids no one else will take.”

Haushahn credited her volunteers, who don’t just foster dogs, with making the organization a success. 

“We’re doing seniors and special needs that nobody else wants, and God love these people that believe in us,” she said.

The group now has more than a dozen foster homes for the dogs, some that care for older and special-needs dogs, hospice-style.

“There are some wonderful people out there,” she said.

Hans, a 13-year-old who has been with the organization for three years, Sir William, Babycakes — who has no eyes — Cinder, who has a skin condition, and other dogs may not get adopted out, but life is as good as it gets for them.

The organization “started out as a hobby that grew into a passion,” she said. “We just all have a passion for the underdog.”