11/02/2026
❤️ Sometimes, looking back reminds you just how far you’ve come.
Who remembers the yellow house?
This old video of me and sweet Fletcher, who has since passed away, brings back so many emotions. It was filmed at the little yellow house on Borgfeld Drive in San Antonio, where we operated after moving the rescue out of my home.
That house had no central heat or air, mold, rodents, and conditions I fought tirelessly to improve. I cleaned kennels, scrubbed floors, picked up p**p and vomit, and comforted dogs through their final moments.
No job was ever beneath me. And that still remains true today.
In 2019, my ex-husband, former best friend, and others removed me from the organization I had poured my money, heart, and life into.
I lost nearly everything. Years of photographs, videos, adoption stories, thousands of adopter connections, and all of my dogs’ records.
I am still fighting to get that history back, and I will never stop seeking accountability.
We had raised approximately $193,000 toward a better future for those dogs. When everything fell apart, donors began asking for refunds. But I had been removed from the social media accounts, bank accounts, donor records, and everything else. I had no authority or ability to help them.
To my knowledge, not one donor who requested a refund ever received one. Those people still deserve answers.
There are also unanswered questions about the organization’s IRS Form 990, the settlement funds, and a transport van. In my opinion, aspects of those transactions raise serious concerns and deserve a full, transparent explanation.
I acknowledge that the people involved worked hard. I will never take that away from them. But I firmly believe they were working for the wrong reasons. Because if that weren’t true, I believe they would still be rescuing animals today. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, would have stopped them from continuing.
But they didn’t.
Our settlement included confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions that I did not want. I was paying for my own legal defense with my personal money, and I had run out of money, while they were using $156,000 in people’s donations for their legal defense. That expenditure is documented in their IRS Form 990.
I was never ashamed of my story. I wanted to speak openly, and I did, despite what I believe was their desire to keep everything quiet.
I’ve always believed that when people know they’ve wronged you, they want you to remain silent. They avoid you like the plague. And to my knowledge, those involved have slithered away and remained quiet.
But WE didn’t disappear. WE didn’t quit. WE banded together and started over.
❤️ And look at Tracy’s Paws Rescue today!
Look at our beautiful facility, our incredible team, the lives we’re saving, and the new transport vehicle we’re preparing to welcome!
And none of this would have been possible without ALL OF YOU.
Every person who continued to donate. Every volunteer who showed up and every employee who worked tirelessly. Every adopter who opened their home and every supporter who shared our stories, encouraged us, and believed in what we were building.
You saw what happened in 2019. You watched us pick ourselves up, band together, and rebuild. And through it all, you continued to believe in us, trust us, and stand beside us.
That trust is an honor I cannot adequately put into words.
You didn’t just help us rebuild a rescue. You helped us rebuild a dream. And every single one of you is part of that story.
Through all of this, I’ve also learned something about myself. I was so focused on saving dogs that I neglected relationships with people. I trusted others to represent who I was, only to later learn that terrible, untrue things had been said about me.
Today, I understand that hard work and determination aren’t enough. The people standing beside you matter just as much as the dream you’re building.
As the saying goes, “The dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately.”
And together, we’ve never stopped hustling for these dogs.
To every volunteer, employee, adopter, donor, supporter, and Lion who believed in us when starting over seemed impossible, THANK YOU.
When I watch this video, I see Fletcher. I see the dogs whose stories I am still fighting to recover. And I see how far we’ve come together.
They may have taken our entire history in rescue….the photographs, the videos, the records, and the precious memories we created along the way….but they could never take our purpose or the incredible bond we share.
Because what we built together was never just an organization. It was a family, united by our love for these dogs. And that is something no one can ever take away from us.
For Fletcher. For every dog whose story deserves to be remembered. And for every precious life we have yet to save. ❤️🐾🦁
