12/04/2025
Refueling Souls — Our First Year, Our Truth, Our Mission ❤️🔥
Refueling Souls is brand new this year… and somehow the year is already almost over. When we look back, it doesn’t even feel real. Our family has moved over 1,000 dogs out of California and into rescues that actually give them a shot at forever. We’ve driven thousands of miles, cried with relief, laughed until we hurt, and learned more in one year than most people would ever believe.
This year has been one giant learning curve — transporting, tweaking, failing forward, and figuring out exactly what our lane in the rescue world is. While we’ve been building solid transport routes, we’ve also been building real relationships with rescues all across the country. Those relationships are what keep us saving dogs and what help keep the wheels rolling so we can continue doing this work.
We get asked to help with so many different pieces of rescue.
And honestly?
That’s where the growth comes from.
Every dog, every situation, every rescue we interact with shapes who we’re becoming and how we want Refueling Souls to operate.
Here’s what we do (and what we don’t):
✨ We DON’T adopt dogs out ourselves.
✨ We DO move adoptable dogs to rescues who specialize in placing them correctly and safely.
✨ We DO foster dogs for our local shelter and for our partner rescues.
✨ We DO get dogs vetted, altered, microchipped, vaccinated — and OUT of California so they truly have a chance at forever.
✨ We DO help out-of-state rescues continue saving SoCal dogs when they have the space.
We also work alongside local Southern California rescues to help move their long-term dogs on to another rescue or home. When those dogs finally get their next chapter, it frees up fosters and creates momentum — and one dog placed can make room for two more lives to be saved.
And now let’s be clear about a few things:
🚫 We DON’T work with cherry pickers.
🚫 We DON’T deal with drama.
🤝 We DO require mutual respect — always.
Refueling Souls only works with people who understand the grind:
shelter staff, rescue founders, volunteers, transporters, fosters, networkers — I know them. I’ve worked with them. And the respect has to go both ways. That’s the only way this works. That’s the only way dogs get saved.
We’re trying to do things differently — not to make waves, not because we think we’re above anyone — but because we’ve always been different. We don’t drink the kool-aid, we don’t follow the crowd, and we believe rescue deserves stronger networks, more honesty, and more action.
And while we’re learning and growing and figuring out what works…
rescue doesn’t stop.
Dogs don’t stop needing help.
And we’re not stopping either.
Refueling Souls is here for the long haul.
We’re building something real — something that saves lives, supports rescues, strengthens communities, and keeps dogs moving toward the love they deserve.
Thank you to every rescue who trusts us, respects us, and works alongside us.
Thank you to our fosters, our partners, our volunteers, and our behind-the-scenes humans.
And thank you to the dogs — the reason we keep going on the hardest days.
Here’s to our very first year… and to everything still coming. 🖤🚐💨
