OUR STORY

It all started with two Beagles, a Lab-Chihuahua mix, and a cat named Katz Domino. We thought four was a lot.

Then came a Lab-Rottweiler mix. Then Big Sam. Then somehow we looked up and there were ten dogs in the house, and we had quietly stopped questioning it.

We're Mike and Mel. We live on a lake in Carriere, Mississippi with ten rescue dogs — soon to be eleven, and if we're being honest with ourselves, probably twelve.

Along the way we've said goodbye to some who made us who we are. Katz Domino, our first cat. Sadie. Snoop. Bella. They were here for all of it, and this place wouldn't exist without them.

The jump from ten to eleven happened the way most things happen around here: Mel saw a Beagle online who looked just like our beloved Snoop, and that was that. We walked into the SPCA and found him — a Beagle named Shiloh — and Mel turned to me with complete conviction. "The only thing this dog is gonna hunt from now on is snuggles." Shiloh came home.

In the cage next to him was a very sweet Golden mix who had been dropped off in a box with three others. He's still waiting. We're still thinking about it. You can probably guess how this ends.

Lakeshore Animal Rescue exists because we kept saying yes and eventually needed a legal structure to go with it. We're not a placement rescue. We don't run a foster program. Every animal that comes here stays here — on the water, in the house, on the bed, in our favorite chair, underfoot always, and directly in the way of everything we're trying to do at any given moment. Exactly what a house full of love and fur should look like.

We've loved and lost a few along the way. But the ones who are here — Seven, Spike, Stanley, Stella, Scarlett, Shadeaux, Shasta Daisy, Sazerac, Sarge, Big Sam, and soon Shiloh — aren't going anywhere. Neither are we.

We incorporated as a 501(c)(3) because the vet bills are real and the food bill is genuinely alarming. Your support goes directly to the animals living here right now — and furever.