We Can’t Put Their Lives on Hold Until Ours Is Figured Out

On By 2 Traveling DogsIn dog blog

48 states. 48 rescues. A legacy to carry forward—and lives that won’t wait.

This is Girl Person.

Some journeys stay with you long after the miles are over. With Brickle and Digby beside us, we traveled in an RV to 48 states and visited 48 animal rescues. At every stop, we met animals waiting for families and persons who kept showing up for them, no matter how difficult the work became. We listened, learned, and shared their stories through 2 Traveling Dogs.

Brickle and Digby taught us that showing up matters. A dog who is overlooked still has a story. A volunteer who is exhausted still needs encouragement. And people cannot help with a need they never hear about.

We have missed that work deeply. Now, we are planning to begin again here in Italy, with Fruitycake helping us carry their legacy forward. We need help now to make this first step possible.

Help fund our rescue visit—donate any amount here.⁠

We cannot put every good thing on hold

We are still waiting to sell the rustico, and I am still recovering from surgery. There are questions about our future that I cannot answer yet. Some days, it feels as though everything comes with the words “after this” attached. After the house sells. After I recover. After we know where we are going.

But the animals are living their lives now. The persons caring for them are doing the work now. Lives don’t wait for us to have everything figured out.

That doesn’t mean ignoring my recovery or pretending we can do everything. It means beginning with what we can manage: research, conversations, relationships, and this first planned visit. We can start building the project while we work through the rest.

Where we are planning to go

Next week, we are planning to visit Parco Canile Valbasca, the ENPA Como shelter⁠. According to their website, they care for abandoned dogs, provide veterinary care and sterilization, and help them find families. Their work serves dogs from more than 80 municipalities around Como and beyond.

Their adoption process includes getting to know prospective families, matching dogs with suitable homes, and offering guidance. Volunteers help with walks, feeding, cleaning, and fundraising. They also offer ways to help from a distance, including sponsorship and supplies.

We want to meet the dogs behind those descriptions. We want to hear from the persons who know their habits, their worries, and the little things that make their tails move. We want to ask what help would make a difference right now.

A first visit with a bigger purpose

This trip matters because we want to rebuild the in-person rescue work that has meant so much to 2 Traveling Dogs. It is the beginning of researching how we can do that here—not a promise that an entire tour is already arranged or funded.

We want to learn how dogs arrive at shelters in Italy, how adoptions work, and what challenges rescuers face. What is similar to what we saw in the States? What is different? What can we learn from each other? How can someone thousands of miles away offer useful support?

Most of all, we want to ask: Which dog has waited the longest? Who keeps getting overlooked? How do you help a frightened dog learn to trust? What do you wish more people understood?

What would YOU like us to ask? We want you involved from the beginning. One shelter cannot speak for all rescue work in Italy, but one visit can start conversations, introduce us to dogs who need to be seen, and help us understand our next steps.

Fruitycake has his own pawprints to leave

Brickle and Digby cannot be replaced. We would never ask Fruitycake to be them. But their legacy needs to keep reaching beyond our memories, into the work we do for other animals.

Fruitycake is part of that future. He is a rescue dog with his own story, his own personality, and a firm belief that important conversations should include pizza. He reminds us that rescue is not only about where a dog came from. It is about the life they get to live afterward.

Carrying on Brickle and Digby’s legacy means giving other dogs the chance to be known as individuals, too. Not just a photograph someone scrolls past. Someone’s future walking companion. Someone’s reason to laugh. Someone’s family.

Please help us take this step now

With the visit planned for next week, we need support now for travel and the necessary expenses of getting there and sharing the shelter’s work. We cannot cover the remaining costs on hope alone.

If you have been waiting for a moment to help us return to in-person rescue visits, this is a meaningful time to do it. Your support can help turn the plans into a visit, the visit into stories, and those stories into opportunities for people to get involved. We cannot promise an adoption from every story. We can commit to listening, learning, and using our platform to help these dogs be seen.

Here are all the ways to help:

The donation, purchase, and membership options above support 2 Traveling Dogs, our expenses, and our work; they are not donations directly to Parco Canile Valbasca. To support the shelter directly, please visit their official website⁠.

If you already helped, thank you. You are part of what has brought us this far. If you cannot give, please share this post and invite someone to follow along. And if you use Fruitycake’s workbook or weekend guide, share your moments with #2TDHappiness so we can see them!

We don’t know every turn ahead. But we know why we want to take this one. Forty-eight states and forty-eight rescues taught us that there is always another story worth hearing, another person worth encouraging, and another dog worth showing up for.

Brickle and Digby helped us begin. Fruitycake is helping us continue. Please help us make next week’s visit possible.

With love,
Girl Person, Boy Person, and Fruitycake
2 Traveling Dogs
Make Rescues The Breed Of Choice!