About

Let me just start by answering some questions.

Who am I?

I am Stephanie Mitchell. I live in Oxford, Mississippi and I think, live and breathe dogs. I’ve always had an affinity for them and over the past 20 years or so I’ve rescued, fostered, rehomed or provided a comfortable, final place for over 200 animals. The more I help, the more I want to do. That’s what has led me here. The path to Drifters’ Place has been long, sometimes painful, and financially taxing. Yet it has definitely been the most rewarding part of my life.

What is Drifters’ Place?

Drifters’ Place is the dog rescue and training center that I am building in North Mississippi. The goal is to work closely with area shelters that have high kill rates, and transfer dogs that are labeled “unadoptable” from the shelters to Drifters’ Place. If we can get the shelters to cooperate in transferring dogs to us, we can make a big difference. These will be dogs that are listed on the shelters’ kill lists, so we save lives, as well as open up space for the shelter and assist them in lowering their kill rate. What we do then is take each dog, work on their nutrition, exercise, behavior and socialization. We foster and train them, helping each dog to become a truly remarkable companion and erase the “unadoptable” label forever. The goal is to work with every dog until it is ready to be adopted as a companion or helper dog, depending on its talents and skills. Those that come in as special needs and, after careful evaluation and fair training time, are deemed too unstable for the family environment, will remain as sanctuary dogs as long as they need to.

Will the dogs be kept in cages all the time?

Drifters’ Place is being planned and designed around training.  Part of the training process is socialization with other dogs and certainly with people. Keeping the dogs in a cage would only add to their stress and would potentially do more harm.

Drifters’ Place will have plenty of room for the dogs to exercise.  They should look forward to getting into their cozy kennels every evening for a long comfy snooze.

Why the name Drifters’ Place?

A good friend of mine has a wonderful Standard Poodle that she adopted from Carolina Poodle Rescue in South Carolina. He is the most handsome boy and is always smiling. Anyway, his name is Drifter and we decided to play off his name.

DRIFTER

Most of the dogs that’ll be coming to the farm will just be drifting through, only staying long enough to get what they need before heading to their forever homes. We thought it was the perfect name and he would be our perfect mascot.

Do you euthanize dogs?

Euthanize? Yes.  Kill? No. Webster’s Dictionary states: “Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.”  So, if I have an animal, that no amount of care will make comfortable, I will most definitely have the dog euthanized in the most painless and peaceful way possible.  Will I kill dogs because I think I have too many, or because I think they have behavior problems or because they are old? Absolutely not!  Those dogs, the old dogs, the ones with behavior problems, the ones that need socializing, and the ones that have been deemed “unadoptable” are the driving forces behind Drifters’ Place. To help alleviate some of the overcrowding in shelters and to assist in finding homes for the dogs that local area shelters might be having trouble placing, we hope to work closely with shelters to remove dogs that are not getting adopted in hopes of saving them from the kill list. At Drifters’ Place we don’t believe in the “unadoptable dog.” That dog doesn’t exist. If we actively look for good homes, market the dogs as the blue ribbon companions they are, then we can find every one of them a home.

What is the mission of Drifters’ Place?

Our mission is simple.  To rescue, rehabilitate and rehome dogs.

Those are some basic questions to get things going. Now it’s your turn. Feel free to ask questions or post comments. After all, this is a blog.