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Silver Muzzle Cottage: where homeless senior dogs get to retire in comfort with dignity

3 min read

Inspiring People
Source: Facebook/SilverMuzzleCottage

One of the few facilities providing unwanted senior dogs with a home, love and dignity in their final days, months or years.

Silver Muzzle Cottage feels these dogs deserve more, that they shouldn’t die alone in a cage

Silver Muzzle Cottage is on a mission to provide senior, disabled and hospice dogs the chance to live out their remaining life with love and dignity. These dogs once gave their lives to someone, or a family, and for a variety of reasons were disposed of in a strange, scary shelter environment or just dumped on the street to fend for themselves and eventually picked up as a stray. Silver Muzzle Cottage feels they deserve more, that they shouldn’t die alone in a cage

Where senior dogs live out their lives in comfort and dignitySource: Facebook/60SecDocs

The Cottage provides assisted living services to dogs in need of hospice care

The Silver Muzzle Cottage Rescue and Hospice program is located on the site of Bowsers By The Bay in Elk Rapids, Michigan. They take in homeless senior dogs and place them with foster families or, for dogs who have been given a limited amount of time to live due to poor health, they will place them in the hospice facility called the Silver Muzzle Cottage. The Cottage provides assisted living services to dogs in need of hospice care, and the unit is staffed 24 hours a day, year round. 

Who qualifies for the SMC program? The rescue serves dogs with 3 years or less to live (based on breed standards). The dogs are either owner relinquished or pulled from shelters throughout the state of Michigan. SMC will adopt the hospice dogs and give them a cage-free place to live out the remainder of their lives with love and dignity. All other rescues will be fostered or adopted to those who care to love a senior for the remainder of their life.

The program is a (501c3) non-profit that relies solely on grant monies and public donations. Fundraising is ongoing.  

Why do they want to do this? It’s simple. These dogs gave many years of life and love to their owners. For various reasons, they found themselves abandoned. In the end, they shouldn’t die alone…in a cage or shelter. It is the mission of Silver Muzzle Cottage to ensure that each dog they rescue leaves this world knowing that they were loved and that they mattered to someone.

Source: Facebook/SilverMuzzleCottage

How many times can you say that an organisation in need of volunteers has asked you to eat and share ice cream as part of your community service? That’s one of many things that the Silver Muzzle Cottage Rescue & Hospice Program (SMC) has deemed as “medicine” for their dogs in and out of hospice.
A refreshing bowl of ice cream is ‘medicine’ on a hot day How many times can you say that an organisation in need of volunteers has asked you to eat and share ice cream as part of your community service? That’s one of many things that the Silver Muzzle Cottage Rescue & Hospice Program (SMC) has deemed as “medicine” for their dogs in and out of hospice. Source: Facebook/SilverMuzzleCottage
“After seeing the number of them that were out there, I thought these dogs are being euthanized in shelter because nobody wants an old dog,” said Kim Nelson, owner and founder of Silver Muzzle Cottage.
Kim Nelson is the powerful force behind Silver Muzzle Cottage, the center for senior, disabled and hospice dogs “After seeing the number of them that were out there, I thought these dogs are being euthanized in shelter because nobody wants an old dog,” said Kim Nelson, owner and founder of Silver Muzzle Cottage.”So we went ahead and decided to start the senior rescue to help these dogs out.” Source: PetFriendsMagazine

Dozer’s Days Dozer had become quite a fixture at the facility when video footage of him was seen by prospective owner-carers. Dozer was adopted and now gets to spend the rest of his days in a forever family home. Source: Youtube/KimSkarritt-Nelson
Make an Impact

Help Us Buy a Building...

We began our rescue in 2015 and, since then, have rescued 98 seniors. In the beginning, our goal was to renovate (and lease) a small space on the property of a business called Bowsers By The Bay. With great support from our community we raised the money and renovations were completed in October of 2016. The space is warm, cozy and perfect for our seniors. But, after the Detroit Free Press ran our story on the cover of their Easter Sunday paper, the support from throughout the country went through the roof. We are now convinced that we can do greater things for this homeless senior dog population.