News and Articles

The best ambassadors for Home for Life's mission are our animals: we have always believed our at risk animals can help their human counterparts, at risk people of all ages. Instead of creating an isolated sanctuary, cut off from society, we thought the best way to safeguard our special animals was to make them part of the community. Although our animals have not been able to find placement in an adoptive home, they still have much to offer and much to give, a truth best demonstrated by them through our outreach programs which provide solace and joy through healing pet therapy.

Home for Life does not have a better friend than photographer Mark Luinenburg, who, since 2000, has donated his time and talent to document our cats and dogs at the sanctuary. He brings our mission to life with his beautiful photos.

Home for Life's incredible animals were featured in an article on Buzzfeed! Sami Main, a writer for Buzzfeed, saw some wonderful photos taken by Mark Luinenburg that showed the animals enjoying life to the fullest, and decided to write an article on them titled "Fourteen pets who don't let anything get them down." The animals at Home for Life are an inspiration, and we were happy to see that their courage and determination was noticed. 

Who wouldn't notice how cute they are! Please check out the Buzzfeed article here!

Photographer Chris Forslin of the Twin Cities, Minnesota first encountered Home for Life at the Mall of America during the years we had our Holiday events. As a lifelong animal lover and gifted photographer, she was eager to help Home for Life, and our sponsorship program seemed like the perfect opportunity for her to get involved. We were eager to have her out to Home for Life after seeing the incredible photos she did of the animals at the Minnesota Zoo.

Home for Life recently had the pleasure of working with Storytellers for Good, a video production company that focuses on the outstanding stories in the community. 

In mid-October, Home for Life welcomed photographer Eva Noth to the sanctuary for a warm fall afternoon and our latest sponsor  photo session. Eva, who donated her time and talent to support Home for Life's sponsorship program, is a Twin Cities  photographer who focuses on pet portraits. Her unique approach strives to tell the story of each animal whose pictures she captures. So many of our supporters have told us that what they love are the stories of our animals, what they have been through and overcome and how they are now flourishing at Home for Life.

Our latest mailing to supporters tells the story of Taffy, an elderly and blind poodle mix who was tied to our front gate this summer- with shoelaces- and left for us to find on a hot July day. We were so happy to have found him before he broke free of the laces and wandered into the road or before he died or exposure and dehydration.

On the morning of November 30, on a cold and blustery winter morning (air temperature -3, windchill  - 25!) one of our staff members received an unexpected call at the gate. Home for Life's front gate has a callbox so people can contact us up at the facility. A man's voice came over the intercom and said "Hey! did you  know there was a dog tied to your gate?!" He then hung up.

Another year, another winter at Home for Life. As the country braces for another onslaught of cold and snow this week, it's business as usual at Home for Life. Our facility is spread out over several acres so contending with winter weather has always been a fact of life at the sanctuary.  When we designed the sanctuary we wanted to give our animals, particularily our dogs, as much room as possible and the freedom to go in or outside as they pleased.

If you missed the Twin Cities Public Television feature of "Soul Creatures," a look into Home for Life's many outreach programs, you can watch it online now!

Thank you to Twin Cities Public Television and the DeLonais Foundation for their support of the "Soul Creatures" production.