How it all began...
Chelsea
Chelsea was my Bichon Frise from the time she was 8 weeks old until she passed away at 16 years. She was the first and last dog I bought from a breeder. The breeder worked from her home which I was able to tour and inspect, let me meet the parents and had very high adoption standards, but a few years after that, I discovered the many wonderful dogs that die in shelters every day and found a passion for helping to rescue shelter dogs and find homes for them. In 2002 after a year of fostering and helping to rehome shelter pets, I started Perpetual Care to rescue animals from shelters.
Chelsea was my heart dog. I gave her my heart completely and she gave me unconditional love and affection. My heart broke when I lost her, but by then, I had discovered my passion for helping and protecting pets like her from the trauma of shelters and untimely death because they ended up there.
Not long after Chelsea passed away, I saw a woman with a young Bichon, so I stopped to talk with her and meet her dog. The woman was probably in her late 70's and she said her dog was 2 years old. She told me that when she passed away, she put it in her will that her Bichon would be euthanized and buried with her. When I asked her why, she said, "Because no one in my family will take care of him after I'm gone." That made me sad, and I thought, "That's just not right". I didn't think her dog should have to die because she died. I thought more and more about what she said over the next several days and looked at my rescue dogs. I realized that if anything happened to me, I too had no one to care for them and I feared for them if they ended up in a shelter.
I suddenly understood how that woman was thinking. To her, it would be better to euthanize her dog than to think of him going to any place or anyone who would not love him like she did and treat him with kindness and affection. She feared he would end up in a shelter. She feared for his safety and happiness. In her mind, the only way she could keep him safe was to take him with her. That was the moment that I began to form the concept of Perpetual Care as a rescue for orphaned pets; only for pets who lose their owner due to death. My mission and my passion is to give pets and pet owners a better alternative for their pets who are left behind without their guardian.
Perpetual Care Life Center is a place where pet owners can trust that their pets will have love and care, where they are not at risk for being killed just to make space for other animals entering the shelter, where they will have a safe, loving place to live.
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Virginia Kilmer,
Founder and CEO
Perpetual Care
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Who We Are Today
Who We Are Today
Perpetual Care is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to making sure that beloved family pets everywhere do not end up in shelters or euthanized due to the loss of their guardian.
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We work to educate and assist pet owners with setting up pet life care agreements and pet trusts to protect their pets but we also rescue pets from shelters and find permanent loving homes for them, or if for some reason they are not adopted, we give them a home at our residence. In order to do that, we require your donations to help with their rescue and the cost of their care.
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Perpetual Care is funded completely by individual donations. In order to help pets who are not lucky enough to have a guardian who has set up a pet trust for their pet, we will pull those pets from the shelter when space and funds allow. Please help us to have that space and funding to save these pets from shelters and to find them loving homes again by making a donation.
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Our Facility
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Perpetual Care is a life care center that is set up in a home environment for all of our residents and rescues. Our pets are comfortable and happy and they enjoy outdoor activities as well as the comfort of a home indoors.
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All of our residents live together like a family, but if for some reason they are not able to be socialized with our current residents, we rely on extended home care and foster care to provide them with a home environment.
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As we continue to grow, our goal is to expand our facilities to every state with the same standard of a home-based environment. Whenever possible our first priority is to find a loving home for all of our animals, because afterall, that's what is best for them, however, when that is not possible, we want them to have a loving home with Perpetual Care.
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We welcome visitors so that you can see our pets and see what a happy environment they have for the rest of their lives, but prefer that you schedule your visits to make sure we are available to show you around.