Meet Mackenzie Shannon | Co-Executive Director. There is also Emily Wolters who is also the co-executive director.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mackenzie Shannon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mackenzie, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Both Emily and I have volunteered at Headin’ Home Pet Rescue for 10+ years. Over that time, Emily and I became close friends as we had the same dream of having our own rescue one day. In 2022, that dream became a reality when we had the opportunity to take over Headin’ Home.

Both Emily and I have loved animals our entire lives. Emily’s love for dogs brought her to Mapleview Animal Hospital and Headin’ Home Pet Rescue in 2007. My love for animals and veterinary medicine brought me to Mapleview Animal Hospital and Headin’ Home Pet Rescue in 2010. We both enjoyed helping the dogs and cats in the rescue and knew that is what we wanted to spend our lives doing. We wanted to be the voice for the voiceless.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Headin’ Home Pet Rescue is purely a volunteer run, non-profit animal rescue. Emily and I run the rescue strictly in our free time. We both work full time jobs, not including the rescue, so it is challenging to fit in everything required to run a rescue. Before 2022, we had dipped our toes into the process of managing the rescue. When we were offered to take over the rescue, we dove head in with very little experience of running a non-profit. We are still learning daily and we are thankful for those in our lives who offer their expertise to help us.

Headin’ Home Pet Rescue is a rescue run by two women who strive to be the voice for the voiceless. Due to small manpower, we are a smaller rescue. But we take immense pride in the health care we can provide to our pets. We strive to provide the best veterinary care we can for our rescue pets. We want our pets to enter their new lives with their new families with the best knowledge of their health that we can provide. Some examples include FIV/FeLV testing for all of our cats/kittens, fecal testing and deworming, dental care and procedures, radiographs sent to specialists, growth removals and histopathology reports. If a pet needs to go to a specialist, we fundraise so we can make that possible.

We also pride ourselves in our foster-to-adopt and hospice programs. The decision to adopt a permanent family member is very important. In the exception of puppies and kittens, we allow approved families to foster our pets, with the intent of adoption, to make sure it is a good fit for all before the adoption is finalized. We have discovered that this places less pressure and allows everyone to be comfortable in the decision, thus hopefully decreasing the chance of a pet being returned to us, which can be detrimental to the pet. Our hospice program is where we take in a pet with an illness, or a senior pet, which can make them less adoptable due to the needs for prescription medications, food, monitoring bloodwork, surgeries, etc. This is where we truly rely on the expertise and compassion from those at Mapleview Animal Hospital who help us provide exceptional medical care for these senior fur-babies. It is heartbreaking for a senior pet to be abandoned or surrendered due to an illness or just simply due to their age. Our goal is to keep them comfortable and give them a quality and loving end of life. This can become quite expensive, so we are incredibly grateful to our families fostering our hospice pets who help us with this program and to our supporters who donate to our hospice program.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The landscape of greater Holland is truly remarkable with its breathtaking beaches and dunes. The downtown is already on the national stage for its unique shops and renowned Dutch-themed events. In addition to the aforementioned, we’d make it a bit more personal by introducing them to some of our community members because it’s these people, volunteering their labor, love and financial contributions that truly make our city an unforgettable place. You’ll see this at Fellinlove Farm, a non-profit organization that offers hands-on animal activities and education for people of all ages and abilities. You can enjoy an amazing dinner at Crazy Horse which provides plenty of menu options for even the fussiest eaters but also immerses you in all the community feels. We’d introduce you to other community partners such as our local firefighters who now have lifesaving equipment for our fur-friends. You’ll see the uniqueness of Holland with a friendly smile on the street from a passerby and personalized service in our small businesses. You’ll even find kindness in our large chain stores such as Petco because it’s the people in our community that truly make visiting Holland an unforgettable experience. We would end the day with our toes in the sand watching the sun set over Lake Michigan at the Kirk Park dog beach where dogs are welcome to run and play. We would introduce you to families playing in the sand or teaching their kids to fly a kite. We’d hear the laughter from teenagers playing beach volleyball and we would reflect on how grateful we are for a community young and old that supports us as without such compassion, we would not be able to pursue our own dreams of changing the lives of animals in need.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We wouldn’t be where we are today without the support and encouragement from our loved ones. Emily and I are very grateful to our families and friends involved in the rescue. We are also grateful for the help and support from the staff at Mapleview Animal Hospital. Mapleview cares for all the medical needs of our animals and they provide so much love and care for our fur-friends. We have the opportunity when funds permit us to take in more serious medical cases, such as intestinal blockages, or leg amputations, due to their expertise and compassion. They support us in many other ways and we can bring our animals to them knowing they are in caring and trustworthy hands. And we can’t forget how grateful we are to our own crew of pets who encourage us to be the voice for the voiceless and help more homeless pets find their own fur-ever home.

Website: https://www.headinhomerescue.org/

Instagram: headinhomepetrescue

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/headinhomerescue/

Image Credits
Cindy Valentine Photography
Absolute Photography