Furr-Ever Home

Mostly Mutts started like most rescues, with a dogged founder supported by a handful of volunteers willing to foster. Many rescues will continue on that road, always needing more funds, pleading for more help, and working themselves into exhaustion and burnout because no matter how much they work, the four-legged refugees never stop coming. A love and deep compassion for animals is just the first step in running a shelter program — but it requires so much more.

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Livestock Guardian

Livestock guardian Odin protected his herd through devastating, deadly firestorm.

The first sign of trouble appeared as the Sunday night barbecue with friends wound down on Roland Hendel’s 35-acre property on a mountain above Sonoma wine country. “A neighbor called and said they smelled smoke,” Hendel says. “We had a plan for fire, so we prepared in case we had to evacuate. I got on my ATV and drove up the mountain, and I couldn’t see anything. Then, coming down, I saw ashfall.” After rushing home, he went to the upper floor of the house. He called neighbors, who were evacuating. And he could see fire in the sky. “That’s when I realized the plans we had for a fire — there was not enough time for them,” Hendel says. 

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Retired Cowboy Is Tough As Leather

There’s something timeless about Dave Simmons’ hand-tooled leather work. Whether it’s a floral pattern on a handbag or a basket weave pattern on a knife sheath or the fine stitching on a horse’s breast collar, the craftsmanship hearkens back to the work on cowboy leather from decades past, or a century ago, or more.

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Hunters For The Hungry

Hunters for the Hungry supports those in need while controlling Virginia’s deer population.

Hunting holds a special place for Sherry Crumley, of Buchanan, Va. “I love being outside and listening to the sun rise and the animals wake up. It’s a very spiritual thing.” Crumley and her family and friends bag a lot of deer on her 380-acre spread, leaving them with much more venison than they can eat by themselves.

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