Shelter Me

– Boomer, where are you, Boy?

– Boomer?

– Sometimes the unthinkable happens.

But with the help of Love Lost and its pet image recognition software, you can upload your pet’s photo to our national database.

It’s open to all.

So whether you lose or find a pet, Love Lost can help reunite families.

At Love Lost we believe pets belong at home with those who love them.

Petco Love Lost.

(soft uplifting music) – Dog Mountain can be different things to different people.

– Thousands of stories of what life is all about.

– [Amanda] It’s a one of a kind place.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) And I’d give up forever to touch you Because I know that you feel me somehow You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be And I don’t want to go home right now And sooner or later it’s over I just don’t want to miss you tonight And I don’t want the world to see me ‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand When everything’s made to be broken I just want you to know who I am I just want you to know who I am (dog barking) – Come on, honey.

Come on.

(mellow country music) – My name is Amanda McDermott, and I’m the creative director at Dog Mountain.

And I’ve been here for 18 years.

Dog Mountain is a beautiful, 150 acre leash-free dog park located in the heart of Vermont.

It’s a one-of-a-kind place with ponds, hiking trails.

We have the one and only Dog Chapel.

I like to say it’s a place where a dog can be a dog.

(dog barking) – Dog Mountain can be different things to different people.

(soft soothing music) We love and miss you so much, Noni, Dublin, and all the bird wing dogs.

– We just lost two of our dogs and we had heard that this is a nice place to start our healing.

– This was one of our main stops to remember our dog.

You know, there’s a big hole in the home when they pass, but this place is wonderful.

It’s just a wonderful, wonderful thing that they did for a remembrance of animals.

(soft soothing music) – We’ve been coming to Dog Mountain for 20 years.

– Yeah, we just came to check it out and it’s amazing.

(dog barking) – And we are here to celebrate our doggie.

(dog barking) – Where else can you have 150 acres of where they can run and be free and jump in the pond.

(soft relaxing music) – Back in 2000, Dog Mountain was founded by Stephen and Gwen Huneck.

Stephen was an artist, sculptor, children’s author, and just a really amazing creative person.

And his strong love for his dogs really inspired his artwork.

His dogs were his cheerleaders, his support team, and he just found himself drawing them, carving them.

Most of his sculptures are of his black lab, Sally, his golden retriever, Molly.

Dotty was the Dalmatian.

They had a cat named Bingo.

The love that Stephen had was so strong that he wanted to just give to all dogs everywhere.

This is kind of the place where that special bond that we have with our pets is why we’re here today.

– This is Bailey, this is Grace, and this is Brew.

– It’s great for the dogs because they run around and play, they scent, when the dogs, they get friendly with each other.

They’re free, like Labs.

Labs like to be free, especially her.

She’s still, she’s been in this only shelter three months ago, and I heard, for a Lab, she was kenneled like 10 hours a day.

And I still think that not only does she need to run, this is a good place for to run.

– So this is Mousse, spelled like the dessert, ’cause it’s a female.

She’s from the Paws and Claws Rescue.

She came from Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Now she means the world to me.

Like I said, we go everywhere together, we do everything together and yeah, I’d be lost without her.

I’ve had her for about a year and a half now.

So she goes to work with me every day.

We play 24/7.

She never leaves my side.

She learned real quick that the easiest way to pick up the Frisbees, as you saw, was to fold it into a taco, ’cause you can pick it up.

Hey, love you.

Yeah, that pretty girl.

– Ready?

Here it goes.

We’re Rick and Nancy Showers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

We have our little friend Noah, our little rescue dog, and we saw Dog Mountain on, we heard about it before, but I think we saw it on a show, and we decided it would be a great road trip.

– He’s in his joy right here.

He’s our third dog during our married life, and he’s probably the most energetic one that we’ve had.

– Dog lovers, they just get one another.

They just get it.

And this just seemed like a place where like-minded dog lovers would come to gather and bond and share stories.

(dogs barking) Come on buddy, bring it here.

(soft relaxing music) – Stephen Huneck wanted to create a place that was iconic, so just the idea of Dog Mountain or the Dog Chapel.

I remember he told me that, he said, “I wanted to make a little place better for dogs.”

He wanted to create a place where people could come, enjoy nature, and also take a moment in the Dog Chapel and really feel your feelings.

– But coming here, I think it just, the way everything is, as you can see, the magnitude of the love for a dog, it made me feel so much at home and that I could cry.

And you know that other people, dog lovers, were here doing the same thing.

– Oh, we love it.

We’ve been coming here for years.

Yeah, we’ve all been coming up here.

In fact, two of our dogs’ pictures are in the chapel.

We still go in and see ’em once in a while.

(soft soothing music) – We are Michael and Jeremy.

This is our dog Barnaby.

He’s a service dog.

And we came all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We had heard about the dog chapel and Dog Mountain.

And we decided that that would be a wonderful pilgrimage for us to honor all the dogs.

We love dogs so much, so here we are after a long drive, and we’re loving every minute of it.

– You feel very alone when you’re in a grief process.

When something has been taken from you, either by choice or circumstance.

And you have that grieving, it’s natural.

You need to have that.

But the idea also is that you’re able to go to a place like Dog Chapel and sit there and be in your grief, but also feel a connection with other people.

There’s a bonding through that process that is actually healing.

– Here we go.

– Okay?

– Okay.

– Have fun, babies.

Run with all these other dogs.

– They were my life.

And I’m now finding that that’s the same way with a lot of people.

I’ve been having a really hard time getting through this.

And I think this is gonna change things for me, ’cause I know when I walk out that door, people are smiling and laughing with their dogs, and that’s what we want.

And we just want ’em to be happy.

We wanna move on.

Never forget them ever, but be able to continue on.

(soft meditative music) – Sadly, by 2013, Dog Mountain had lost both our founders.

I always felt like we were a big family at Dog Mountain, so it was really hard as you start to lose members of the family.

And it was a really tough time.

So many people were afraid that Dog Mountain might become a thing of the past without Stephen to be the driving force.

But thankfully, today his vision is alive and well and thriving.

This is such an amazing place in this world.

We can’t let this just go.

So, so many people got together and created the Friends of Dog Mountain.

It is a non-profit.

We’ve got a great board of volunteers that are just working, doing everything they can do to keep Dog Mountain going for generations to come.

(uplifting music) People come from all over just to give a little dog Mountain Day to their pups.

Dog Mountain has a lot of fun things that happen year round, such as dog parties.

– Hold on, okay, this is for the big bucks.

(dog barking) – We also have an amazing concert series that is free to the public.

It happens every summer.

We have birthday parties, family reunions, and even weddings happen at Dog Mountain.

Man, well, thanks again for coming.

Enjoy the party.

It’s such a joy to be able to be a part of something like this where you get to kind of, you know, share this with the world.

(uplifting music) – My name is Yvonne Dagger.

I’m from Long Island, and I came up here with my husband Dennis and our new rescue dog, Barney.

You ready to go on a road trip up at Dog Mountain in Vermont?

Barney’s been part of our family for about a month and a half now.

And the joy that he’s brought us, I wonder who rescued who, you know?

Because we needed to be rescued.

This past January, we lost our wonderful, wonderful, wonderful dog, Dagger Dog Vinci.

(audience applauding) – We have seen a lot of very talented animals on our show.

– That’s right.

– But we have never had a dog that’s this creative.

Dagger’s nickname is actually Dog Vinci because he is a painter.

(audience laughing) – Dog Vinci, yeah.

– Dog Vinci.

(audience cheering) – And there was that hole in our hearts.

Dagger was an artist.

Dagger painted, and we were serious about it, and people knew that.

He painted in his lifetime, he painted over 900 works of art.

And whatever he made on his paintings, he gave to charity.

Every dollar – Let’s give a huge Oyster Bay welcome to… (crowd cheering) – He fundraised for many charities, a lot of animal rescue groups.

– Done by Dagger.

So that makes it all so special.

– And that’s when I realized that our mission was community service.

Our mission was education.

Thank you, Dagger.

– [Children] Thank you, Dagger.

– So Dagger was about community and bringing community together.

So when Dagger passed away, I lost my job and I lost my best friend.

My husband always says this.

We have to look at those 10 years of memories and total joy that he brought us.

And this is the place.

– One of the inspirations for Stephen to build the Dog Chapel is when he lost his muse, Sally, who he had written all these children’s books about, and he felt like something was missing in the world to help with that process.

When you lose a pet, you’re kind of alone in that moment because nobody really loved your dog like you loved them.

So he wanted to give people a place where they didn’t feel alone with their feelings.

They could look in the wall, read these notes, and know these feelings are valid.

– Oh my God.

Wow.

– What do you think, boy?

– Look at all of these notes.

I’m looking around right now.

Thousands of stories.

Every one of them is a life, a story about somebody’s family.

They’re just magnificent little vignettes of what life is all about.

“Dear Bat, you were my first friend.

We were puppies together.

You taught me how to be a person.

I love you, Val.”

– Val.

– Isn’t that, oh my goodness, it’s beautiful.

I just can’t get over.

But there’s layers and layers on this wall of photographs.

“You were literally the dog of my dreams.

And I am so thankful for your friendship and everything you taught me.

I’ll never stop missing you.”

“I miss you more than words can ever explain.

There’s a hole in my heart where your cuddles and sloppy kisses were to rescue me.”

“Wherever you are, I hope you are happy.

Thank you for all the happy memories.

I love you.

Till we meet again.

Love, Harmony and Chris.”

We were looking at the photographs and the tributes and notes that people have left.

And as we were walking to look at everything, we saw a woman that was standing, and she was putting a photo of her dog on the wall.

And so we introduced ourselves, and we started talking.

And it just so happens that she lost her dog in February and we lost Dagger Dog Vinci in January.

– So this is Rascal, or Little Bit.

This is the dog I just lost in 2023.

And he was 16.

So he’s the dog that I’ve had the longest.

– That’s wonderful.

– You know, I never had a dog that long.

– Wow.

– That’s wonderful.

– Because you get rescues, you never know where they’ve been, they’ve been malnourished.

– Yeah.

– But he was a great dog.

– Even though we didn’t know each other, you just start to talk about your dogs, and it’s the greatest thing.

It really is.

– [Elizabeth] And that was the sweetest dog.

– [Yvonne] Beautiful, what a good boy.

– [Elizabeth] My son thought he was his dog, my husband thought he was his dog, and I thought he was my dog.

That dog loved everybody.

– Yeah.

– That’s really a special part of Dog Mountain is being able to grieve with strangers and with sincerity.

But this, this was my brother’s dog.

– Yep.

– And Ginger.

I came here a couple of days ago and I just came back again to bring the pictures.

It was a special place my brother and I would come.

He just passed away in November.

– I’m sorry.

– Oh, I’m sorry.

– And we would bring Ginger and Little Bit, Rascal.

That whole thing just hit me, you know.

But it’s just always been a special place for everybody.

I’ve really been struggling with the loss of my brother because I took care of him the last four months.

And coming here probably just helped me to start getting more in touch with my losses and how I feel about it.

And you know, there aren’t many places you can go that you can get in touch with that side of yourself.

He went through two different bouts of cancer and heart surgery and things like that.

And that dog was his salvation.

– And then the dog, the dog knows what he was, you know.

– Oh, without a doubt.

Without a doubt, they know.

– [Elizabeth] Exactly, that dog was his just companion through all of the things he went through.

– Sure.

I really did feel that Elizabeth and I both needed a hug.

– You know.

– It’s a healing.

– Yeah, yeah.

– It’s a healing.

– We both felt the same way.

We both felt that in this space, we felt comfortable enough to do that.

And that is another uniqueness about this chapel.

That to know that somebody, an artist, created this.

– Right.

– And that he put every ounce of his energy and everything in it too, and his vision has been fulfilled.

– Yeah.

– I feel.

– That’s, what’s the old saying, boy if he could see it now, you know, it’s just is absolutely phenomenal.

– Sure.

– It’s a tribute to every good boy.

(soft soothing music) – This is like dog heaven.

Being right here in this space is like being at dog heaven.

(soft soothing music) This is the happiest place to be sad.

Because you know that there are thousands of people all over this wall, these walls, with photographs, that felt the same way as you did.

I think people leave a note to start living the life or finding the purpose that their loved one, that their best friend wants for them.

And then to walk outside and have a really good time, ’cause I truly believe that sometimes, a place like Dog Mountain is a place of new beginnings.

Come on in.

– It’s important to have balance at Dog Mountain, and with the sadness, having a place like this where you can watch dogs play, it brings out the joy to really kind of help with the healing.

(uplifting music) (dogs barking) – Good job.

– You win, you win.

Oh, now you wanna play, huh?

– [Yvonne] They really, really are having a good time.

– [Dennis] You got the spots against the solids here.

(dogs barking) – This is a wonderful place.

– Someone told me that this was their favorite place.

They’ve been here three days in a row.

(laughs) – [Yvonne] Oh wow.

– And I wouldn’t be surprised if I see ’em tomorrow.

One element of Dog Mountain that is so powerful is that you can go from crying in the chapel to laughing on the grounds and just taking away some really fantastic memories of your time here.

And that’s the magic and healing power of Dog Mountain.

Look at these guys now.

(laughs) That’s adorable.

– [Yvonne] I think they might be tuckered out.

– Yeah, I think they are.

– Yep.

(dog barking) (birds chirping) – I can’t think of any other place in the world that’s like this.

I think that Dog Mountain is a place where healing begins.

Healing can end.

Happiness, it just exudes from this place, and you feel life and new beginnings.

(uplifting music) It’s a spectacular place.

I’m glad I came.

(uplifting music) – If Stephen were here this weekend and saw all these happy dogs running around, he would be really proud of what the Friends of Dog Mountain and all the family and friends that have supported to keep this vision alive.

– I believe that our animals give us a sense of friendship, care and love.

– [Guest] It’s beautiful.

It’s just peaceful.

– Just really nice to have a place like this where people can come with their dogs and try and heal from- – Grieve together.

– Loss of the family members.

– You know, we definitely are not alone.

It’s given me a little bit of closure.

I think we’ll be visiting here quite often though.

– Yeah.

(soft uplifting music) (dogs barking) – It really makes me feel good to know that there is a lot of kindness towards animals out there.

– It’s great to be able to see that when some artist’s vision provided a place for many people to get in touch with their feelings and be able to share those feelings.

– What a wonderful, wonderful trip this has been.

Yeah, we’ll be back.

We’ll be back to Dog Mountain.

(uplifting music) (dogs barking) – Petco Love Lost.

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