Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs: A tale of love, hope, and dignity
Don’t let the lead photo fool you. This story is not about a Hops farm, rather an organization that purchased the farm, and transformed it into a haven for older dogs.
Located just on the Southeast outskirts of Baraboo, Wisconsin, nestled in the Baraboo Hills, Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs is a realization of one woman’s lifelong love for animals, more specifically, man’s best friend.
It all started, of course, with a story. The story of Jane Barton who grew up in the rural area of Westfield, Wisconsin. As most kids growing up in the country, Jane had lots of pets, and developed a love for animals in general. When she was older, she became an x-ray technician in Milwaukee. Eventually Jane found herself moving out to California. It was there in California, where she spent a lot of time with her dogs, and her friends and their dogs. But she saw a lot of animals, specifically older dogs out on the streets not being cared for, suffering, dying. Jane spent much of her time at the local shelters seeing first hand all these animals in need, specifically the older ones that she felt just fell through the gaps in society. For many years, Jane would become a champion for helping and advocating, for a lack of better terms, geriatric dogs, older dogs that had special needs.
In 2013, Jane was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given less than a year to live. Jane decided she wanted to leave a legacy for the care of such dogs. Altruistically, she decided to dedicate her life savings to caring for specifically, older dogs. She asked her son Larry Barton to create a trust for her in order to do just that. Her son carried out his mother’s wishes and has been caring for the trust over the last few years. Jane would pass away in 2014, but her legacy and the trust continued to grow.
“Larry purchased this property early in 2022, and we began creating the sanctuary that Jane envisioned,” said Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs Executive Director, Rachel Leuzinger. Most recently set up as a Hops farm, the farm sprawls over 36 acres and is backed up to the bluffs of the Baraboo Hills. “It's a beautiful property. We have the start of the bluffs behind us. So, some wooded acres that have some groomed walking trails on it. The property was previously a hops farm, so we have some nice fields on either side of the barn that we are planning on turning into vegetable and flower gardens and wildflower fields. There's gonna be a lot to do here in the upcoming years,” she said.
Rachel became the Executive Director of the organization in December of 2022. “I have been working with Larry on this project since we started property hunting in 2021. We had a vision of what we wanted to do, and so, finding the right property was key. We knew we wanted to be between Baraboo and the Madison area, and we love, you know, the area, the Driftless area, specifically by the bluffs. Finding a place, we could have the sanctuary for the dogs was important, but we also wanted to encourage people to be able to come and spend time with the dogs and hold community events here. So, this was a key location.”
Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs has its own special operating guidelines that makes it a bit different from a humane society, shelter, or dog rescue center. “We do things a little bit different than other places. We have created an open environment with the sanctuary. It’s essentially a retirement home for geriatric dogs, dogs near the end of their life. Being an open environment, there are no kennels with doors on them. The dogs can free roam on their own to pick a bed, a dog bed, to pick a cool spot somewhere to lay on wherever they're most comfortable.”
Rachel explained their intake and integration process is a little slower than a shelter environment. “We do not take them in, put them in a kennel and then process the dog later. We really want to make sure that the dogs live in harmony together. Our dogs come from local rescues, or shelters. Maybe they're not good adoption candidates through those facilities because they're senior dogs.” Rachel said older dogs do not get looked at for adoptions due to having special medical needs or behavior needs, or just being older and near the end of their lives. “We help alleviate the pressures on those organizations by taking them off their hands. We have two dogs here currently that came to us through Chasing Daylight in Tomah, Wisconsin, and a third dog that came from the Sauk County Humane Society.” Rachel stressed that they will also take dogs that owners are willing to surrender on a case-by-case basis, pointing out those intakes are accepted in cases of hardship. “For instance, one of our dogs Bosley, a Boston Terrier, came to us through Chasing Daylight. Bosley only stayed there overnight until he was transferred to us. It was a very brief time that he was there. His owner went into assisted living and Bosley could not go with. So, he was staying with a friend of the owner and that friend determined they could no longer care for him and had scheduled him for euthanasia. The people at the nursing home reached out to local organizations asking if somebody could take him, and Bosley ended up coming to us. In cases like that, this is a good place for dogs to come to so they don't have to enter the shelter system and go through those stresses.”
Having been to Humane Societies and shelters in the past, to me, it was immediately apparent, it is a lot quieter and calmer here. It is peaceful. Rachel said in their prospective process, they meet the dog first to see if they are a good candidate and noted the dog does need to be a social one. “That's kind of number one on the list because they'll be cohabitating with other dogs. But we bring them in and we keep them in an isolated area that still has the beds and what not. They spend time in the office here with me and then we do slow introductions to the other dogs. Once they have settled in the isolation process, we will bring them into the sanctuary and do a one on one controlled meet and greet with the other dogs.”
Eventually, a temporary makeshift room is set up inside the sanctuary so they can still see hear smell the other dogs. The dog has couches and carpets to spend their time on. “There is still a controlled acclimation process after. That can be a few days to a couple of weeks if things are going well. Eventually, we'll have them be free roaming with the other dogs. Then they are able to spend their time wherever they like,” she said. Once a dog has been incorporated into the “family,” Rachel said, is when they will consider taking on another dog.
While Rachel does not live on site, the organization does have a caretaker and their family that live on the farm. “If there's an emergency, they are able to come in and get the dogs and we do have security cameras for monitoring as well.”
To break up monotony in the dogs’ environment, there is a flat screen tv and a radio to give that real home feeling to the dogs and break the silence. Rachel said, the living space, which I must add is very large, is set up as if the dogs were living in a regular home environment. The whole concept is to keep things as normal and stress free as possible.
Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs is a 501(c)(3), and even with the trust set up, it takes help from volunteers and fundraising to keep things running smooth, and the dog family happy. “The trust helped us purchase the property and assist with operational costs, but that's short term. Really donations are what is going to sustain us,” Rachel said.
Transforming the Hops farm into the sanctuary took a lot of remodeling and time. Work that Jane’s son Larry gladly took up. “Well, I think her wish was probably in alignment with the things that I enjoy in life. I've always loved animals. I always had dogs. I always loved working on the farm from a young age, I was raised on a farm. And so, this is kind of coming back to that. You know, beginnings in a sense. I like farming and I like gardening. I like flowers. So, this is an opportunity to plant gardens on large acreage. I think what I get out of it, is something, different from my day-to-day job. I've been an architect for almost 40 years, and this is a chance to do something different and it's enjoyable. It's hands on work, it's outdoors. Rachel can attest, I'm out here as much as I can be.” Larry admits his mother’s general wish was to care for older dogs, and that she didn't give him a lot of instruction on exactly how to do that. “This was something that kind of fell into place,” he said with a smile.
Larry had some help with all the work though. Rachel pointed out that while the trust helped cover the costs of the remodeling and renovating, about 95% of the work was completed by volunteers. It also takes ongoing volunteers like Becca Billingsley and Jo Polzer. Rachel considers Becca her support person that helps her with her administrative duties and anything else as needed, while Jo spends time interacting with the dog family and general care duties.
“It’s one of those things where it's always been like, I've always wanted to help, and I've always assisted in shelters and rescues and stuff,” said Becca. “I come from Chicago, where we have so many bully breed and behavioral rescues and stuff like that. My mom was a dog trainer and a vet assistant. Animal welfare and animal love has always been a very strong thing in my family. With working at the vet clinic, you see a lot of sad cases where people say, ‘my dog is so old and I'm so old and I just I can't do it anymore.’ Having an opportunity to come and volunteer for a place that is true to their word, and gives a senior dog or a special needs dog every chance to live a good and wholesome life is a good thing. What else could I ask for, right?” Becca added that it just brings her joy and happiness being able to work with Rachel and watch Linda’s, Larry’s, and her dream bloom.
Jo moved to the area last year and wanted to get more involved in the community. Looking for some volunteer opportunities, she found the opportunity to volunteer at Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs on line. “I love animals and don't like the mistreatment of animals, so this really fit into my wheelhouse. As an adult, I've always had animals. Right now, I have a little teddy bear rescue dog named Izzy. I only come out once a week on Saturday. I work full-time, it's difficult for me to come out after work because I want to have time with Izzy, otherwise she's alone all day. I just kind of stretch my time off between here and there. It's awesome, this place. We make sure that they feel loved and have a place to run and just be a dog.”
Protocols in place, and the remodeling pretty much finished, Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs held its soft opening on December 1st of 2022. “That's when we started saying that we were open to accepting volunteers and giving tours by appointment, and started taking in dogs. Our grand opening is planned for June 3. We are going to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony. It's an all-day event with live music, food, and lots of fun activities.
Dogs are often regarded as “Mans best friend”. They are loving, compassionate, loyal, emotional, and understanding. They deserve a long life, as we all do. Jane’s Journey Home for Dogs aims at not only keeping Jane’s dream alive, but providing love, compassion, and dignity due to our beloved K-9s, one dog at a time.
Visit Jane’s Journey Home For Dogs on Facebook or on the web.
