Finding where you “shine”!

This is a story about a dog. But it could be about any one of us! Finding the place where you can share your special talents.

Just ordinary... or maybe not!

Pepsi was his name. An ordinary black lab. He was brought to a rescue shelter when he was about two years old.

Kim Balder of the Cannon Falls New Leash Rescue explained that he was her “first truly difficult dog”.  “He was like a bull in a china shop when he was in the house. Not 'house broke' at all and he would never settle down.  The only way we could get respite from his destruction was to put him in a kennel or leave him outside.”

He was adopted and returned three times. No one could deal with his energy, she explained.

But he was special in one way!

Pepsi was “fanatical about tennis balls”! To tire him out they would spend a couple hours a day “hitting a tennis ball out in the field and have him retrieve it... over and over and over!”

One day Pepsi dropped the tennis ball he had been playing with into the pile of balls. It got all mixed together. But when he returned to the pile he went right to the same ball.

Kim recalled, “After doing this time and time again an idea popped in our heads that maybe this energy could be used for good... like rescue or bomb detection or something!”

So Kim contacted "a police liaison that worked with rescue dogs for placement on the police force. After they tested him and worked with him for about a week, the Brooklyn Park police department wanted to adopt him and enroll him in a drug detection program.

“Within a month he could identify 17 different drugs by scent. He went on to spend the next 5 years with the police and drug detection task force and Pepsi ended up retiring at 7 years old.”

Kim Balder of New Leash Rescue 
and one of her dog friends, Zeus.

Giving a “voice” to the “voiceless”.

Kim Balder on the Oxford Mill Road started in an animal rescue program back in 2008. In March of 2018, a few of these “like minded individuals started a new rescue named New Leash Rescue.”

Kim explained that she stays in this type of program “because I feel this is what I was put on this earth to do.” And she explained that she is so “grateful and proud of everything my husband and family have done over the years to help me live this dream.”

How many?

Over the past 11 years, Kim has personally helped 836 dogs, puppies and a few cats find homes.

“Dogs get to our rescue in a variety of ways” she explained. From “impounds, owner surrenders, Animal Humane Society, other states, almost anywhere that needs help.

“We've helped dogs from neglect situations, hoarding situations and medical situations - that without us, they might not have made it.”

“All the dogs that come to us get medical care first. All of our dogs are given shots, heartworm preventative, flea and tick preventative, spayed/neutered, microchipped, and dewormer.”

Check out adoptable pets at www.newleashrescue.org or contact Kim at newleashrescue2018@gmail.com.

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