Alongside my wife, the author Joy Nicholson, I am the co-founder of Rancho De Chihuahua, a 501C3 non-profit dog sanctuary located on a small farm in Chimayo, New Mexico.

At Rancho de Chihuahua, our focus is three fold. Primarily, we’re here to help small dogs with special needs. All of our dogs come from shelters, and all were slated for euthanasia before reaching us. These special needs range from physical issues, such as congenital deformities, limb damage, heart trouble, epilepsy, etc, to severe psychological/socialization issues. Obviously, each dog’s therapy is different, as each dog’s needs are different.
 
Our goal is for these animals to live a loving, safe, dignified and, of course, joyful life. If possible, we adopt out our special-needs dogs to homes where they’ll be cherished all of their days. If their special-needs are too great, or a loving home cannot be found, these dogs play out their days romping around Rancho de Chihuahua.

Our secondary focus is on elderly small dogs in need of hospice care. Hundreds of thousands of terminally ill and/or elderly dogs are dumped at shelters every year. Once there, these dogs stand virtually no chance of being adopted. Sadly, as space is very limited here at the Rancho, we can only take in a fraction of those elderly cases in need. But once they’re here, our geriatrics are loved and cared for the rest of their days. How a dog dies is important to us, so we pay particular attention to providing a fear-free, pain-free, dignified end. Euthanasias, when needed, are done in our home, by our caring veterinarian, and the dog is held and loved the whole time.

Lastly, we rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home non-special needs Chihuahuas and sometimes ‘honorary Chihuahuas.’  We do home checks, and check multiple personal references, including a vet check. All of our dogs are spayed/neutered, and up to date on vaccines. We rarely adopt out of state, and never to homes with small children (most of our dogs come from abusive pasts so cannot handle roughhousing).

We urge you to check local shelters first, but if you don’t find the dog you’re looking for there, please consider adopting from us.  Yes, our adoption checks are rigorous, but we believe this rigor leads to the best match between human/canine.

You can find more information and a list of available dogs at: www.ranchodechihuahua.org.

If you are interested in making a donation—well, first of all, thank you very much! Secondly, please send a check to:

Rancho de Chihuahua
PO Box 825
Chimayo, NM 87522

Or we also accept donations via Paypal: