Several gray-muzzled dogs lounge lazily on the porch of Laurie Dorr’s North Yarmouth home, wagging their tails when visitors approach.

Inside Dorr’s home are more canines of a certain age – in the kitchen, in the dining room, in another room built specifically for them.

This is retirement, both for Dorr, who used to be an ed tech, and for the dogs.

Five years ago, in her own house, she opened the nonprofit Finally Home Senior Dog Rescue and Retirement Home.

“Our limit is 12 dogs. We have 13 now,”she said with a chuckle. She’d set the limit for herself, she explained, but breached it when two dogs arrived on the same day.

Dorr adopts older dogs that need homes, often from shelters or from people moving into nursing homes.

She also networks with other nonprofits to find senior dogs homes, because she knows she can’t help all those in need.

And her work on dogs’ behalf doesn’t stop there.

She’s set up two funds named after Sierra and Teddy, two special dogs who have died. The funds help dog owners who are poor (below 150% of federal poverty guidelines) and need help to pay for their older dogs’ medical expenses.

As for the dogs at the home, Dorr aims to have most stay with her for the rest of their lives. In the time they have left, she said, she doesn’t want them to go through the stress of having to move again.

As she talks about the dogs, she’s surrounded by them. Earl, a 12-year-old black dog who Dorr thinks is mostly Labrador, sits on one of the couches in the dog room, occasionally barking for attention. Nearby, Mera, an extra-large, extra-friendly Saint Bernard-hound mix, leans into a visitor, then rolls over in search of a tummy rub.

Lucy, 10, a beagle mix, is snoring on one of the dog couches. Bama, a Lab mix with a “sugar face,” rests on a pillow on the floor.

“Most people want puppies or younger dogs,” Dorr said. “Senior dogs often have been passed around many times and are overlooked at shelters. That’s why I’m focusing on seniors.”

She said she’s always loved dogs, especially ones who’ve been around for a while.

It’s time-consuming, of course, even when retired, to care for so many dogs. But she has a network of supporters, especially her husband, Bob, along with one employee and 15 to 20 volunteers who regularly visit and help. Most of the volunteers are on the older side, like the dogs, but there are younger ones, too.

To pay for medical care, food and help for dog owners in need, Finally Home holds regular fundraisers, including  an annual yard sale in May, an open house in July and a benefit golf tournament in the fall. Donations also come in on its website and Facebook page, which has well over 2,000 followers.

Each dog at Finally Home comes with its own life story.

Tiger and Bama both came from Alabama two years ago, from a person who kept 10 dogs in a trailer, where they were discovered days after the person died.

Rescuers quickly found homes for eight of the dogs, but Tiger and Bama continued to live in the trailer for two months, with people stopping by to give them food and water. A dog rescue organization found out, Dorr said, and then rescuers from Vermont arrived to bring them north.

Dorr followed their situation online. “I saw them, and I had room,” she said.

Tiger, 10, a large Catahoula leopard mix, has a brindle coat and “is very gentle … like a gentle giant,” Dorr said. “He’s very vocal, howls when he hears a firetruck or siren, or when I’m walking another dog.”

When she walks one of the dogs, “the others are waiting on the porch.”

White-faced Bama, 13, “is very sweet. She gives kisses,” Dorr said. “She’s very loyal, follows me around.”

Mera, 9, came from a Harpswell woman who went into memory care. She’s been with Dorr for a year. After she was fully settled in, her former owner came to visit. She “loves her to death,” Dorr said.

Tucker, 12, a miniature poodle with an endearing overbite, also came from a woman who went into a nursing home.

Snoopy, 12, is a beagle who came from a shelter in Thomaston, where his heartbroken owner took him when her landlord suddenly banned pets.

Dog owners who have surrendered their senior pups to Finally Home leave “with a sense of peace,” Dorr said. “They’ve met me. They’ve seen this place. Senior dogs don’t do well in shelters. Your person is not there. It’s loud. It smells different. So we’re an alternative.”

On a recent Saturday, about 50 people stopped by Finally Home’s annual open house.

Bobby Silcott, the animal control officer for Cumberland, North Yarmouth and Yarmouth, had high praise for Dorr’s organization, which he follows on social media. “It’s wonderful,” Silcott said, adding that “it’s nice to stand in the room” with the dogs he’s seen online. Silcott said he’s taught cat and dog first aid classes, and donated some of the proceeds to Finally Home.

Without Dorr, he said, “there would be a different outcome for these dogs.”

Retirees Richard and Pat Witham of Gray volunteer at Finally Home because they love dogs and “believe in the whole thing,” he said. He said they were devastated when their 18-year-old Dachshund, Norman, died: “We don’t want to take another dog, but volunteering is a way we can give back.”

“This is a great space, not only for senior dogs who are overlooked in shelters, but also a place for retired people,” said Brendan Stitt, one of the younger volunteers. 

“They get a burst of joy,” Stitt said of the dogs and volunteers. Being with the dogs is good therapy after a stressful workweek, he said. “Everyone leaves here a little happier than they were when they came in.”

Given the ages of the residents, it’s not really surprising that two or three of them die each year. Their caregivers grieve them and heal together, Dorr said, comforted by the knowledge that the animals “had a great end to their life where they were loved and spoiled.”

That’s what’s required for the dogs still living, she said. “So I can’t spend too much time grieving.”

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