Keeper as they began raising money, renovating the building, marketing, and ultimately opening the doors to serve the needs of homeless dogs and cats. Later that year, animals were finally accepted into the shelter, and the anticipation was real! It must have been quite a task turning a daycare into a fully functioning no-kill animal rescue, and the dedication shines through brightly.
WRITTEN BY: A LY S S A H E L M S , Social Media Manager
Kind Keeper No-Kill Animal Rescue is fairly new and one you may have never heard of yet. But after this article, I hope to spread light and awareness to a rescue that, despite the conditions and hardships, still makes miracles happen. Every single day. Creating a non-profit nokill animal shelter was only a spontaneous idea for director Belinda Mairowicz, and it quickly became a passion. It only took a few years after moving to the Grand Strand and lots of praying before she decided she could and she must! Then, in June of 2014, Kind Keeper Animal Rescue was born. Kind Keeper was named to embody the essence of Belinda’s mission – “a giving heart, a spirit of loving kindness for God’s creatures, and a conviction that we are responsible for nurturing and protecting domesticated companion animals who depend on human care...” Leanne Dornseif, their Marketing/Event Coordinator writes. In 2015, they officially got to start remodeling the shelter site located at 1500 LD Drive in North Myrtle Beach. This was no easy time for those involved in this amazing project, considering it was being used as a daycare prior, a little ironic considering they still have lots of needy babies to take care of every day. This was a stressful time for Kind
I had the pleasure of visiting this quaint rescue and was impressed with the light-hearted moods of each staff member I was introduced to. In their Marketing Coordinator Leanne’s words, “We are a team, and we all work well together and do our best to help each other out. Everyone works hard to help rehabilitate each animal that we take in. We are also extremely grateful to have so much support from our community because we could not do what we do without our community’s support.” On my tour with Leanne it was easy to see they would put down anything they’re doing to make sure all of the animals were taken care of. The key to a successful rescue starts with a passionate crew that deeply cares about each animal that comes into their care. As I was touring the place, I was so impressed with the comfort level of the animals, as well as the utilization and organization of the “staff only” areas, despite what little space they have to work with for now. I was also happily surprised by all the puppies! There were two new sets of litters separated in the different “whelping rooms” used only for litters of puppies or puppies and their mamas. They also had two new intake pups in their lobby office, and they always have one or two in the office. While I also met some older and adult dogs in the kennel room, puppies are a significant percentage of Kind Keeper’s intake. The handlers of the puppies have to be very careful as they can easily bring in diseases. Puppies are not fully vaccinated and after living in harsh conditions, can be very high risk. Most county shelters in the area don’t like to take puppies in, but Kind Keeper will. They also take in many animals with medical conditions facing euthanasia in county shelters
