Rachel Neilsen has four dogs: a young pitbull named Destiny; the alpha male, who is a ShihTzu/Pug-cross named Konrad; a female named Askher; and one of Askher's and Konrad's puppies that is named Biggins.

Rachel provides a unique service to friends who have dogs. She offers to temporarily board dogs while their owners are making positive changes in their lives.

When the owner feels they are ready to be a pet parent again, Rachel returns them.

Rachel takes advantage of the time that she has the dogs boarding with her by refreshing their obedience training and keeping them socialized with other dogs by having them spend time with hers.

She cares for all the dogs the same way, as though they are her own.

Rachel is patient, understanding and definitely dedicated to doing what's best for the dogs. One of the ways she does this is when she helps someone whose dog has had  puppies who need to find safe, loving and happy forever homes. 

Rachel takes her own time to screen possible pet parent candidates. She wants to  ensure that the puppies are going to be cared for by responsible and loving people. She believes the best way to learn about a person and whether or not they are truly ready to adopt a puppy is to meet and talk to them.

If Rachel can earn a few dollars from finding forever homes for the puppies, the money she gets goes right back into the cost of food and supplies for the dogs.

Rachel has a lot of love to give and is dedicated to taking care of her own dogs and the dogs that live with her temporarily.     

She recently brought three puppies to stay at her place with her dogs. They were three puppies from a litter of 13 a friend's dog had. Rachel offered to take in the puppies, in hopes of relieving some of the work and care it takes to have 13 puppies underfoot.

During the time the puppies are staying with her, Rachel will be trying to find the best forever homes for them. She will also start to socialize the puppies and begin obedience training so they will be ready to be adopted.

When Rachel was homeless for a few years, she had her pitbull Destiny staying with a friend while her other three dogs were living with her on the streets. Not having her own place was stressful.

"It's hard enough to take care of myself when it's just me who is homeless," she said. "When I have three dogs that are relying  on me to keep them safe, warm, fed and healthy, it is that much more stressful."

Thankfully, Rachel recently moved into a new place — community housing.

She is grateful to have finally found a home that is pet friendly and a low-income housing building.  Rachel is happy because she can have all four of her dogs back together as a pack.

"Destiny is happy to be back with her pack. The other dogs were as happy as I was to have her back again," said Rachel.

 The building that Rachel lives in also has relatives to her alpha male Konrad living in there too. Rachel said it is good for the dogs to be able to keep a relationship going with the other dogs. It helps keep the dog family bond strong. Whenever the dogs get together they all get excited, and are happy to see each other again.