History
With time comes great knowledge and experience, and over the last 28 years, we have learned from our volunteers, adopters and supporters that the quality of our work is just as important as our mission to find homes for as many sighthounds as possible.
With the help from the community and our amazing volunteers we have placed thousands of dogs into their forever homes. But for us, it is not all about the numbers, but it is about each individual dog’s happiness and finding the right forever home. For some dogs, this means as loving pets or helping their person live a full and productive life as a service or emotional support dog.
With this goal in mind, you have known us as Arizona Greyhound Rescue since 1995. Over the past few years we have continued to focus on Greyhounds and also on other sighthound breeds.
What has been steady over the years, is our commitment and unwavering dedication to our quality-of-life goal is to help people find the right sighthound for their life-style. What has changed and is new, is our name. In 2020, Arizona Greyhound Rescue transitioned its brand to further embrace our new name – Arizona Heartfelt Hounds. This expands our ability to reach out even further and do more of what we’ve always done over the last 28 years.
In 2023, Arizona Heartfelt Hounds joins Sol Dog Lodge and Training Center and Hearts at Ease. Together these three programs will be stronger than ever. And Arizona Heartfelt Hounds will have a forever home under the AGR Foundation.
Programs
For the past 28 years, is our commitment and unwavering dedication to our quality-of-life goal is to help people find the right sighthound for their life-style. This includes dogs being placed with loving families as pets, or as service dog that will allow sighthounds and other breeds of dogs, to find a new leash-on-life and help those who need it the most, our disabled and veteran citizens of our community.
Adoption
Our focus is to coordinate sighthound adoptions in and around Tucson/Green Valley, Pinal County, and Maricopa County. We also have found loving families all around the country, but encourage those outside our adoption area to go to The Greyhound Project and look at the list of all greyhound adoption organization in your area.
Hearts At Ease
Working through Sol Dog Hearts At Ease, our program focuses on two major goals:
Short-Term Family Crisis Assistance
Short term respite is for people who need to give their dog a safe place to stay during a crisis. We help our adopters when they have a need to provide respite services for their dog. In many cases, the dog is eventually surrendered to us for re-adoption. In some cases, we will partner with Sol Dog Lodge to provide respite care at Sol Dog while the owner is in crisis and then reunite the adopter and their dog.
Service Dogs
We work closely with Sol Dog Lodge’s Hearts At Ease Service Dog Program to identify, find, train and help foster potential Services dogs for veterans and disabled individuals. For more information on how to apply for the Hearts At Ease Service Dog program, please go to Sol Dog Hearts At Ease for more information and how to apply to the program.
Board of directors
Jean Williams
- President
“I am an Inflammatory Research scientist and nerd by trade. I moved to Tucson 10 years ago for the weather. I had always admired greyhounds but could not have one where I lived previously. I met greyhounds in Tucson and fell in love with them. Rehoming sighthounds and overseeing our service dog program is my passion.“
Jean has been volunteering since 2008 for Arizona Greyhound Rescue, (AGR) working in different positions until ultimately becoming the President of AGR... now Arizona Heartfelt Hounds. Jean’s extensive background in medical research which includes more than 15 years of comprehensive hands-on experience in microbiology research and other critical scientific research fields of discipline, allows her to use her expertise to facilitating critical dog care and interacting with the veterinary community.
Valerie D. Pullara
- Secretary/Treasurer
“My passion for dogs come from my parent’s love and desire to help all dogs. This deep love has been with me all my life and drives me to help keep dogs with their families. I moved to Arizona in 2005 and joined Arizona Greyhound Rescue as a volunteer, first writing grants, then serving on the Board as Secretary/Treasurer. My passion is fostering dogs that cannot be adopted due to special needs or behavioral problems. “
Valerie’s management career has focused on bringing purpose and vision to organizations that help people and communities including her work as a City Manager, as a chapter Executive Director of the American Red Cross, as Development Director, Human Resource Director and as Senior Project Manager working with people with disabilities. Valerie also is a certified mentor for SCORE.
Mary T. Flores
- Board Member
Mary has been an integral part of AGR since 2011 helping in rescues, retraining, and rehoming dogs, managing events, communications, and web development; and, as Development Director, guiding the critical areas of fundraising, partnerships, and grants.
Mary has lived and worked all around the U.S. and even took a business stint in the Middle East. She has worked in executive management in fields as varied as the nuclear industry to city management to banking and real estate. At the University of Arizona she served as Scientific Editor for a refereed American Chemical Society journal and was a web developer for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Shelley Harris
- Board Member
For over 4 years. Shelley has played an integral part on Arizona Greyhound Rescue's Board of Directors as the Director of Community Outreach & Marketing. She works to reach out to the community about AGR... now Arizona Heartfelt Hounds programs and adoption efforts. Shelley has over 30 years of proven experience in sales and marketing in hospitality, event planning, and senior care. Along with volunteering with AHH, Shelley is Past President for Health & Wellness of Southern Arizona, a group that works to meet the educational needs of members in the health care industry.
Marjorie Stiller
- Board Member
“For the past 8 years Oro Valley has been my home. My experience with Arizona Greyhound Rescue was at first a professional one. Before my retirement I worked in a senior community where Arizona Greyhound Rescue had placed a loving, sweet sight hound named, Mr. Fry. Frequently, he would come into my office for a quiet snooze. I got to know him well. I also had the opportunity to get to know the dedicated team with AGR, so when I retired and wanted to give back, AGR/AHH was the perfect fit for me!"
Marjorie’s office skills are amazing and have allowed her to work in a number of fields as administrative support - manufacturing, real estate, for a law firm, with local government and a senior living community. In addition, Marjorie has helped run the family business.