Allow Me To Introduce Myself
- Dawn Mimnaugh
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
The beginning of a new year always feels like a natural pause...a moment to take a breath, look around, and quietly ask, Where am I now?
If you’re new to Life With Old Dogs media, welcome.
And if you’ve been walking alongside the old dogs of Woody's Place Senior German Shepherd Sanctuary and me for a while, thank you for staying.
My name is Dawn, and Life With Old Dogs Media grew out of a very simple belief: that older dogs still deserve full, meaningful lives—lives filled with comfort, dignity, curiosity, and joy. Not despite their age, but because of it.
But Life With Old Dogs has always been about more than the dogs.
It’s about slowing down in a world that insists on speed.
It’s about listening to our dogs, to our bodies, to what this season of life is asking of us.
It's where I share my personal journey with old dogs by my side.
It’s about understanding that aging doesn’t mean shrinking—it means adapting, honoring limits, and finding beauty in a gentler pace.
I live in rural northeastern Pennsylvania on a small farm that I share with once homeless senior German Shepherds (the residents), a few rescue cats that found me, my personal goats, chickens, and ducks. It's a place where you discover the peace you didn't know you needed until you experience it. I also run Woody’s Place Senior German Shepherd Sanctuary, a lifelong home for displaced and forgotten older German Shepherds who have nowhere else to go. There is no adoption process here. This is their last stop, and it’s meant to be a good one.
This past year brought many changes for me and the sanctuary. A move. A new farm. Living temporarily in an RV while building a home. Losses, growth, recalibration, and learning—again—to trust my instincts. Through it all, the residents kept doing what they do best: staying present, finding joy in small things, and reminding me that life doesn’t need to be loud to be meaningful.
As we step into this new year, Life With Old Dogs Media will continue to be a place for honest conversation about all things aging dogs, grief, caregiving, and rescue burnout.
But, I’m going to be sharing a little more about myself here, because I believe it’s important to be humanized. You see, when you run an animal sanctuary for as long as I have, people can sometimes forget that there is a real person behind the work—the driving force making the decisions, carrying the responsibility, and holding the emotional weight that comes with caring for vulnerable lives, and that has taken a real toll on me personally. This space will still center the dogs and the work I do, but it will also reflect the human being behind it, because that part of the story matters too.
If you’re here because you love an old dog, are learning to care for one, have lost one, our curious about the real life world behind the camera that is my life, or simply feel drawn to a slower, more intentional way of living—I’m glad you found your way here.
This is a reintroduction, of sorts.
Not because everything is new, simply because a new year rolled in....
But because I am meeting this season—and this community—with clearer eyes, steadier footing, an open heart, and some much-needed boundaries....
And I’m grateful you’re here.
You can see all that Life With Old Dogs Media has to offer here 👇🏻