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About

Pepper's Senior Dog Sanctuary provides a compassionate, loving, lifelong home where elderly dogs are cared for during their good days, bad days, and last days.

Our Mission

Peppers' Senior Dog Sanctuary (PSDS) provides senior dogs with a compassionate, forever home, at our veterinarian supervised sanctuary. We care for our dogs for all the days of their lives, including hospice needs. We are the premier “dog retirement community” for canines who need us most—forever. We fill a unique need and space in senior dog sanctuaries. While you won’t find shuffleboard at our sanctuary, our seniors have other amenities and supports that make Pepper’s a well-deserved luxury for senior dogs. We provide small group and one-on-one care; enormous space to play, lounge, and sleep kiddie-pool-side; individual bedroom suites, professionally trained staff and volunteers; and dedicated physical therapy and medical care. Dogs who become part of the Pepper’s family win the retirement lottery. 

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FOR CANINES WHO NEED US MOST—FUREVER.

We will officially open in 2023 after construction completion of our full-scale sanctuary. We have already welcomed some dogs who currently live with our leadership team and at the sanctuary, and are raising funds to complete our $5 million capital campaign.

PSDS only adopts dogs from area shelters and rescues, helping to ease the burden of overcrowding at shelters. We DO NOT accept dogs via owner surrender or drop offs. The ASPCA estimates that approximately 670,000 dogs who enter U.S. shelters each year are euthanized. Sadly, many of these dogs who are considered seniors and special needs dogs are prematurely or unnecessarily euthanized due to age, special medical needs, testing heartworm positive, or having a disability. At PSDS, age and appearances don’t matter—we’re specially equipped to care for elderly and special needs dogs for their entire journey, and we are all in for the rest of their lives once they come to us.

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Our Story

Pepper's Senior Dog Sanctuary was founded in 2019 by a trio of dedicated senior-dog advocates: Justin Klemer, his mom, Mary, and Leigh Sullivan. All three are Colorado natives, lifelong animal rescuers, and proud foster fails who've saved and nurtured dozens of dogs. PSDS is located on 50 acres of beautiful farmland in Littleton, Colorado. And it was a feisty in-need seven-year-old Pomeranian named Pepper that made it all happen.

More than a rescue, more than a shelter, Pepper's is a sanctuary that was founded to honor a special Pomeranian, Pepper, who found the love and safety that he desperately needed, a dog who needed others to see the incredible worth of an old soul. Sometimes you're lucky enough to find all three rolled into one special heart. Some wear capes. Some sport a snarl, lackluster dental care and hygiene, and a healthy dose of suspicion for others. This was Pepper: he was a sidekick, a hero, and best friend to his partner in crime and human rescuer, Mary. She adopted Pepper in 2011 when he was around seven. His first years of life were difficult, until he sniffed Mary and spent his remaining years being pampered by her compassion and acceptance of all his quirks, gifts, and unconditional love. Really, they accepted each other exactly how they were: their true selves.

Pepper became Mary's sober companion. They were soulmates who made it their mission to pay it forward to other sidekicks in need who are waiting to find their forever home and unconditional care, no matter how undeserving they may first appear to be on the outside. Pepper inspired Mary, Justin, and Leigh to open Pepper's Senior Dog Sanctuary in order to help other senior dogs in need. Pepper's legacy teaches us to appreciate the connection and purpose we find within each other and the honor that it is to care for the most vulnerable among us. As Pepper showed us, senior dogs have so much love and wisdom to share.

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Our Facility

Our dream of creating a wonderful, comprehensive facility for senior and special needs dogs first took root in 2019, the year of our inception. In just eighteen months, that dream was already being realized. But why this dream? First and foremost, we are all dog lovers. Like so many people, we understand the joy that dogs bring into our lives. But we also understand the obligation we have to our canine friends to afford them the simplest privilege of living out their life with the most basic needs being met: shelter, food, water, companionship, love, and care. Every year, at least 1.2 million dogs are euthanized, and a large percentage of those are senior dogs—the dogs few people want to adopt. Why are people less interested in adopting senior dogs?

Our Facility

There are a number of reasons why people are hesitant to adopt a senior dog. Age is certainly at the top of that list, but there are also a variety of misconceptions about caring for a more mature dog that cause people to walk away from senior dog adoption. We decided that something needed to be done to help dispel the myths, remove the misconceptions, and break down the false stereotypes that surrounded the desirability of senior pets. And with that, our dream began to grow as we pledged our commitment to help educate the public while building the best possible sanctuary for saving senior dogs from euthanasia or a life on the streets. While senior dog sanctuaries have been in existence for several years, none are quite like Pepper’s Senior Dog Sanctuary, a place for senior and special needs dogs to live out the rest of their lives in a loving, caring, and nurturing home-like setting.

Our Facility

Our facility sits on a 50-acre ranch in Roxborough Park, nestled in the red rock foothills southwest of Denver. We have a full service vet. Our canine health and wellness space includes hydrotherapy equipment specifically designed for low-impact walking and rehabilitation. Amenities include luxury individual dog bedroom suites housed inside a beautiful barn with a large common area. Our spacious, secured outdoor play space complements the year-round indoor dog enrichment park featuring tunnels, a canine condo, modular playground, benches, treat dispensers, a dog slide and dog paw-shaped ball pits. Our sensory garden offers a water feature, textured floors, plants, and wind chimes. We are a model dog sanctuary because of the unique, complete continuum of care we provide for our residents. Not only do they receive love, shelter and medical care, they also receive hospice care at the end of their journey, ensuring that these wonderful creatures will know how much they are loved every day.

Our Staff

We are pleased to introduce you to our fabulous and hardworking staff here at Pepper's Senior Pet Sanctuary.

We also invite you to explore our Leadership Team here.

Stephanie Ward holding dog

Stephanie Ward

Sanctuary Dog Care & Volunteer Coordinator

Stephanie is a proud Colorado native, Wheat Ridge Farmer, and CSU Ram. So it is fitting that from age five, her wish was to be a cowgirl surrounded by dogs and farm animals. Growing up she was sure the cherry tree in the backyard provided enough shade for a pony. While that turned out not to be, here she is some fifty years later...

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Julie Roberts with dog

Julie Roberts

Sanctuary Dog Care and Volunteer Coordinator

Julie spent 24 years working for a major tech company as a corporate trainer, project manager, and communications specialist, as well as founding EMPOCO, a local nonprofit that provided medical and educational opportunities to underserved communities both in Colorado and abroad, before its transition to YANAM2M.

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Bringing Them Home

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