You cannot comprehend Ani’s Orphans, Inc. without a proper introduction to its heart. Rio, who now watches over his mortal domain from the softest bed on the Rainbow Bridge, lived an impossibly rich and purposeful life while he built Crazy Town. His story will be available here on our website soon, but until then, this video should serve as a visual aid to the formal mission statement below it.
Mission Statement
The mission of Ani’s Orphans, Inc. is to care for abandoned puppies and dogs by providing them food, shelter, and medical aid; to rescue and rehabilitate special needs homeless puppies and dogs in order to increase their opportunities to find their forever homes; to provide sanctuary to those puppies and dogs who do not find adoptive homes; to compassionately train homeless puppies and dogs; to implement Lean principles to redesign the animal rescue system; and to educate and support the community of dog owners in order to increase the rate of successful adoptions of homeless puppies and dogs, to help dog owners develop healthy human/dog relationships, and, ultimately, to decrease the need for shelters.
Our Board of Directors was founded in 2023. Current members are:
Ani Cannon, President
Ani Cannon hails from the mountains of Crozet, VA., where she first started breaking the rules. Beginning a life devoted to curiosity about how things work, her studies began under the dinner table. She has since enjoyed many analytical studies. Due to an early and inherited love of medicine by way of her grandparents, her concept of ‘rescue’ was shaped by her early experiences working on the ambulance.
During her first real jobs in the emergency department, Ani was given the gift of exceptional leaders and mentors who “let her” attend a meeting where she got a life-changing introduction to Lean Philosophy.
After grieving her first dog, Farley Eugene, her beloved dachshund with epilepsy, she found her way to foster care as a way to shirk the responsibility of choosing his successor, but instead she became a beacon to the “weirdo” dogs who, much like herself, needed different rules to thrive.
What makes medical fosters so special to me? Special needs dogs are interesting and challenging, but inspiring and resilient, and they call on my creativity.
Jean Cornwell, Treasurer
Ani’s Orphans, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Public Charity. Any and all donations go directly towards the rehabilitation of all the dogs at our Orphanage.