(upbeat music) - Herding Haven provides refuge and rehabilitation for herding dogs with special needs so they may become adoptable.

Katherine Beals is our guest today, joined by some very special friends whom she will introduce.

Hi, Katherine.

- Hi.

- Thanks for bringing these three dogs with you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Yeah.

Why don't you first introduce them?

- All right, so this is Lucia, and Lucia is a little double merle.

We think corgi heeler mix.

She's about eight months old.

She is deaf and visually impaired.

This is Rumba, and Rumba is a four-year-old kelpie, and she is blind.

And these are both available for adoption.

And Forrest here came through Herding Haven rescue and never left.

- Uh-huh.

- He is my boy, and Forrest was born without back feet, so he has prosthetics, and he's about eight years old now.

- All right.

- This is his fourth pair of prosthetics.

- All right.

So tell me why you founded it and why focus on herding dogs.

- Yeah, so I, I got started in rescue about 20 years ago and just really gravitated towards the special needs.

And I rescued a little dog that had been abused so badly that he was paralyzed, and he was sort of the impetus for starting Herding Haven.

I wanted people to understand that special needs dogs can be just like regular dogs and they make wonderful companions, and I wanted to help them have a voice and get adopted.

- All right, and find a proper home.

- Exactly.

- Yeah, so how many dogs have you placed, do you think?

- Over 600 dogs since we got into rescue about nine years ago.

And Lucia, what do you have to say?

(Lucia barks) (both laugh) (Lucia barks) So she doesn't see so well, so she's like, "I'm not sure what's going on."

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So over 600.

- Over 600 special needs dogs.

- Great, great, yes.

All right.

- And we focus on herding dogs, so border collies, Aussies, - Yeah.

- kelpies, heelers.

- Great.

- and mixes of those dogs.

- Okay, well, wonderful, was a great thing you're doing, and you got Forrest out of it.

- I sure did.

- Yeah, thanks.

So if you would like to know more about these dogs, special need herding dogs that are available, go to herdinghaven.org.

It's easy, herdinghaven.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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