08/26/2026
Meatloaf has been Sanctuary Rescue’s Ambassadog for the last couple of years. He’s not only incredibly handsome and squishy but a friend to all. Meatloaf has been to every school visit, every nursing home visit, fundraiser, and community event. We could always trust him with any dog, any cat, any child, any human. He has been the greatest ambassador of rescue animals we’ve ever known. Despite being a seemingly healthy young man, though, Meatloaf experienced a cardiac event yesterday and passed suddenly and unexpectedly. The sadness that has permeated Sanctuary Rescue is indescribable. Meatloaf was such a life force, a source of joy to absolutely everyone; we lost our favorite coworker.
Immediately after his death I had the sinking thought of, Oh no, if deaths come in threes, who will be next? I worried about all of our other beloved Sanctuary dogs, several with medical issues, and let the intrusive thoughts creep in.
And just when things couldn’t possibly be any sadder around here, we heard the news of Dolly Parton’s passing. I thought, Wait, does this count as “the second of three”? Can a dog’s passing be equated with a human’s passing? I think it can. It’s just as real, just as devastating and painful. A friend is a friend whether they have two legs or four.
I remember reading something on the internet not too long ago where someone asked who the one person that everyone would agree was absolutely beloved by all. Who stretched beyond religious, political, socioeconomic, cultural lines and was internationally loved without condition? The overwhelming answer was Dolly Parton. In today’s world where we are all on edge, can’t seem to agree on much, and are more divided than ever, the fact that we could agree that Dolly Parton was a life force and a source of joy to absolutely everyone was comforting and hope-filled.
So yes, for us here at Sanctuary Rescue Dolly and Meatloaf are so much more alike than different. Dare I say Meatloaf was the Dolly of the dog world. He was universally loved even by people that proclaimed to not like dogs. You could put him in any situation with anyone and anything and it would be positive. He was adored for being inherently, born-this-way special. The kind of dog that only comes around once in a lifetime, just like Dolly. I don’t know when another human will come around and unite the world in their light and love quite like she did, and I don’t know when another dog will be so perfectly infallible in every way the way Meatloaf was, but thank God I lived in a timeline that had them both.
