The email that stopped me in my tracks.

It was well into the evening.

The kind of night where the mist clings low to the earth like a ghost refusing to move on… and I was elbow-deep in a whelping box.

(Not metaphorically. I was literally reaching in to make sure one of our tiniest pups — just a week old — had latched properly.)

My Red Rose tea was seeping on the counter because it was chilly.

Then my inbox pinged.

And somewhere in the chaos of suckling puppies, licking mommas, and puppy squeaks, one message made me freeze.

It was a reply to last week’s “Who is LaBrea Evans?” email.

I clicked.

And what I found inside was a little firecracker of warmth, curiosity, and one line that hit me square in the heart:

“I’m completely blown away from the fact that I’m getting these from a dog breeder.”

I sat back.

My breath caught a little.

Because… that’s exactly the kind of thing I hope people will one day say about the Dire Wolf Project.

Not just that we raise puppies.

But that we raise eyebrows… that we shift perspectives… that we howl at the edges of what people think a dog breeder can be.

So I wrote back.

But, as usual, I may have said… a little more than I intended.

Here’s how it went:

“Hey! I love reading your little stories, hats off to you. You get very involved in the way you tell it, which I like but I’m curious; how do you come up with all this material? You share something new every day and I think that’s fantastic. I’m also completely blown away from the fact that I’m getting these from a dog breeder. You’re 10x as involved as anyone else. Above and beyond really. Y'all are crazy and I love it! Thank you”

First of all—thank you for your email.

Really.

You made my day.

Your words were like a warm fire in the cold wind of a long night’s trek.

In a world where most folks barely scan an email, let alone reply, your message stood out like a single howl across a vast and empty valley.

You asked me how I come up with all of this—how we manage to write stories, launch new projects, and keep the heart of this movement beating... all while raising litters of puppies and running a full-scale breeding program.

And the short answer is: we do it because we must.

But let me give you the long answer.

The real answer.

The kind you only share with a fellow pack member who’s stepped far enough into your world to understand what’s at stake.

The World of Dog Breeding Is Hurting.

Right now, the dog world is... in a state of collapse.

Puppy sales across the country are plummeting.

Five years ago, I had nearly 200 people on my waiting list.

Today? Eleven.

Yes. Eleven.

We’ve never had leftover puppies available like we do now.

It’s a low tide, and with it comes the risk of our entire mission being swept out to sea.

For most businesses, that’s a slow month.

For us, it’s an existential threat.

But here’s the thing…

When your life’s work is to build something that’s never existed before, you don’t get to rest.

You don’t get to wait for better timing.

You work harder.

You dig deeper.

You howl louder.

A few years ago, the platforms we used to rely on—Facebook, Instagram—threatened to shut down our pages unless we changed our message.

Played by their rules.

Watered it all down.

That’s when I realized something:

If you don’t own the platform,

you don’t own your business.

You don’t own your voice.

You don’t own your pack.

So we left.

We moved to email.

Because here, if everything else goes dark, I can still reach you.

I can still tell our story.

And you can still be part of this movement.

That’s what this is, after all.

Not a dog kennel.

Not just another breeder.

But a movement.

Yes, our dogs are incredible—sweet, calm, intelligent companions with a prehistoric look that turns heads and stops hearts.

But this isn’t about appearances.

It never was.

This is about pulling back the curtain on a dog world full of cruelty, corruption, and lies.

Puppy mills, backyard breeders, fake rescues, animal traffickers—most folks have no idea what’s really going on behind the scenes.

You just love your dog.

You bring it home.

You enjoy 14 beautiful years.

You never see the dark side.

But we do.

And we can’t stay silent.

We won’t.

So we tell the truth.

Every day.

In stories, in lessons, in adventures.

Because we want you to be the most informed dog owner in the world.

We want you to choose your next companion not from hype or habit, but from wisdom, conviction, and truth.

You might’ve noticed we tell a lot of stories.

Wild ones. Mysterious ones. Sometimes even magical ones.

And yes, that’s on purpose.

We created LaBrea Evans—our fictional 1870s paleontologist and email guide—because we knew something important:

People don’t absorb hard truths through lectures.
They absorb them through stories.

LaBrea is our mascot.

Our storyteller.

Our way of wrapping serious topics—like ethical breeding, canine genetics, and behavioral science—in a world that feels fun and fascinating to explore.

She’s our Mickey Mouse. Our Hogwarts. Our T-Rex skeleton in the museum.

And through her, you step into something bigger than a business:

A legacy. A revolution. A pack.

You’re right. We’re a bit insane. And proud of it.

While others chase money, we chase meaning.

While others cut corners, we dig deeper.

We don’t have a fancy facility.

Heck, we don’t even have running water.

But we have heart.
And we pour it into every pup, every post, every email—for you.

Because when someone says, “I just want a cool wolf-looking dog,” and balks at our prices… I know they’re not ready.

But when someone joins us—really joins us—they get something no other breeder can give.

They get a world-changing dog.

They get a companion raised with wisdom, history, and purpose.

And they get a community—of people who see through the fog and choose something better.

We’re not done. Not even close.

We will rebuild the waiting list.

We will grow the movement.

We will howl across the canyons until every worthy family finds their perfect pup—and learns what true dog ownership can look like.

Because there are too many families settling for hyper rescues with unknown trauma.

Too many buying from unethical breeders who offer bark instead of bond.

And too many people who’ve never heard of the American Dirus™ dog.

But that’s about to change.

Thanks to packmates like you.

So again… thank you.

From the bottom of our den to yours.

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.