Before moving to Memphis, Ranise was involved in rescue in Chicago for a little over 5 years. She started out doing events and raising money, then moved on to volunteering with handling and dog walking, and eventually became a board member for another rescue for more than 2 years. She then became a foster coordinator for ALIVE. Ranise took what she learned in Chicago and has started our very first “branch” to help reduce the extensive overpopulation problem in Memphis. Ranise shares her home with Zelda, the very first dog rescued by ALIVE Rescue Memphis, and has two other foster failures from the program in Memphis, Patty and Sprout. Ranise’s previous dog, Anita Riot, was her inspiration for getting into rescue.

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Cynthia Middleton,
Board Member

Cynthia didn’t mean to fall in to rescue this hard. Like many things in life, it just happened. She found herself searching for something to fill time and went to an Alive fundraiser with a friend who was fostering. What she thought was just a night out ended up giving her a drive and purpose that was missing in her life. She watched a video of Ranise sharing her mission to make Memphis a better place for dogs-one at a time. Ranise was out there making a difference and that was exciting.

Cynthia lives with her two rescue mutts, Zoe and Millie.