Animal Haven By The Sea looks out for all four-legged friends

Dan Haag • December 10, 2018

Tillamook Coast people love their dogs.

With so many natural spaces for their four-legged friends to run and play, it’s a tail-wagging, tongue-lolling, sunbathing paradise.

Imagine you’re enjoying your day with your dog and the unthinkable becomes reality: you’re on a trail and your fuzzy buddy runs off. Who do you turn to? Where do you start looking?

Luckily, there’s an extremely caring place in Nehalem for you to find help.

In 2011, Animal Haven By The Sea Rescue was founded by Lee Blackmon to respond to the needs of animals in North Tillamook County.

Lee is the primary responder when animals are lost, sick or in need of a forever home.

It’s a big job, but Lee has a big heart.

He fosters, feeds, and exercises all of his four-legged guests in his home, dogs and cats both. Any animal in Animal Haven by the Sea will also receive needed medical care and a loving place to recover.

Want to meet your forever friend while on vacation? Lee will be happy to match you with a new best buddy.

Dan Haag

Born and raised in the great white north of Minnesota, Dan Haag felt the pull of the north Oregon Coast in the early 90s. Finding that rain never needed to be shoveled, he married an Oregon girl and settled in Manzanita, where he works as director of the Manzanita Visitors Center. He is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in a variety of state and national publications. He spends his free time wandering the area’s many trails, supporting the Oregon wine and beer industry, perusing coastal bookstores, and chasing his black Labrador, Lilo, along the beach.