Inspired by her dog Bonaparte, pictured above, country singer Emmylou Harris established a sanctuary for strays in her own Nasvhille, Tenn., backyard. (Photo Courtesy of Emmylou Harris)
She has 12 Grammy awards under her belt and is on the road for a new tour, but singer Emmylou Harris found the time to speak with Pet Pulse News about one project she holds dear to her heart: Bonaparte's Retreat, a shelter rescue and foster program the singer established and continues to manage.
NASHVILLE -- "Oh my darling, I'll miss you so/ How I love you, you'll never know/ Though it's time for me to let you go/ Oh my darling, I'll miss you so."
The lyrics to Emmylou Harris' "Not Enough," could act as an anthem to any lovesick country fan. They may not instantly recognize, though, that the song is not a tribute to a lost lover or friend, but rather, a gangly dog named Bonaparte.
Harris wrote the song for her latest album, "All I Intend to Be," which came out in June, six years after the death of her poodle-mix, who inspired Harris to set up a shelter rescue program in the backyard of her Nashville, Tenn., home.
"Bonaparte was my constant companion," the multiple Grammy-award winning singer told Pet Pulse News. "I had never traveled with a dog before him, and I wasted a lot of years.
"I was just kind of devastated when he died. I knew he was sick, but I didn't realize how sick."
Bonaparte was 11-years-old when he died, but to Harris, "he still seemed like a puppy.
"He was one of those dogs that just bounded around. He was a wonderful dog, who just loved everybody," she said.
To honor Bonaparte's legacy, Harris decided to help the Nashville Humane Association, from where Bonaparte was adopted. The prospect of volunteering or donating to the shelter soon took on a more extreme form.
"Around that time, I saw a special on TV about this woman who got this motel in upstate New York and turned it into a shelter for dogs. I was so inspired and moved by it, I thought I could create a place where I could foster dogs, and decided to make more room for them," Harris said.
Harris began to take in shelter strays, zeroing in on the most helpless, least attractive dogs she could find at the Metro Nashville Animal Control. She usually keeps around five dogs at a time, but also arranges accommodations for additional dogs in other local foster homes.
"I usually take the oldest dogs, the big, black dog, the ones who may not make it, who have the least chance of getting adopted," Harris explained. "I sort of do choose them personally. The heartbreak is that I can't take all of them."
The lucky chosen dogs find respite in Bonaparte's Retreat, the backyard shelter that includes four outdoor dog runs and kennels. When the Tennessee nights get nippy, the dogs warm up Bonaparte's Bunkhouse, a small cabin complete with a sofa and rugs, which once lay on Harris' performance stages.
Weekly trips to the park are also on the dogs' schedules.
Harris works to adopt the dogs out to various homes, but doesn't mind keeping them for a year or longer, in order to ensure that a perfect match is made.
"My feeling is that I will keep them for as long as it takes," Harris said. "They really do get a lot of love here and a lot of care, and they do have the Bunkhouse. But it is still not the same as being in a home."
When she is not on the road, Harris personally tends to her foster brood, as well as to her four own dogs and five cats, all of which also came from shelters.
"I try to spend some time with each dog individually," Harris explained. "I just love it. I'm so grateful to be in a position where I can do this and still do my work."
Harris also enlists outside help and volunteers to exercise the dogs and provide them with obedience training, which is conducted in the Bunkhouse. There, the dogs work to shake, give "five" and roll over.
"For the most part, we want them to be able to sit and not be so wild," Harris said.
As an active singer for nearly 40 nears, Harris continues to tour the country and team up with other musical artists, like Keith Urban and the Dixie Chicks. This month, Harris will go on a Northeast tour with Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller.
Harris says that her music is often influenced by her affinity for animals, and in the case of "Not Enough," her love for Bonaparte.
"I was in such a state of grief after he died," she said. "I really felt it very deeply and wrote that song right after he died. Of course, it can be about a person, too, but the song applies to all of those losses that we have had."
Harris believes that the simplicity of a human's relationship with an animal can forge the path for a more intense loss when the bond is broken.
"Dogs are able to bring us face to face with grief," she said. "Their love for you is so pure that it gives us an opportunity to grieve in a way I don't think we could have had, otherwise."
Out of Harris' profound sadness, however, came new hope for many other dogs, who, like Bonaparte,were cage-bound or worse before the singer recognized their potential to thrive and their right to a new life.
To learn more about Bonaparte's Retreat, visit Emmylou.net/br.html.