THE RAHR FAMILY

While then Tara Harper had excelled in the design and manufacturing arm of her family’s holdings, Fritz, had a successful career working our nation’s railroads as a sales director. In 2004, he started Rahr & Sons Brewing, a microbrewery. And while mainstay beer brands ruled the market at the time, Fritz managed to grow the business exponentially over the years. In 2011, Tara left the business to only return in 2019, co-founding Blushly Beauty with her family. Blushly is currently one of the hottest beauty brands in the marketplace, selling through on QVC every time the beautiful animal rescuer appears to demo her products.

The Texas power couple then started Rahr To The Rescue to help further their mutual love of helping furrever friends find new, loving and responsible homes. As a way to support their mission, Tara and Fritz also put together the RahrDog Ball which helps shelter animals through fundraising as well as donations of the incredible toy to shelter pets.

But we wanted to know how this couple met and what led to their meteoric rise in the rescue world. So, when we asked Tara and Fritz how they met, they pointed me to an article that was published by The New York Times on August 7, 2020, According to that story, and confirmed by the couple, “In September 2017, Rahr messaged Harper on Facebook.  

“I reached out to her after I saw her comment on a mutual topic of interest.”

Rahr says he couldn’t help himself. “I had to ask Tara out on a date,” Rahr said, “There was something captivating about Tara. Her love and passion for dog rescues really hit home for me. I would do anything for my dogs and from what I could tell, Tara would do that and a lot more.

And while that first “ask” didn’t work out the way Fritz had wanted, his vigilance in pursuing his fellow animal advocate and rescuer paid off. Their first date was in October 2017, and they were married on July 11, 2020. Of course, it was a special rescue animal that cemented the relationship for Tara in 2018.

After only about seven months of dating, Tara told Fritz that she needed to drive eight hours, roundtrip, to pick up an elderly and neglected German shepherd. And since they had only been together a short time, Tara assumed Fritz would not accompany her. Not only was Tara happily incorrect but spending the entire day in the car with Fritz and then seeing the rescue dog rest its paw on Fritz’s arm after he had bathed what Tara described as a smelly, dirty dog, was the last piece needed for Tara to know she had found her life partner.

Tara and Fritz are the kind of people who go to the ends of the Earth for friends and family. And obviously the same is true of their sentiment for, and support of, rescue animals. They have laughed in the face of adversity a couple of times, even when they were getting married. As it was during the heart of the pandemic, they were not going to let the lockdowns dampen their special day. So rather than risking having their guests potentially get sick, but still wanting to have their friends witness their nuptials, they hosted their ceremony on Zoom and haven’t looked back since.

Another example of how their love has helped them face a challenge was just two years after their wedding. Fritz had been diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer. Not one to give up without a fight, Fritz turned his brewery business over to his sons to focus full time on his treatment while Tara took on the role of nursing him back to health. And in just two years, Fritz not only beat his prognosis, but he has also returned to his normal routine, running the brewery and helping our furrever friends. But now he has an additional mission to embark on, helping to raise awareness of how important early cancer detection really is. 

Given how busy, entrepreneurial and dedicated they both are, we asked Tara and Fritz, “What is a day in the life of the Rahr’s like?” Tara tells PLM, “Every day is an adventure. We have 8 dogs and 2 fosters. The morning starts with Fritz making coffee and I start the feeding at the ‘zoo.’ Every dog has a different diet and different medical needs. Fritz and I work together in all of our companies. Every day is extremely different. One day we are tasting a new beer he has developed and the next day he’s corralling our dogs, keeping them quiet so I can go live on air on QVC. No day is the same.”

Now given how much our Spokesdog, Brioreo, loves what I call “The Rahr,” which is the RahrDog Ball, I had to ask how long this incredible toy took to develop and what was the inspiration behind it. According to Tara and Fritz, “Approximately 5 years ago we had the idea that we needed to do something more for all of the dogs who spend 24 hours in a cage in a shelter or rescue. We thought there has to be something we can do to help the dogs waiting on their forever home. We developed an indestructible dog ball to provide mental stimulation and to relieve stress. The buy one, give one ball give-back program was born. It is a fantastic initiative that aims to help shelter dogs across the United States. This program ensures that shelter dogs receive the proper stimulation they need by providing them with balls. These balls can help combat boredom and aggression, leading to increased adoptions and happier dogs. Additionally, this program can help ensure that shelter dogs have the opportunity to play, which can improve their overall well-being.” 

The buy one, give one program they are referring to can be found at RahrDog.com where if you purchase one ball, another is donated to a shelter dog. According to Tara, “At the heart of our ball give-back program is the commitment to helping shelter dogs in need. That’s why for every ball purchased, we donate one ball to a shelter dog in need. This means that not only can you provide your own furry friend with a fun toy to play with, but you can also make a difference in the lives of shelter dogs across the United States.”

So of course we had to know, given the philanthropy of it, what was the inspiration for their founding of Rahr to the Rescue? Tara responded, “When we first started dating, we immediately started having adoption events and fundraisers at the brewery. We quickly realized we could do much more. In 2020 we officially created Rahr to the Rescue. We provide and hosts locations for adoption events, provide funding for life saving surgeries for dogs at rescue groups and shelters and creates awareness of the dog overpopulation problem in Dallas/ Fort Worth.”

As the entrepreneurial spirit is so strong with the power couple, I just had to ask them, “How does Blushly, Rahr Brewing and your other endeavors factor into your rescue and dog toy business?” 

After thinking for a moment, they responded, “We bring a business background to our charity and Rahr Dog. Rahr Brewing is a gold medal winning beer company and Blushly is an award-winning beauty line. We took our business experience to develop an exceptional dog ball that truly saves dogs lives. As an example, you would think developing an indestructible dog ball would be easy considering that there are so many that claim to be indestructible on the market. It was extremely difficult. We spent years in development with our manufacturer to come up with a virtually indestructible ball that floats and is very mouth feel friendly. It was important that the ball was as tough as possible but yet dogs still wanted to play with it. We needed to consider that this ball would be with extremely strong dogs 24/7 and it was their only outlet for playing and releasing energy and anxiety. The ball needed to be big enough not to swallow, tough enough to last, bouncy and still fun.”  

In this journalist’s humble opinion, you will never find another couple like Fritz and Tara Rahr. Both so loving, smart, dedicated and hard-working, not to mention handsome and beautiful, it is refreshing to see such a pawesome pair find true love with each other, and the rescues they make. Thank you for being so PAWFECT! 

To learn more about Rahr to the Rescue, please visit RahrtotheRescue.org; for RahrDog, please visit RahrDog.com; for Blushly Beauty, please visit Blushly.com; and for Rahr & Sons Brewing Company, please visit RahrBrewing.com