Posts in category: Shelters & Rescues

When a dog spends an extended period of time in a shelter, it can be extremely detrimental to their health and mental wellness. Between the confined spaces, lack of activity, and loud noises, a dog can easily become overstimulated and stressed. Plus, dogs in shelters are not learning how to live in a home environment, so it’s often difficult for them to make the adjustment after adoption. That’s where foster homes come in. They help get dogs out of the shelter and into homes, making for more well-adjusted dogs ready to take on the challenge of home life.

About Needy Paws Rescue

Needy Paws Rescue is a foster-based rescue based out of St. Louis that pulls dogs from high-risk situations and shelters and places them into foster homes. Being entirely volunteer-run, the rescue relies heavily on the work of their gracious foster parents who put in the work to get their pups adoption-ready.

While getting dogs into homes is important, keeping them in those homes is the goal, so Needy Paws works with adopters throughout the adoption process. Their dogs go to their forever homes fully vetted and spayed or neutered. Then, they teach adopters how to best care for the newest member of their family.

Being a foster-based rescue, Needy Paws operates through donations and weekly adoption events. They also host an annual 6k and one-mile fun run, Paws in the Park, that helps fund the veterinary needs of the dogs in their care.

If you want to open your home to a dog in need, consider fostering for Needy Paws Rescue. 

St. Louis, Missouri, has one of the largest animal shelter populations – and the largest stray animal population – in the country. In cities like ours, pets left on the streets, surrendered by their owners, or seized by the police find themselves in municipal shelters, many of which have high kill rates. Luckily, the city of St. Louis has CARE STL, the Center for Animal Rescue and Enrichment of St. Louis, which provides a safe place and a bright future for these homeless pets.

About CARE STL: The Center for Animal Rescue and Enrichment of St. Louis

CARE STL began in 2018 with the signing of a city contract, making them an open admission municipal shelter and giving them control over the city “pound.” Unlike many municipal shelters, CARE STL strives to avoid euthanasia whenever possible. Their save rate currently sits at 96%, qualifying CARE STL as a no-kill shelter. CARE works to save all adoptable and medically-treatable animals that enter their facility, and they are getting closer to that goal with every single adoption.

Currently, CARE STL operates out of their shelter space, but they have recently started work on another location that will serve both homeless pets and the greater St. Louis community. They hope to use animals to help underserved populations through programs focused on literacy for children, job preparedness for low-income students, and rehabilitation for ex-convicts. They have partnered with Scholastic to create a program in which young children can read to shelter dogs, and they’ve partnered with Meals on Wheels to transport food and veterinary care to low-income pet owners. Through community outreach and education, CARE STL is helping create a more caring community for the city’s people and pets.

If you’d like to help the animal population of St. Louis City, please consider donating to the renovation of CARE STL’s new facility or their existing shelter.

If you’d like to provide a safe, loving home for a pet in need, visit CARE STL.

According to the ASPCA, approximately 1.5 million pets are euthanized in shelters every year. While there are plenty of reasons a pet might be euthanized, one of the big ones is that municipal, open admission shelters must euthanize to make room for more homeless pets. When time runs out for the dogs and cats in these shelters, Five Acres Animal Shelter steps in.

About Five Acres Animal Shelter

Five Acres Animal Shelter is the only no-kill animal shelter in St. Charles County, so they never euthanize pets to make room for more. Their adoptable pets come from private citizens who can no longer care for them, animal control seizures, and overcrowded shelters across the state of Missouri. With the help of donors, volunteers, and fosters, Five Acres finds loving homes for hundreds of dogs and cats that otherwise may have been put down.

Along with finding homes for animals in need, Five Acres Animal Shelter also helps the community through their food pantry, AniMeals. AniMeals serves pets belonging to individuals and families on limited incomes. By supplementing these owners’ needs with food and other supplies, the program keeps pets in loving homes and out of shelters.

If you’re ready to welcome a pet into your home, consider adopting from Five Acres. Their adoption process matches the right pet with the right home, so their dogs and cats are more likely to be placed in their forever home. 

According to the ASPCA, approximately 3.2 million cats enter shelters and rescues every year. Of these, most come in as strays or feral cats. With so many families adopting puppies during the holiday season, we feel it’s important to remember all the cats awaiting their forever homes in shelters and rescues across the St. Louis Area. That’s why our Shelter of the Month is Tenth Life Cat Rescue!

Tenth Life Cat Rescue was founded in 2009 by Elizabeth Frick. She started out with no money, a handful of supporters, and one cat in her own home. Over the years, Tenth Life grew to support over 50 foster homes around St. Louis and more than 100 cats. Their mission is to provide care to stray cats and kittens, especially those with special needs, in the hope of finding them adoptive homes while ending cat homelessness and unnecessary euthanasia.

Instead of a traditional shelter environment, Tenth Life Cat Rescue operates mostly through fosters. They also feature about 10 to 15 of their adoptable felines in their storefront on Cherokee Street. In opening their storefront, Tenth Life works towards their goal of creating a cat haven instead of the standard shelter space. They even encourage cat-lovers in their area to visit on their lunch break just to play with and snuggle their adoptable cats.

Tenth Life Cat Rescue believes that special needs cats are just as deserving of loving homes as any other, so they make it their mission to seek out and provide care for special needs strays in the St. Louis Area. Visit their website to meet their adoptable cats.

Although Gateway Pet Guardians opened in 2004, the concept came to life years before. In 1995, founder P.J. Hightower started feeding the stray dogs in East St. Louis with money from her own pockets. She did this almost every day for nine years. In 2001, four other women joined her, and the five pet-lovers formed an organization to raise money for these strays. Three years later, they officially founded Gateway Pet Guardians.

Now, the organization is far larger than its humble origin. Gateway Pet Guardians is currently preparing for the grand opening of their new location in East St. Louis. Upon opening, they will be the city’s first and only animal shelter. They have pets in foster programs, their TNR Program (Trap Neuter Release) for feral cats, and several community outreach programs that help owners with affordable spays and neuters, emergency vet expenses, microchipping, and vaccinations. Plus, they are still feeding the stray population – and going through 1,000 pounds of dog food a month to do so.

We are so excited to have partnered with Gateway Pet Guardians and even more excited to help find homes for their adoptable pets. To adopt, visit Gateway Pet Guardians.