08/26/2026
Today was a very hard day in the rescue world. 💔🐾
As you all know, at Hands Helping Paws, we always try to save as many lives as we possibly can. Sometimes that means taking in animals whose histories we have to trust were given to us truthfully.
Recently, we accepted an older owner-surrendered cat into our rescue. We were assured that he had been vaccinated. Because he was an older cat and we were told he was protected, we believed the information we were given.
Today, just 4 days after being vetted, he died.
We are devastated.
Rescue takes a tremendous emotional toll on people whose hearts are dedicated to animals who have been abandoned, surrendered, neglected, or simply thrown away. Losing one is hard enough. Knowing that we may have been given false information that could have put this cat—and potentially others—at risk makes this loss even harder to accept.
And yes, it makes me angry.
I have an incredible group of people who give their time, their homes, their money, their sleep, and their hearts to these animals. My responsibility isn’t only to protect the cats and kittens in our care. I need to protect my people, too. They do not deserve to be put through this because someone wasn’t truthful with us.
So, effective immediately, Hands Helping Paws is changing our owner-surrender intake policy.
If you surrender an animal to our rescue and cannot provide verifiable vaccination records, that animal will be considered unvaccinated and will be vaccinated upon intake. The animal will then remain in an appropriate foster/quarantine setting while we allow time for the vaccine to begin providing protection before being introduced into our general rescue population.
We receive so many calls asking us to take owner surrenders. We want to continue helping whenever we can, but we cannot risk the lives already entrusted to us—or the hearts of the people who care for them.
Today our entire rescue is hurting.
And to the person who gave us information that may not have been truthful: shame on you. There is now an older cat who is gone, and our volunteers and fosters are left grieving him.
He deserved better.
We will learn from this loss, change our procedures, and do everything we can to make sure we never experience a day like this again.
Rest peacefully, sweet boy. 💔🌈🐾
You mattered to us. 💔
