Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary

08/25/2025

Sometimes it can take an animal a bit of extra time to become truly happy at a new home. Often, it is easy to get an animal comfortable, but to get them truly feeling safe enough to be vulnerable is an entirely different story.

For the team here at Rescue Tails, the distinction is important. We want the animals in our care not just to BE safe, but to FEEL safe as well. Each individual animal is different, and each individual animal takes it at their own pace. And it can be a lot of extra work, a lot of extra time and attention, a lot of extra patience, to get an animal safe and comfortable.

But the payoff is worth it every single time. We could not be happier to see today that Donkey and Midnight, resident donkey rescues, are feeling safe enough to put themselves into vulnerable positions in their pasture home.

Unfortunately the camera was not pulled out in time to catch Donkey rolling happily, but we caught Midnight in all of her dirty glory. Equine species typically only roll and expose their sides and belly when they are feeling completely at ease - safe enough to be exposed. There is a saying that is often used - a dirty donkey (or horse) is a happy donkey (or horse)! And today, we aught a little bit of that happiness.

07/29/2025

Our friends at Humane Society of Catawba County are hiring! Join their incredible, compassionate surgical team in their mission to save lives and better the welfare of thousands of animals every year. The Surgical Squad have always been amazing when they help us out on the occasions when we have animals in need of a quick veterinary intervention, and we could not recommend them more heartily!

Join our team! Ever thought about a career where you get to help animals and be hands-on in the veterinary field? Then HSCC could be for you! We are hiring a Spay/Neuter Surgery Assistant for our clinic. Please send resumes and questions to [email protected] for consideration.

🐾Job Title: Spay/Neuter Surgery Assistant
🐾Location: Humane Society of Catawba County
🐾Job Type: Full-Time
🐾Job Summary: The Spay/Neuter Surgery Assistant plays a key role in supporting high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter surgical procedures in a fast-paced, mission-driven nonprofit environment. This role includes assisting veterinarians, technicians, and other assistants with patient prep, monitoring, and recovery, while keeping a clean and efficient surgical workflow that prioritizes animal welfare.

Join a compassionate team dedicated to reducing pet overpopulation and improving community animal health. Your work will directly impact the lives of animals and the people who care for them.

(For a full listing, please check out this link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/199fKLyUA1/)

07/08/2025

Today we want to send out a huge THANK YOU to Lara Jones, Modern Woodmen of America for their generous donation of food and supplies to the animals here at the sanctuary today. Lara reached out to us earlier this year, back in February, to arrange to make a donation specifically to help animals and animal rescues in the area and visit to love on the resident sanctuary animals.

She came through for us in a wonderful way, generously purchasing and donating over three weeks worth of food in total to help us feed the horses, donkeys, cows, goats, pigs, and roosters currently in residence here at Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary!

Thanks to Lara, Donkey won't need to eat his own socks anymore!
Donkey is very grateful!

Disclaimer: Donkey does not have to eat his own socks. He is a stubborn donkey, and refuses to wear them despite their medical and fly preventative necessity. He eats a healthy, veterinarian approved normal diet along with all other sanctuary animals!

05/21/2025

Photo dump! The heat is rising and the animals are living their best lives.

Not a lot of news this week here at Rescue Tails - but sometimes that is good news in itself.

04/29/2025

This morning we want to say an absolutely huge thank you to the Government & Justice Studies at Appalachian State University group for all that they do. Through a grant application program by their incredible students, last night we were selected to receive a $500 grant by their selection committee! We wouldn’t even have known about this grant opportunity if they hadn’t cast a wide net for animal rescues to apply and then selected us as one of their final nonprofit options to submit proposals in front of a panel of judges. They did an amazing job of presenting for every nonprofit, and of the eight we were selected to receive the grant.

We could not be more grateful for the work their team put in, the panel who selected us as the winner, the Catawba County United Way for providing the grant, and for every single other nonprofit group who was there and the incredible work that each and every one of them does every day.

We will have more information on this grant and exactly what we will be using it for very soon - but first we wanted to say our huge thank you to everyone involved in our receiving it. Nonprofit organizations couldn’t exist without the incredible amount of passion and work that the people, community, and volunteers put in purely out of the kindness and love they have in their hearts for the people and animals that nonprofits exist to help.

Stay tuned for more information on, more thanks, and more aninal related activities and stories!

04/24/2025

The donkeys, Midnight and Donkey, have settled happily into their new sanctuary life with pasture mate Branwell, getting along great and spending all day hanging out. Branwell also got some new enrichment this week - enjoy a photo of him communing with his new tire post. Upon inspection, Bran decided the best course of action with his new toy was to gently press his head against it and simply stand there for a little while and having a moment of peace.

04/06/2025

We are once again extremely proud to share that we have achieved our Platinum level transparency seal with Candid Guidestar - a non-profit watchdog organization that exists to show where and how funds, finances, and other donor goods are being used at charitable organizations like Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary! A platinum seal of transparency indicates that all of our information is publicly available and we are fully accountable to our donors, the community, and maintaining a high level of standard in communication and overall transparency.

To view our information and profile, simply go to https://app.candid.org/profile/15024954/?pkId=efe493d7-19cf-4158-a39b-2137c133f304&isActive=true and take a look. We are extremely grateful to our supporters, grant providers, and community for continuing to help and allow us to save the lives of animals from abusive, inhumane, illegal, and emergency situations, and being transparent about how we do the work we do, who we are, and where donor money goes is just one way that we can show our passion and dedication!

04/05/2025

We like to do things big here at Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary - and today is no exception. After working on details, transportation, and preparation for the last several weeks, we are thrilled and proud to introduce our newest rescue cases here at the sanctuary!

Introducing Donkey and Midnight! Donkey and Midnight come to us from a family who reached out to us a few weeks ago. They were kept as long term family pets, but circumstances unfortunately changed and they simply no longer give them the care and attention that donkeys need provided on a daily basis. As of today, these two are safely at home on the sanctuary site, preparing for their full veterinary evaluations, some farrier work, and meeting their new friends and family, as you can see in the videos.

We will have more information to share on these two as they settle in and we get them safe and comfortable here at Rescue Tails. Stay tuned!

04/02/2025

We often enter periods of radio silence here at Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary, but rest assured we are here and working hard. Unfortunately we are a small team, and when things get busy it's often our social medias that fall off for a little while.

When we do emerge from the silence, it's often with news - and we have some news coming this weekend. We've been hard at work on two big new rescue cases, and we are very excited to share that with all of you as soon as we are legally able to do so. Stay tuned, and stay safe out there in the heat and (occasional) rain!

02/24/2025

As we settle back into some normalcy here at Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary after the bitter cold and the loss of Cludy, we thought it would be good to share some photos of the day to day here at the sanctuary grounds.

Just a few shots of the animals enjoying their hay and the warming weather, and one shot of how destructive resident rescue cow Branwell is with all of his healthy, happy energy. His poor tent never stood a chance, and we are in the process of repairs/replacement for that.

Life continues apace in the animal rescue world - never slow down, and always keep your head up!

02/05/2025

Unfortunately we have heartbreaking news to share this morning. Despite rallying briefly from his bout of choke last month, Resident horse Cludy developed a series of complications associated with the condition. In tryin to clear the choke, food particles entered his lungs and caused a condition known as aspiration pneumonia. He spent two weeks on heavy doses of antibiotics, but his pneumonia did not respond to treatment and Cludy stopped eating entirely over the weekend.

Cludy unfortunately already had a compromised immune system, and it simply could not fight off the infection this time. He fought to the very last second, and never lost his quirky personality. Right up until the end, Cludy was loved, cared for, and allowed to simply be a horse the way he was never able to in his life before Rescue Tails.

Yesterday morning the decision was made by our care team and our veterinary team to put Cludy to rest and not prolong any suffering. This is an unfortunate, heartbreaking, but always present aspect of end of life animal rescue. Often the right decision for an animal is the hardest one imaginable. With our incredible vet team, Cludy was gently, chemically, allowed to rest at last.

This is the face of Cludy we will all remember. A spirit that wouldn't break no matter the hardship.

01/17/2025

Happy Friday all!

A quick update for the week. Resident giant horse friend Cludy had a rough week. While eating his breakfast Wednesday morning, a gunshot in the neighborhood startled him and he sucked unchewed food into his esophagus. This caused an esophageal blockage, known in horses as Choke, creating a situation where food and water could not pass down his throat properly.

Choke is a critical life-threatening condition on horses, and if not resolved quickly, it will eventually cause dehydration, starvation, and death. Often, in situations like Cludy faced, Choke will resolve itself in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, when that is not the case, the horse has to be sedated, and have a tube inserted into their esophagus, down their throat, and into their stomach to clear the blockage and resolve the condition.

Cludy could not clear the blockage on his own, and did not enjoy his encounter with the tube and stomach siphon. He is recovering wonderfully and will hopefully not have to experience all of this again. A huge thanks to the amazing veterinary team at Henry River Mobile Veterinary Services as always for coming out on short notice and taking care of this big dirty guy and all of our other sanctuary residents. We could not ask for a better team to help us care for these animals.

Cludy is once again as happy, and as dirty, as ever!