Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary

12/09/2025

Some winter treats for the animals this week, and the horses enjoying a particularly big pile of hay to help get them through this very cold week. As expected, they made a very large mess. And as Vixen is showing with her side roll - a dirty horse is a happy horse! Let us tell you - these are some dirty horses...

Bran and Donkey enjoyed a small pumpkin treat together, while Midnight simply wasn't interested.

11/11/2025

An incredible turnout this weekend at Carolina Furfare, many new friends made with the North Carolina Anthropomorphic Society, and an amazingly friendly Furry Fandom community that opened their hearts and wallets in droves to support saving the lives of animals in need. It would be impossible to overstate just how much we love and appreciate every single person who came to the convention, stopped by our booth to donate or even just chat or say hi. It was an absolute blast to see everyone simply having fun, stress and worry free for a few days, being exactly who they wanted and needed to be, without fear of judgement from anyone.

You are an amazing community, and everyone here at Rescue Tails is looking forward to a fantastic future relationship with you all next year! For everyone who attended, we are extremely proud to announce that your generous donations have allowed us to put our plans for a brand new shelter for one of the pastures into action - something we could not have done without all of you.

For everyone else, always keep an eye on https://www.carolinafurfare.org/about-cff for news about future Furfare conventions, links to the North Carolina Anthropomorphic Society, as well as their other convention and charity work.

Carolina Furfare, or CFF, is a family friendly furry convention in western North Carolina. Check our social media accounts for information on our next event.

11/06/2025

If you're in the Hickory area this weekend and want a fun day/weekend of art, fun. culture, and community - all family friendly - come on down to the Hickory Convention Center and visit Carolina Furfare and learn a little (or a lot) about an incredibly creative community you probably don't know a ton about!

We are their featured charity partner for the convention, with donations, a charity auction, and a D&D for charity all supporting us and the animals we rescue and work with. Come down, say hi, and experience some incredibly talented artists, performers, and just overall friendliness. Plus, we will have some special goat friends on site Friday from 1:00 - 2:30!

A huge thank you to the North Carolina Anthropomorphic Society for inviting us to be their charity, putting together the convention, and for just overall being an amazing group. https://www.facebook.com/NCAnthropomorphicSociety #

https://www.carolinafurfare.org/
https://www.facebook.com/carolinafurfare

Carolina Furfare, or CFF, is a furry convention that takes place in Hickory, NC.

11/05/2025

As the cold comes rolling in, the animals here at Rescue Tails all adapt in their own way. Some like to cuddle up together for warmth, some retreat internally and prepare for a hibernative state - and some just try to come inside.

Stay safe and stay warm out there everyone!

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!