Tonya Griffith's Animal Rescue, Inc.

Tonya Griffith's Animal Rescue, Inc. We are a no kill rescue group in Tyler, TX, with no staff. Animals stay with us until they are adop The initial A is before the names of courtesy postings.

Adopting a friend:
Please click on the name of the animal you are interested in to see who you need to contact about that pet. We do courtesy postings for those who need help in the community. Come visit us! We do not advertise our physical address to prevent people from dropping off animals. We prefer people to e-mail us first with a phone number, and a good general time to call you. Drop

ping off or dumping animals can lead to their death. Would you like to make a donation? PAYPAL
Please go to PayPal.com, click Send, enter my e-mail address [email protected], enter the amount of the donation, and please choose 🌺FRIENDS OR FAMILY🌺, so a fee is not taken out. CHECKS
Checks can be made out to our rescue, and mailed in care of the Gresham Veterinary Hospital, 11187 County Road 168, Tyler, TX 75703. VENMO
We have a Venmo card Tonya-Griffith-TGAR2003. Do you need help? Since we do not euthanize animals to make room for more, we are limited on space. We ask that people e-mail us for help, and we will send our Pet Options List, which will give you information and options to consider. You can search for other groups on www.petfinder.com, adoptapet.com, and petango.com. Anyone can post pets that need to be adopted on www.rescueme.org.

08/23/2026

8/23/26 - PEPPER AND PIPER WERE ADOPTED ON 4/12/24 IN CHAPEL HILL, TX. These were two more young cats that we were able to place after helping an older woman with spays and neuters to get her circumstances under control.

The family mentioned getting a different shelter for the cats and getting two more later on. They were doing good when I checked back on them, but I don't know if the family ever got anymore cats to join them.

07/22/2026

7/22/26 - PATSY AND BUDDY BOY ADOPTED TO A RANCH IN LINDALE, TX ON 3/19/24, AND LORETTA JOINED THEM ON 3/20/24. Loretta's video will be put in the thread.

Shanna is an older woman in Poynor that we helped to get her kitten and cat situation under control after many kept showing up to her house. These cats were spayed, neutered, and vaccinated before placing.

07/10/2026

7/10/26 - IN MEMORY OF JADON, WHO DEVELOPED DEGENERATIVE MYELOPATHY. I have never dealt with this health issue before, so I did do some research to hopefully identify it sooner if another dog has it that we care for.

Jadon was picked up by Tyler, TX Animal Control on 3/20/25, estimated to have been born around March 20, 2020, weighed 74 pounds, and was heartworm positive. He was a very sweet dog with people, and I picked him up on 11/11/25 to foster for Ruff Tales Rescue in Massachusetts. Videos of him on his last day at the veterinary clinic will be put in the thread.

He was neutered on 12/10/25, received heartworm treatment on 1/11/26, 2/26/26, and 2/27/26.

He would bark at our free roaming cats, played with the other dogs that he was with as well as toys, and recently he had been laying down a lot, which I assumed was due to the summer weather. A few weeks ago he took a non rawhide bone and dug a hole to bury it.

I moved him to a kennel to get ready for transport, and Sunday, 7/5/26, I noticed that his balance was wobbly in his back legs, his legs would flip out from under him, and his back paws were curling under.

I took him to the Medical Veterinary Center of Athens, TX, where he was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy, and did not have much longer.

It's an incurable genetic nerve disease that occurs in older dogs like German Shepherds, Pembroke Welsh Corgis, Boxers, and Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, and can be mistaken for other age related issues like arthritis or hip dysplasia.

The disease does not cause pain, but leads to paralysis and a loss of bladder and bowel control.

I'm glad that we were able to help him finish his life being happy and well cared for.

06/13/2026

6/13/26 - LILO'S FREEDOM VIDEO AT THE SMITH COUNTY, TX ANIMAL SHELTER ON 3/8/24. Lilo, Stitch's sister, was tagged by Ruff Tales Rescue in Massachusetts, one of three that day, and I picked her up on 3/8/24 to foster until transport on 7/11/24. Her departure video will be put in the thread. I did not see an adoption picture on her. Sometimes that is not made available by either the foster or adopter. She was also a little skittish of people, but was improving.

Lilo was picked up by animal control on 2/6/24 with her brother, Stitch, weighing 38.2 pounds, and estimated to be 1 year old then.

She was spayed on 3/21/24 weighing 53 pounds, and was heartworm negative. She was listed as an Anatolian Shepherd mix, and weighed 75 pounds when she got on transport.

05/28/2026

5/28/26 - STITCH'S FREEDOM VIDEO AT THE SMITH COUNTY, TX ANIMAL SHELTER ON 3/8/24. Stitch was tagged by Ruff Tales Rescue in Massachusetts, one of three that day, and I picked him up on 3/8/24 to foster until transport on 7/11/24. His departure video and adoption picture on 7/28/24 will be put in the thread.

Stitch was picked up by animal control on 2/6/24 with his sister, Lilo, weighing 32 pounds, and estimated to be 1 year old then.

He was neutered on 3/21/24 weighing 50 pounds, and was heartworm negative. He was listed as an Anatolian Shepherd mix, and weighed 78 pounds when he got on transport.

05/24/2026

5/24/26 - LIGHTNING'S FREEDOM VIDEO AT THE SMITH COUNTY, TX ANIMAL SHELTER ON 3/8/24. Lightning was tagged by Ruff Tales Rescue in Massachusetts, and I picked him up on 3/8/24 to foster until transport on 5/30/24. His departure video and adoption picture on 7/30/24 will be put in the thread.

Lightning was taken to the Gresham Veterinary Hospital on 3/19/24 and had his ears packed for an infection. He had a follow up visit on 3/25/24 to have his ears packed again, and it was later determined that he is deaf when his ear infection was determined healed on 4/1/24, which could explain his slight fear of my phone when I was getting his video at the shelter.

He was picked up by animal control on 2/13/24 weighing 70.2 pounds, an estimated to have been one year 6 months old at that time. He was neutered on 3/21/24, and was heartworm negative. He was 73 pounds when he got on transport.

5/10/26 - INTAKE/OUTGOING KENNEL MAKEOVER FINISHED. After relocating in August 2022, we started the long process of reb...
05/10/2026

5/10/26 - INTAKE/OUTGOING KENNEL MAKEOVER FINISHED. After relocating in August 2022, we started the long process of rebuilding.

Many years ago, someone that we helped, gave us this 10' x 13' heavy duty kennel. On our new property, there was a large pile of pea gravel left behind, which gave us the idea to use it under 2 foot pavestones instead of a concrete slab, which works out great for drainage when washing the kennel out, and for dogs urinating to flow in between the pavestones into the pea gravel.

Over the last few years we have used this kennel for dogs that we take in, and for dogs getting ready for transport to give them 5 days of Panicur before putting them in a larger fenced area and before transport to help them pass their health certificate before traveling, so there has been a lot of male dogs urinating on the panels. As you can see in the first picture after I set up cardboard to start painting a rust converter primer, how bad the rust had become.

After completing the primer, I sprayed a gloss protective enamel over that, put two foot green vinyl coated hardware cloth wire on the bottom of the chain link on each panel, and then new shade cloth. The dogs were previously pulling the shade cloth through the chain link and shredding it, so the hardware cloth wire is hopefully going to prevent that from happening anymore.

The protocol of using this kennel has been very effective in confining any parasites to one spot, instead of spreading to the other dogs that would then have to also be treated. Since this kennel is heavy duty, it should last a little bit longer now after its makeover. It's big enough for a large igloo dog house, a large black wire crate, and a plastic pet carrier which helps to get dogs used to being transported.

05/03/2026

5/3/26 - KAYIA'S REUNION WITH HER MOM AND DAD ON 4/11/24. A family that we know asked for help with Kayia when they had no place to live and needed a few months to get back on their feet. Kayia had mange all over her body really bad, and they had not been able to get her hair to come back. I knew that they would not just leave her with us, so I agreed to help her and get her hair to come back.

I'm putting in the thread the videos of when she first arrived on 2/14/24, and updates in between.

There are several options for treating mange. Bravecto, NexGard, and Simparica are flea and tick medicines that also treat mange.

Nu Stock is a paste made from sulfur, pine oil, and mineral oil. It smells really bad, but it's very effective in having hair to start coming back in 3 days.

A veterinarian advised us years ago that we could use Ivermectin daily up to 90 days on a dog with mange with the dose of one cc per 40 pounds.

Kayia's family paid for the supplies and food that we used for her when they picked her up, and you can see how much she loves her family.

04/03/2026

4/3/26 - HOW TO BRUSH A FERAL CAT. In the previous post of our new outside cat shelter, I mentioned that we have several outside cats now.

We set up an outside feral cat feeding station that is raccoon proof, that has the food inside a crate, so when I see a cat go in there to eat that I know has not been spayed or neutered, I can tie twine to the door to trap, get the surgery done, and then release.

I trapped Corbin on 3/13/26. I had to use a fish net to get him out of the cat cage he was in to put him in a crate so he could get neutered on 3/22/26. I opened his access to leave after taking this video on 3/28/26, so he could leave peacefully when he was ready.

I was trying to figure out what I could use for a long handled brush while I had him in the cat cage, and then I glanced at our shop vac attachments. It works great to keep me from getting scratched or bitten, while I try to tame the cat some.

04/01/2026

4/1/26 - CURRENT REBUILDING PROJECT ALMOST COMPLETED. Since moving in 2022 to a safer place away from shotguns and fireworks, we've been slowly rebuilding. We were at our previous property for 22 years.

We could not move our cat buildings, since they were permanent structures, so now we're making sure everything is portable.

We leveled this area with topsoil, framed it with bricks, put a layer of pea gravel for drainage, and placed 2 foot pavestones on top of that. We still have to finish the retaining wall with bricks.

Our last 3 remaining cats from our previous property, Danica, Heather, and Ivana are now happily in an outside setting again. After a few months, we will cut a few squares on the bottom of a panel so that they can roam the forest and come back for shelter and food as they want to.

This shelter is only for outside cats, and we have several outside cats now. We're keeping the number low, so that we don't attract the coyotes to our property.

Address

Frankston, TX

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 9pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 9pm
Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 9pm
Sunday 9am - 9pm

Telephone

+19035331282

Website

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