Paws on Your Heart Pet Rescue Support

08/14/2026

Lending a helping paw for another emergency surgery

Our grantee Cedar County League for Animal Welfare (CCLAW), a 5-year-old TNR rescue in Tipton, can’t catch a break with cat emergencies! Loli Pop needed emergency surgery for massive internal bleeding. Feline Dion came down with possible neurological FIP (from which she sadly later died).

Then, Snow White (cleverly named) became suddenly ill (rapid weight loss, severe vomiting, lots of pain). Emergency surgery found a serious intestinal blockage, resulting in removal of 8 inches of her small bowel. This was followed by 48 hr of hospitalization with intensive care.

We at Paws decided to jump in with a $500 Special Grant to CCLAW for Snow White’s veterinary expenses, since CCLAW’s medical coffers were depleted from their other recent emergencies.

Hats off to CCLAW’s great veterinarian, Dr. Nelson at Goosetown Animal Hospital, for saving Snow White’s life! Other than one “speed bump” since then—an abscess on her incision site, which antibiotics took care of—Snow White has fully healed.

From assured death to a lively bouncy cat again is a wonderful happy ending for Snow White.

We are grateful for that outcome . . . AND for CCLAW’s appeal to their followers to say that Paws needs support too! Donations allow us to make grants like we did for Snow White, so we appreciate CCLAW’s advocacy on our behalf.

08/12/2026

A novel rescue raffle item

For all the fundraisers that rescues do, coming up with novel items to raffle can be a challenge!

Whiskers TNR of Warren County regularly comes up with unique such ideas. The post below illustrates what “item” a recent raffle winner got: a “Fee Farm Experience.”

This event was a day visit to the farm of one of Whiskers' Board members, Jenny Stahr Fee. Check out the cool animals on display -- from piglets to show pigs to fainting goats! And top it off with yummy picnic snack boxes and lemonade!

Looks like this auction item was a real winner. And a lot of fun too.

08/10/2026

A recipe for a successful rummage sale

Our grantee Hamilton County Animal AdvoCATes has finetuned how to put on a great rummage sale. Check out the pix below at the start of its spring sale. A few keys to their rummage success:

• Collections started a month in advance and went into covered trailers, first one, then two, then a third. Trailers accepting donations were parked at the rescue’s adoption facility.
• A huge room at the Fairgrounds was rented for the occasion. It came complete with tables already set up!
• One pre-sale Facebook post asked just for donations of plastic bags with no rips or holes.
• When the sale was over, volunteers loaded unsold items into a trailer and hauled them to a church that was having a rummage sale a month later. A great and easy way to recycle and hopefully sell the unsold items!
• Volunteers who unloaded the trailers at the Fairgrounds and reloaded them after the sale were employees of a local business that paid them their regular wages to volunteer for a nonprofit!
• Prices were simple: by the bag (or item, if larger). No pricing needed on every little thing.
• Many Facebook posts were put up at the time of the sale, and local sponsors helped pay for other advertising (for example, radio).

Bottomline: The 2026 sale earned $6,734, which paid the spay or neuter surgeries for 67 cats! Way to go, Hamilton County Animal AdvoCates!

Our Rummage Sale is on and things are going out the door like CRAZY! Come on down and get it before it’s gone! We will be here until 6. If anything is left, we will open back up at 8 am on Saturday and be open until noon to get everything out the door! Come down to the fairgrounds, load up and help the cats at the same time! Items will be marked down on Saturday!

08/07/2026

An incubator gets added to foster supplies

Earlier this year when we were working with Lucky Penny Kitties (LPK) to give them a grant for foster supplies for their Kitten Survival Program, we thought of one more item they might need: an incubator. They had one, but said they could use another.

Fortunately, we had just seen an inexpensive puppy incubator on the Amazon Wish List for another grantee, The Straygency. We knew this rescue would have vetted this piece of equipment, so we used their research and bought the same model for LPK!

And now it is ready for immediate use whenever needed! First occupant was a little black kitten named Onyx whose start to life was boosted by this incubator.

A kitten NICU. What could be better?

08/04/2026

Celebrating first-evers

First-ever events sometimes happen so fast that they pass out of sight quickly! Plus it takes time, not a common commodity in busy rescue life, to acknowledge them.

Tailspin Cat Sanctuary (TCS) is charting new waters in this area! They are half way through their first full year in business, and are encountering – AND CELEBRATING – first-ever events, one after another.

The most recent is their upcoming first-ever Adoption Event at a local library!

We know what a great opportunity this will be, from following successful similar events held by our grantee Whiskers TNR of Warren County, which holds a Caturday one Saturday every month at their local library (and has been doing so since 2022!). These library events provide great meet-and-greet opportunities and great PR for the rescue as well.

Other first-ever events that TCS has celebrated this year include a:
• First-ever Adoption
• First-ever Open Hours event
• Biggest fundraiser yet
• First-ever grant (given by Paws on Your Heart!)

Congratulations TCS on all of these first-evers. Each and every one is indeed a milestone to celebrate. May each be followed by many more to come.

🎉🐾 Our FIRST‑EVER Kitten Adoption Event! 🐾🎉

We can hardly contain our excitement — Tailspin Cat Sanctuary is hosting our very first Kitten Adoption Event, and you’re invited to meet the tiniest stars of the show!

Come say hello to Rose, Gemma, Hubba Bubba, and all the rest of our sweet, playful, heart‑melting little ones at the West Des Moines Library on August 8th from noon to 3:00pm. These babies are ready to charm you, climb into your lap, and maybe even choose you as their forever family.

We’ll be there to answer questions, share stories, and celebrate these precious kittens as they take their first steps toward their new lives. If you think you might meet your new best friend, be sure to visit our website and fill out an adoption application ahead of time — that way, you can take your new little family member home the very same day.

We can’t wait to see you there and introduce you to these irresistible cuties. This is going to be a day to remember. 🐾💛

07/31/2026

Happy birthday Rocket

We join our grantee A Purposeful Life Animal Rescue & Sanctuary (APL) in recently wishing happy first birthday to a spunky dog in their foster care, formerly named Rocket (now Ro).

We honor too how Rocket’s life intersected with Paws on Your Heart. When Rocket was a tiny tike, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. A Board member with his original rescue, PAWS Humane Society, reached out to us for help in finding any grants that could pay for his expensive treatment. We knew of no grants that would be timely, likely to get, and cover enough of Rocket’s expenses.

But we had one other idea: Critter Crusaders of Cedar Rapids (CC). They had successfully guided a number of dogs through heart treatments and might be able to help Rocket. We made the introduction. CC welcomed Rocket into their medical care, and Paws gave them a grant too to help with Rocket’s medical expenses.

Since then, MANY good things have happened. Rocket received successful treatment for his heart issue. He remains in foster care, now transferred to APL, and also remains under the watchful guidance of CC as well, for continued cardiac monitoring. And finally, the person who contacted us about Rocket last Fall has now joined Paws on Your Heart’s Board! She brings the same energy to our Board that she did last year in finding a way to help pay for Rocket’s heart treatment.

Many win-wins. All starting with the sweet face of a little puppy who needed help.

07/29/2026

When 2 bonded cats get to stay together

Our grantee The Straygency describes a lovely story about 2 cats, Casey and Honey, who were trapped during TNR efforts.

It is a magic story of how and where the first cat was caught (while giving birth) and how a second cat was observed in the area, always returning to the junk spot where the first cat had been trapped and crying pitifully for her friend. This second cat took a L O N G time to catch, but the rescue’s persistence, patience, and trapping skills paid off. Cat #2 was finally caught and reunited with the first one. Their immediate affection for each other was, as the rescue writes, a reminder that “friendship isn’t just a human thing.”

In late Spring, both cats were sent to Kitty Corner Social Club, a fabulous cat adoption café in Iowa City, where they could find their forever home. What a wonderful happy ending for 2 cats whose prior home was a pile of old car hoods.

And true to Kitty Corner’s goal of adopting the cats that visit its café, Casey and Honey have now not only been adopted, . . . but adopted TOGEHER (see photo in comments)!

07/26/2026

Puppy Pals event becomes an annual one

Our grantee One Dog Rescue (ODR) has just successfully turned an educational puppy “class,” which was first held as a picnic last year with Paws’ support, into an annual event!

For Puppy Pals last year and this year, the group centered around puppies as teaching points to 4th and 5th graders. Led by ODR’s director Ann, this year’s event featured a returning guest speaker, Kaitlin, a vet tech from the Keota Veterinary Clinic. This year, she helped the 20 attending students see how their studies now could later lead to a career in veterinary sciences. Imagine planting that important seed in young, curious minds!

Ann told the group about the puppies’ mom Lily who had to have her leg amputated and was saved from euthanasia in Texas, then was brought to Iowa where she surprised the rescue with a litter of 8 puppies. More seeds planted, this time, to encourage kindness and compassion.

In addition to their take-home folder of interesting things to read (which were custom-made for the Puppy Pals event), each student got their own blue Puppy Pals T-shirt. These shirts are very soft and cozy, which I can attest to, having been gifted a shirt last year.

All in all, another valuable community service project reaching out to children and sharing many messages about pet ownership.

07/24/2026

When hope is rekindled

Last week, various Facebook posts carried the news of serious rollover accident on I-80 near West Branch. The driver was taken to the University of Iowa hospital, but the dog that was in the car was nowhere to be seen or found.

Family members posted news on Facebook, of the dog’s disappearance. Her name was Pepper, appropriate for her striking, blue merle coat. But the post writers all lived out of state and could not search themselves, so reached out to ask the community for help.

Many comments on the accident post offered this idea or that of who to call, where to post, what to do. Among those ideas, Paws of Hope Animal Rescue was mentioned. Ah, I thought to myself, if anyone could find that dog, it would be them.

And that is exactly what they did do! Pepper has been found SAFE!

As is the custom of this rescue, the story of Pepper’s recovery is told by them--a few words and images at a time, weaving a spell, bringing the story ever so vividly and memorably alive.

AND THEN . . . Pepper was soon reunited with her mom (see photo in comments).

It is no wonder that this rescue, founded only a few years ago, has over 30K followers . . . in Iowa and around the world too!

We at Paws on Your Heart are proud of this rescue’s work, and we are glad to be one of its many supporters.

07/21/2026

When a village makes a difference for abandoned cats

Hats off to Kitty Cat Rehab (KCR) which used their Special Grant from the Paws camping tour on a huge TNR project in Mingo on July 3. The goal of the project was to trap and relocate abandoned cats from an empty, foreclosed property scheduled to be put up for sale at the end of that week.

MANY volunteers played a role:
• A vet and assistant from the Story County Veterinary Clinic in Ames brought a camper to the site where they could spay/neuter, vaccinate, eartip, and perform other minor procedures!
• Volunteers from KCR and another rescue (Tailspin Cat Sanctuary) brought traps and kennels and worked to trap cats and after being fixed, transport them to one of two barn homes.

The results were impressive:
• 22 cats were spay/neutered and relocated to barn homes
• 10 kittens and 2 adults that were social enough were brought into KCR’s care to be adopted (this is in addition to 8 cats trapped and taken from the property 2 weeks prior)
• Many medical procedures were performed on site by the vet team at no cost to KCR! These included 22 rabies vaccines, 3 ear polyps removed, 2 abscesses cleaned, and tooth removal!
• Of the remaining medical expenses, donors have sponsored most of the costs. And a dedicated KCR follower has offered a $1,000 match to pay for the remaining vet expenses.

We salute KCR and its work to advocate for sickly homeless cats. Donations and volunteers empower that mission. The Mingo project showed the effectiveness of both.