One at a time.

This motto is my sanity when faced with the devastating number of lives lost each year in our animal shelters. In 2008 alone over 4,000,000 pets were euthanized.

A popular sentiment is that the pets that end up behind the crate bars in our nation’s shelters have done something wrong. A five-minute stroll through your local shelter tells a very different story: puppies and pure breeds; large and small; short hair and long hair; every shape and size. Some are wagging their tails and licking the bars, trying to catch a glimpse of the person who might take them home. Others cower in the back, shaking with their eyes shut. Puppies play with old toys obliviously blissful in their pens. Old dog sit quietly, politely waiting to be looked over. Abused dogs may crumble to the ground or lunge at passers by.

Each and every one of these pets deserve a chance. Why, in a culture where over 60% of the population lives with a beloved family pet, are there so many hundreds of thousands dying? Many reasons, but most notably: there are simply too many pets,

No Paw Left Behind focuses on the extreme cases; feral, abused, neglected, behaviorally challenged, abandoned, victims of foreclosure, ill, injured or otherwise “difficult” cases. We don’t have the space or funding to take in and rehabilitate a large number, so by focusing on the most needy cases we use their stories to inspire more people to adopt rescue pets.

Our current national average is only 20-30% of family pets are adopted from rescues and shelters. It is our mission to honor each and every life that passes through this rescue to help educate our community about the love these “second hand” pets give and deserve.

Every animal deserve to live, and every one of our rescue stories strives to honor that life.

I hope that you will read about some of our rescues and come to love their courage and will to love as much as we do.

Thank you for supporting rescue pets,

Jacquelyn Johnston, CPDT

Director - No Paw Left Behind