Fostering Pets for Folks in Crisis
Who We Are
At Puppa’s Pals our mission is to prevent people in crisis from having to surrender their pets. We provide respite foster care and medical support for the animals as well as resource support to keep pets and their humans together. We are a 501c3 non profit, and we’re serving the Twin Ports area.
With Puppa’s Pals, pets are fostered until their owners are ready and able to resume their care. Our program provides respite fostering of pets for up to 6 months. Pet owners often find themselves seeking support from our program due to experiencing situations such as chemical dependency treatment, hospitalization, house fire, escaping domestic violence, serving a jail sentence, and homelessness.
We believe no one should have to choose to permanently surrender their pet due to a temporary problem. Our organization strives to provide a quick response to folks in need.
We are a foster based organization without a central facility. We do not charge a fee to those eligible for our program. Our ability to help folks in need depends entirely on available foster homes, and public support.
What We Believe In
Safety
To provide safe stable foster care for pets while their owners obtain needed support.
Awareness
To increase awareness of the impact pets have on total wellness. 10% of the 3.5 million homeless Americans have pets. While 47% of domestic violence survivors delay leaving abusers due to their pets.
Prevention
To prevent folks from feeling like surrendering their pet is the only option in order to seek care for themselves.
How Can I Help?
Foster, Donate, Volunteer
Newly accepted pets often need updated vaccinations, spay or neuter, and to have any ongoing health or behavioral needs addressed. Puppa’s Pals provides each new foster family with needed supplies including an appropriately sized crate, food, durable toys, treats, a properly fitted collar, ID tag, leash, and other items needed to ensure a comfortable transition for both the pet and the receiving foster family.
Puppa’s Pals is different from traditional rescue in a variety of ways. A significant difference is that all of the pets in our program already come from loving homes, and will return to them once their owners have regained stability. Maintaining this singular focus means we do not accept pets surrendered from the community, or provide pets available for adoption. This also means we do not recover expenses in the form of adoption fees.
So what makes our mission to keep people and pets together during and after a crisis sustainable? We rely heavily on community support including donated funds, supplies, and volunteer hours. We have been fortunate in being awarded locally funded grants in 2023 from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation. Our relationship with the supplies and resources available through Feeding Furry Friends in Maple Grove MN, an ambassador of Greater Good Charities provides us with access to affordable pet food and supplies.
When you donate using Zeffy’s online platform, there are no fees charged to us from your donation!
Our Goals
As we begin the new year, we have new goals! In 2025 we hope you will join us in exceeding them!
- Keep our community updated via more social media content
- Triple our # of foster families
- Triple our # of volunteers
- Double our # of pet intakes
- Increase our capacity for community outreach
- Build relationships with more partner organizations in the community
- Add Fi GPS collars to our program for flight risk pets, via Fi’s Rescue Partner Program
- Add and integrate use of a rescue software to reduce redundancy and improve data tracking
- Fill up our event calendar so we can spend time getting to know you!
