Helping Homeless Pets, Four Paws at a Time

There can never be enough resources when it comes to helping homeless animals. Even with all of the animal control facilities, shelters, humane societies and rescue groups, there is still a need for individuals who are out there saving lives on their own. There are many people in our community who are silent angels, rescuing and caring for wildlife, pulling dogs from high kill shelters and putting them into rescue and people fostering dogs themselves and adopting them out using their own means.

Wendy Matthews from Mancelona is one of these rescuers. She is not affiliated with any specific animal welfare organization but she does what she can to save pets in need.

She has a Facebook Page where she networks and shares information about animals who need help. She also posts photos of her kitty, Willow. Her Willow Facebook page has 4,351 fans and many beautiful photos of her kitty, Willow, in different outfits.

Willow was born with deformed back legs and has become both a fashionista and a rescue kitty who helps her mom rescue other kitties in need. Willow was born in November of 2010. She was the only kitty in the litter with the deformity (backwards back legs). Her brothers and sisters all found homes but no one wanted poor Willow – until Wendy came along. That was February of 2011.

Wendy started rescuing about a year and a half ago after she learned how bad the homeless pet problem is in her area. Because AC Paw is so busy, trying to keep up with the requests for assistance that they receive, Wendy decided that instead of calling them for help, she would try to take care of the animal in need herself. She has also raised money on Facebook at times for injured animals or to get them spayed/neutered. Her kitty Willow is her inspiration for helping other animals.

Although finding money for what she does is difficult, finding potential adopters is even more of a challenge. She uses Craigslist and tries to talk to the people enough so that she gets a good feel about how they will take care of a pet. Mostly she works with cats and kittens but she has also helped dogs as well.

Most of the animals that she has taken in were found abandoned, maybe starving or freezing, but they all have a story. She took in a little girl kitty, Adlai Grace, two months ago who suffered a severe spinal injury and was paralyzed. Wendy was going to keep her but she was not able to survive her injuries. She came to Wendy through a vet in Muskegon who heard about her passion for disabled cats and kittens. You can read about this kitty here.

Wendy is busy working on getting non-profit status for The Adlai Grace Foundation. She also co-founded Leggings for Life which makes leggins for animals with deformed, crippled or paralyzed legs. The leggins protect their legs from ulcerations.

Wendy also got to take a visit to Best Friends Animal Santuary in Utah this January. Her rescue kitty Eliana got accepted into their organization.

Although Wendy was heartbroken to part with her, she knew that Eliana would get the kind of care that she needed. Eliana is a special needs kitty who was never expected to walk but it making great progress at Best Friends. Before her move, things were hard as she had infections over and over again due to her incontinence. Eliana is getting great care both medically and with lots of love from staff and volunteers. Wendy often has Eliana updates on her Willow website and videos of her at Best Friends.

The next time you are wondering what you can do to help an animal in need, please think of Wendy. It just goes to show you what one person can do in his or her little corner of the animal world.