Paws on Your Heart celebrates seven grant awards
Hazel at Better Together Animal Rescue received a grant from Paws to help treat her FIP, formerly a deadly cat disease. She is recovering nicely. (Photo submitted)
Submitted by Paws on Your Heart
Each year, Paws on Your Heart Pet Rescue Support, a Clayton County nonprofit, gives grants to deserving pet rescue organizations all across Iowa. Here are this year’s winners.
2025 Award Recipients
•Unleashed is a small all-volunteer, cats-only rescue doing adoptions and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) of outside cats in and around Keota (Keokuk County).
•Cedar County League of Animal Welfare is another all-volunteer, foster-to-adopt rescue group, in Tipton, doing cat rescue and TNR in Cedar County.
•Better Together Animal Rescue is a small all-cat, all-volunteer rescue in Vinton (Benton County), specializing in hard-to-adopt cats (like black ones and seniors).
•Kossuth County Tails of Hope Rescue is a new cat rescue in Algona. They’ve turned an old building into a shelter and gathered a team of leaders/volunteers to help cats and do fundraising.
•All God’s Creatures is a medium-sized rescue of cats and dogs in Mt. Pleasant (Henry County). They offer easy adoptions in their new shelter and also re-homing services to area residents.
•One Dog Rescue is a small, new, all-volunteer, foster-based dog rescue in Riverside (Washington County), which pulls dogs facing euthanasia from high-kill shelters in the South.
•Saving Whiskers Cat Rescue is a small, new, foster-based, all-volunteer, cats-only rescue in Waterloo (Black Hawk County). They know when to say no so they can focus on cats they can help.
Other Help to Rescues
Now that Paws on Your Heart has made these 2025 Annual Awards, it is quickly moving on to other ways it helps its grantees. This includes fundraising ideas, sources for free/discounted products, intros to funders, grant tips, and help with specific rescue needs.
Examples of this help include resources (educational and funding) that were found for one grantee who wants to start TNR activities. Another who needs to upgrade its website was matched with a website builder (another Paws grantee) who has offered to help for free! And a rescue using its Paws grant to expand its aluminum can recycling has been connected with another rescue who is an expert at generating revenue from its recycling program.
And homeless pets are being helped too. Paws gave a special grant to one of its new 2025 awardees to help fund treatment of a rescue cat that came down with FIP. Formerly a deadly disease, FIP can be treated (for 84 days!), but cost is expensive, so Paws offered an additional grant to help.
Another grantee has a dog with serious GI problems that are evading diagnosis by their local veterinarian. Paws matched this rescue with another IA organization that provides and guides advanced medical care for rescue cats and dogs. Fingers crossed that they can help find out what ails this dog and help him to recover.
These activities, whether grants or other rescue help, all make a difference in the lives of homeless pets here in Iowa. Donations are what makes all this possible. The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, with which Paws is presently affiliated, maintains a profile for Paws at https://dbqfoundation.org/paws. Donations can be made online through this link, or mailed to Paws on Your Heart Pet Rescue Support, 726 Acre St, Guttenberg, IA 52052.
In addition, Paws invites Facebook readers to check out its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PawsRescueSupport/. They welcome new readers who can share, like, and follow its page! This page is only one year old, but is growing and gaining followers. Paws would love to have readers of the Guttenberg Press take a look and become followers too.
