Latest news with #PAWSChicago
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Photos: PAWS Chicago puts pet rescue ‘mission front and center'
Forty retailers along Oak Street, Rush Street, Delaware Place and Michigan Avenue lent their storefronts and windows on Sunday, June 1, 2025, to PAWS Chicago for their annual Angels With Tails event. Inside and outside, people perusing the luxury shopping streets could find everything from playful kittens to former greyhound racing dogs. 'The idea is to bring homeless pets into the community, into areas where people are just walking around, where they'll encounter them and hopefully fall in love and adopt. It's a way to bring the mission front and center,' said Susanna Wickham, CEO of PAWS Chicago.
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
48 pets adopted at PAWS Chicago's Angels with Tails event
Chicago families were out Sunday enjoying the sunshine and picking up some new furry friends. PAWS Chicago hosted its Angels with Tails event Sunday in the Gold Coast. Dozens of puppies and dogs, kittens and cats were placed in 40 storefronts around the neighborhood so that people could stroll along the sidewalk and meet potential new family members. "It's critical, because people think, 'You know, maybe I won't go to that breeder. Maybe I'll find that homeless animal,' because they are the best pets," said PAWS Chicago founder and chair Paula Fassesas, "and you feel good when you rescue an animal and you save its life — you feel good." A total of 48 pets found new homes at the event Sunday — 35 through PAWS Chicago, and 13 through the organization's rescue partners. Several retailers — including Giorgio Armani, 25 E. Oak St., the Talbott Hotel at 20 E. Delaware Pl., and Tod's, 121 E. Oak St. — donated a portion of their sales directly to PAWS Sunday. PAWS said about 56 animals arrive at Chicago Animal Care & Control every day, so adoption events like the one on Sunday make a big difference.
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
PAWS Chicago puts pet rescue ‘mission front and center' at Gold Coast adoption event
Paula Fasseas always loved animals but never thought she would dedicate her life to saving cats and dogs. 'I always thought I'd like to be a vet, but I really didn't like blood so much. And it was funny, because back then, as a kid, growing up, you liked animals, the vet was the only path,' Fasseas said. But that all changed when her daughter was volunteering at a local animal shelter about 28 years ago. She said her daughter would tell her about the high number of animals being euthanized at shelters. Fasseas knew she wanted to save these animals — and that started with getting the word out. 'I thought, 'If people knew, they'd come and adopt these animals. How can I get them down here?'' Fasseas said. She started to think about streets like Michigan Avenue and Oak Street, which were lively and attracted people with their designer stores. Fasseas decided to host her first adoption event along some of those streets and the next day, she was inundated with calls from people asking how they could help. Now, 28 years later, Fasseas is still hosting the adoption event along some of the most fashionable streets in the Gold Coast neighborhood. She has also since started PAWS Chicago, one of the largest comprehensive no-kill animal welfare organizations in the country. Forty retailers along Oak Street, Rush Street, Delaware Place and Michigan Avenue lent their storefronts and windows Sunday to PAWS for the annual Angels With Tails event. Inside and outside, people perusing the luxury shopping streets could find everything from playful kittens to former greyhound racing dogs. 'The idea is to bring homeless pets into the community, into areas where people are just walking around, where they'll encounter them and hopefully fall in love and adopt. It's a way to bring the mission front and center,' said Susanna Wickham, CEO of PAWS Chicago. This year's event also comes as Chicago Animal Care and Control is receiving more animals than it can take care of. In a Facebook post, the agency said that in the first 20 days of May, it has received an average of 56 animals a day. That number is a slight jump from April, when the agency saw about 54 animals a day. 'During COVID, they had very few animals given up at Animal Control, and a lot of people in demand for animals, wanting animals,' Fasseas said. But in the aftermath of the pandemic, more people are giving up their animals. That trend is consistent with a nationwide crisis in animal shelters. Since the pandemic, many shelters are seeing a surge in the number of animals they are receiving. In 2023, 6.5 million animals entered shelters across the nation, a slight increase from 2021, according to Shelter Animals Count's national database. That number slightly decreased in 2024, with 5.8 million animals entering shelters. Despite the decrease, many shelters still say that they are at capacity and struggling to meet the needs of their communities. 'The thing that is the most alarming is just the amount of abandoned and stray pets, and also the amount of pets that are relinquished by their owners,' Wickham said. 'These numbers have been surging for the last couple of years, but they continue to be on an upward trajectory, and it's just largely tied to the economy.' More specifically, Fasseas explained that a combination of skyrocketing veterinary costs, people moving to new areas and general life transitions following the pandemic contributed to the surge in animals. 'There are a lot of people that can barely feed their families,' Fasseas said, let alone provide their pet with medical care. At the Sunday adoption event, dogs patiently sat outside stores like Dolce & Gabbana and Lafayette 148 as people stopped to play with them. Many people were looking for their next feline friend. 'Before I would just walk, play with the puppies — but this year was my time to shine,' Kristen Crabtree, a Gold Coast resident, said. She had spent hours online looking at the cats that were going to be at the event and found herself thinking about two kittens — Hobbes and Fuzz. Luckily, she arrived early and now says she has two new 'best friends to play with.' Yuri Torres, a Jefferson Park resident, had been looking for an orange cat. 'I love orange-flavored things, like oranges or mangoes, and so I always just associate tangerines and oranges with happiness,' Torres said. When she saw an orange and white kitten inside the Marc Jacobs store named Cherub, she instantly fell in love. 'I feel a connection to him,' Torres said. By the end of the day, she'd added a new member to her family.
CBS News
27-03-2025
- General
- CBS News
Rescue Together pet adoption event in Chicago aims to find forever homes for 100 dogs and cats
PAWS Chicago, Chicago Animal Care and Control, and five other animal shelters are teaming up this weekend for "Rescue Together," a marathon adoption event to help dozens of pets find permanent homes. The goal is to find forever homes for at least 100 pets in various Chicago shelters in one weekend. PAWS and the city's animal shelter are teaming up with Anderson Humane, Border Tails Rescue, Chicago English Bulldog Rescue, Forever Fortunate Felines, and St. Sophia's Forgotten Felines. PAWS Chicago CEO Susanna Wickham said they have teamed up with Chicago Animal Care and Control since last year to offer PAWS medical services to pets at the city shelter so that other rescue organizations that might not have their own veterinary resources to transfer more animals out of the city shelter. Wickham said that partnership helped save the lives of an additional 1,800 cats and dogs. Rescue Together will be held at three locations this weekend: PAWS Chicago's Lincoln Park Adoption Center at 1997 N. Clybourn Av., from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; Chicago Animal Care and Control at 2741 S. Michigan Av., from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; and at the NEWCITY Lincoln Park shopping center at 1457 N. Halsted St., from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. "Being in a high-traffic location like the NEWCITY shopping district means that people who are going to the Mariano's grocery store that day might realize there's a big adoption event going on, and that sort of happenstance is a way that many animals find homes," Wickham said. If you're interested in adopting a pet from any of the rescue groups involved in Rescue Together, you can see their available animals at the links below:
Miami Herald
10-02-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
‘Life-threatening infection' would have killed stray dog — but surgeon had other plans
A very loving and playful pup is back to doing circle zoomies in a brand new home after a shelter in Illinois refused to let a life-threatening infection get the best of her. At first, Wanda, a little terrier mix, looked like a tiny matted mess with her once-fluffy ebony fur morphing into an uncomfortable ball of chaos when she was discovered as a stray pup. But, it turns out, her fur was the least of her problems, PAWS Chicago said in a Feb. 5 Instagram post. 'She was extremely matted, weak, running a high fever, and had symptoms of pyometra, a life-threatening infection of the uterus that requires immediate treatment,' the shelter noted in a post that featured photos of Wanda after she was just brought in, then after she was treated. Unfortunately, the shelter's surgeon had already clocked out when Wanda was found. 'It was the end of the day, and our surgeon was on her way home, but Wanda didn't have time to wait,' the shelter said. 'While Wanda was rushed over to our Medical Center, our surgeon rushed back to perform her emergency surgery that evening.' Not only did the surgery expose that sepsis was raging through her body, but she also had other big issues. 'Once in surgery, we discovered Wanda was septic, meaning the infection had entered her bloodstream and was now circulating through her whole body. Getting through surgery was only half the battle - she was also dehydrated, hypoglycemic, had a respiratory infection, a heart arrhythmia, and cardiomegaly (enlarged heart), all while still having to overcome sepsis,' the shelter said. 'It took a week in critical care to get Wanda back on her feet. Antibiotics fought off the infection, her blood sugar levels balanced, and her respiratory infection cleared up - then our focus turned to her heart. Our hope was that the arrhythmia and cardiomegaly were reactions to the sepsis, and could clear up with time and TLC.' Despite going down a rough road, Wanda was able to pull through and start a new chapter in her life — one that includes a warm home and love. 'After a break in foster care, we brought in a cardiologist who confirmed - Wanda's heart was back in great shape! It had been a long battle for this little survivor, and just hours after she arrived at our Adoption Center, Wanda found a family to catch her up on a lifetime of spoiling. Welcome home, Wanda!' the shelter said. For more information on other adoptable pets, visit the shelter's website.
