Mariela Ortiz
Co-founder & adoptions
Reads every application herself. Will absolutely ask about your fence.
About us
A rescue built out of spare rooms
The rescue started in a Highland kitchen in 2014 with a whiteboard, a borrowed crate and a plan that was mostly optimism. We have kept the optimism and added a lot of laminated checklists.
Most of the crew, most of the dogs, and one cat who insisted on being in the photo. West 38th Avenue, last spring.
Our story
We ran out of room, so we borrowed yours
The first year was four households, one very patient veterinarian on West 44th, and a spreadsheet that crashed constantly. We took the animals the bigger shelters could not hold: the shy ones, the seniors, the litters that arrived at the wrong time of year.
Being foster-based means we never have more animals than we have homes — which is a real limit, and an honest one. It also means that when you ask us how a dog behaves around a toddler, a vacuum or a closed door, somebody can actually tell you.
Today the same rules hold. No animal sleeps in a kennel. Nobody is guilt-tripped into adopting. And every foster gets a text back, even at eleven at night.
What we promise
Four rules we do not bend
Honest about the animal
You get the whole picture — the couch-shredding, the thunder anxiety, the medication schedule — before you commit.
Kennel-free, always
If we do not have a foster home ready, we say so and keep working instead of stacking crates.
Nobody gets guilt-tripped
No sad-music appeals, no pressure at the adoption table. A ‘not right now’ is a perfectly good answer.
Support after the paperwork
Trainer referrals, a vet list and a group chat that answers questions long after you take a pet home.
How we grew
One decade, roughly told
2014
Four kitchens and a whiteboard
Four households start taking in animals the local shelters could not hold that winter.
2017
The pantry starts on a folding table
Neighbors ask for kibble instead of surrendering a pet, so we set up a table on Saturdays.
2020
Transport and TNR
Volunteer drivers and humane traps let us reach community cats across the northwest side.
2023
A door of our own on West 38th
A small storefront gives adoption days a home, a supply closet and a place to plug in a kettle.
The people
Volunteers, all of them
Desmond Blake
Co-founder & foster coordinator
Answers the eleven-o’clock-at-night foster texts. Keeps the crate inventory.
Priya Raman
Community cats & TNR
Sets traps before dawn and knows every alley colony by name.
Wes Kowalski
Pantry & transport
Drives the van, loads the kibble, refuses to accept a thank-you.
The next animal needs a spare room
Foster, adopt, drive a carrier across town, or send a gift toward a spay appointment. Every one of those is the same job from a different angle.