Few people would surrender a family member to a kill shelter, but such places are filled with dogs abandoned by their owners.
Judy Butterfield rescues these at-risk animals and finds them a home. Butterfield manages A Paw and a Prayer Rescue, a volunteer-run pet adoption agency based in Chattanooga.
“We try to help reduce the number of pets turned into shelters,” Butterfield says. “We also try to help our local shelters by pulling abandoned adoptable pets into our foster program.”
Butterfield says A Paw and A Prayer Rescue is the result of friends who came together with a common goal: to help dogs that were abandoned, neglected, and abused in the Chattanooga and surrounding areas. “We are volunteers who work other jobs, and in our spare time we bring dogs into our homes and begin the adoption process,” says Butterfield.
A Paw and A Prayer Rescue is not funded by any organization, but instead operates entirely on donations and the personal resources of its volunteers. “We rely on the generosity of friends and strangers,” says Butterfield. “Some dogs come to us by owners who no longer want them or who can no longer care for them. Often, owners surrender their pets to local shelters, and there’s a chance that their pet could be euthanized.”
To help Butterfield on her mission of mercy, Prudential Realty Center will host a “Pets Need Homes, Too” adoption event Saturday, Nov. 8 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Prudential Realty Center is located at 7522 East Brainerd Road.
Sherri Pratt, affiliate broker at Prudential Realty Center, calls Butterfield “an amazing lady.”
“She goes to the kill shelters and rescues dogs and puppies and also takes in dogs from people who surrender them,” Pratt says. “She’s taken in little dogs that no one would even touch because they were infested and rehabilitated them back to health.”
Pratt says Prudential hopes to adopt out at least 30 dogs. People will also be able to sign up to be A Paw and a Prayer foster families.
Butterfield says the main requirements to be foster parents are time and love. “These little guys need nurturing and acceptance,” she says. “Many of them have never been in a house, never been petted, never been called by name, never felt a tender touch, had a bath, or had clean water and two meals a day.”
A Paw and a Prayer foster families bring one or more homeless pets into their home and care for them as they would their own pet.
Although the event will take place in November, Prudential is accepting donations now on behalf of A Paw and a prayer, including cash donations for ongoing care (including vet bills, shots, and spaying and neutering); dog and cat food; gently used or new crates; new or gently used supplies (toys, collars, leashes, etc.); bedding; potty pads of all sizes; kitty litter; and paper towels and disposable latex gloves.
Donations can be dropped off at Prudential at the above address. Checks should be made out to “A Paw and a Prayer Rescue.”
“Some of the stories would break your heart,” says Pratt. “Please help us help them.”
To learn more and to view photos of animals up for adoption, visit apawandaprayer.com.