The Pawsies Blog

Guides, tips, and stories for animal rescue organizations.

Guides

How to Run a Rescue Dog Transport Run Without a Single Loose Dog

A transport run is the most dangerous hour your dogs will have all month — a parking lot full of strangers, open crate doors, and slip leads. Most things that go wrong are paperwork or process, not bad luck. Here's how to run one that ends with every dog where it's supposed to be.

Jun 15, 2026 7 min read
Guides

The Dog That Falls Apart in the Kennel — How to Stop Long-Stay Deterioration

A friendly dog comes in, and six weeks later it's spinning in its run and lunging at the gate. That's not the dog's temperament — it's the kennel. Here's a practical enrichment system that keeps long-stay dogs stable and adoptable.

Jun 14, 2026 8 min read
Guides

How to Bond Rescue Rabbits Without It Turning Into a Bloodbath

A single rescue rabbit is a lonely rabbit, and a bonded pair adopts out faster. But put two strange rabbits together wrong and you'll end up at the emergency vet. Here's the neutral-territory bonding process that actually works, step by step.

Jun 13, 2026 9 min read
Guides

What to Do When the Cats Come Back from Surgery

Trapping gets all the attention, but the overnight after surgery is where TNR goes right or wrong. Here's how to hold a cat safely until it's ready to go home.

Jun 12, 2026 8 min read
Guides

Someone Just Handed You a Box of Newborn Kittens. Here's What to Do First.

It's kitten season, and sooner or later someone shows up with a box of newborns and no mother in sight. Bottle babies are the most fragile animals you'll ever care for. Here's how to keep them alive through the first weeks, step by step.

Jun 11, 2026 10 min read
Guides

A Heartworm-Positive Dog Is Not a Lost Cause — How to Get One Through Treatment

A positive heartworm test scares a lot of rescues into passing on a perfectly adoptable dog. The treatment is long and the rules are strict, but it's routine. Here's how to move a dog from diagnosis to adoption without losing your nerve.

Jun 10, 2026 8 min read
Guides

The Night After the TNR Clinic — How to Recover Cats Before You Release Them

You trapped the cats and got them fixed. The job isn't done. The hours between surgery and release are when a TNR cat is most fragile — and where a rushed decision can undo everything. Here's how to hold them safely.

Jun 9, 2026 8 min read
Guides

A Skipped Breakfast Is a Rabbit Emergency — How to Catch GI Stasis Early

When a rabbit stops eating, the clock starts. GI stasis can go from "off his pellets" to life-threatening in under a day, and the only thing that reliably saves rabbits is catching it early. Here's what to watch for and what to do.

Jun 8, 2026 9 min read
Guides

How to Bond Two Rescue Rabbits Without Setting Yourself Back Weeks

A single bad fight can wreck a rabbit pairing for months, because rabbits don't forget. Here's how to bond two buns the slow, boring way that actually works.

Jun 7, 2026 10 min read
Guides

How to Keep Parvo From Spreading Through Your Rescue

One unvaccinated puppy with diarrhea can take down a whole foster network if your intake and cleaning routine has gaps. Parvo doesn't spread because you got unlucky — it spreads through the holes in your protocol. Here's how to close them.

Jun 7, 2026 8 min read
Guides

The First Two Weeks With a Rescue Dog Are Not the Real Dog

The dog your foster meets on day one is a dog in survival mode, not the dog they'll adopt out. Most failed placements come from judging a dog too early. Here's the decompression plan to give every dog before you decide who they are.

Jun 6, 2026 7 min read
Guides

What to Do When a Neighbor Complains About Your Cat Colony

A single annoyed neighbor can undo years of colony work — one call to animal control and the cats are gone. Here's how to handle a complaint before it becomes a crisis.

Jun 6, 2026 7 min read
Guides

How to Plan a TNR Trapping Night Without Losing Half the Colony

Trapping is the part of TNR where good intentions meet a cat who has watched you for an hour and decided not to go in the box. Here's how to plan a night that actually gets cats fixed instead of making them trap-shy.

Jun 6, 2026 8 min read
Best practices

Why You Should Track Every Feeding

Daily feeding is the closest thing you have to daily surveillance of your colony. If you're not recording it, you're throwing away the most useful data you'll ever collect.

Mar 1, 2026 3 min read
Guides

How to Run a Cat Colony Census (and Why You Should Do One Every Month)

You feed the cats every day. You know most of them by sight. But could you tell someone exactly how many are in your colony right now? A regular census is the difference between guessing and actually knowing what's going on.

Feb 19, 2026 11 min read
Best practices

How to Keep Track of Foster Cats and Not Lose Your Mind

You said yes to fostering. Now you've got cats on different medications, a kitten litter that needs weighing, and information scattered across five places. Here's how to stay on top of it.

Feb 17, 2026 5 min read
Guides

How to socialize even the most feral kitten

You've got a hissing kitten in a carrier and no idea what comes next. Here's what actually works, step by step.

Feb 17, 2026 6 min read
Guides

Starting a Cat Colony Care Group: A Practical Guide for Beginners

A step-by-step guide to turning "I feed some cats" into an organized group that actually gets things done. Based on our own experience running TNR in a small Spanish town.

Feb 16, 2026 18 min read

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