The Pawsies Blog

General

The 420,000-Kitten Cat Never Existed, and Six Other Claims Rescues Should Stop Repeating

Seven claims that circulate in rescue appeals and volunteer chats, each audited against published data. Five are false, two depend on what you count. Inflated numbers cost a rescue credibility it needs, the honest figures still make the case, and the evidence says to stop treating the adoption fee as a screening tool.

Oct 29, 2026 8 min read

Dogs

Pausing Black Cat Adoptions in October Protects Nobody

The October pause on black cat adoptions guards against an adopter nobody has documented, and it costs the slowest-moving cats in the building a month at the worst time of year. The usual rebuttal overstates black cat bias too. Drop the pause, drop the Halloween discount, and spend the effort on the photographs.

Sep 24, 2026 11 min read

Medical

Eighty Percent Sterilized and Still Growing: The Anatomy of a Colony That Comes Back

The 80% number is real, but it is a rate you have to keep paying, not a milestone you reach and bank. Most scattered, colony-by-colony TNR is a welfare intervention being sold as a population intervention, and the vacuum effect argument rescues use against catch-and-kill applies just as squarely to their own successes.

Aug 22, 2026 11 min read