Paw Prints Rescue and Rehoming

Paw Prints Rescue and Rehoming is a registered NPC & PBO based in Botha's Hill, KZN. We are a pro-life, safe centre for rescue dogs and puppies that have been abused, abandoned, or neglected.  We rehabilitate and sterilise them with the intention of re-homing them at a suitable permanent home.  Paw Prints Rescue and Rehoming relies solely on the generosity and support of the public, its supporters, donors, and volunteers to operate. We run and attend various fundraising events to bring in much-needed funds to meet the financial demands of the centre. These monies are used to medicate, provide veterinary treatments, sterilise, feed rescues, and have a regular staff team on the premises to care for our dogs.  Paw Prints Rescue and Rehoming currently has over 50 pups and 25 adult dogs in their care; since 2015, we have homed over 7500 dogs.

OUR HISTORY

Paw Prints Rescue and Rehoming was founded in 2018 by Jade Ashford but her love and passion for dogs started in 2015 when searching on Facebook, to adopt two dogs to join her family, she came across a post on Facebook to foster a mommy dog and pups, that had been found in the bushes.  As she had an empty room in her home, she took up the challenge. The entire experience was incredibly rewarding, and this was the beginning of her journey; she took in one litter after another and nursed them until each pup found a home. Over the next few years, she fostered for other rescue organisations until, in 2018, she decided to start her own nonprofit organisation while still in full-time employment to assist in financing the dogs in her care. In 2019 she was involved in a serious car accident and had an epiphany that she was given a second chance to make a difference – her purpose and vision was clear - to run an adoption centre for both puppies and adult dogs, “The Ultimutt Doggie Destination”; a warm, loving, friendly place where family can come to hang out with the rescues and receive the best kind of therapy - puppy cuddles. The vision included an adoption centre for pups and dogs in need of homes, a mutt motel (a boarding facility), a trail, a dog play park, a charity shop, a coffee shop, a dam, and a clinic.  In June 2021, she purchased a small holding in Botha’s Hill, where she started with two puppy areas and one staff member, but this was to be short-lived. In February 2022 her and six (6) others headed to Port Nolloth in the Northern Cape, a small fishing town 1800 kms from Durban, where they were faced with hundreds of dogs, homeless and living on the streets, no local animal shelters to assist with sterilising or treatment, and the closest SPCA was 150 kms away.  They returned with 53 dogs and pups with the hope that homes would be found for them in KZN, but shortly after this, Durban was hit by riots and floods and many people’s homes were damaged, resulting in people giving up their dogs.  It was then that her ‘small’ rescue centre grew overnight, and a plea for financial assistance resulted in generous donations from the public and generous donors, who donated funds to purchase cabins to house the dogs. In January 2023, after 15 ½ years in the corporate world, she resigned, with the understanding and knowledge that while sitting behind a desk, her dream would not become a reality, and as of 1st April 2023, she is permanently with the team and 100% invested in making the rescue a 5-star Ultimutt Doggie Destination.