Help PAWS Mobile Vet Recover from Hurricane Helene

My name is Hannah and I'm the Executive Director of Binx's Home for Black Cats, a non-profit black cat rescue in Asheville, North Carolina. If you've been paying attention at all, you probably already know that a deadly, catastrophic hurricane hit the Southeast two weeks ago. Hurricane Helene hit WNC extremely hard and wiped out entire towns, homes, businesses, power, and access to clean water. In Black Mountain and Swannanoa, many people, and their pets, are still stranded up on top of mountains or deep in the woods of Appalachia. The destruction to our beautiful home is overwhelming and the landscape has been forever changed.

Since I founded Binx's Home, we've worked with a number of different veterinary offices and while they're all wonderful and do good work on the daily, PAWS Mobile Veterinary has been a beacon of light for Asheville-area pet owners. Dr. Dragon and Heather are the dynamic veterinary duo that make house calls to see your pets. Whether your cat gets nervous at vet offices, your dog throws up when he gets in the car, you're elderly or differently-abled, PAWS will come to you and give your pet the best veterinary care possible! They also work for the community, often offering low-cost veterinary clinics and donating supplies, pet food, and medications to those who need it.

During the recovery of a disaster, PAWS Mobile Veterinary should be out tending to the animals of WNC. We know that they would be holding low-cost or no-cost clinics to those affected by the hurricane, hiking up to patients that need them but can't down from the mountain, and helping to heal the community that relies on them.

But on the night of September 27th, Hurricane Helene took our beloved PAWS Mobile van and flooded it in the Swannanoa River. Dr. Dragon was stuck on her mountain with no power, water, or cell service for almost 2 weeks. We were worried that she was dead until Heather was able to get ahold of her. In one storm, PAWS Mobile Veterinary was seemingly no more. Not only does that mean that the cats in our rescue and others do not have their vet to care for them anymore, but it also means that Dr. Dragon and Heather can no longer do what they love. Their livelihoods are gone with the rushing waters of the raging river and the animals of WNC are also suffering from the loss of this incredible resource.

And yet, the PAWS Mobile Vet team, even in the wake of their own loss, have been volunteering their time and energy to the community. As we've been collecting donations of pet food, litter, blankets, and water, they have been swinging by every day, filling up their trucks, and driving out to those hardest hit areas and distributing supplies. Always here to lend a helping hand, we're inspired by their devotion to our community and the animals that they serve. And it's why we are asking you to please consider supporting PAWS Mobile Veterinary in their road to recovery. Dr. Dragon and Heather are needed now more than ever but without their van, supplies, equipment, and medications, they can't do anything to get back on the road.

Our goal is $50,000- enough to buy a new van with AWD, retrofit it for their practice, replace supplies and medications, and help them pay outstanding bills until they can get back on their feet to the animals that need them! It is a lofty goal and we know that times are tough for a lot of us right now in the aftermath of this disaster, but PAWS has done so much for us that we can't just sit back and not try to help. If you are able, please help us give back by donating to this incredibly worthy cause. Please donate and share this fundraiser to make the road to recovery a little easier for PAWS Mobile Veterinary after Hurricane Helene.