The ladies with Pawprinted Hearts
Pawprinted Heart is a nonprofit organization that was founded in July 2015, but the manager has operated cat rescue of private initiatives for several years. PH is runned by three strong-willed and passionate girls with huge hearts for animals. Our focus group is cats - especially those who nobody wants to help or love. We are perharps the smalles organization in Central Norway, but we are also one of the few in the country who work so intensively with unsocialized cats.
We receive no government support and we are totally dependent on volunteers donations to cover the costs of the cats. We volunteer full time, so every penny goes directly to the cats in need. We have a so-called rehabilitations center in the CEO's home in Kyrksæterøra, and are working on building a location for the cats in the backyard.
Our story started after Tina got seriously engaged in animal protection and animal welfare. She started her own "Animal Friendly" page on Facebook to inspire people to make small or big adjustments in their daily life to help animals, and even went vegetarian and vegan after her learning experiences. But Tina wanted to help more. So how could she help more directly?
The answer came to her when an un-neutered cat started hanging out on her porch and terrorizing her own cats. She was only going to talk to his owner, but discovered that the cat was homeless and in serious need of help. She called him Bully and asked other cat lovers for help on Facebook. Her plan was to have him neutered, vaccinated, ID-chipped and adopted to a good home. After a few weeks Tina had got Bully to trust her, and one they she carried him into her bathroom. Through the cat's rehabilitation Tina and Bully grew such a strong bond that they didn't want to be seperated.
After Bully's story, Tina learned more about the problem with homeless cats in Norway and her new knowledge kept her awake at night. She couldn't just "sit and watch" anymore and the rest is history.
Tina knew that she had to have people with mutual ethics on her team. She connected though Bully's rescue and after a year of good support and friendship, they joined forces for PH. Helene is also one of Tina's closest friends who have both personal and professional background to be a good helper.
Our centre is a rehabilitation home for the most traumatic cats where they can stay as long as they need. We are really passionate about our "job", because even though there are some tough days and sad stories, the rescue cats reward us with the most gratitude they can. No money in the world can compare the feeling of winning a traumatized cat's trust.