shels gavin

Stray Haven is located in Aurora Indiana, situated in the tri-state area between Cincinnati Ohio, Indianapolis Indiana and Louisville KY. Our pet rescue has a unique two tier goal that focuses on saving stray animals through adoption, education, exposure and sharing of resources.

Our first mission is to rescue and adopt out homeless pets to amazing homes, plain and simple. We have a foster based program that strives to heal the heart, soul and instill confidence in our abandoned babies. In addition to building up the emotional side of our fosters, we take care of their medical needs. Our pets will come with all age appropriate vetting, including spay neuter, microchip, rabies, vaccinations, health tests (heartworm test on dogs and FIV/FELV in cats), and preventative care such as wormer, flea/tick & heartworm (dogs only).

Our pets come from our Independent Rescue Partners, which comprise our second mission. The second goal is much more complicated and revolves around supporting the front line troops that have eyes on the ground in rural areas of Kentucky. People imagine and share the pain when they hear of dogs and cats dying in an animal shelter, but what most people don't realize is just how many counties don't have access to an animal facility. While any loss is a sad one, having a shelter that feeds and shelters a pet in it's final days provides a bit of hope compared to the horrific end that can befall so many homeless babies.

The pet overpopulation issue is well known and widespread but still there is no end in sight for many counties with minimal income, education and resources. Many counties in our Midwestern and Southern states don't have a county shelter, which means animals get no care or they have holding facilities that contract with other counties to take their homeless pets. The contracted county shelters are almost always overcrowded and taking in the additional animals means additional stresses which lead to frequent euthanasia. Rescues in Kentucky and surrounding states work tirelessly trying to help out the situation but to date it has been a losing battle.

For some lucky dogs and cats in those counties with no shelter, they have front line troops, called Independent Rescuers that work tirelessly and on their own dime to shelter them. They start by literally saving the animal, whether hurt on the side of the road, abandoned on mountain tops and coal mines, starving in well meaning residents homes, or forgotten when someone had to relocate, regardless of the situation the Independent Rescuer finds and brings the unwanted pets into their home to provide food and temporary housing. Once the dog is safe from harm they work to facilitate rescue, foster and donations to help with emergency vetting as needed.