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The Bear Dogs and Friends, Lancaster, SC (2026)

12/21/2025

2025 wasn’t the year we expected. It took turns we never saw coming and brought losses we’re still learning how to carry. Some days changed us forever, leaving behind grief, doubts, and a quiet ache, but also a deeper understanding of love, resilience, and what it truly means to keep going.

12/13/2025

This is Mouse's first Christmas as a house cat 🥹❤️. Merry merry pretty girl 🎄.

One of my colony kitties who chose to befriend her humans. Mouse was adopted by my MIL and is the happiest quirky girl. It warms my heart to see her safe, loved, and warm this Christmas.

12/04/2025

I'd just walked out of the euthanasia room after saying goodbye to our old man Kringle. I'd had zero time to put myself back together and was not ready to welcome another. But when the text came through that this kitten had a treatable URI and they were looking at euthanasia due to the risk of disease spread and the fact she was not eating, I couldn't turn away. She hadn't even had a chance to live. So we turned around, scooped up this pitiful, little, pruny, sick thing and got her admitted to the same office where our boy had just crossed the bridge. Walking back in there so soon tore off a pretty fresh scab but sweet Raisin needed the best care and that is exactly what she got.

Soon after she came home with me where she initially wouldn't eat a thing unless she was being cradled and hand fed 😆. Once she met the other cats we quickly became chopped liver. Raisin is a cats, cat through and through. She loves being with her friends and loves to play, but can play hard to get with humans. Once you've got her, though, she is all love. She's just a bit shy.

Thank you for giving this girl the chance at furever she so deserves after all she's endured in her short time. Here's to new beginnings my little Raisin 🐾❤️.

12/01/2025

I brought my handsome Nub Butts back to the shelter this afternoon to increase his chances of adoption and not even 2 hours later he went home 🥹❤️. Congratulations my sweet boy! I hope you're spoiled rotten.

11/27/2025

Today, and every day, I’m most grateful for the one behind the scenes. The one who works countless hours to support us and this impossible mission.
For the one who comes home exhausted but still helps me tend to all the chaos: cleaning, bottle-feeding, treating wounds, giving meds, and driving endless miles to get animals to safety, even on Thanksgiving Eve.

For the one who builds the cat enclosures on unrealistic timelines, even when our personal life feels crippling. The one who says “not one more,” yet is always the first to lift me back up when I’ve taken on too much, whispering encouragement, reminding me that we’ll get through it together.

“Thank you” will never feel like enough. ❤️

11/26/2025

The babies are LOVING the new cat house 😍. We are missing one. In true Raisin fashion she has found a new hidey hole 😂. We'll share her glow up soon.

11/22/2025

What started as a simple day of running errands with a friend turned into something much bigger. We swung by the dump to toss some trash, and while we were there, I handed off some extra colony-kitty food to the kind gentlemen who care for the many cats that call the Racetrack Site home. That’s when they introduced me to Daytona and Bristol.

These two tiny beans had just opened their eyes, barely two weeks old, sick, and far too young to be without their mama. Every few days I went back to medicate their little eyes, hoping to save Bristol’s, because her URI was rough in those early days. Then a brutal heat wave hit, temps soaring over 100°F, and I couldn’t shake the worry for their safety. At about four weeks old, I finally took them into care.

They quickly became my most difficult bottle-babies to wean (send thoughts and prayers for my lost sleep 😅)… but every exhausted hour was so worth it. My Race Track Twins grew into bratty, hilarious, healthy teen kittens who have completely stolen my heart.

Today, they moved to their temporary foster to finish healing from their alters, and soon they’ll be ready for their next chapter. Daytona and Bristol will be available at at the beginning of December, just in time to find their very own holiday miracle.

Let’s get these precious babies a furever home this Christmas 🥹🎄❤️

11/21/2025

📻 I’m breaking the radio silence…

2025 has taken absolutely everything out of me. The kind of “tired” I’m feeling is soul-deep. Rescue has a way of knocking you down while you’re already on your knees, and these last few months have felt exactly like that. I’ve been crawling, just barely clinging on by my fingertips. I bit off far more than I can chew, and it nearly swallowed me whole.

The losses we’ve faced this year, within the rescue, my personal fosters, and my own family have been nothing short of devastating. I’ve questioned whether I can keep going more times than I’d ever admit out loud. But then I hear Shaun’s steady voice: “This is your dream. You are doing great work. This is what we do. We’re going to get through this.” And I see that little girl who once dreamt of being right here in these shoes, surrounded by rescues. That’s what has kept me showing up.

I’ve gone quiet these last few months as I've grieved those we lost and poured myself into those still fighting. Every waking moment has been cleaning, medicating, and intensively caring for the seven foster cats in our home. We’re finally closing in on the end of treatment. The Racetrack Twins, my tiny bottle babies from the end of the first wave of kittens this year, are heading to their temp foster tomorrow while they wait for their spot at the Cat Cafe. Figgy, Nubby, and Raisin are officially moving out of quarantine and are now adoptable 🥳! And while Ody still has a few hurdles, we’re getting there. Little by little, we’re trying to land back on our feet and find a new sense of normal. Baby steps...

Thank you, for carrying me through a season I wasn't sure I'd survive. I'm walking back into this fight with a bruised heart, but I'm not giving up. Not on myself, and certainly not on them 🤍🐾.

10/24/2025

After 220 days Knox has found his furever 🥹🏡❤️. Wishing Knox and his new family all of the success and many wonderful years together 🩵. Please pray for me and my heart as it's been 7 long months of hard work getting this boy ready for this very moment. Letting go is always the hardest part, but knowing he has a new little best friend who he already adores and a home where he'll be the center of attention makes it all so worth it. Some just take a little more time. Happy tails Foxy Knoxy 🥰.

10/06/2025

**I** Messed. Up.

I am not perfect and I will be the first to admit when I make a mistake.

Those of you who've followed for a while have seen/heard me talk about Freyja's behavior issues before. Why we crate, rotate, and take things VERY, VERY slow around here. I had a lapse in judgement tonight, one that proves why we preach to NEVER leave two dogs out unattended for any length of time under any circumstances. Anything can happen.

Freyja and Athena have been together since they were puppies. Despite Freyja's rescource guarding they've always gotten along. Athena is very just go with the flow and always just backs off when Freyja snaps at her. Until now Athena's response has always just lead Frey to continue on with whatever she was doing. They've grown up together...almost 8 years and never an issue.

Knox is off getting some exposure tonight so I decided to leave the girls out to have some free time in their space while he was gone. Big mistake. I was cooking dinner, and once I finished up I went to feed them theirs. Everything was normal, they were just hanging out and happy to see me. Nothing was in disarray. Then I noticed...blood...everywhere. Down the wall, on the floor, drawers, on the back of this crate...

One slip up is all it takes. I got very lucky it wasn't worse. These are big, powerful dogs. Athena is fine, Freyja got her ear so the aftermath looks far worse than the little cut on her ear is. I was not there so I can't confirm but I accidentally left Knox's crate open and he hardly ever finishes his dinner so I am almost certain that is what caused the tiff.

All of this to say, if you don't have your eyes on them... CRATE YOUR DOGS. Things can happen so fast. We all think "not my dogs" until it is too late.

10/05/2025

Figgy was my first baby after Puddin and Pickle. She was 4 weeks old and needed more than the shelter could provide. Recently, our sweet girl has been on a medical roller-coaster. All testing has been inconclusive. Fecals all spotless after trying pretty much every dewormer available, bloodwork almost spotless, xrays show no signs of fluid causing the pot-belly. Yet, we still have not taken a positive turn. We've tried diet change, meds, probiotics, the works. My sweet girl is in rough shape 🥺 please send all the good vibes you can muster 🤍.

09/20/2025

Wishing the happiest 1st birthday to the best boy ever! Hoping to close out this birthday week with securing a furever home🤞. After being failed time and again just be ghosted over and over by potential adopters, this boy is so deserving! I love you Knox ❤️. I promise whatever it takes we will get you there.

The Bear Dogs and Friends

12/21/2025

12/13/2025

12/04/2025

12/01/2025

11/27/2025

11/26/2025

11/22/2025

11/21/2025

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10/05/2025

09/20/2025

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