Arin Greenwood
- Philanthropy Communications Manager and Senior Editor, Austin Pets Alive
- Editor and Writer, Freelance
Texas
Animal writer, lawyer (former, mostly), author of YOUR ROBOT DOG WILL DIE. I want to pet your dog.
Articles by Arin Greenwood
She adopted her dream doodle
Michele Warner purchased Kirby, her first doodle, from a breeder about a decade ago and loves this dog with her whole heart. But last year, when Michele, her husband, and their teenage son were ready to bring another poodle mix into the family, they wanted to adopt from a shelter or rescue group. Michele wanted to go that route because she feels that pet adoption best represents her values.
How fostering saves young kittens like Lucky
When a group of kind children found the tiny orange-and-white kitten, struggling and injured, they and their parents brought the little guy to Michigan Anti-Cruelty Society for help. The shelter’s veterinary team got right to work, treating his injuries and setting him on the road to recovery. They gave him a hopeful name, too: Lucky. Lucky got lucky again when he went to a foster home where he could get the round-the-clock care and attention he needed to thrive.
Pearls of wisdom from Pearl the dog
Jess Siegfried and her husband weren't looking to bring home another dog. They were heartbroken over the loss of their dog Bull only two months earlier and thought it was too soon to add another pup to their Arizona household. “My heart was shattered. I was so lost,” says Jess, a graphic designer who founded the brand PittieChicks. But then an opportunity came from One Love AZ, a rescue group and Best Friends Network Partner in Arizona that the couple had long been involved with.
Doggy delivery program drives adoptions
Rosie had a hard start. She was found nursing her puppies inside a tire in a junkyard in rural Arizona and taken to Cooper’s Chance Animal Rescue, an Arizona-based Best Friends Network Partner. Rosie and her puppies spent time in a foster home, where they grew healthy and strong. Then, with the pups weaned, it was time to get adopted. It didn't take long for a family to show interest in Rosie. The only issue?
Animal shelters nationwide celebrate lifesaving wins
Scout is a black-and-tan pup whose ears are the most perfect triangles, and this dog has a great reason for that big grin: He’s been adopted. The best part? Scout’s in good company. When Bossier City Animal Services, a Best Friends Network Partner in Louisiana, achieved their first full month of no-kill in August 2024, the shelter team made a public declaration that they were never going back. In 2025, they celebrated a full year of no-kill.
Hope for a cat with a once-fatal prognosis
Just because you can’t touch a cat doesn’t mean you don’t love them — or bring them their favorite food and a comforting blanket while they’re in the hospital. Such was the case for Mike Weigel and Buster. Buster is one of the cats who live outdoors — often called community cats — in Mike’s Tucson, Arizona, neighborhood, and Mike helps to feed and care for them. Mike noticed that Buster was growing thin and weak, so he set out to get his feline friend some help.
The cuddly photo that got a shy dog adopted
Eli was only 2 years old when he arrived at the SPCA of Brevard, a Best Friends Network Partner on the east coast of Florida — and those two years hadn’t been good. The SPCA of Brevard typically adopts out about 1,600 pets per year. This includes some coming from bad situations, who need time and kindness to heal their bodies and minds and put the past behind them. Eli was one of those pets who got such a lifeline.
The incredible journey of Eddie the cat
Erick Allen and his cat Eddie were just one leg into a move from New York to Texas when Eddie disappeared. They'd spent the night in a hotel in Pennsylvania, and in the morning, Eddie was simply gone. After an exhaustive search, Erick and his family had to make the heartbreaking decision to keep going and hope that wherever Eddie was, he was OK. The move to Texas was dampened by the loss of his friend. Not only did Erick miss his cat, but Eddie was also a connection to Erick’s mother.
Peace of mind for service members and their pets
Army veteran Georgia Glancies had a medical emergency this past spring that landed her in the hospital — leaving Bonnie, Georgia's beloved dog, without anyone to care for her. Georgia lives in Gainesville, Florida, and she brought Bonnie home almost three years ago. It’s an important, enduring relationship for both of them.
How a small shelter saved 1,000 pets in South Carolina
Tigger is a 7-year-old orange-and-white feline who came to Raskel’s Rescue — an animal shelter in Hardeeville, South Carolina, and a Best Friends Network Partner — from another shelter. When he arrived, he was a little too fluffy at around 23 pounds and needed to lose some weight. Fortunately for Tigger, Raskel’s Rescue had plenty of space for him to run, leap, pounce, and bounce — and lots of nice spots for a nap when that was his preference.
Helping old dogs get new homes
Richelle Cates is a lifelong animal lover who has never lived without a pet. But not that long ago, because her pool wasn’t fenced, she would have been denied the opportunity to adopt a dog from Frosted Faces Foundation, a California rescue organization specializing in giving second chances to senior dogs (and the occasional cat).
Facing a Space Crisis? Here Are 8 Ideas to Try Right Now!
The weather is warming and kennels are getting fuller. (No kidding, right?) Just to lay this on the table: we’re all of us working toward a future where space crises are rarer than they are today. One where most pets are in homes—foster homes, and supported in their family homes—leaving ample room in physical shelters for the pets who truly need to be there.
How I Lost My Cat, and Found My Community (and Found My Cat)
Get Inspired With 5 Must-See Webinars! Starting a crisis fostering program. Strategies for work-life balance. Recognizing the H in HASS. Our webinars are timely, actionable, and available to you right now! People, Pets, and Purpose: Derrick Garrett, Founder of Zoundz Music For Pets Why and how did a successful music producer and ‘music architecture’ entrepreneur turn his attention to tunes that help pets be less stressed, in and out of the shelter? Listen and find out!
How to Start and Run a Pet Food Pantry
The little pug’s name was Miss Kitty. She belonged to a man who wanted to go into treatment, “but the one big barrier to him getting the support he needed was making sure that his dog was cared for,” says Shannon Glenn, executive director of My Pit Bull Is Family, which created the North Minneapolis Pet Resource Center, a pet pantry in Minnesota. Miss Kitty His mother, who Shannon calls J, wanted to help—she wanted her son to get well, and she wanted to help him do that by caring for Miss Kitty.
Kitten Season is Here Again, and We've Got Resources for You
Well, it’s that time of year again. Kitten season. You’re either in it already, or the kittens are coming. You don’t need us telling you how hard kitten season is, especially in these very challenging times. The good news is we have a lot of tools and resources that will help you communicate with and engage your community, in the work of saving cats’ and kittens’ lives.
Where We Find Hope and a Call to Action in the (Pretty Dismal) 2022 Shelter Data
You probably didn’t need to see a comprehensive report to know that 2022 was a tough year in sheltering. But we do have the data, thanks to Shelter Animals Count. Here’s their newest report: Intake and Outcome Data Comparison for the Full Year, Q1-Q4 2022. The long and short of it is that by most metrics, 2022 was worse than 2021, but still significantly better than 2019.
New Year, New Opportunity to Use These 10 Tools and Resources!
Happy New Year! (Can we still say that, heading toward mid-month?) We’re taking this moment to re-introduce some of the multitude of tools and resources that we’ve got for you here at HASS. Here are ten you can put into action right now! Please browse and search the HASS website for even more, more, more. Because seriously, we’ve got a huge amount of pro resources, blogs, and webinars that can help you in your mission to keep families together and save animals’ lives.
Animal Welfare Resolutions for 2023: Click Here for Inspiration!
Entering 2023, we asked you for your animal welfare resolutions—and you’ve inspired the heck out of us with your bold, compassionate, insightful, collaborative, deeply hopeful answers. You plan to get more lost pets back home, and find homes for more big dogs. You’re building a Memory Garden for hospice dogs and their families, and lobbying to make rescue pets the official state pet before the end of this year.
You All Really Blew Us Away With Your Amazing Marketing in 2022
In this very hard year, you marketing geniuses have created some of the most inspiring, creative, and effective communications and marketing materials we’ve ever seen. If you get a second to breathe, we hope you’ll take a good moment to feel proud of the work you’ve done. We’re sure proud of it for you.
This Shelter Pays Pet Deposits and Pet Rent for Anyone Who Needs It
Across the country, pets are being given up to animal shelters by people who love them—but who are facing housing challenges that leave them making the choice between having a place to live, and keeping their pet. Lawrence Humane Society, a nonprofit, open-admission shelter in Lawrence, Kansas, reports that over the last year, over half of pets were surrendered due to housing issues—a full 51 percent.
Here's How 'Virtual Fostering' Can Help Your Shelter's Pets
Zach was a terrified dog. After eight months in a home, he’d been returned to the Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation in Northern Virginia, in rough emotional shape. He was throwing up every time he went into a car. He was scared of strangers and new environments. Zach had come to Northern Virginia from a rural shelter, along with his brother, who showed no signs of this kind of fear, and was quickly adopted—an adoption that stuck. But Zach wasn’t having it so easy.
8 Ways to Recruit Volunteers and Keep Them Engaged
Volunteers are the heart and soul of a community-centered animal shelter. They drive the organization’s mission, vision, and values, and make it possible for a shelter to expand its support for people and pets; to keep more families together and save more lives. Now, while so many shelters are full and then some, plus understaffed, volunteers are especially needed. Which got us wondering—how are shelters recruiting volunteers, and keeping them excited and engaged, through this time?
10 Ways Shelters and Rescues Can Use QR Codes Today
QR codes are everywhere these days—at restaurants, where you scan them instead of being handed a physical menu; bouncing around your TV screen during the Super Bowl (what was that ad even for?!); on the back of a business card, to direct you to someone’s LinkedIn page or TikTok channel. And no wonder, since some 85 percent of Americans now carry smartphones.
At This Shelter, Any Employee Can Shadow Any Other Employee for a Day
About a year ago, the APA Adoption Center—a 100-year-old nonprofit, open-admission shelter with a government contract to serve St. Louis County in Missouri—launched a new program called Show Me How. Any employee, in any department, could shadow any other employee for a few hours. That includes top leadership, front line animal care staff, adoption counselors, veterinary staff, and so on. Anyone can shadow anyone.
Times Are Hard. Neighbors Helping Each Other—and Their Pets—Will Help - HASS
With rents and food prices high, whole families are struggling—including pets. Animal shelters across the country report that loved pets are being surrendered—given up to the shelter—by people who feel they have no other choice, in this very hard economy. This contributes to shelters becoming and staying full, while families are split apart.
We Asked Animal Shelter Workers How They're Staying Hopeful & Strong, This Hard Summer
In this hard summer, of a hard year, we wanted to know what was giving people in animal welfare hope, and strength. What is keeping you going, keeping you fighting for the animals in your care, and the families in your community? Below, we’ve shared some of what you told us. It’s very moving, and powerful, and inspiring. We teared up more than once, to be perfectly frank, hearing what you had to say. Thank you to everyone who spoke with us.
Giving Lost Pets Get a ‘Free Ride Home’ Helps People, Pets, and Shelters
So far this year, field officers with Pasadena Humane in California have gotten 293 loose and lost pets back to their owners without those pets ever entering the shelter. That’s nearly 300 animals, mostly dogs, along with a handful of wayward cats, who are home snoozing on the couch—not in a kennel in a very full animal shelter.
Video Gamers Raised $2,309 for This Shelter, and It Might Be the Easiest Fundraiser Ever
About a month ago, Brendan Gepson, marketing specialist for the Nebraska Humane Society, had an idea. What if some video gamers would hold fundraisers for the shelter while broadcasting themselves playing Stray—a popular video game about a lost cat who has to navigate, and escape, a world populated by robots. You play stray from the perspective of the cat! “Are you a local streamer who’s interested in doing a Stray charity stream for the shelter?” Brendan wrote on Twitter.
Did You Know You Can Adopt Pets Straight From Members of Your Own Community?
Katie Corbett has a full house! The tan dog, Charlie, “is a guide dog dropout,” Katie says. Chance, the white dog, “is a tripod foster win from DeKalb,” in Georgia, who participated in the Arizona State study that found sleepovers reduced stress for shelter dogs. So you might think of him as not just a good dog, but a scientist. The kittens are Albus and Dooley, fosters who were since adopted into a family from New York.
Steal These 11 Ideas! They're Mostly Free. They Will Make a Difference. We Promise.
Would you like to learn how one animal shelter brought in $10k in donations from one TikTok video? How about how a lost and found texting program doubled a shelter’s return to owner rate, and a totally free fence-fixing program that’s keeping pets from getting lost in the first place? For just over a year now, we’ve been sharing organizations’ best, most innovative, and most *replicable* ideas in our Steal This Idea blog series.
How This County Shelter Is Still Sending About Half Its Pets to Transfer Partners
You don’t need us to tell you how hard things are in animal welfare right now. So when we caught wind of a municipal shelter whose transfer rates to rescue partners hadn’t dropped in 2022, but had stayed robust—with nearly half its pets being transferred to rescue partners—we reached out to find out more. We’re talking just over 2,400 of about 4,800 pets in 2021, and nearly 1,000 of right around 2,000 pets so far in 2022, as of late June.
This Understaffed Animal Shelter Threw Open Their Doors and Invited Everyone to Apply for Jobs
Like so many shelters, SPCA Serving Erie County in West Seneca, NY, is having a difficult time getting and staying staffed. With a lot of open positions to fill, and the usual recruitment techniques proving inadequate, director Caitlin Daly had an idea: What about holding an open interview event, for anyone interested in working for or learning about the organization? So on May 12, they did just that—and then hired about 10 of the 80-some people who showed up that day.
This Shelter Started a Lost and Found Texting Program and Got Twice as Many Dogs Home
About a year and a half ago, Greenville County Animal Care in South Carolina set up a lost and found pets texting program. People who’ve lost a pet text the word LOST to 864-467-3950, and receive an instant reply with information about how to file a lost pet report, and other steps to help locate the missing pet. Those who’ve found a pet text the word FOUND to the same number.
6 Cheap—and Even Free!—Ways to Get More Lost Pets Back Home Today - HASS
Getting lost pets back to their families is always a top priority. It’s a mission with extra urgency when shelters are full, and getting fuller with every passing day—and of course here’s July 4, right on the horizon, with all the lost pets those boom boom skies will bring. We know. We know! And we’re here to help.
Treat First-Time Foster Caregivers Like Trial Adopters & Other Lessons from the Pandemic
Listen to our interview with Dr. Lisa Gunter, the Maddie’s Fund Research Fellow at Arizona State University, about her new research into dog fostering during the pandemic, and how shelters can apply her findings to expand their foster programs and save more lives. The audio from this piece was transcribed using an automated transcription service. Please excuse any typos or incorrect patterns of speech. HASS: Hi, I’m Arin Greenwood, a writer with HASS.
These Animal Service Officers Carry Bags of Fence-Fixing Gear, All Donated, in Their Trucks
Animal service officers with Cabot Animal Support Services carry bags of fence-mending tools around on their trucks. When a dog gets loose, or if they see a fence with a hole in it leaving the potential for a dog to get loose, the ASOs fix the fence. This is Cabot’s Fences for Fido program. It’s as simple as that. The reason this program exists is more complicated. Five years ago, CASS’s director Mike Wheeler wrote a citation for a man whose dog got out. The dog got out again.
These Innovators Are Working To Make Veterinary Care More Accessible To All
Veterinary care is expensive, and can be hard to access—leading to pets going without needed treatments, and being given up to shelters by their families, who believe this is the only way for a loved pet to get the care they need. The Open Door Veterinary Collective is working to change that. This nonprofit, founded in 2021, is developing a business model for nonprofit, for-profit, and government veterinary clinics that prioritizes access to care, and increased revenue.
This Shelter's Bonded Pairs Program Has Gotten 218 Pairs of Pets Into Loving Homes
This story comes out of Pima Animal Care Center in Tucson, Arizona—stay tuned to our social media for more very inspiring, very HASS-y stories about how volunteers are integrated into community-focused animal organizations! And please reach out to let us know if you have a great story to share, about awesome volunteers or anything else! Some longtime volunteers at Pima Animal Care Center in Tucson, Arizona, kept having their hearts broken by pairs of pets who they knew came from the same...
How This Officer Worked Differently to Keep a Cat Safe While His Owner Was Hospitalized
This National Animal Care & Control Appreciation Week, we’re sharing stories that show the absolutely critical role field services officers play in HASS’s community-focused model of animal services.
How One Shelter Recruited 2,000 Fosters in a Year and a Half
When we heard about how Cincinnati Animal CARE Humane Society, in Cincinnati, Ohio, went from having zero fosters, to nearly 2,000 fosters, in just a year and a half—we obviously had to find out more! We recently spoke with foster coordinator Amanda Graus about how in the world she did it, and lessons for other groups that want to build out their foster programs and become foster-centric organizations.
This Animal Shelter Hired a Veterinary Social Worker!
Human Animal Support Services (HASS) just put out a brand new resource: Integrating Veterinary Social Work Into Animal Shelters. It gets into what veterinary social workers do, ways they can support people and pets in the community and support shelter staff—and how shelters can hire a veterinary social worker full time, or access their services for community and staff.
Cat Who Lost 2 Left Legs in Accident Now Runs to His Favorite Boy, Gives Hope in a Hard Time
It was just about a year and a half ago that Suzanne Buffington, her then-12-year-old son Gracen, and their pet cat Shade, showed up at Cabot Animal Support Services in Cabot, Arkansas, in a desperate state. Shade had been in an accident, and it was bad. When Gracen found his cat outside that morning, one leg—the front left—was broken, with the bone poking out through his skin. Shade’s left hind paw and leg had what Suzanne describes as “holes” going through them.
Chicken Fostering Isn't Just a Good Idea It's Clucking Great
Jaime Blados with one of her foster chickens. Just before Christmas, Jaime Blados got an email that caught her attention. It asked if anyone could foster some chickens, who had come into Geauga Humane Society’s Rescue Village in Novelty, Ohio. Jaime is a regular foster for the organization. She mostly takes in dogs. One time she fostered a pig. But chickens? “I was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll give it a shot,'” Jaime says. “I’m always willing to try.” Some shelters have seen viral fame thanks to their chickens.
13 questions that will help you write great pet adoption bios
This is a guest post by Arin Greenwood. Arin writes for the Human Animal Support Services project. She was previously the animal welfare editor for The Huffington Post, and is author of the novel Your Robot Dog Will Die. Fido is an 8-year-old brown female dog who needs a home. But is that how you want to describe her in an adoption ad or social media post, when your aim is to get potential adopters imagining how great Fido would be as a member of their family?
New Study: We're Making Bad Assumptions About Shelter Dogs' Behavior and It's Hurting Them
Listen to our interview with Janis Bradley about her new research challenging the assumption that dogs are given up for bad behavior, and what that means for shelters, adoptions, dogs, and families. Arin Greenwood: Hi, this is Arin Greenwood. I’m a writer with HASS.
Nominations Open for Gulfport’s Pet Mayor
Maui, a liveaboard Siamese, was a contender for Gulfport’s 2019 Pet Mayor. Photo courtesy of the Gulfport Historical Society. Calling all pawlitical animals: It’s time to elect Gulfport’s next pet mayor. Now through Jan. 5, anyone can nominate their pet. Pets must live in Gulfport. Although nomination is free, votes cost $1 each, benefiting the Gulfport Historical Society – the pet supervisor of elections, so to speak –and SPCA Tampa Bay. The pet who gets the most votes becomes the next pet mayor.
You Want to Help Keep People and Pets Together. But How to Get Started?
People kept approaching Corena Huffman about giving up their pets. They couldn’t afford to feed them. They weren’t able to get them to the vet. People thought turning over the cats and dogs they loved to the Highland County Humane Society—the nonprofit, foster-based organization in rural Virginia, for which Corena volunteers as executive director (the organization has no paid staff)—was their only choice, if the pets were to stay healthy and well.
Not All Pets' Owners Have Cars. These Free Pet Ambulances Will Get Them to the Vet
For years, the nonprofit Lollypop Farm in Rochester, New York, has been transporting owned pets to the vet when their owners otherwise had no way to get them there. Until recently, they’ve been doing it on an ad hoc basis. A few months ago, the organization decided to make this an official service offered to the community.
Lost Dog? Volunteer Pet Detectives Are on the Case—From the Comfort of Home - HASS
“Most of my time my free time is spent on social media,” says Tucson resident Tanya Gutierrez. Universal story, right? Only while so many of us are idly scrolling, Tanya is online with a serious purpose as a volunteer pet detective with Pima Animal Care Center‘s Lost and Found program. Tanya and her dog Harry. When not volunteering as a pet detective, Tanya likes to walk, hike, and foster dogs.
Shelter Pets Wear Pajamas on Sleepovers to Help Get Them Adopted
Kathryn Lally didn’t start putting her foster pups in pajamas just for the pictures. At first, the sweaters and jammie sets were for a more practical purpose. Kathryn lives in Baltimore, which gets cold in the winter. Many of the pups Kathryn was fostering from BARCS, Baltimore’s open-admission shelter, came into the shelter “underweight and with thin or missing fur.” But Kathryn quickly noticed another benefit as well.
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