Mona Leashes

08/17/2025

08/11/2025

💔 Here we are again 😔 back in that humbling place of asking for help in a big way.
It feels like we just posted one of these… because we did. But the truth is, this summer has been a huge struggle for donations and we are just scraping by right now 🐾 with sick animals and emergency vet visits, our staff is drained and the supplies are completely depleted.

Food is highly critical, but it’s not the only thing we need. Right now we have so many other urgent needs we can’t even begin to touch because the highest urgency has been just covering essentials like food. Our Amazon Wishlist linked below is ONLY the highest priority items. If it’s on the list, we need it desperately - even if it seems small. Some things are as little as $5 💌

🎁 Every single package that arrives is celebrated like Christmas morning 🥹 that’s how much it means to our staff and animals right now!

🙏 Please, if you can, grab anything from our list. Every single donation matters and every animal you help matters even more.

🛒🛍️ 👉 ORDER HERE: https://a.co/6z4qaNp

💛 Thank you from the bottom of our hearts 💛

08/11/2025

08/02/2025

Don't relocate a box turtle, here's why:

Simon the eastern box turtle was brought to a pet store almost three months ago by a woman declaring intent to keep him as a pet. The staff at the store convinced her to leave him there, but didn’t know that he wouldn’t be releasable if no one knew where he came from.

We searched far and wide and begged the person who found him to come forward with that information, but she never did. We have accepted that we will never find Simon’s home and he will be non-releasable. 😔

Many people want us to release Simon, but we can’t, legally or ethically. Box turtles have very small home ranges and will try to walk back home— facing traffic, predators, and disrupted reproduction— no matter how far away they’re relocated. Some survive relocation, but most don’t.

Additionally, because box turtles travel such short distances in their lives, every region’s turtles have distinct DNA and carry a distinct profile of natural diseases. When one is moved, it can spread infections that are harmless to their own population but catastrophic to another. This is especially true when a box turtle was found on one side of a natural boundary, like the Tennessee river or the Cumberland Plateau.

These concerns about disease transmission are part of the reason that most states have laws forbidding the unauthorized import or export of native wildlife. The pet store where Simon was brought is just two miles from the Georgia state line, and it’s anyone’s guess whether he came from Tennessee or Georgia or somewhere else entirely. If we were to release turtle of unknown origin into Tennessee state lines, we would be violating the law and risking our license.

We wish Simon could go home, but he will instead become a treasured education animal, and will, hopefully, be able to spread the word about why removing box turtles from the wild is so wrong. 🐢

[Description: an eastern box turtle, dark brown and yellow in color, in dark brown substrate. He has red eyes and is standing next to a partially eaten pear about one-third his size.]

08/02/2025

Richmond's new cat café Purrfect Bean set to open!

The Purrfect Bean will make its debut Aug. 15 at 214 N. Lombardy St. in the Fan, offering coffee, tea and pastry options along with the chance to play with adoptable cats from a local foster service, according to Richmond BizSense.

“I think I’m probably going to just cry when the first cat gets adopted,” owner Michelle Langham said. “That’s where this all started from, me seeing that need for more help for cats in this community. I’m really hoping we can do a lot of adoptions.”

Link to full story in comments.

07/28/2025

07/27/2025

You know you need more cats, People! Charitable free delivery from 804 to the 757! 😃 🐾

07/21/2025

07/18/2025

07/18/2025