SPCA of Wake County

01/10/2025

ZEUS UPDATE: Zeus just left the hospital! The corn cob obstruction was successfully removed, he is recovering well from surgery, and his bloodwork and electrolytes are looking much more stable 🙏 He's even accepting some food now!

Although the worst appears to be behind him, Zeus still has some treatment and recovery ahead of him — He needs pain meds, nausea meds, sedatives, post-surgical treatment, and recovery monitoring. Fortunately, now that he's through the surgery itself, his prognosis is much improved. So this is still a moment to celebrate!

Thank you for all of your kind words of support, and special thanks to everyone who has already donated in honor of Zeus — your support continues to help him, and your love and compassion mean the world to us!

(PS — Many have inquired Zeus being available for adoption. He still needs some time to recover post-surgery, but he will appear on our website later this afternoon so that interested families can put in their interest early. Thank you all ❤️)

01/10/2025

⚠️ RALEIGH SCAM ALERT ⚠️ We've recently received numerous reports of a pervasive scam targeting the owners of lost pets by impersonating SPCA Wake. After a pet is reported lost, a scammer will call posing as local law enforcement, a vet office, and/or SPCA Wake (with a spoofed phone number to appear legitimate) with heartbreaking news that the pet has life-threatening injuries requiring emergency surgery. The owner is told they must send a large amount of money to cover the vet care or else their pet will be immediately euthanized.

THIS IS A SCAM. SPCA Wake will never call you demanding funds for a lost pet.

If you receive a call like this, please immediately hang up and call the organization or office directly (using known phone numbers from Google) to verify whether the call is legitimate. Once confirmed the call is a fake, please report it to 311 for investigation.

01/09/2025

🚨 EMERGENCY INTAKE 🚨 We got an urgent call about a dog brought into the shelter, not eating for 5+ days, vomiting, and hiding under someone's house. Zeus needed a rescue to pull him immediately or else he would have to be humanely euthanized. We rushed to get him and took him straight to the ER where X-rays showed he'd eaten a corn cob that got lodged in his colon. Zeus isn't accepting any food and his electrolytes are dangerously out of balance. We were quoted $6000-$7000 for the emergency surgery to remove Zeus's obstruction and save his life.

Zeus' prognosis is still unclear, but he is getting a lot of love from our team and he is hanging in there. We will do everything we possibly can to save this sweet boy. Donations in honor of Zeus are gratefully appreciated through Facebook or online at spcawake.org/donate

As always, thank you for your compassion and support. Please keep Zeus in your thoughts during these crucial hours. We will keep you posted with updates ❤️‍🩹

01/07/2025

Check out Lady Eve getting adopted in matching puffer jackets with her new sister Bean! 🩷 After we found her emaciated out in the cold, she's been recovering well and has already gained 10 lbs.

Lady Eve's adopters have been following her story since the day she was found, and after bringing her home in foster care and seeing how beautifully she got along with their other dog Bean, who is picky about her dog friends, they knew she had to stay forever.

For the past several days they've been getting to know each other, spooning on the couch, and sharing all their toys. And today, it was made official.

Congratulations to Lady Eve and her new family 🩷 And thank you to everyone who supported our triple match fundraiser to help provide the rehabilitation Lady Eve needed for this wonderful day to be possible!

12/31/2024

As promised, meet Cash ❤️ The sweetest little nugget of a guy who’s recuperating at SPCA Wake after being rescued from a heartbreaking cruelty case. Cash was kept on an inhumanely heavy logging chain, confined to small quarters and unable to escape his own waste. Cash was part of a for-profit breeding operation that put profit and puppies above the welfare or care of the parent dogs. But here at SPCA Wake, Cash’s lifestyle is more about bouncy balls, blanket piles, and Christmas sweaters ❤️✨

Unfortunately Cash isn’t completely out of the woods yet - he has heartworm disease, a potentially fatal condition resulting from his lack of previous vet care, and treating it is not a simple task. To help heal Cash’s heart (literally and figuratively), and to save the next life who relies on us to get out of bad circumstances and find another chance, please donate above (any amount helps).

Give before midnight to see your gift triple matched to go 3x as far and provide 3x as much support for homeless and shelter pets in NC ❤️‍🩹

12/31/2024

Our new giant friend! Our staff spotted Lady Eve running loose through the construction site and deployed en masse to safely catch her. We tried to find her family in case she was lost, but unfortunately no one came for her. It appears she was left here intentionally in the hopes we could help her. And help her we certainly will.

⏰ PS — the clock is ticking! Until midnight tonight, all donations will be TRIPLE MATCHED (up to $100,000) to help rescue more animals! Please tap the donate button. Your entire gift is tax-deductible! ⏰

Lady Eve is a little rough around the edges (and quite skinny), but luckily she's a happy girl. And boy does she look cute in an ######L sweater 😅 We're very grateful that she is safe, and hopefully she'll be enjoying a new home very soon ❤️

We rely on your support to help animals like Lady Eve, and we hope you'll consider helping shelter pets one more time in 2024 to help us raise the funds we need to start the new year. Thank you for all of the lifesaving that you make possible ❣️

12/30/2024

It boggles the mind to think this happy girl came from such a heartbreaking cruelty case.

Before we get into it, we also want to announce that starting now through midnight on NYE, all donations to SPCA Wake are 🚨 triple matched 🚨 to help animals like Chanel when they desperately need it ❤️‍🩹 Please tap the donate button to give with 3x the impact 🙏

Chanel was seized from a property along with several other dogs who were confined in squalor and devastating conditions. Chanel was kept in a tiny crate with all of her nursing puppies. Her friend Cash (who we’ll introduce you to later) was kept outside on an inhumanely heavy logging chain. The dogs were bred for profit, unable to escape their own waste, and there were two deceased dogs on the property when law enforcement came in. Chanel and Cash both came to SPCA Wake (after her puppies and the other dogs were sent to other organizations) for a second chance at a much, much better life.

Chanel's healing is already underway. She's had a toe amputation and a long-overdue spay surgery. She’s unfortunately suffering from heartworms as well as a respiratory illness, both of which we are still working hard to treat.

The full details of this case are frankly too heartbreaking to share — but all that matters now is that Chanel and Cash are finally safe, protected, and even wagging their tails. They deserve so much better than the cards they've been dealt by humans so far. Because of your help, they're about to learn what love really means ❤️

12/27/2024

Edgar was rescued from a multiple dog attack just in the nick of time ❤️‍🩹 The attack left him with a broken jaw, meaning he is in such pain that he can't eat or drink on his own. He is certainly lucky to be alive. Edgar's only hope is regular tubefeeding and intensive support until his jaw heals up enough that he can eat again.

Please consider donating to help Edgar and others who are recovering from trauma in our medical program. If you donate today, your gift will be MATCHED dollar for dollar (up to $100,000) to help us get 2x as much surgical care, medical supplies, and food for pets in urgent need.

This little guy doesn't have an easy road ahead of him, but the worst is behind him — and with your help, we know there's a light at the end of this tunnel. Every life counts ❤️

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Buddy the S̶P̶C̶A̶ ̶P̶r̶e̶s̶i̶d̶e̶n̶t̶ Elf was kind enough to come by to and volunteer to help out around the shelter 🧝🎁🎄 We had quite a day helping out the teams and spreading some holiday cheer! In truth, there were a few mishaps... Buddy just needs a little supervision. He tried to feed the dogs marshmallows and maple syrup, then he built "snow adopters" for every. single. pet. At one point we found him conducting "the carolers" (a room full of loose kittens). And in hindsight, performing surgery on his first day might have been a little overambitious. But all's well that ends well, we all had a great day, and it's certainly been an extra magical Christmas at the SPCA.

Sending merry wishes to all of you and your families ❤️ May your day be as warm and bright as Buddy's feelings about syrup-covered spaghetti and endless puppy cuddles!

12/22/2024

We've had the opportunity to rehabilitate more feline medical cases this year than we can count — here is a look back at a handful of kitties who got some extra help on their roads to adoption! We always get emotional when their personalities start to shine once the pain and discomfort of their ailments melts away. Sincere and huge thanks to our friends at Petco Love for generously providing a $15,000 lifesaving grant to support sick and injured cats like Earl, Clark Kent, the Cedar cat family, Marty, Curie, and Roreksson pictured here ❤️ Saving lives is a team sport!

12/22/2024

In light of recent news, one thing has been made clear these past few days — our community is extremely passionate about shelter adoption.

North Carolina has a big problem. Each year, over 184,700 dogs and cats enter North Carolina animal shelters. Over 43,869 never make it out.* NC has one of the highest shelter euthanasia rates in the country. That is something we are working together to fix every single day.

Adopting a shelter pet means saving a life. As a nonprofit rescue, we take in thousands of pets each year from our state's high intake government shelters where pets are at the highest risk for euthanasia due to a lack of space or resources. We have the privilege of working with such shelters in 59 counties across NC, and most of the pets available for adoption at SPCA Wake are from those shelters. Those pets come to SPCA Wake when they need more veterinary care, more foster care, more behavioral support, or simply more time to find a home. And when you adopt from us, you not only save the pet you bring home, you also create one more space for us to take in another pet at risk of being euthanized.

Every adoption from SPCA Wake includes: a spay/neuter, microchip, essential vaccines, parasite preventatives, dewormers, and any other veterinary treatment or surgery that pet may have needed along the way to become healthy.

Our adoption fees for adult dogs are $120 (50% off right now to help dogs find homes for the holidays). For puppies, they are $350. These fees only partially cover the expenses of their rescue, but we care about keeping adoption fees as low as we can while continuing to be able to do this work.

The pet overpopulation problem is widespread and multifaceted. These pets don't need to die. They deserve to be loved, cherished, and protected. They are members of the family. And we are incredibly moved by the outpouring of support for that sentiment, and for all of the people who work with us and other local organizations to make our community safe and humane for pets.

If you want to get involved, here's how you can help:
- Adopt: spcawake.org/adopt
- Volunteer: spcawake.org/volunteer
- Foster: spcawake.org/foster

Thank you to the adopters, volunteers, fosters, donors, and advocates who are helping make these lifesaving efforts possible. You are heroes, change-makers, and friends. And our community is better because of you.

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*Averages based on year over year data 2019-2023 as reported annually to the NC Department of Agriculture and 2020-2023 non-government contracted rescue and shelter data reported by Shelter Animals Count.

The SPCA of Wake County is slashing pet adoption fees to help animals find homes for the holidays.

12/18/2024

Oh, Cindy Lou. A new friend here at the SPCA. The skin complications you’re seeing are from advanced, infected mange. She must be in constant pain, but in spite of it she is just so sweet. Let the vet care begin, baby girl ❤️‍🩹

If you would like to support Cindy Lou and the other pets we are rehabilitating right now, your donation today will be matched dollar for dollar (up to $100,000). The gift you give will be doubled by the match to have 2x as much lifesaving power. There are so many pets like Cindy Lou who need help, and as a nonprofit, we rely on your support to rescue them. Thank you for holding homeless animals in your heart this holiday ❤️‍🩹

Facebook fundraiser: https://www.facebook.com/donate/465339576596131/

12/16/2024

We are seeing far too much suffering this season — pets like Doug turned out into the cold without food, water, or shelter. We just rescued this wonderful guy who's clearly had a rough few weeks. He's injured with open sores, and even at 83 lbs., he is shockingly skinny. He may have been living tied out on a chain or confined to a crate (based on his injuries). Fortunately he is warm now and in good hands thanks to your support. We're going to spend the next few weeks helping him get back to a healthy weight and treating his wounds. This guy is has quite the transformation ahead of him ❤️‍🩹

The nights are only getting colder, and there are so many pets like Doug who need our help — and we rely on your support to help them.

Now through the end of the year, all donations to SPCA Wake will be MATCHED dollar for dollar (up to $100,000). If you want to include homeless pets on your giving list, this is the perfect way to do it. Your gift today will help us save 2x as many pets from being hungry and bitter cold so they can heal and go on to find loving families.

Please hit the donate button now to make sure your support will be doubled. Thank you so much for holding animals close to your heart this holiday season ❤️ facebook.com/donate/465339576596131

12/13/2024

Hank update! ❤️ He his in such good spirits in his foster home, and he's clearly enjoying his newfound coziness! The change in his body language between now and when he was tied up in the cold shows so vividly how much better he is feeling now that he is safe and warm. Things are only going to get better from here on out.

We also wanted to give an update that many of you have asked about — we received word that law enforcement has officially brought misdemeanor animal cruelty charges against Hank's former owner, and this is a developing situation.

For those who have asked about donating to help reimburse the $500 Hank's rescuers had to pay to remove him, those rescuers are from Promoting Animal Welfare in NC, and they would certainly appreciate it (their website is pawnc.org).

While we continue taking care of Hank, we know there are more pets out there just like him. As these bitter nights get colder and colder, those pets are going to need help too. To help Hank or the next dog like him, please donate via our website at spcawake.org/donate ❤️

12/11/2024

Hank made some big waves this month after he was discovered shivering, tied to a tree, with all his ribs showing. If he looks familiar to you, you may have seen him on some recent news stories by My Carolina CBS 17. Fortunately, after much discussion and the owner's request of $500, Hank was voluntarily relinquished to our friends at Promoting Animal Welfare in NC where he has spent the past week gobbling down food and water, warming up in a foster home, and beginning his physical rehabilitation.

We've been following Hank's journey closely after seeing the video of him tied to a tree online. And yesterday we had the absolute pleasure of welcoming Hank to SPCA Wake, picking up the baton on helping this sweet guy continue to recover and find a loving home in time for the holidays ❤️

Please join us in welcoming this deserving young dog to the SPCA, and in thanking the tireless individuals and advocates in our community who got Hank out of a bad situation, giving him this second chance at a better future. We are always inspired by the dedication of animal lovers in our community who come together to fight for the underdogs and leave no life forgotten.

We will keep you posted with updates to Hank's story — and hopefully soon, his adoption!

12/09/2024

Dear Universe: Thank you for Breezy's ears. We owe you one 🥹💘