Old Souls Animal Rescue is a 501(c)(3) non-profit rescue founded to give geriatric, special needs, and hospice animal peace and love in their final days.
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04/11/2025
On the day Old Souls Animal Rescue turned 15 years old as a nonprofit… 8-year-old Chewy arrived at our doorstep.
He was confiscated in a cruelty case in Waco, Texas — the same city where Old Souls was once based and where we still hold deep ties. He waited in the shelter for over two months, quietly suffering with a massive, necrotic tumor. He had no rescue interest. And recently, he was given just 24 hours before being placed on the euthanasia list.
We couldn’t let that be the end of his story.
So we said yes.
Yes to the risk.
Yes to the cost.
Yes to giving him love, dignity, and peace.
When Chewy arrived in Tucson yesterday, he was taken straight to . Their team got us in urgently and ran tests to see if the tumor could be removed — but it’s embedded deep into the muscle of his ribcage. It’s not operable.
Chewy is now considered hospice.
We’ve started antibiotics and steroids to keep him comfortable, and we’ll be getting x-rays to estimate how much time we might have left to help him complete a bucket list of love, snacks, and sunbathing.
His vet bill is $872 and quickly going up.
Now more than ever, our mission to raise $15k for 15 Years of Old Souls Animal Rescue IS CRITICAL.
Chewy may not have much time — but together, we can make sure it’s beautiful.
Here's how you can help:
✅ Donate $15 through the link in bio... or donate $100 and you will receive 5 tickets for the Millions For Tucson raffle in Dec 2025.
✅ Purchase a copy of the Old Souls Animal Rescue for just $11.99 on Amazon and through the link in our bio
✅ Share our posts with friends, family, and businesses that may be interested in our cause
04/10/2025
At Old Souls Animal Rescue, we’ve spent the last 15 years providing sanctuary to geriatric, special needs, and hospice animals—ensuring each one experiences love, comfort, and dignity in their golden years.
Today, April 10th, marks the 15th anniversary of Old Souls Animal Rescue becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. To commemorate this milestone and to support our $15K for 15 Years of Old Souls fundraiser, we are launching the Old Souls Animal Rescue Coloring Book!
The Old Souls Animal Rescue Coloring Book is designed to inspire compassion and teach kids (and grown-ups) about the power of second chances 💕
Inside, you’ll find:
✨ Original illustrations of our beloved residents
✨ Heartwarming rescue stories
✨ Traceable pages for little artists
✨ A space to create & share your own Old Soul!
100% of proceeds help fund medical costs, food, and enrichment for the 86 animals currently in our care—many of whom came from Pima Animal Care Center right here in Tucson.
📚 Buy it for just $11.99 on Amazon (link in bio!) — it’s the PERFECT Easter basket stuffer and a meaningful gift that gives back.
💌 Want to support even more? TAG your favorite local bookstores, toy shops, or gift boutiques where you’d love to see this book for sale. Let’s spread the word—and save animals in need!
04/10/2025
Auntie Lara Iacobucci Paris just bought Cole an ice cream today at Bark’n Berry dog ice cream shop. Shop owner Celina got a kick out of feeding him!
barknberryaz
04/09/2025
Looking for a FREE, FUN, & FAMILY FRIENDLY event to celebrate Easter & Earth Day? Join us at Old Souls Animal Rescue for our FIRST Annual ECO EGGSTRAVAGANZA!
Activities include:
🐰 Easter Egg Hunt
🌎 Earth Day Craft
🐾 Meet, Greet, & Feed with your favorite Old Souls animals
🏆 & PRIZES
This event will support our $15k for 15 Years of Old Souls Fundraiser!
In honor of our 15th anniversary as a nonprofit, we’ve launched a 30-day campaign to raise $15,000 - every dollar goes directly to medical care, food, and comfort for our Old Souls pack (the humans only receive payments in the form of love and p**p).
Can’t make the ECO EGGSTRAVAGANZA but still want to help?
✅ Donate $15 through the link in bio...or donate $100 and you will receive 5 tickets for the Millions For Tucson raffle Dec 2025.
✅ Share our posts with friends, family, and local businesses that may be interested in our cause.
✅ Follow along because we’ve got a lot of fun things cooking up throughout this fundraiser to raise awareness!
🌵 🌵
04/08/2025
Where are YOUR donations going for the $15k for 15 Years of Old Souls Animal Rescue Fundraiser?
We will use the funds raised to:
- Provide critical care to animals who currently call Old Souls home, like 15 year old Gracie whose diabetes is not yet well controlled.
- Welcome new animals on our waitlist, many in urgent need of veterinary support and safe housing.
- Begin work on the Old Souls Memorial Garden—a 3.5-acre tribute to honor every soul that’s come through our doors. A peaceful, permanent resting place in the heart of the Sonoran Desert.
Here's how you can help:
✅ Donate $15 through the link in bio..or donate $100 and you will receive 5 tickets for the Millions For Tucson raffle in Dec 2025.
✅ Share this post with friends, family, and local businesses that may be interested in our cause
✅ Follow along because we've got a lot of fun things we are rolling out in these 30 days to raise awareness!
04/07/2025
Look at this blatant evidence I just found of litter box thievery. A perfectly formed dog print made of p**p or mud, yet to be determined. In either case, this is a felony level infraction. Someone is going to be in big trouble.
04/03/2025
Getting some late night work done with my sidekick Rico. Thank you so much to all of you who donated on . It really means a lot to us to have your support, especially when there are so many amazing nonprofits in AZ to choose from. We all need you so we can care for our community, whether it’s pets or plants or people. You make all things possible!
04/01/2025
These are the many faces of 15 year old Gracie! Your donation today, on , will help our sweet Gracie with her battle against diabetes. Her family was not able to manage her condition so she was surrendered to the shelter for euthanasia. But we knew Gracie would have a fighting chance here at Old Souls so we took her in and promised her we would do our best to make her feel better!
Gracie was hospitalized today because her glucose was unmanaged for so long that we are having trouble getting it down to a normal level. With your support and donations today, we are confident that we are going to help her feel better and give her the best possible last chapter of life!
Please go to www.azgives.org and search for Old Souls Animal Rescue and Retirement home to donate today. Gracie thanks you!
04/01/2025
Today is AZ Gives Day, one of the most important fundraising days of the year! Every dollar you donate to Old Souls helps us to rescue animals right here in our community, like Little Mama who was confiscated as a result of neglect and cruelty. Please donate today!
03/31/2025
Tomorrow is Arizona Gives Day and we would love to have your support! No animal should die alone, afraid, or unloved in a shelter. Help us to do our part in making sure that doesn't happen to the most needy animals in southern Arizona.
Arizona is home to more than 20,000 nonprofits that provide critical services to our local communities so we know you have many options for spending your donation dollars. We hope that during this 24-hour day of giving that you will not only support Old Souls, but also many of the other nonprofits that strengthen our community!
To learn more about Old Souls, go to www.azgives.org and search for Old Souls Animal Rescue and Retirement Home. You will see our mission and our programs. If geriatric, special needs, and hospice animals touch your heart, please give generously so we can continue to rescue the most at-risk animals right here in southern Arizona, and give them the best possible last chapter of life. We currently have 86 animals at Old Souls, each with special needs. We need your support to provide them with all the care they need, and to make it possible for us to take in more animals who desperately need to be with us.
03/28/2025
I think I might be late for work today. Rico thinks I am a snooze button!
03/25/2025
Death is still lingering at Old Souls. Just days after taking Dori, he has now taken our sweet Zuzu. Zuzu and her sister Mariposa came to live at Old Souls a little over two years ago. Both of their dads had died within a year of each other, and they were heartbroken.
Mariposa was adopted within just a few months bc she was little, sweet, cute, and outgoing. Zuzu was more reserved. She didn’t love cuddle time, and she tended to keep to herself. But when I woke up every morning and came home every night, she would get her own version of the zoomies. She would run behind me galloping in excitement. I loved seeing that bc it was the only time she expressed her genuine happiness.
Zuzu was very special and so cute with her only tooth living outside her mouth. Even though she stayed in the background, it was clear that the other animals loved her. As Dr Barrett from Kindred Spirits gently sent Zuzu off to the Bridge, the other dogs were begging to get on the couch to be by Zuzu’s side. Now everyone is surrounding her and sleeping.
Rest peacefully my sweet Zuzu. Mama loves you.
03/24/2025
Just living the dream right now. Did you know that Old Souls gets 5 to 50 requests per week to take in animals, and 90% of the time they are NOT geriatric, special needs, or hospice? When I try to offer alternate resources in the cases that I am not able to help, I am often met with anger and hostility. People think that every rescue is able to serve all animals all the time. They don’t consider that we each have our own mission so the best way for us to serve the community is to stay in our lane, but collaborate with other rescues whenever there is overlap. We refer community members to other organizations all the time and they do the same for us.
Working in animal welfare is a thankless job that pays me $0 but I am yelled at, cursed at, and made to feel inept and unworthy by people who are asking me to do something to alleviate their own responsibility to an animal. I always help when I can, and if I can’t help, then I point people in a direction where someone can help them.
It’s only Monday and someone has already tried to guilt me into taking a litter of puppies. If you can help, let me know and I will share the contact info.
03/24/2025
We had so much fun at Woofstock yesterday! We met the most amazing girl there named Callista. She not only hung out with Cole and Gibbs but she colored one of our Gibbs coloring pages, and she gifted it to us!
We were so excited to meet everyone who attended, and to see our friends from many other locally owned businesses and organizations like Kindred Spirits, Orange Paws, and Cholla Afterlife Aquamation For Pets (yeah, that’s me, I was there representing both!).
Thank you so much to our amazing volunteers Amanda and Mike (my dad!) for spending a very hot day outside with me to promote Old Souls and Cholla. And a HUGE thank you to Kindred Spirits who saved the day by letting me borrow their second pop up so we wouldn’t roast in the sun. They even set it up and took it down for me!!!! Nice teamwork!
We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming first ever Pet Palooza in March!
03/24/2025
Hmmmm. We were wondering why the hens weren’t laying more eggs. Because they are laying them under the hay barn instead of in the chicken coop!!!
03/24/2025
Our Dori Dori Hallelujah left us for the Bridge on Thursday. She came to live at Old Souls when I was the Director at the Humane Society of Central Texas. My staff there knew a “Paula dog” when they saw one!
Dori’s breed looks like a doxie and a mongoose made a baby. When she arrived at the shelter she was blind, emaciated, and quite spicy. Her feet and tail were crooked and mangled as if she had severe arthritis so she walked on her ankles. I took her home to Old Souls the day she arrived in April 2021.
Dori lived to be 17 years old and we were never able to completely control her diabetes. But when we called out, “Dori, do you want your sugar shot”, she would come running with the very specific happy beat of her little nails on the floor.
Dori was blind with a luxating lens in one eye and a cataract in the other. She growled at even the slightest movements around her. But nothing was cuter than watching her bury herself in blankets. And even though we move the furniture around a lot, she was always an expert at navigating through the house and yard, and she used the doggy door expertly to go outside and lay in the sun on a raised kuranda bed.
Dori ultimately died from cancer that started as a small mammary tumor. She was spayed at the shelter before coming to Old Souls to try to stop the spread of the tumor. That worked for many years until it started growing and she grew a second very angry tumor next to it. By then, X-rays showed that her lungs were so full of cancer that it was hard to believe she was still alive. But she didn’t cough or show any other signs of cancer or illness.
If Dori had been spayed as a puppy she very likely would not have developed mammary cancer. Please spay and neuter your pets to prevent mammary, ovarian, and testicular cancer, as well as the often fatal pyometra.
Dori was an integral part of the Old Souls pack, acting as the spicy grandma. We kept her body here at Old Souls overnight to give everyone a chance to say goodbye. She is now at my pet funeral home Cholla Afterlife. www.chollaafterlife.com
Dori fought death harder than any dog at Old Souls ever did. Thank you to Dr Barrett at Kindred Spirits Pet Services for giving her a gentle passing. Rest peacefully my sweet Dori. Mama loves you.
03/23/2025
It’s hot as hades and time to fill the lagoons while we THANK YOU for all of your food donations!!!
Note: I did a great Live and showed you lots of things but my phone rang and cut the video so all you get is this …
Here’s the rundown:
- Thank you for the food donations. We have enough cans for the next 8 weeks!
- We would love monetary donations at www.givebutter.com/oldsoulsfeelgoodfund in memory of or in honor of an Old Souls resident or your own pet
- Volunteer next Sat to help dig out the lower lagoon. Register at www.oldsouls.org/volunteer
- Myla was the first one in the upper lagoon for its first spring fill up today.
- If you bring me a Dirty Dough brookie cookie I will be your best friend.
- Check our Amazon, Tractor Supply, and Chewy wishlists for items we can use.
- Arbico organics makes the best solar fly traps and has a great program we use for fly control using parasitic wasps (they don’t pay us to say that!).
- Zuzu is getting ready for the Bridge. 😢
- Eneko is getting better but still not eating like he should.
- The Woofstock event today was great but I wish they would limit it to 3 hours.
03/23/2025
It’s hot as hades and time to fill the lagoons while we THANK YOU for all of your food donations!!!
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For 15 years, we’ve been giving senior and special needs animals a second chance at love and care. Now, we’re asking for your help to keep their stories going!
In honor of our 15th anniversary as a nonprofit, we’re launching a 30-day campaign to raise $15,000 - every dollar goes directly to medical care, food, and comfort for our Old Souls pack (the humans only receive payments in the form of love and poop).
CAN WE DO IT?! I think we can!
Here’s how you can help:
✅ Donate $15 through the link in bio … or donate $100 and you will receive 5 tickets for the Millions For Tucson raffle in Dec 2025.
✅ Share this post with friends, family, and local businesses that may be interested in our cause
✅ Follow along because we’ve got a lot of fun things we are rolling out in these 30 days to raise awareness!
#OldSouls15kfor15years #animalrescue #oldsouls #rescueanimals #supportlocal
To donate, press the link in our bio! #azgives
Today is AZ Gives Day, one of the most important fundraising days of the year! Every dollar you donate to Old Souls helps us to rescue animals right here in our community, like Little Mama who was confiscated as a result of neglect and cruelty. Please donate today!
The “Skandal” rocking Old Souls Animal Rescue this week—Skadaddle’s questionable work ethic has left a live mouse on the loose in the house!
Will he finally get up from the boss’s chair and do his job, or will he be joining the unemployment line after his nap?
Follow us for updates on the Skadaddle Skandal!
#funnycats #funnycat #funnycatvideos #funnycatvideo
At Old Souls, there’s one sacred rule for volunteers. It’s simple, non-negotiable, and enforced by very persuasive faces:
TREATS before TASKS
Break it, and you’ll be surrounded for an immediate shakedown 👀😂
#animalrescue #rescueanimals #adoptdontshop #seniordogs #seniordogsrock
It’s hot as hades and time to fill the lagoons while we THANK YOU for all of your food donations!!!
Note: I did a great Live and showed you lots of things but my phone rang and cut the video so all you get is this …
Here’s the rundown:
- Thank you for the food donations. We have enough cans for the next 8 weeks!
- We would love monetary donations at www.givebutter.com/oldsoulsfeelgoodfund in memory of or in honor of an Old Souls resident or your own pet
- Volunteer next Sat to help dig out the lower lagoon. Register at www.oldsouls.org/volunteer
- Myla was the first one in the upper lagoon for its first spring fill up today.
- If you bring me a Dirty Dough brookie cookie I will be your best friend.
- Check our Amazon, Tractor Supply, and Chewy wishlists for items we can use.
- Arbico organics makes the best solar fly traps and has a great program we use for fly control using parasitic wasps (they don’t pay us to say that!).
- Zuzu is getting ready for the Bridge. 😢
- Eneko is getting better but still not eating like he should.
- The Woofstock event today was great but I wish they would limit it to 3 hours.
It’s hot as hades and time to fill the lagoons while we THANK YOU for all of your food donations!!!
Allow us to introduce (or reintroduce) ourselves! 👋
To all of our followers, new and old, across all of our platforms - THANK YOU for joining us on our mission to rescue geriatric, hospice, and special needs animals! Your support truly makes a difference ❤️
If you would like to donate to their care, check out the link in our bio 👆
Interacting with our posts (likes, comments, shares, etc.) they help us tremendously too!
& keep following us - we can’t wait to share more about our pack with you 🤩
#animalrescue #animalshelter #animalsanctuary #animalfarm #rescueanimals #seniorpets #seniordog #adoptdontshop
Eneko and Dori update … not all good news.
Eneko is really sick. Like emergency sick. Heading to the vet in just a bit. I fear he may need to be hospitalized.
Living the dream …
Here is your morning dose of ridiculous! Eneko needed a break in the middle. You can’t even tell that distemper survivor Vinny has an issue with his legs!
Old Souls Animal Rescue and Retirement Home is a 501(c)(3) non-profit rescue founded to give geriatric and hospice animals a dignified end of life surrounded by love.
It's hard to imagine, but many animals are abandoned in their old age because they require more intensive care and are no longer playful and youthful. At Old Souls Animal Rescue and Retirement Home, we seek out these forgotten geriatric and special needs animals, particularly those who are within weeks or months of going to the Rainbow Bridge. We feel that after all they have been through, after all the loyalty they have shown their owners despite how they may have been treated, they deserve a dignified end of life in which they feel loved, comforted, and special. When animals come to Old Souls, they spend their time resting on orthopedic beds, eating delicious healthy food (sometimes homemade!), taking just enough medicine to keep them comfortable, and sharing their lives with other old dogs, cats, tortoises, pigs, horses, rabbits, and even chickens. They truly become part of a loving family, many times for the first time in their lives. Thanks to our specially made doggy doors that leads to grassy backyard areas, dogs, cats, and pigs of all sizes can let themselves in and out whenever they choose without navigating steps or having to push on a door. They also have a toy box full of stuffed animals, balls, and chew toys (for those who still have teeth!). We spend quality time with every individual animal every day so for at least a little while each day, each animal feels like they are our only animal.
Foster homes are critical for our rescue, especially forever foster homes - the more fosters we have, the more animals we can rescue. Sometimes when animals come to us, they live for only a few days, but other times, they surprise us and live well beyond their expected years. There are no cages at our rescue - everyone has the run of the house (although there's not much running!). They lounge on the couch, sleep in our bed, and sun themselves in the yard whenever they like. While rescuing these animals always results in tears, we believe that no old animal should have to die alone and scared in a shelter or homeless on the streets, so we give them the dignified end of life they deserve ... and in return they give us endless happiness and incredible memories of their loyal loving spirits.
We are a volunteer-run 501c3 non-profit organization, and we run the rescue out of our home. Paula works full-time for the University of Arizona to keep a roof over the heads of our Old Souls, and to keep some human food on our table, and Isaac works 24 hours a day (literally most days) as our Director of Operations for no paycheck, and without vacations, holidays, and sometimes even without a thank you from anyone. He manages vet visits, volunteers, cleaning, feeding ... you name it! We have volunteers for a few hours each day, and we are incredibly grateful for their help!
We have at least 40 animals in our care here at the Old Souls Hacienda at any given time, and we have many others in foster care. Our foster families are amazing, and we always need more! The more foster homes we have, the more animals we can rescue. Sadly, there is no shortage of geriatric, special needs, and hospice animals that enter our local shelters. A day doesn't go by without us receiving numerous phone calls, emails, or Facebook messages asking for help, not only from shelters, but from local citizens who want to give up their aging animals. Please check out http://www.oldsouls.org/faq.html to see if your animal qualifies to come to Old Souls.
