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November 2025 Issue
Saving Lives of Homeless
Dogs and Cats and
Feeding Hungry Pets
In Our Community
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Honored and Grateful:
Top-Rated for Five Years!
| | | This Giving Tuesday, Give Hope—Fill Bowls and Save Lives. | | | |
Counting Blessings:
Top-Rated for Five Years!
Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals is honored to be recognized for the fifth consecutive year with a Top-Rated Award from GreatNonprofits!
This milestone reflects the compassion, dedication, and generosity of our incredible supporters, volunteers, and donors. Because of you, we are able to:
- Rescue countless homeless dogs and cats from euthanasia
- Keep pets with the families who love them through our Pet Food Bank and Pet Meals on Wheels programs
- Provide disaster relief for pets affected by hurricanes and crises
- Offer life-saving tools like microchip scanning stations and pet oxygen masks
We are deeply grateful to celebrate this achievement with a community that believes in giving hope, second chances, and loving homes to pets in need.
Thank you for helping us make a lasting difference—together, we prove that every pet deserves to be safe, loved, and home
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This Giving Tuesday, Give Hope
On December 2, 2025, you can make a lasting difference for pets and the families who love them.
Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals works to save homeless pets, prevent owner surrenders, and protect animals at risk of euthanasia. Our annual fundraiser, The Bow Wow Luau & The Cat’s Meow®, has raised and donated over $80,000 to save homeless animals.
Through our Pet Food Bank and Pet Meals On Wheels, we’ve donated over 310,533 pounds of pet food, valued at over $866,000, helping pets stay with the families who love them. We’ve also provided disaster relief, adopted out at-risk pets, installed six microchip scanning stations, and supplied pet oxygen masks to local fire departments.
Your generosity means full bellies, second chances, and forever homes.
This Giving Tuesday, give hope—one bowl at a time. Hope Starts with You.
Please Donate Now — Because hope begins with you.
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Grateful Hearts, Full Bowls:
Filling Pets’ Bowls with Food and Hope
At Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals, we believe that no pet should go hungry and no pet parent should have to choose between feeding themselves or their beloved companion. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we are able to provide meals and comfort to pets who rely on Heidi’s Hope Pet Food Bank and our Pet Meals on Wheels program. Each meal nourishes not only the animals, but also the families who love them. We were also grateful to share food with our feathered friends at Skywatch Bird Rescue.
Through our coalition of community partners—including Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, Good Shepherd Center, St. Jude’s Food Pantry, Harrelson Center Help Hub, First Fruit Ministries, and many more—we distribute pet food to pets in need every month. Since launching our Pet Meals on Wheels program in 2018, we have provided food for housebound senior citizens and their pets. To date, our programs have delivered 310,533 pounds of pet food, valued at over $866,000.
We are deeply thankful for every partner, volunteer, and supporter, and especially Greater Good Charities, whose generosity makes this work possible. Together, we are building a community where no pet goes hungry, families feel supported, and hope is always within reach.
Thank you for helping us continue filling pets’ bowls with food—and hearts with hope.
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Big Help for Little Paws:
Gratitude to Greater Good Charities
We are so grateful to Greater Good Charities for their generous donation of a full pallet of pet supplies for our Pet Food Bank and Pet Meals on Wheels program. Their kindness will help ensure pets in need receive the nourishment and care they deserve.
This support brings hope to families facing hard times and reminds us how meaningful true partnership can be. We are deeply thankful for Greater Good Charities and the compassion they extend to our community’s pets.
| | | Open Gate, Open Hearts: A Safe Haven for Women and Their Pets | We’re grateful to donate a collapsible dog pen to Open Gate, our local domestic violence shelter, helping survivors keep their pets safe. Many women stay in abusive situations because abusers threaten or harm their animals, and most shelters historically haven’t been able to accept pets. For many survivors, these pets are their greatest source of comfort and emotional support. By providing a safe, flexible space for women and their pets to stay together, this pen helps open the gate to safety, healing, and a hopeful new beginning. | | | |
Pawsitively the Best Christmas Photos!
Pet Photos With the Grinch – Holiday Fundraiser
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PetSmart Mayfaire in Wilmington
Saturday, December 6th, 12:00–2:00 PM
PetSmart, Mayfaire
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Good Hops in Carolina Beach
Sunday, December 7th, 2:00–4:00 PM
Good Hops Brewing
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Grateful to Give the Gift of Home:
Our Six Microchip Stations Help Pets Find Their Way Back
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This year, Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals donated six Microchip Scanning Stations—the first in New Hanover County—helping lost pets find their way back to loving families. Available 24/7 at local police departments and parks, these stations turn worry into hope, keeping pets out of shelters and reuniting them with the people who miss them most.
This Thanksgiving, we’re grateful for the gift of home—and for a community that helps every lost paw find its way back.
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Thank You, Dog Train,
for Making a Difference
We are deeply grateful to Dog Train, a longstanding canine training center in Wilmington known for its obedience and agility programs and joyful puppy playgroups, for holding a month-long pet food donation drive benefiting Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals’ Pet Food Bank and Pet Meals on Wheels Program. Their mission—to ensure pets and the people who love them receive the care and support they need—beautifully aligns with our own. With a goal of collecting 750 pounds of pet food, they have already gathered more than 600 pounds of dog and cat food and treats to help us feed hungry pets in our community. We are truly thankful for their generosity, compassion, and partnership in helping local animals thrive.
| | | Many Thanksgiving foods can be harmful to pets. Turkey bones, fatty skin, and seasonings like garlic or onions, along with stuffing, gravy, desserts, alcohol, and certain nuts, can make pets seriously ill. Stick to plain turkey, vegetables, or unsalted mashed potatoes, and keep table scraps out of reach to keep pets safe and happy this holiday. | | | | | |
Counting Our Blessings:
A Season of Hope for Animals
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This month—just like every month—Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals is bursting with gratitude! We are so thankful for every supporter, donor, volunteer, and partner who helps us make a lifesaving difference for pets in our community. Your kindness fuels everything we do, and we truly could not do it without you.
Our Pet Food Bank and Pet Meals on Wheels programs continue to brighten lives by keeping pets fed, families together, and tails wagging. Thanks to our amazing coalition of more than twenty local governmental and charitable organizations, we also extended support to Skywatch Bird Rescue this month. And because of your with hope.
We are endlessly grateful for community champions like DogTrain, whose pet food drive has already collected more than 600 pounds of dog and cat food toward their 750-pound goal. Their hard work—and your generosity—generosity, we were able to donate a large dog pen to Open Gate, our community’s domestic violence shelter—helping people and their pets find safety and start again
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means more pets in our community will go to bed with full bellies and happy hearts.
Pet Photos With the Grinch – Holiday Fundraiser
Get ready for festive fun! This year’s Pet Photos With the Grinch will take place on Saturday, December 6th from 12:00 to 2:00 PM at PetSmart in Mayfaire (Wilmington), and on Sunday, December 7th from 2:00 to 4:00 PM at Good Hops Brewing (Carolina Beach). Bring your pets—and your whole family—for a joyful holiday keepsake that also supports our lifesaving work.
Give Hope This Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is Tuesday, December 2, 2025. We invite you to give hope by donating to Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals. Your contribution helps keep pets with their families, supports shelters in need, and saves the lives of vulnerable animals at risk of euthanasia.
Your generosity means full bellies, second chances, and forever homes.
Donate now at www.HeidisHopeForHomelessAnimals — because hope begins with you.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Ready To Adopt Your New Best Friend?
Check Out These Sites for Adoptable Pets
In Need of Good Homes:
You can’t change a rescue dog’s past, but you can rewrite his future.
Rescue does not mean damaged.
It means they have been let down by humans.
Please Make Adoption Your Only Option!
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Heidi's Hope For
Homeless Animals, Inc.
1121 Military Cutoff Road, Suite C-214
Wilmington, NC 28405
Heidi's Hope For Homeless Animals...
Saving Homeless Dogs and Cats and
Filling Pets' Bowls with
Food and Hope!
| | | Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals, Inc. is a 501 ( c ) organization that is an intake organization who helps pets at risk of euthanasia and helps prevent owner surrender. The Bow Wow Luau & The Cat’s Meow® has donated over $80,000.00 to reduce shelter euthanasia. We’re proud to be Cape Fear’s first-ever Pet Food Bank and the creator of the region’s very first Pet Meals On Wheels Program—filling a critical void in our community and leading the way in providing essential food support for pets in need. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, Heidi’s Hope for Homeless Animals’ Pet Food Bank and food programs have donated over 310,533 pounds of pet food, valued at more than $866,142, to help feed hungry pets in desperate need. Together, we’re not just filling bowls—we’re giving hope. We created a unique coalition of local governmental agencies and human charitable organizations to provide pet food to the most food insecure. We expanded our Pet Food Bank and Pet Meals On Wheels Chapters in Onslow, Pender and Brunswick Counties. WoofStock, adopts at-risk dogs and cats. Our Disaster Relief Programs filled three tractor trailers with pet food to hurricane-impacted areas from Hurricanes Maria; Florence and Dorian. We sent two tractor trailers of pet food to western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. We sent two crates of pet food to help Hurricane Ian pet victims. We sent five pallets of pet food to war-torn Ukraine. We have donated microchip scanning stations to both the Wilmington Police Department; Carolina Beach Police Department; Wrightsville Beach Police Department; New Hanover County Parks, including Long Leaf Park; Smith Creek Park and Echo Farms Park. Heidi’s Hope For Homeless Animals is committed to saving the lives of homeless dogs and cats and will not stop until all dogs and cats have good homes! | | | | |
