Community Highlights: Meet Gabe Horton of Pawster Nashville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabe Horton. 

Hi Gabe, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My story with Pawster Nashville actually starts with a neighbor of mine, who we can call Paul. He had a dog named Lacy, who had the best life. Paul was on disability, so she got to spend all day, every day with him. How many dogs wish they could be so lucky? He would take her on long walks around the neighborhood every day, visiting with anyone who happened to be outside. 

But one day, about 4 years ago, my partner was scrolling through the list of adoptable pets at Metro Animal Care, and there was Lacy! She asked Paul what happened. He told her that he had a mental health crisis and didn’t know what to do with Lacy while he was in the hospital. So, he surrendered her to the shelter. What do you do when you’re in a crisis and can’t take care of your pet temporarily? 

Flash forward to March 2020, and the start of the pandemic. I was furloughed from my job, and I started wondering about people like Paul who have pets and experience a temporary crisis. With COVID-19, more people were ending up in the hospital, losing their jobs, and losing their housing. What kind of help was available for people with pets? 

So, I started calling around to the animal welfare organizations in Nashville. I learned about so many wonderful organizations doing incredible work to help people and their pets. But Natalie Corwin of Pet Community Center told me there was an ongoing need to help people in crisis by temporarily fostering their pets. These are people who don’t want to surrender their pet, but they can’t take care of them temporarily. If there was an organization who could provide temporary foster care for pets during a crisis, it would keep so many animals from being surrendered to the shelter. 

When she told me this, I immediately thought of Paul and Lacy. 

So, I called up some friends, and we founded Pawster Nashville in May 2020. Pawster’s mission is simple: To end pet homelessness before it begins, by providing Crisis Foster Care for cats and dogs. In October 2020, we started fostering our first pet—a cat named Kimora. By the end of 2021, we had fostered over 50 dogs and cats. And most importantly, 91% of them have gone home to their families afterward. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The pandemic turned out to be the perfect time to start a nonprofit. Personally, I was on furlough for the first two months, so I had the time and I didn’t have much to lose. As an organization, the uncertainty of the pandemic also gave Pawster a certain kind of freedom. We could experiment, do our best to help as many people as we could, and see what worked. 

We have also learned that Pawster’s mission connects with people in a personal way. When you hear the stories of people who might lose their pets because of an unexpected crisis, you immediately think, “That could be me! What would I do in that situation?” So many people want to help, whether it’s by fostering, driving pets to vet appointments, or donating to make sure every foster pet has all the supplies and veterinary care they need. 

And grantmakers are very excited by Crisis Foster Care because it’s the cutting edge of animal welfare. It’s innovative: We treat the cause of pet homelessness, rather than the symptom. That’s what we mean by “ending pet homelessness before it begins.” In fact, we received a two-year, $45,000 grant from PetSmart Charities to make Pawster more sustainable long-term. That has been such an enormous boost in launching us through our first year. 

The biggest challenge now is finding new foster homes. We had twice as many requests for foster care last year than we could meet. So, our focus this year is to reach people and communities we are not currently reaching. That means building relationships in communities that are currently underrepresented in Pawster, as well as making sure that we lower any unnecessary barriers to fostering a pet. 

A lot of people think they need a fenced-in yard to foster a pet, or they need to work from home all day. But most of our fosters work out of the home during the day, and most of them do not have a fenced-in yard. It’s all about finding the right fit for your situation. If you love dogs or cats, and you want to help, we can find a foster pet who’s right for you! 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Pawster provides Crisis Foster Care for dogs and cats. A crisis could be hospitalization, loss of housing, domestic violence, addiction treatment, or anything else that leaves a pet owner temporarily unable to care for their pet. Most of the people we worked with last year came to Pawster because of a health or housing crisis. But as we build relationships with domestic violence shelters and addiction treatment centers, we are seeing more requests for those reasons. 

We also want to help people get into pet-friendly housing quicker. Finding affordable housing in Nashville is hard enough on its own, much less with a pet. We are currently working through Nashville’s SAFE Coalition with partner organizations to build a database of pet-friendly housing. We are also exploring how the city could incentivize property owners to become more pet-friendly. Barriers like breed restrictions or expensive pet deposits keep people from finding housing. But the data tells us that, statistically, pet owners are actually more stable tenants: They are more reliable in paying rent every month, and they tend to stay longer. So, by making your property more pet-friendly, you’re actually reducing turnover and improving the quality of your tenants. 

In the big picture, Crisis Foster Care is just one part of the work to end pet homelessness. We try to keep pets out of the shelter so that shelters and rescues can save even more pets. After all, every pet fostered by Pawster is a pet who doesn’t end up in the shelter. 

What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is helping people who don’t have the resources, opportunities, or connections that others have. If I am in a crisis, I have friends with big houses who can take care of my dogs. I have money to pay for boarding, if necessary. But it’s so easy to forget that those are wild privileges. So many people just don’t have access to basic social and financial resources. But does that mean they shouldn’t own a pet? Of course not! Our shelters are overflowing with homeless animals. The last thing we need is for pets who have a loving home to be taken away from their families. We help the pet to help the person because what helps the person helps the pet. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.pawsternashville.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pawsternash
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pawsternash
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/pawsternash
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ60ST2oyAIkaBnfNdJI2RQ