Older Pets and Older People
The elderly and pets…
These are a list of charities who help the elderly and their pets, either through helping with pet care or finding the elderly pets for them.
UK
Cinnamon Trust
The Cinnamon Trust’s main objective is “to respect and preserve the treasured relationship between owners and their pets”. So it works with owners to overcome difficulties. It has a national network of over 18,000 community service volunteers who give practical help when any aspect of day to day is a problem, such as walking the dog if the owner is house-bound. There’s also a national fostering service for pets whose owners have to go into hospital, whereby volunteers take pets into their own homes, until the pet and owner can be reunited.
The Oldies work with animal rescues to raise awareness of the plight of their oldies looking for homes - and they list older dogs from many UK rescues. They rescue and rehome Oldies Club dogs through their own network of foster homes (they are always looking for fosterers) - please take a look and see if you can help.
Society for Companion Animal Studies
The charity has lots of information about the bond between people and animals, and also information about pets and housing, and pets and older people.
Pet Samaritans
They provide emergency pet rescue across the UK for owners with terminal illnesses or bereavements where pets have been left without support with their Lifetime Pet Care program.
A number of pet charities also offer Guardian programmes, so that if anything should happen to you, your pet will be taken care of. Examples include Cats Protection and the Dogs Trust.
US
Pets for the Elderly
This organisation makes a difference in the lives of both seniors and shelter animals. Its mission is "to provide companionship to senior individuals through pet ownership, while saving the lives of companion animals in shelters; animals which might otherwise be destroyed due to lack of appropriate homes, and space limitations." To date, it works with 58 shelters in 33 states. In addition to funding for pet adoptions, "the Pets for the Elderly program also includes financial support for veterinary services, retention assistance, food shortage support, and other services for adopters age 60 or over at select shelters."
Paws for Seniors, Virginia
"Paws For Seniors rescues and rehabilitates companion pets, predominately senior cats and dogs, to give them the best rest of their lives!" It believes that the key to keeping our aging society young at heart is pet companionship and they rehome dogs and cats to families with a primary focus on matching senior pets to senior humans. They are based in Virginia and have volunteers and fosters.
Helping Paws, Illinois
The program helps place senior cats and dogs, who are 7 years of age and older, with senior citizens who are 65 years of age or older. The adoption fee is waived for any approved senior citizen adopting a senior pet. They are based in Illinois.
PAWS/LA's PACE Programme, California
The programme exists to help low-income seniors enrich their quality of live by giving help with the care of their companion animal.