Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw

07/26/2025

This is for Saturday, 7/26.

NASHVILLE: Extreme Heat! Metro is offering rides today and tomorrow from 12PM-8PM.

Please call 615-844-3399.

07/26/2025

I love introducing the cats that make up our cat sanctuary. These two beautiful cats are Tillie Van Gogh on the left and Matilda on the right. Both are the sweetest and most loving cats that could ever be.

New cats are always combo tested, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, dewormed and treated for any external and internal parasites.

Tillie came to us after being abandoned and left alone in an apartment. Yes, that sounds horrible for someone to do but we will not judge. We have no way of knowing what they were going through. Perhaps where they had to go would not be safe for this cat we named Tillie. So we took her into and she absolutely loved the sanctuary life. Not too long after becoming a part of our family we found a mammary tumor. And a sore on her ear. Now the mammary tumor was thankfully benign but the ear issue was a malignant tumor. However Dr. Pelletier at Goodlettsville Animal Hospital found the margins to be clear so she felt that removing her outer ear would give our girl many years of a good life. And she is once again our happy cat that greets us every time we walk through the door.

Matilda was brought to us by a SAFPAW family member, Pam Brown. Pam lived with us for the years right up to her passing. Matilda was a Madison stray and after Pam witnessed a car almost hitting her on purpose she came home to us and she is with us still. Matilda has several health issues that are chronic and the staff at GAH keep her healthy. It is a roller coaster ride every couple of months, but having a partnership with such an amazing clinic makes Matilda’s health manageable and keeps her happy.

Love is definitely our guiding force but we are also grounded in the fact that a sanctuary where cats, a couple of dogs and a couple of people live is also expensive if you do it right. And for us there is no other way. We cannot love the animals in our care without making sure their health is a priority. We cannot love the people who live with us and not make them priority.

I call our sanctuary “organized chaos”. There is always work needed to get it to where I want it to be. There is always daily work needed to maintain this love. This safe place.

But everytime I walk through our front door I feel that love. Our board members and volunteers are fiercely dedicated. The force that brought us together also keeps us moving forward. And we love.

Laurie Green
Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw
safpawnashville@gmail.com

07/25/2025

This is for Friday, 7/25/25.

NASHVILLE:
Extreme Heat! Metro is offering rides from 12PM-8PM.

Please call 615-844-3399.

07/25/2025

There is something going on at our SAFPAW sanctuary! And it is a project being led by this amazing woman! Today was our kick off, a beginning we kept small so that our focus could be well defined. Jessica’s son Nathan came to help us clean out our gutters. We can’t keep a sanctuary going without making sure the details are taken care of.

I asked Jessica to come on board because of her smarts and expertise in an area that I wanted to add as an expansion to our Meals Program. It took her knowledge for me to know that my vision was so doable! We do have the land, just enough, for some urban gardening.

We started today with the area in front of our sanctuary, where we are planning a pollinator garden. Then on the sides will be our food gardens. By next spring our vision is to have fresh produce that children can come and help us grow, nurture and take home! All grown without poisons but with a lot of love.

I had a recent epiphany. Now our future plans would love, and need, more land. A larger sanctuary so that a few more people and animals could join us. But if we don’t make what we have work for good then I don’t believe we will be blessed with greater. So I turned myself around and looked at what we have. It is ours and fully paid for. So we are going to grow right where we are. The future will come and I believe that but all in good time.

Our Meals Program lead is Lori Eslick. And now Jessica Pentecost will join this team, but her role will be based at our sanctuary.

Please join us. We have so much ahead that we want to do for the animals and people we serve. We can’t grow without your help.

Laurie Green
Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw
safpawnashville@gmail.com

07/23/2025

NASHVILLE: Extreme Heat! Metro is offering rides from 12PM-8PM today and tomorrow.

Please call 615-844-3399.

This is for Wednesday, 7/23/25.

07/22/2025

NASHVILLE: Extreme Heat! Metro is offering rides from 12PM-8PM.

This is for Tuesday, 7/22.

Please call 615-844-3399.

07/21/2025

What I know with certainty is that my dream is a reality that we live every day. And that I miss my rock, our first sanctuary manager and my best friend Charlie so much. But I see him in his dog Rowdy. Shiloh and Rowdy carry the spirit, love and protection that Charlie brought to our sanctuary every day of his life. And I will tell you this, when Charlie died I had many days when I just was overwhelmed with the grief that comes from someone who had become the brother I never had. The one who fixed everything broken and made sure his 3 dogs loved our sanctuary’s 2 dogs. And now of our dogs there are two, Charlie’s Rowdy and Shiloh.

And every day I open the front door I can still hear Charlie say to me, “I already know”.

Laurie Green
Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw

When you get a text that says "I'm staying at SAFPAW tonight with my dogs cause we can't take the heat."

That is when you know 2 things beyond a doubt. One is that the building you bought was exactly what you wanted and exactly how you wanted to serve. Two is that we need a bigger place because serving sets your ❤️ on 🔥.

SAFPAW/Perian's Place is owned. Totally owned with not 1 penny of debt.

When I had this idea for SAFPAW back in 2001 at the original Tent City off of Anthes Drive to serve homeless people and their pets I was called a crazy dreamer. Now we also serve folks and their pets who are housed but live in poverty. That inclusion came in 2005.

But the thing is, my dream grew roots in 2001 and they are really strong ones. I love what I do. Walking into SAFPAW/Perian's Place every day honestly fills me. And now with our Kitten Season Kitten Room........try sitting in there and not smiling. No way you can't smile. But we need a permanent kitten room.

But until that comes I will feel the peace at knowing that one of our family is sleeping cool tonight, along with his dogs. And I love my family.

safpaw.org
safpawnashville@gmail.com

07/21/2025

Having a nonprofit is always centered on your programs and each one provides critical services. But a nonprofit is also about that one animal or person in need. And if we can answer that need.

A few weeks ago the very first cat to join what is now a thriving Cat Sanctuary crossed over Rainbow Bridge. Parker came to us after a friend found him in the parking lot of a store. He was chipped but it was never registered. The cat we named Parker had been adopted from MACC, but the adopters did not want him back. Everyone at our SAFPAW sanctuary wanted him so we made his forever adoption official.

Parker was one of those cats who would just purr and rub up against you and then bite a plug out of you. You either got one or the other. But he allowed us to bring in other cats to join him and even a couple of dogs. He was always gracious as long as you recognized his superiority. And we did.

A cat sanctuary is not about numbers but about each cat, and dog, receiving from us what they had never received before coming through our front door. We do believe that we made that happen for Parker.

Those of us who make the daily work of the sanctuary happen do believe in our sanctuary program. But that means every animal and person living there matters so much.

We will always miss Parker. But we know that he found his forever home with us and for that there is no sadness. Rather we are grateful that he found absolute love whether he was purring in our lap or biting a plug out of our arm.

And we are grateful that our sanctuary manager Michael made Parker’s last week so special. Dinners out on our front porch while they sat and listened to crickets. Our old tomcat had the life with us.

Love,
Diana Burke, Michael Lash, Laurie Green, Samantha Kinsey.

Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw

07/18/2025

On Wednesday we made all of our stops on our SAFPAW Spay/Neuter Transport. At one stop we picked up 5 kittens to get fixed! The wonderful woman worked with me after she rescued a pregnant female cat in her neighborhood. The kitty is a bit on the feral side so she hid in her apartment and one morning, shortly after she took her in she heard the cries of newborn kittens. But as soon as they were old enough we had them fixed and vaccinated. The mother cat hid again that morning but Pat and I have a plan, I gave her a carrier to keep so Mamma feels comfortable around it. She is carefully keeping her inside so that we can get her fixed. But 5 kittens! 3 females and 2 males who will never add to the tragedy of pet overpopulation! And that was from 1 stop on our transport that began early Wednesday morning.

Our S/N transport is about more than the goal of getting animals fixed for folks who just do not have the money or the transportation to get it done. This program is about relationships. There are neighborhoods in Nashville where SAFPAW has had a presence for several decades and we’ve worked to keep the animals there fixed and vaccinated.

While waiting for Pat to get every kitten in the carriers we brought I took pictures of her neighbor’s whimsical front yard. Transports are busy, beginning at 5am when we leave to head out to around 7pm when we bring the last animal safely home. But that morning I had time to sit on Pat’s front porch and take in the most creative oasis.

Our SAFPAW Spay/Neuter Program is in financial danger. This is a tough year and donations are down. If this program is to continue we need you. I can tell you we get animals fixed and have done so since 2001 that would never have been found, let alone fixed, if not for our unique program and how we approach it. Our services are free for those we serve and we provide transportation to and from the 3 spay/neuter clinics we partner with.

Thank you!

Laurie Green
Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw
safpawnashville@gmail.com

07/17/2025

NASHVILLE: Extreme Heat! Metro is offering rides from 1PM-7PM.

Please call 615-844-3399.

07/14/2025

Carry bowls and bottled water with you. Report all dogs out in this heat. Please put out water bowls in your yard and keep them fresh.

And do not walk your dogs on anything but grass! During this horrific heat only walk dogs before 6am and after 8pm. Even then on grass only.

Laurie Green
Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw

07/14/2025

If you even suspect that someone could be having a heat stroke please call 911.

And print this out and carry it with you. Make copies and hand them out.

Laurie Green
Southern Alliance for People & Animal Welfare - Safpaw