May 2026 | Saving The Paws
May is the month the world gets distracted.
The weather turns beautiful. Schedules fill up. Holidays arrive. And for most people, the urgency of winter — the cold, the images of animals shivering outside — starts to fade from memory.
But the dogs don't go anywhere.
They're still in the same alleys. The same empty lots. The same stretches of fence line where our volunteers leave food every morning and evening, quietly, without ceremony. The difference in May is that more of them are out there — and the heat is starting to come.
Our team kept showing up. Here's what May looked like.
May by the Numbers
- 13,870 abandoned and stray dogs fed across our US and Canada network
- 1,040 individual feeding runs completed and photo-documented
- 17 states and 4 Canadian provinces with active volunteer coverage
- 4 new feeding routes opened — including our first route in rural Mississippi
- Maple update: she let Sandra touch her for the first time on May 9th
We'll come back to Maple.
The Heat Is Coming — and It Changes Everything
Most people think winter is the cruelest season for outdoor dogs. And in many ways, it is.
But heat has its own brutality.
In May, our field teams in Texas, Georgia, and Southern California began their summer protocols — earlier morning runs before temperatures peak, extra water stations added alongside food, and welfare checks on nursing mothers whose energy depletes faster in the heat.
Our Houston team noted that three of their regular feeding locations now require water resupply every 48 hours — not weekly, as was sufficient through winter. One mother dog they've been tracking since February, a rust-colored shepherd mix they call June, lost two of her litter to the heat during an unexpected warm spike in early May before the team could increase their visit frequency.
They found the remaining three puppies dehydrated but alive. A volunteer drove 40 minutes each way, twice a day, for six days straight to stabilize them.
All three made it.
June is still outside. Still free-roaming. But she knows her team now — and she brings her puppies to the station when she hears the car.
Memorial Day and the Dogs We Don't Forget
This May, our volunteer network paused to honor something that sits close to a lot of our team members' hearts.
Several of our volunteers are veterans. A few served alongside working dogs. And every year, Memorial Day brings a quiet conversation within our community about the animals who serve, who sacrifice, and who are too often left behind when their service ends.
We don't take political positions. We just feed dogs.
But we believe that every animal — whether it spent its life guarding a perimeter in a foreign country or wandering a back alley in Memphis — deserves to be seen. Deserves to eat. Deserves to have someone show up.
Memorial Day weekend, our volunteer teams across the country did something simple: they showed up early. Extra runs. Extra food. A small acknowledgment that some dogs carry more than we'll ever know.
Maple
We promised we'd come back to her.
For those who've been following along: Maple is the hound mix our Louisville team first spotted in late March. She spent weeks watching from a distance. Then watching from closer. Then eating while Sandra was still there.
On May 9th, Sandra sat down on the ground the way she always does. Maple walked over, ate, and then — for the first time — walked past the bowl and pressed her nose against Sandra's hand.
She pulled back immediately. Looked at Sandra. Looked away.
Then she came back and did it again.
That was it. That was the whole moment. No dramatic rescue. No before-and-after photo. Just a dog who had every reason to never trust a human again, deciding — slowly, on her own terms — that maybe this one was okay.
Sandra cried in her car on the way home.
We think that's the right response.
Where Your Support Went in May
- 4 new feeding routes launched, including rural Mississippi — a region our team had been trying to reach for months
- Summer water station upgrades across 9 active locations in the South and Southwest
- Emergency welfare runs for June's litter in Houston and two other locations flagged for heat risk
- Volunteer mileage and supply costs for the teams now running double-frequency visits in high-heat zones
The Hero VIP Club funded a significant portion of the summer protocol upgrades this month. Consistent monthly support is what lets us respond to things like an unexpected heat spike or a nursing mother who needs twice-daily visits — without having to wait for a fundraising push.
That flexibility saves lives.
From the Field
"The first time you open a route in a new area, you don't know what to expect. Our first run in Mississippi, there were 7 dogs at the location within 20 minutes. They weren't scared. They were just hungry. They'd been waiting for someone to come — they just didn't know anyone would."
— Field Team, Rural Mississippi
"June's puppies are named now. The volunteers named them. That's when you know a team has bonded with a location — when the dogs start getting names."
— Field Team, Houston, TX
Into June: The Heat Intensifies
June is historically our most demanding month for field operations. Temperatures across our Southern and Western routes will peak. Water becomes as critical as food. Volunteer endurance gets tested.
We're preparing. And we need you with us.
If you've been considering the Hero VIP Club, June is the moment. Your $29.99/month membership directly funds the feeding runs, water stations, and emergency welfare visits that keep animals alive through the hardest part of the year. Every month, you receive photo documentation from the field — because you deserve to see what your support actually does.
Maple is doing well. June's puppies are growing. The Mississippi route is up and running.
None of that happens without this community.
With gratitude that never gets old, Rachel, Robert & the Saving The Paws volunteer family 🐾
Follow our monthly field updates and feeding recaps on our blog. Every dog documented. Every run counted. Every supporter seen.