Our Team

Emily is the primary owner and operator of Paws and Pumpkins Rescue. They started this rescue in 2023 and it has been their full time job and passion since they started the rescue back in 2023.

Surprisingly, Emily didn’t grow up around cats. Their family and friends never had cats growing up so the first real experience Emily had with cats was when they volunteered at a local shelter in High School.

Emily started school at Western Oregon University in 2021 and adopted their first cat, Amber, during their second term there. They adopted their second cat, Casper, just a few short months later and his was what truly started their love for rescuing.

Emily was going to school full time at Western Oregon while holding a full time, 40hr/wk job in Central School District to help pay for school. On weekends, they were a vendor at local farmers markets and pop-up events where they sold their own artwork and candles. Emily quickly fell in love with the creative process and decided to quit their job in the school district and rent a retail shop to sell their artwork locally full time. With more physical space available, that looked like more room for cats! After a quick check with the property managers, they got permission to bring cats onto the retail property. Emily called around to a number of rescues to see if any of them would allow their gift shop to act as a foster location for their cats. None of the rescues agreed but it did yield a connection with an employee from one of the rescues. This employee had a stray cat that had tested positive for FIV that had been living in her backyard. Emily agreed to take this cat, Fred, in and house him at the gift shop. Fred was quickly adopted and the community had already gotten word that cat adoptions were taking place in this little gift shop. More requests started pouring in for strays that needed a place to go.

After a few months, Emily got Paws and Pumpkins Rescue registered as a 501c3 Nonprofit Rescue and the rest is history.