Karen Jacobson visits with Sasha, one of Princess’s puppies, at West Park. Pet Pals helps unhoused and housing-insecure people care for their pets with food, litter, and other supplies, hotel rooms during extreme weather, and other support. | Photo by J. Adrian Wylie
The frantic call came from a woman in a homeless camp under a bridge in Ann Arbor where she and her boyfriend were living. She said that Princess, her boyfriend’s lab-boxer mix and traveling companion, was in rough shape. Princess had given birth to a litter of puppies just three days prior, and the boyfriend was selling them.
Pet Pals Mutual Aid isn’t a rescue organization, but volunteer Karen Jacobson loaded her car with dog food and water and headed straight to the camp. Through a yearlong respectful intervention, Princess and her puppies were ultimately saved and adopted—including one, Koira, by Jacobson. The boyfriend returned home and kicked drugs.
Pet Pals, a grassroots group of five volunteers, helps unhoused and housing-insecure people care for their pets by providing pet food, litter, and other supplies, as well as spay/neuter vouchers, hotel rooms during extreme weather, and other support. They launched in Ypsilanti in 2020, but offer their services across Washtenaw County.
Founder Sheri Wander, who also founded Peace House in Ypsilanti, says people on the street will go to great lengths to keep their pets: “People stay outside in blizzards or scorching heat because their pet isn’t allowed in shelters, libraries, the bus, and elsewhere. They choose to stay with what is often their sole source of unconditional love.
“Most of what we do is collect surplus pet food from stores, or food that someone’s pet didn’t like,” she continues. “People [also] buy food and supplies through our Amazon list. After someone passes away, we sometimes get food, toys, beds, litter, and other things.” They also receive regular donations from Ann Arbor–area pet stores and the Humane Society of Huron Valley.
While Pet Pals and HSHV’s Bountiful Bowls program serve the same populations, HSHV’s location, and lack of bus service, transportation, and delivery, make access difficult for unhoused people. Pet Pals bridges the gap by meeting people where they are. They stock Peace House’s 24/7 open pantry, and bring supplies to the FedUp Ministries food truck and to monthly Pull Over Prevention events.
HSHV provides some vouchers for spaying and neutering, and Pet Pals raises money for additional vet care. Volunteers keep their eyes open for animals and their owners in need. Wander keeps supplies in her trunk, just in case.
“We’re always stretched to the max,” she says. “We try hard to deliver to people who can’t come to us, but sometimes that doesn’t work. Volunteers willing to make deliveries would help a lot.”
Jacobson recently found an Ann Arbor man living in his car with his pit bull in devastating heat. She helped the two with food and a hotel.
Funding for hotels during inclement weather is “super-important, life-saving,” Wander notes. “It’s almost second nature to think about people when the weather is brutally cold, but it’s easy to forget the dangers of ninety-degree weather, poor air quality, and humidity to them and their pets.” She adds that many of their clients, particularly veterans, make hotel requests around the Fourth of July because the sound of fireworks frightens their pets.
Some argue that unhoused and housing-insecure people shouldn’t have pets. The point is moot, Jacobson says; they do.
“I get all the time that homeless people shouldn’t have pets,” she bristles. “Do you know that homeless people are the best rescuers? If they see a dog being abused or not treated right by one of their fellow homeless people, they will correct that.”
She and Wander agree that owners on the street often keep their pets in better condition than they do themselves, or even than people with significant resources. But crises often put housing-insecure people in the hospital, rehab, or jail, and they risk losing their pets while they’re gone.
Choosing to surrender their animal is as heartbreaking as it is for anybody, and long-term fostering is nearly impossible to find. For that reason, Wander says, “I am determined to try to create a network of people willing to foster pets.”
Calls & Letters, October 2024
Peter Schork phoned to point out an error in our 2024–2025 City Guide. In a feature in the Pets & Wildlife section, we’d said that Sheri Wander, who started the group providing assistance to the animal companions of the unhoused, also founded Mercy House in Ann Arbor.
“Mercy House was founded, owned, and operated by a lady named Margaret Lynch—Peggy is her common name,” Schork said. “Peggy was also the leader in starting Purple House on the south side of town.
“Sheri’s wonderful, but she did not start, or operate, or own Mercy House.”
