Petco Love Invests to Save and Improve the Lives of Pets Like Bisquick

In April 2025, Rescue Village received a $5,000 grant investment from national nonprofit Petco Love in support of its lifesaving work for homeless pets.

Petco Love is a national nonprofit leading change for pets by harnessing the power of love to make communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Since its founding in 1999, Petco Love has invested more than $430 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. And Petco Love helps find loving homes for pets in partnership with Petco and more than 4,000 organizations — like ours — across North America, with more than 7.1 million pets adopted and counting.

Beyond generously donating to shelters throughout the United States, Petco Love launched Petco Love Lost, a national lost and found database that uses patented image-recognition technology to simplify the search for lost pets.

Rescue Village utilizes Petco Love Lost as its primary platform for helping reunite families with their companion pets when they are lost and seeking a safe place to return home. Throughout the US, Petco Love Lost reunites nearly 40% of lost animals in shelters. You too can choose Petco Love Lost as your primary source for finding your lost companion and bringing them home.

Grants from Petco Love helps support Rescue Village’s transfer partners across Ohio. “This generous investment from Petco Love will help Rescue Village save, care for and find homes for dogs that are pulled from overcrowded shelters, like Bisquick,” said Ken Clarke, Executive Director.

When Bisquick arrived at Rescue Village in late August, he came with nothing. He was a stray, transferred from an overcrowded shelter in southern Ohio.

Just days after he arrived, our veterinary team detected a heart murmur that would require ongoing monitoring. Then, in mid-September, Bisquick’s fragile sense of security was shaken when he tested positive for parvovirus. Soon after, pneumonia was suspected.

For a one-year-old dog, it was frightening. Because Bisquick had lived as a stray, his vaccinations came late. We were only able to give him one of the two recommended doses before he was exposed. Parvo alone can be deadly. Adding pneumonia made every day feel uncertain.

There were moments when all we could do was watch, wait, and hope.

Thanks to our generous community, Bisquick never had to face those moments alone. He received immediate medical care, strict quarantine, round-the-clock monitoring, and weeks of medication and follow-up. We didn’t hesitate. We didn’t hold back. We stayed with him.

By the end of September, Bisquick had beaten parvo. In October, he completed treatment for pneumonia. And as his body healed, something deeper returned. Trust.

Bisquick showed us exactly who he is: calm, affectionate, and deeply gentle. He leans his whole body into love. He takes comfort seriously. And personal space? He doesn’t really believe in it. If you sit down, Bisquick assumes that invitation was meant just for him.

In November, he attended our Donor Appreciation Event, peacefully sharing space with playful kittens. He joined dog playgroups with quiet confidence. He even appeared on the local news, winning hearts simply by being his loving self.

And on December 13, Bisquick finally went home.

For a brief moment, he had what he’d been waiting for all along: a family, a couch, a sense of belonging. Everyone was so happy he had finally found his people.

Then everything fell apart.

Bisquick was returned when his adopter faced eviction. It was sudden. It was devastating. And once again, through no fault of his own, Bisquick lost the home he had just begun to trust.

Returns are never easy. For dogs like Bisquick, the heartbreak settles deeper and lingers longer.

Staff and volunteers see only a gentle dog: affectionate and calm. But we also know that because Bisquick is a pit-mix, fewer people ask about him. Fewer applications come in. Fewer chances are given. Not because of his behavior, but because of assumptions and a smaller pool of adopters due to municipal restrictions throughout the region.

Bisquick has done everything right. He survived serious illness. He trusts people. He was adopted. And then, he was back at the shelter, still waiting to be loved by a family of his own.

So, we waited with him. In the first week of January, he found his forever home. A family all for himself.

With the support of Petco Love’s grant, at Rescue Village, Bisquick was safe, cared for, and loved. That promise to Bisquick and to every animal with fewer chances is only possible because of the generosity of community members and organizations committed to helping homeless animals get the love they deserve.