It All Started with a Peanut

This is Peanut. She was the kind of dog that could get you hooked on rescue. She was the kind of dog that rescue was created for…

We first met Peanut on a trip to a shelter in downstate Illinois. This was before Placing Paws became Placing Paws, and some of our founders and first volunteers traveled down there to help a struggling shelter.

Like so many other shelters, they were understaffed, had too few resources, and of course, were overpopulated. Peanut had been dropped off at the shelter early in the morning before we arrived. As soon as we got there, one of our volunteers spotted her—she was tough to miss! Dropped off as a stray, Peanut was filthy, malnourished, and absolutely covered in ticks.

Although she weighed less than 10 pounds, it took over two hours to bathe her and remove over 75 ticks from her tiny body. Even on her worst day, Peanut was so sweet and gentle. She nuzzled her chin against our volunteer’s hands as he worked. Maybe she knew she was finally safe …

Afterwards, all she wanted to do was snuggle. Once she got settled into her new home, Peanut did what most rescue dogs do. She spent the rest of her life loving … a lot. She never met a person—or a dog, or a cat, or a snack— that she didn’t love.

After fostering Peanut, Christie (Placing Paws founder and rock star mom to an overzealous teenage volunteer) caught the rescue bug. Peanut’s palpable gratitude was infectious, and her story is at the foundation of our mission. We do what we do because of sweet, little Peanut …

At Placing Paws, we believe in treating the whole animal and finding them the best home for their needs and personalities. We learned how to do that from Peanut, and since then we have saved the lives of nearly 2,000 dogs and cats.

Thank you Peanut, for your sweetness, your unconditional love, and your infectious zest for life. We will never forget you sweet girl, your legacy lives on in what we do every day …

Placing Paws of Illinois (PPI) was established in 2008 in Lake County Illinois with the goal of saving animals from high risk situations.

One of our primary goals is to take animals from rural shelters that have a high euthanasia rate. Rural shelters are often over crowded and under funded and the animals there have little or no hope of finding an adoptive home. Often times their best hope of finding a happy forever home is to be taken into the care of a rescue such as PPI.

All of the animals that are taken into the care and comfort of PPI receive proper veterinary care and a loving foster home while they wait to be placed in the “Hearts of their Forever Homes.”

Placing Paws of Illinois is dedicated to promoting educational efforts in our community on the well being of animals, proper veterinary care, spay neuter programs, as well as love and a forever commitment from all adoptive families.