There's No Place Like Home is the culmination of a lifelong devotion to animal welfare. Our founders, Karen & Vanessa Schell, are a mother-daughter team with over 30+ years of experience beginning in veterinary hospitals. Karen worked as the office manager of a small animal hospital in the east bay area for several years and also ran a successful animal boarding facility.Karen sat on the board of directors for the non-profit group, Fix Our Ferals, in Berkeley, California and Vanessa, at age 9 became the youngest volunteer. In her early twenties, Karen began taking in animals in need and finding them permanent homes. She quickly discovered the joy in helping those who are unable to help themselves and rescuing animals became a permanent occurrance within the family. Although there were occasional dogs, birds, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, pot bellied pigs, and even a horse, in the beginning the rescues were mainly feline. This was due to both financial and space confinements. At this point, the rescue was unofficial, but had definitely grown to support approximately 30+ cats at all times. It was not uncommon for one to three hundred cats to pass through in a years' time. In 2005, Nine Lives Rescue & Adoption was born. It was based out of a small store front in Pinole, Callifornia. Over the next two years, the group flourished. On average, 80 formerly homeless animals found loving families to adopt them each month. Nine Lives remained as a mainly feline group in it's early days, but quickly morphed into a rescue equally for the dogs & rodents as well. Both founders of the now official Nine Lives Rescue, Karen served as the president, and Vanessa as the secretary of the organization. Along with several foster parents, and a handful of regular & full time volunteers, Nine Lives was able to save the lives of more animals than ever before. It was a dream that had reached reality for Karen & Vanessa, but sadly, due to the economy and some sudden unforeseen circumstances, this reality couldn't last. Nine Lives had to close it doors in 2008. Life without animal rescue left a void for Karen & Vanessa and the long couple of years that followed were a struggle. They knew that as soon as the opportunity was made available, animal rescue would once again be a focus in their lives. Today, they have found a way to reinvent the dream that they had loved and lost. There's No Place Like Home is a small group derived from Nine Lives Rescue & Adoption, however the name has since been changed to better suit the goals of the organization.
Our Philosophy
Each and every life matters. Domestic animals are innocents who have no real choice but to depend on us for care. We at There's No Place Like Home believe that it is our responsibility as human beings to eliminate as much of the necessary suffering of these creatures as possible. Each life deserves respect, each creature a chance to live their days without neglect, worry, or fear. An animal doesn't ask for anything from us except companionship and basic necessities. We believe that each selfless animal deserves to be cared for beyond his expectations. We also believe that in order to properly rehabilitate the animals that we have the privilege of rescuing, we must truly get to know each one individually. We strive to learn what each animal needs so that we may better provide the necessities to prepare him for adoption. We want to understand his personality to the fullest extent possible so that we can then match him with the most appropriate family. In careful animal - family matching, it is our hope that we can create a lifelong home for each animal and are able avoid an animal not being the 'right fit' after adoption. Because of our desire to form a bond with every single animal that comes to us, we put great effort into not becoming overwhelmed and compromising the focus on the animals currently in our care. In following these guidelines, we are able to foster each animal's personality, assess his needs, and secure his future as best as we can. Our individual attention on each animal allows us to truly focus all efforts on that one animal, and therefore There's No Place Like Home is saving four paws at a time. We operate our organization to reflect our philosophies. We consider animals to be companions and family members. They are not disposable or exchangeable. We have an unspoken promise to each animal that comes to us which is to place them with people whom we trust to love and care for them all the days of their lives.