1993. Paws-2-Help was founded after Eve Van Engel noticed a desperate, tiny black dog not far from her neighborhood. His sad form appeared to be a walking skeleton, covered in mange and body sores. ‘Skelly’ was the only fitting name for him. The heartbreaking sight of this neglected little fellow served as only a glimpse into the future. Daring to acknowledge that this was but a small sample of so much lack of care and attention in such a small area of the city, there was no way to close the ‘bag of worms’ and walk away.

1994. So many dogs and cats needed medical attention. The numbers had climbed to five or six every month.. The cost for one retired person to shoulder became prohibitive.. Funds had to be raised. 

1995-1996. To offset the growing medical fees, the first thrift store was opened in West Palm Beach. The store’s location soon became known as a safe place to bring the lost, injured abused and/or homeless animals. The sanctuary merely evolved from the need.

1997. Paws-2-Help acquired an old, but adequate, veterinary clinic that was much in need of a ‘facelift’. Three grueling months later with much perseverance and blind determination, we opened, with no money.  Providing deeply discounted spay/neuter and a $10.00 minimal cost ‘shots and wellness clinic’ made us very popular in the community..  Some days as many as 80 animals came through our doors. We were able to purchase the building within two years.

1998. Our small leased thrift store building was sold, with no warning. The replacement store was a 13,000 square foot facility in a perfect location. The dogs in rooms that were custom designed for their comfort. We never used cages. Animals were kept behind glass so they can enjoy watching the shoppers. Each room had multi-levels so the dogs could travel top to bottom, side to side as they play with each other. The cats roamed in a giant cattery with ceiling high catwalks, and catwalks that criss crossed all over the store.    Kittens stayed in a glass-enclosed nursery surrounding the front counter where people waiting to check out their purchases play with and talk to them.

1999-2002. In the summer of 2002 we were notified that the building on Palm Beach Lakes Blvd that we had learned to think of as ‘home’, was for sale.  Creating a plan to finance a property with a price tag of over one million dollars was initially daunting. We went all out to achieve it. Our service to the community has spread from that one small segment of the city where ‘Skelly’ scavenged, to being known countywide.

2003-2004. A very disturbing period, expensive, disruptive and emotionally draining, we lost both of our properties, at the same time.   The Palm Beach Lakes store, became a “litigation – strangulation” nightmare.  The billions of dollars of the oil company won the battle.   Our rock solid concrete clinic on 25th Street, was taken by the City, under the “pretence” of eminent domain!!    With over 100 animals to house and care for, these had to be our first priority.   We found a small building on Military Trail with almost an acre of vacant land, space for the animals.  We moved in and while we made as much comfort for the animals we built a very difficult to work in environment for the staff.   No laundry facility, no commissary, limited storage and very squashed office space.   A draw back, these premises were only available to us for one year. Our clinic service is a necessity.  Having neither the space nor the inclination to put a lot of money into this temporary location, we built two state of the art mobile clinics. 

2005 - 2006. We became mobile, working our clinics and adoptions out of parking lots.  The Salvation Army on Palm Beach Lakes were wonderful supporters of our cause and allowed us to park in their rear lot for one year.  

2006 - 2008
We took up residency in a 5,000 sq. ft air conditioned store on Westgate Ave.  We moved our mobile units inside.   Set up housing for the adoptable pets.  We had a small thrift store selling used pet products and other lightly used items.

2008   In the prcess of negotiating to purchase the store on Westgate, we found that the building was not commercially zoned, and in October we were evicted.  We again went mobile.

2010   We've moved into our new location at 2061 Indian Road!

IN CONCLUSION. People say to us almost daily,  “I don’t know how you do this work, it must be heartbreaking.”  It is heartbreaking and heartwarming.  Hardly a day goes by that somehow I am reminded of a very undernourished Rotweiller who came to us with a 5-day-old litter of 8 puppies.  Her life consisted of being tied to an old wooden doghouse, and a bowl of food when ‘he’ remembered or had the time to fill it.  This undernourished mom could not produce milk, and therefore could not feed her pups.  She dug holes around the dog kennel and, one by one, she buried the pups.  She was distraught, and then would frantically dig them up.  Within hours she would dig holes and bury them again.  He nose was bleeding from the effort; she became frenzied, tied with a chain, not knowing when she would get a decent meal.  She felt that she had to save her puppies from the pangs of hunger that she knew so well as she knew that she could not feed them.  A neighbor saw this, rescued the mom and her pups, and brought her to us.  She devoured three large bowls of high-protein food, as we all frantically bottle-fed the puppies.  Two days later she lay so proud of her brood that were suckling happily on her milk. We get our rewards every day, when we see the gratitude of these poor animals.  We look forward to doing so much more, on a higher level than in prior years.