Poverty’s Pets started on December 3, 2005 when Kate Sivolella, from Montclair, NJ, and Kim Kroger, from Scottsdale, showed up in Guadalupe, AZ to assist in a mobile spay/neuter clinic as volunteers.

Neither one had ever been to a mobile spay/neuter clinic. They did not know each other or what to expect. Saving a dog’s life and forming a rescue ~ bond that would last for years was never anticipated.

That Friday afternoon in December, Kate and Kim asked the owners of a dying dog to release it to their care. When the owners did the women took the starving, sick little boxer with a broken leg and an extreme case of Valley Fever to Pecan Grove Veterinarian Hospital. Dr. Holmes saved “Frida’s” life, Kim adopted Frida and Kate & Kim unknowingly started Poverty’s Pets. For two years following that afternoon, the two women hosted monthly spay/neuter clinics in low income neighborhoods in Phoenix and rescued lots of dogs and cats along the way.

In 2008, Poverty’s Pets officially became a program of Rancho Feliz Charitable Foundation, Inc. (a registered 501 (c)(3)). To this day Kate and Kim donate a LOT of their time and energy daily to their shared passion for the four legged (and sometimes three legged) furry friends that make this world a better place!