The most common question we hear from adopters is "where did kitty come from?" When FFGW was founded 30 years ago, the answer was "strays off of the street." In 1995, even though in municipal shelters euthanasia rates were high, most shelters would not work with a rescue. There has been a huge shift in three decades, where rescues have built a foundation of trust with shelters, and the rescue community has worked in tandem with those shelters to move toward a no-kill goal.  The save rate for homeless dogs and cats in Virginia’s shelters last year was 86% – just 4% shy of the nationally-recognized no-kill benchmark of 90%, and FFGW is proud to have played a part in that number, working with several area open-admission shelters. In particular, many of the cats we rescue come from a small, rural shelter in downstate Virginia – a shelter that euthanizes all animals every week  - and would have an extremely low live release rate were it not for cooperation with Northern Virginia rescues. FFGW has partnered with a rescue downstate, who goes into that shelter every week, and works with several Northern Virginia rescues to remove as many animals as possible and transport them first to Charlottesville, where another rescue meets the transport, and brings them to Chantilly.

And so - it begins with an email, from our rescue partner: