PAWS Houston is a non-profit organization that serves the needs of low-income pet owners who are living with terminal illness. PAWS offers comprehensive services designed to enable our clients to keep their animal companions. Services include an animal food bank, subsidized veterinary care, volunteer pet care, grooming, foster care and adoption when necessary. In addition to direct client services, PAWS plays a large role in education of the medical and veterinary communities about the benefits and risks of animal companionship for people with medical and financial hardships. We provide Safe Pet Guidelines for our clients. By helping them keep their much-loved pets, we hope to improve their quality of life. Our clients are people who face many losses: health, employment, and sometimes support of family and friends. By helping our clients keep their animals, we help them to keep at least one part of the life they enjoyed. It is our agency?s policy to acknowledge that our human clients are still the rightful guardians of our animal clients; we are here to help them care for their animals in the best possible way. It is in this way that we are improving the quality of life of our clients while promoting their dignity "by acknowledging their role in the animals" life. For our clients, animal companionship has been an important part of their lives so important, in fact, that many people tell us of foregoing their own needs to meet those of their animals. When we hear of any animal that is important enough that a person will give up his/her life-prolonging medication or other necessities to feed that animal, we know what we do is essential.