Gabe Horton, BA’11, MDiv’15: Hope for People and Pets in Crisis

Gabe Horton, BA'11, MDiv'15, executive director of nonprofit Pawster, an organization that cares for the pets of people in crisis (Harrison McClary/Vanderbilt)

Gabe Horton's career has gone to the dogs. And to the cats. And even to the occasional guinea pig-and that's all good news!

Horton is executive director of Pawster, a Nashville-based nonprofit that works to ensure that a pet owner's temporary problem doesn't lead to permanent loss of their pet.

Pawster's clients are pet owners in crisis, whether from loss of housing, domestic violence, a hospital stay, addiction treatment or being incarcerated. Horton's organization offers pets a foster home while their owner gets back on track. Ninety percent of pets are reunited with their owners; the rest have been rehomed.

During the pandemic, Horton brainstormed Pawster into being with a group of Nashville pet lovers, including Vanderbilt classmates Trice Gibbons, MDiv'13, Nathan Yates, BA'11, MAcc'12, Chelsey Hedglin, MDiv'17, and founding director Allison Ruari, MDiv'14.

"We were looking for a way to help," he says. "We talked with animal welfare organizations, housing advocates, veterinarians and social workers at hospitals and domestic violence shelters, and the idea of emergency foster care for pets really resonated. We just ran with it. We didn't have anything to lose."

For about a year after launch, Horton worked with one paw … er, foot in the new organization and the other in a paying job. He's been full time at Pawster since 2021 and was able to add a foster-care coordinator in late 2023.

Volunteers are the group's lifeblood, from "Pawster Fosters" who open their homes to pets of various temperaments, ages, medical conditions and histories to volunteers who help transport pets. PetSmart provided a large grant to help Pawster get off the ground. "It takes two or three people to support each foster pet," Horton says.

Horton, with canine friends (Harrison McClary/Vanderbilt)

Pawster's board-including those Vanderbilt classmates who helped brainstorm the idea-has ambitious goals for the next year: matching up to 150 pets with fosters, growing the ranks of foster families and raising more money. Pawster relies on grants and donations that allow it to offer foster care free of charge.

Currently, the organization has twice as many pets needing placement as it does families to take them, and Horton believes Nashville's shortage of affordable housing is a key driver of this problem.

"The need for crisis foster care grows as the housing crisis worsens," he says. He has helped develop a database of pet-friendly, lower-cost housing options. Pawster also helps clients with pet deposits-additional fees used for cleaning or damage after a renter leaves a property-and getting certification for emotional support animals.

"Through Pawster, we've learned that providing this temporary pet care impacts the people as much as the pets," Horton says. "That's a good feeling."

- JAN READ

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