Companion Animal Care Articles used with permission from All-Creatures.org

The National Link Coalition shares the important and inspiring work of Harmony Dog Rescue, an organization that fosters dogs when their human companions are experiencing a crisis. Please remember that people who are dealing with substance use and addiction deserve our compassion and respect.

Rescue Offers Foster Care for Dogs of Domestic Violence Survivors
From January 2026 LINK-Letter, The National Link Coalition
January 2026

Images from Canva

When Tim Lydon was working the pet helpline at a western Pennsylvanian animal shelter, a disturbing call came in late on a Friday afternoon. A woman was sleeping in her truck with her two dogs after leaving a violent home. He offered to leave the shelter to meet her, but managers told him he couldn’t.

“The only thing I could say to this woman who was obviously in crisis was, ‘Call us back Monday,’” he recalled to Next Pittsburgh. “We never heard from her again. I’ll never forget that woman’s voice, the terror in her voice, and it still haunts me.”

It caused Lydon and his wife, Molly, to found Harmony Dog Rescue (See the March 2024 LINK-Letter). Initially, the Lydons’ mission was to care for the pets of domestic violence survivors while they found safe new homes. But they soon realized they would have to expand their mission as they started getting calls from people who were unhoused, going to rehab or in the midst of a medical emergency.

Two years later, the program has moved out of the Lydons’ basement to a 3-acre property, they have financially supported 112 dogs with medicine, vet visits, bedding, food and more, and they work with community agencies, 30 to 40 volunteer foster homes and volunteers who walk the dogs and help socialize them.

Harmony Dog Rescue offers 40 days of emergency foster care which can be extended to 60 or even 90 days. The dogs stay with volunteer fosters in their homes. Fosters end in reunification more than half the time, Lydon said; the others are placed up for adoption.

Paws Across Pittsburgh, Animal Friends and Humane Animal Rescue also provide emergency housing. Lydon noted that they often don’t advertise emergency boarding because of the risk of owners abandoning pets. Allegheny County has reported rising cases of people experiencing homelessness and an increase of dog abandonment in area animal shelters.

The dog stuff’s easy, but the human side has been very challenging because my wife and I are not social workers,” Lydon said. “It’s really hard to love someone who’s overdosed on fentanyl for the third time, and it’s 11 o’clock at night and I have to drive downtown to get their dog. That has tested my compassion for people. But it’s what we signed up for.

“Whenever they eventually get clean … and they get in a house with their pet, it makes it all worth it for us.”

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Posted on All-Creatures.org: January 13, 2026
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