A little boy has inspired thousands to pay it forward for shelter dogs with his amazing act of kindness when he decided to use his own money that he had saved to help find two shelter dogs their forever homes.
Jaxton Betschart is a 4-year-old little boy with a HUGE heart!
While most kids burn through money as soon as they get their hands on it, sweet little Jaxton is different. He saves his money, and when he’s got enough of it, he uses it to do extraordinary things!
Source: iHeartDogs/Elyse Betschart
When Jaxton’s mom, Elyse Betschart, took him for a visit to the Charleston Animal Society rescue shelter, he immediately fell in love with some of the shelter dogs, specifically two pit bulls.
However, the Betschart’s are a military family and they get bounced around quite a lot (every 3 years, to be exact) to different military housing wherever Jaxton’s dad is based.
Unfortunately, military dwellings don’t allow residents to own pit bull-type dogs as a result of their crackdown on certain breeds.
Don’t worry though, Jaxton isn’t hurting for any animal friends at home.
Source: iHeartDogs/Elyse Betschart
The Betschart family has an awful lot of love to give and Elyse Betschart, not surprisingly, is an avid animal lover herself.
So, in addition to her husband and two kids, the family is extended by two cats and four rescue dogs!
It’s no wonder that Jaxton’s heart is so big and that he has such selfless compassion for the shelter dogs he visits, and why he fell in love with two of them so very quickly.
Source: iHeartDogs/Elyse Betschart
The first dog that caught Jaxton’s attention was Penelope, a beautiful black and white mixed pit.
Her distinct black patches around her eyes delighted the little boy, and he endearingly nicknamed her “Spot”. While he was caught up with adoring the gorgeous pittie, he almost immediately noticed a second dog.
Without thinking twice about it, Jaxton gravitated over to the nearby kennel where he met the second pit bull to steal his great big-little heart that day.
Source: iHeartDogs/Elyse Betschart
The brick house blue pitbull sparked Jaxton’s interest right away because the adorable kiddo saw a lot of himself in the puppy, as he shouted out to his mom while running over to the kennel to pet the dog.
“Mommy! He’s big and chunky just like me!”
As Jaxton was loving on the pit, he found out that his name was Tank, and instantly had visions of the two tackling great conquests together in the backyard as they played being the Hulk.
Source: iHeartDogs/Elyse Betschart
Unfortunately, Jaxton’s mom had to break it to him gently that there was no way they would be allowed to adopt Tank and Penelope, even though they wanted to.
Then, the amazing woman that Elyse is, she told her son that there was still something he could do for the dogs that would mean even more; he could sponsor the shelter dogs by paying for their pet adoption fees through the Charleston Animal Society’s Sponsorship Program.
“A lot of people don’t realize that sponsorship is an option, that you can actually tie that money to a face,” Elyse explains an in interview with iHeartDogs.
The program permits animal lovers to pay for the adoption fees for a specific pet or even a random one. The donations collected from the program allow the CAS to host their “fee-waived” adoptions that they hold periodically, which generally sees a huge boost in shelter dogs and cats finding good loving homes to go to.
Check this out!!! Sweet Jaxton Betschart became a Guardian Angel and paid the adoption fee for this sweet pup to help her find a home! #KidsRock #adoptatcas please give him a high five from all our FB Fans!
Posted by Charleston Animal Society on Sunday, March 12, 2017
The selfless little boy that Jaxton is, he was thrilled to learn that he could still play an important role in giving these sweet pups the good life that they deserved.
With his own money that he’d saved from birthdays and holidays, Jaxton paid the $95.00 adoption fee for both of the shelter dogs that had melted his heart that day.
An employee of the CAS took a picture of an elated Jaxton holding up his Guardian Certificate in front of Tank’s cage and posted it to the shelter’s Facebook page with a caption that read:
“Check this out!!! Sweet Jaxton Betschart became a guardian angel and paid the adoption fee for this sweet pup to help her find a home! #kidsrock #adoptatcas please give hime a high five from all our FB fans!”
Of course, it didn’t take long after the picture was posted before it started spreading like wildfire.
Posted by Charleston Animal Society on Wednesday, March 15, 2017
As expected, the post received a lot of reactions from the page’s followers, but no one expected to see the post spark such an interest in the sponsorship program.
Nearly all of the comments, numbering over 200, were from people who were interested in finding out how to also sponsor a pet from the shelter.
Like a domino effect, within the week of the post being shared on social media little Jaxton’s act of kindness inspired hundreds of new sponsors to donate to the program.
As a result, not only were Penelope and Tank adopted almost right away, but so were a whole bunch of the other pets that might not have otherwise been placed if it hadn’t been for Jaxton’s kindness and willingness to give.
Posted by Charleston Animal Society on Wednesday, March 15, 2017
In fact, CAS’s Director of Community Engagement, Kay Hyman, said the original post of Jaxton next to Tank was seen almost 200,000 times by Facebook followers, inadvertently educating people on the fact that they don’t have to adopt a pet to become their hero.
For the beyond reasonable $95 sponsorship, the pet in question will receive their vaccinations, microchip, spaying or neutering, 1 month supply of heartworm and flea prevention meds, and the shelter will even treat them for any already existing heartworms if the pet has already been infected.
With all of the very necessary and usually expensive care being covered, the person who ends up actually adopting the pet will have the money that would have went toward the adoption fee to spend on things their new pet will need at home, like a leash, food, feeding bowls, treats, and toys.
Source: iHeartDogs/Elyse Betschart
Understandably, Elyse Betschart is feeling an overwhelming sense of pride in knowing that her son is turning out to be such a hero as well as an inspiration to the people around him.
“Animals are a huge part of our lives. Knowing that my son was the catalyst for the community coming together to give shelter dogs a voice makes me feel incredibly blessed. I feel like I’ve done my job – like I can retire as a mom!”
Instead of retiring, we hope she raises even more such amazing little humans because the world sure does need more people like Jaxton to inspire it!
If you would like to support an animal through the CAS sponsorship program, you can do so here, or if you live in a different area, try getting in contact with your local animal rescue shelters and humane societies to find out if they also have a program for donors to help place pets with good, loving forever homes.
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Source: iHeartDogs
