“It started off with a duck that I had brought into school. It wasn’t the first time I had brought a duck to school, I’m not gonna lie.”
Faith Scott, 16, recalled how she started taking in Sweet Home’s stray animals when she was in middle school. At the time, Scott was around 12 years old – maybe even younger, she said – when she found baby ducks that were being harassed by an adult duck, so she rescued them.

Her compassionate heart soon opened her eyes to other needs around town.
“Then it just seemed like I was finding cats everywhere I was going,” Scott said.
Probably the first kitten she rescued was a newborn found near the Church Mouse (originally Bethel Lutheran Church, and later converted into an art gallery at the intersection of 13th and Nandina). Then it was dogs and goats, whatever needed help.
Now operating as Faith’s Furry Rescue – a name coined by her father – Scott seems to have the process down pat. Operating from donations by the community, she takes in strays and abandoned animals, gets them spayed or neutered, fixes their ailments, and adopts them out to loving homes. She has also done TNR (trap, neuter, return) work with feral cats. It was when she started getting the animals spayed/neutered that things started to escalate for her, she said.
“That’s when I started getting excited because I knew that those animals weren’t going to have babies, so it wasn’t going to leave more animals on the streets.”
Scott held an adoption event at the Sweet Home Public Library on Friday, Jan. 10, showcasing 10 cats and one dog, but she also finds adopters through Craigslist and her Facebook page (Faith’s Furry Rescue). On this day, Pickles was adopted by Lilly Duncan.
“He’s so cute,” Duncan said of the white kitten. “He reminds me of my first-ever cat that I got when I was 11 or 12, or younger than that.”
Although vet fees and supplies cost at least $200 at minimum, Scott adopts kittens out for only $140; adult cats are cheaper. According to Scott, someone once came all the way from Arizona to adopt from Faith’s Furry Rescue.
Scott, now a junior in high school, is perhaps Sweet Home’s youngest animal rescuer. She said her parents have been supportive of her efforts, and her father is encouraging her to form an official nonprofit.
“It’s a lot of cleaning, a lot of litter box changes, but it’s so rewarding in the end, especially seeing them get adopted out,” she said.

A family friend, Mia, has been helping her with the work and coming up with ideas to rename the organization in such a way that it would reflect rescuing a variety of animals and also offering pet food to those in need, which is a service Scott wants to expand into.
“She’s my favorite person,” Scott said about Mia.
In the three-plus years that Scott has been rescuing animals, she’s learned that most cats are found (presumed dumped) in three locations: behind Safeway, at Northside Park and in Quartzville.
“The best part is seeing them being adopted out, or like when they get sick it’s super sad, but when you get to see their road to recovery, that is like the best part knowing you were able to help them.”
Donations to support her work can be deposited into Faith Scott’s account at Sweet Home Veterinary Hospital. Anyone interested in donating cat food, litter or cash can contact Scott by phone at 541.409.6876, via email at [email protected], or through her Facebook page.