Where It All Began

Penelope’s Basket is 100% privately funded by Hands2Paws. Donors cover shipping to us; Hands2Paws covers the cost of sending donated toys to shelters.

Penelope was a beautiful Italian Greyhound. She passed away at the age of 12, just hours after I learned she had cancer.

The cancer had already metastasized throughout her body, and and I knew that putting her through treatment was not an option. One of the hardest parts was that Penelope never seemed sick. She hadn’t changed. There had been no long decline, no obvious warning signs, nothing that prepared me for what I was about to hear.

She was still Penelope.

And then, within hours, she was gone.

Afterward, her toys were everywhere. Each one represented a moment in her life—something she played with, carried around, slept beside, or simply loved. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away. They weren’t just toys. They were memories of her.

I saved two that I knew I would never part with. Penelope’s half-sister, Vanessa, was never really interested in toys, so the rest stayed with me.

Then one day, I had a thought:

I would feel better letting them go if I knew a dog in need had one.

A dog waiting in a shelter. A frightened dog who needed comfort. A dog who might curl up beside one of Penelope’s toys and, for a little while, feel less alone.

That thought became Penelope’s Basket.

A way to take something that holds so much love and give that love somewhere new.

Because when a beloved pet dies, their things can be incredibly difficult to part with. But letting go doesn’t have to mean throwing them away.

It can mean passing the love on.