The long, cold winters in Vermont can be rough on pets, particularly if they are strays with no place warm to find refuge. Without hesitation, we answered a call for help recently from Vermont-based rescue Save Our Strays for Halo Cloud Nine Healing Salve to heal frostbitten ears and paws cracked from road salt and ice.
“We have used it on our animals here and it worked really good,” says Lisa Haynes, founder of Save Our Strays, which received 120 jars of Cloud Nine Healing Salve. Always caring about a dog or cat’s nutritional needs, we also sent them 24 jars of Daily Greens and 24 jars of X-tra C, our vitamin C supplement.
Recently, a homeless cat that ended up at Save Our Strays sorely needed Cloud Nine. He had frost bitten ears with raw edges. “We used the salve on him and it worked incredibly,” says Lisa.
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People ask, ‘How do their coats look so good?’ I try to make sure the dogs have human grade ingredients in their food, it makes a huge difference.
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For the dogs, Lisa and her husband, Roy — who run the rescue from their Huntington home — coat their paw pads before a walk to prevent penetration of road salt and ice. “It bothers them alot,” Lisa says. “To put this (salve) on, it makes it so it doesn’t penetrate their little paws.”
And big paws, too. Lisa, owner of two St. Bernards, puts Cloud Nine on their paws after a romp in the snow to prevent irritation caused by the snow clumps stuck between their toes. “This works better than anything I’ve used,” Lisa says. “And the dogs seem to tolerate this alot better. The other stuff they don’t like the smell and run away from me, but they tolerate the application of really well and it’s not like they mind it.”
Last year, Save Our Strays received over 300 cases of Spot’s Stew for its cats, and 570 for the dogs, a donation worth over $32,000. Click here to read more about the donation and Save Our Strays.

Lisa says that feeding her rescued animals such high quality food creates shiny coats that people marvel at. “We get alot of comments on our strays and ask, ‘How do their coats look so good?’” says Lisa, who is down to the last cases of Spot’s Stew. “I try to make sure the dogs have human grade ingredients in their food, it makes a huge difference.”

