Kashka's Gift: A Legacy of Hope and Healing

 Honoring the love that started it all and providing lifesaving medical care for animals in need.

 Kashka's Gift celebrates PetConnect Rescue’s 20th year of saving lives and honors the little dog who inspired the founder ofPetConnect Rescue, Lizette Chanock, to work tirelessly to help animals.

Kashka's Gift provides essential medical care for dogs and cats in need. It is both a tribute to our past and a promise for the future—ensuring that PetConnect Rescue can help dogs and cats in need for the next 20 years and beyond. 

Kashka's Story

Kashka was everything to Lizette Chanock—her constant companion and the inspiration to save lives.

At just 15 years old, Lizette walked into an animal shelter and chose a little frizz ball she later named Kashtanka (Kashka for short). From that day forward, Kashka changed, enriched, and inspired her life.

Named after a children’s story by Anton Chekhov, Kashka went everywhere with Lizette—across the Atlantic many times, to college, to her first job, and later on daily strolls with Lizette’s children, often riding in the stroller with them.

The deep bond she shared with Kashka sparked Lizette’s lifelong passion to help animals and people experience that same joy. In fact, it was Kashka, Lizette says, who inspired her to start a small animal rescue out of her garage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That little rescue became PetConnect Rescue, which today continues to thrive and save lives 20 years later.  

Kashka’s Gift is both a tribute to the human–animal bond and a lifesaving legacy for animals in need. Every dollar donated to Kashka’s Gift goes directly toward medical care—providing healing and hope for dogs and cats whose needs never stop growing.

When you give to Kashka’s Gift, you honor the love of one extraordinary dog and help ensure countless more animals get their chance to live, to heal, and to be loved.