Our Story
The Story Behind Hopper's Paw Press
Where real-life animal welfare experience, foster pets, children's stories, and a very special rescue dog come together. Today that means books and activities for children, practical foster resources, and two mail clubs: Letters from Hopper for young readers, and The Soft Landing Mail Club for the adults behind the work.
It Started With Hopper
Hopper's Paw Press was inspired by a real rescue dog named Hopper and the many foster animals whose lives have crossed his path.
Hopper became more than a beloved family dog. His gentle nature around foster pets made him the perfect character for stories that help children understand fostering, rescue, adoption, pet care, and why some animals need a little extra help before finding their forever homes.
What began with stories about Hopper grew into a larger mission: helping children understand animal welfare while also creating practical tools for the people caring for foster pets every day.
Real Animal Welfare Experience Behind the Mission
Hopper's Paw Press was created by someone with years of hands-on experience caring for animals, including work as an animal shelter manager and veterinary technician.
That experience included caring for animals in shelters, working with rescue pets, supporting foster families, helping animals through medical and behavioral needs, and seeing firsthand how much information foster caregivers are expected to manage.
Those experiences now shape both sides of Hopper's Paw Press:
For children
Stories and activities that make animal welfare understandable, gentle, and engaging.
For foster families
Practical trackers, planners, care guides, and adoption resources designed around the real tasks involved in fostering.
Why Teach Children About Animal Welfare?
Children often have a natural connection with animals.
Stories give them a gentle way to learn that pets need more than food and cuddles. They need patience, safety, medical care, responsible adults, and sometimes temporary foster homes before they are ready for adoption.
Through Hopper and his foster friends, children can begin conversations about:
- Animal rescue
- Fostering
- Adoption
- Responsible pet care
- Special-needs animals
- Compassion and empathy
- Saying goodbye to a foster pet
- Helping animals feel safe
- Understanding that every animal is different
The goal is not to make animal welfare feel sad or overwhelming.
The goal is to help children see that kindness can be an action.
Explore Books for KidsSupporting the People Who Open Their Homes
Fostering can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also involve a surprising amount of information.
Feedings, weights, medications, temperatures, veterinary appointments, behavior changes, potty habits, photos, adoption profiles, and daily observations may all need to be recorded and shared.
Hopper's Paw Press foster resources were created to help make that responsibility easier to organize.
The goal is simple: give foster caregivers practical tools that help them document what they see, communicate clearly with rescue teams, and tell each foster pet's story when it is time to find a permanent home.
Explore Foster ResourcesTwo mail clubs
Happy Mail for Children, Comfort Mail for Adults
As Hopper's Paw Press grew, two ideas kept coming back: children learn kindness through stories, and the adults caring for animals need kindness too. Both became real envelopes, mailed to U.S. addresses with postage included.
Letters from Hopper is happy mail for children ages 6–12. Each month a printed story letter from Hopper arrives with a matching coloring page, seasonal activities, and a collectible animal trading card. Every child begins with Hopper's own adoption story as a complimentary welcome letter, and a birthday card is included while the plan is active. Letters are sent by the 5th of each month, with the first mailing sent by November 5, 2026. Little Listeners for ages 2–5 is now in presale for January 2027.
The Soft Landing Mail Club is for adults connected to animal welfare — shelter staff, rescue volunteers, foster caregivers, veterinary teams, and anyone who has loved an animal through a hard season. Each envelope holds a personal letter, an optional journal page, and small comforts. Its first monthly mailing is planned to be sent by November 5, 2026.
Both clubs belong to Hopper's Paw Press, and both offer the same simple plans: $9.99 a month, or prepaid for six or twelve mailings. Memberships stay separate, so a child's letters and a grown-up's Soft Landing envelope are never mixed.
One Mission, Four Ways to Help
- Teach Kindness
Books & Activities for Children
Stories, coloring books, and educational activities that introduce young readers to rescue, fostering, adoption, pet care, and compassion.
Explore Books - Support Fosters
Tools for Foster Families & Rescues
Trackers, planners, care guides, and adoption resources designed to help caregivers stay organized and share important information.
Explore Foster Resources - Write to Children
Letters from Hopper
Monthly happy mail for ages 6–12: a printed story letter, matching coloring page, seasonal activities, a collectible card, and a birthday card while subscribed.
See Letters from Hopper - Care for Caregivers
The Soft Landing Mail Club
Comfort and connection for adults in animal welfare: a personal letter, an optional journal page, and small comforts tucked into every envelope.
Discover Soft Landing
Meet the Real Hopper
Hopper is the heart behind Hopper's Paw Press.
His stories may be written for children, but the ideas behind them come from real experiences with rescue animals and foster pets.
In the books, Hopper helps children explore what it means to welcome a foster animal, care for someone who needs extra help, learn patience, celebrate progress, and eventually say goodbye when a foster pet finds a family.
Those same ideas — observation, patience, compassion, and responsible care — are also at the heart of the foster resources available through Hopper's Paw Press.
The Hopper's Paw Press Mission
Helping foster pets, one story at a time.
Our mission is to help children understand animals with greater compassion while giving foster families practical resources to support the pets in their care.
Every book, story letter, coloring page, planner, tracker, and guide comes back to the same idea:
When people understand animals better, they can care for them better.
Growing Beyond Printables
Hopper's Paw Press will continue creating printable foster resources and educational products.
We are also developing separate digital tools to make foster pet management easier for caregivers and rescue organizations who prefer an online system.
Digital foster tools coming soon.
Choose How You Want to Make a Difference
Whether you're helping a child understand the importance of kindness or opening your home to an animal waiting for adoption, every small action matters.