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INTAKE MANAGER

Since I was a child I have always been very passionate about helping animals. I would find lost dogs in my neighborhood and go door-to-door trying to reunite the dog with its owners. One house I would pass on my walks, I always noticed a dog chained up that did not look like he was being taken care of very well. So I knocked on the door and asked if I could buy their dog for the $17.00 I had for getting a good report card in school. That one, I count as my very first rescue, at age 12.

I began volunteering at my local Humane Society as soon as I was old enough to be allowed to walk the dogs. As I grew older I became a foster for the special needs pets at the shelter, mainly pregnant cats, but also the occasional neglected dog.I have always made a great effort to help stray animals. I have even become a bit of a point of contact if people find a misplaced animal in my town.

Recently, I received a Facebook message about a found dog with a Humane Society rabies tag as its only form of identification. I went down to the shelter and looked up his owners. I called them, and they didn’t answer. So we went to the home address listed on the adoption paperwork. The owners were ecstatic and shocked that a total stranger could find their dog’s home.

One day on Facebook I read about a lost dog named Jemma. They were trying to organize a search party, and I knew I had to help. I convinced my husband to take us out to help. And during the long journey Jemma took us on, we found out just how rewarding it was to work together as a family to reunite dogs with their owners. One night Jemma finally made her way into the live trap, and that was it—we were hooked.

The Retrievers has become a second family to us and is part of our lives each day, whether my husband is in the field trying to help a lost dog, or I’m taking a lost dog hotline call. Volunteering for the Retrievers has been a great bonding experience for our family.