Hello friends! I have a BIG favor to ask of you all. Please refrain from calling Speaker Turzai’s office to ask for movement on anti-cruelty legislation. You may have been asked over and over to do so, that’s not how it works. It is not the Speaker’s duty to convince his caucus what bills to support. It is YOUR OWN representatives duty to do so. Also, please refrain from vitriolic comments on his social media outlets, they have been appalling and certainly not what is going to get you in any doors to try to work to get legislation passed. What SHOULD you do? Politely ask your legislators to support laws that protect our animals and to work to convince others in their caucus that we need this! Ask them to co-sponsor legislation. Ask THEM to bring it up, ask THEM to email Judiciary to inquire when a bill may be up for being voted on in committee. Attacking the Speaker is NOT an effective way to lobby. He is also the chairman of the Rules Committee” again, if YOUR legislator is on Rules ask THEM to support and push for legislation you want to see brought up for a vote. If your legislator is on Judiciary/Rules your calls are doubly important and needed.

“The Speaker’s duties as presiding officer of the House, include administering the oath of office to Members, calling the House to order, preserving order and decorum within the House chamber and galleries, recognizing members to speak on the House floor, and making rulings about House procedures.”

We desperately need better laws for the animals, believe me when I tell you calls if you are not a constituent don’t matter! Vitriolic language hurts our cause. Please be a part of the solution and not creating more work for those of us who are working within the Capitol . I spend my first 15 minutes of a meeting apologizing for bad behavior they I didn’t even commit! So non-productive! I know it’s frustrating, I know we get angry. We want this done so let’s lobby effectively! Call your reps!

The most amazing thing to me about animals with no home, that thank God never gets old, is their trust. Incredible trust. There we were today, and I have marveled at this before, taking dogs out of their cages, they are with TOTAL strangers, we are putting them in a van or TOTAL strangers’ cars, and they wiggle, wag, give kisses, and 100% trust us. Then we drove them, happy, looking out the window – HEY!! Where we going?? I’m so excited to be with you (whoever you are!) and I love you so much!! You are the best!!!! Honestly, I think of when my son was a toddler but talking, he’s in the backseat in his car seat and he says-“mom!! You look scared, you look worried.” I look in the rear view mirror at his beautiful face and then look at my face in the mirror and see the look he’s talking about. Realizing my mind is a million miles away I bring myself back to where I belong. I thought about that moment with my son today when I was very stressed, worrying about the dogs I was transporting, worrying about the Pitt game, always worrying about bills/money, and this little Lucy I had riding shotgun leaned over and put her head on the side of me. She stayed there – I cried knowing that she not only trusted me, but she was already “on to me.” If she could talk like my son, she would have said the same thing he did-instead she just got close and made me come back to reality.

Dogs are amazing. Humans did one thing right by creating the domesticated dog. They saved me from despair and dark times, they love me no matter what, they want to love everyone, they want to please you. I love them so much, I am amazed daily at them. I’m so fortunate to be able to work with them, to get them into loving homes, to help educate people on how they can have a better experience with their own dogs.

I know this is long, it’s just thoughts that I have, if you got this far thanks for letting me share my thoughts about dogs. They will never cease to amaze me, incredible beings. Trust.

Yesterday before the shelter opened, a woman showed up outside with a gorgeous German Shepherd dog. She wanted to have her scanned as she was running down her street and ran into her yard. She stated to me “I would have kept her but my other dog didn’t seem to like her.” So already I’m being very nice but the hair is up on my back. I said to her this is a beautiful very nice dog I’m sure somebody is looking for it, the right thing to do is to find the owner. I looked at his collar and she said there’s just a tag with a serial number. Upon closer look I could see that that “serial number” began with the numbers 412. I took it off the dog and picked up the phone and called the rest of the numbers. A man answered the phone and I didn’t even get the words out of my mouth, he said “do you have my dog?” I said a good Samaritan brought her in and yes she’s at the Western PA Humane society. He was obviously frantic I could hear him call to a bunch of people “she’s been found!” He asked where we were located and I told him and within about 15 minutes he showed up at the door. He was probably around 35 or 40 years old, his face was white as a ghost, and when he walked in it was a beautiful reunion and he was in tears. Turns out he is a veteran
with severe PTSD and this dog is his service dog. She somehow got out of the backyard and he was freaking out trying to find her, he told us more about how she helped him and it was unbelievably beautiful. The reason I’m telling you this story is because this woman mentioned that she was going to keep this dog. I explained to her after they reunited how many dogs go missing and people that find them just keep them, or they say they need a foster, or whatever. Remember, the law on stray holds in Pennsylvania only applies to shelters and rescues that hold dogs for the Pennsylvania department of agriculture. If you find a dog and you are not one of those shelters and rescues, you are not protected by any law and if you rehome it and the rightful owner somehow comes forward, not only did you create a lot of fear, and anxiety for the dog and owner, the dog could possibly be a service dog, but you’ve also opened yourself up to be charged with theft. There are so many people looking for their lost dogs and some of them will never have closure–never know what happened. If you find a dog, it is not yours to keep and again you are not protected by any of Pennsylvania’s dog laws. I see this happen so much, and I see dogs brought to the shelter and people say that they found the dog and “I’ve had it for a couple months but it wasn’t working out.” I know people want to do right by the animals remember there could be a person out there frantically searching, including a poor veteran who suffers from PTSD.

I just spent the last 24 hours in a cage with a shelter dog as a fundraiser and because I thought it would be so fun. Got out to eat, go to the bathroom, move around a bit, take the dog for a walk, and cuddled a whole bunch! I was lucky enough to have a snuggly pit bull and it doesn’t get much better than that! It WAS fun but at one point it became more of a lesson. When it was time to leave today I was seriously overcome with emotion. At first I thought you’re tired, you’ll be back tomorrow and so will Jasmine, my roomie. Then I thought oh it’s just my “normal” emotional self but then I looked around and saw the rest of the sleepover folks in tears too. I have seen literally tens of thousands of dogs in cages, yes I love on them, treat them, provide them with enrichment, and watch our staff take incredible care of these animals. But wow, looking from inside the cage out–the first time ever for an extended period of time gave me a whole new look at what a shelter animal has to endure day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute. Just about to fall asleep and someone barks, get back up, a beagle lets it rip, (I love beagles but they can get it going) move over to one side of the cage, a person goes by, move again. People stop and look, they go to the front “look at me!” One group passed by and one of the women looked at my Jasmine and said “oh she’s old” and literally turned up her nose. Then a dog goes by, get up and bark, then another, more people, more beagles, the ventilation humming non stop. Jasmine is real nice, she’s very polite and does some cute parlor tricks! Yes she’s “older” if you think 7 is old but she has a lot of good years left I’m sure. After all this time of working with shelter animals I will now look at these guys with even more amazement for the bravery, courage, perseverance, and the will to live and love in those conditions. Still feeling very emotional, I can’t stop thinking about Jasmine and how beautiful she is and what precious creatures these animals are. Jazzy taught me a huge lesson in the last 24 hours – she’ll never know what effect she had on me. Be brave, be happy with what you have, show everyone some love even if they scowl at you, make people smile and laugh just by being you. If you or family and friends are thinking of adding a pet to your family, please think of a shelter animal, there are a whole lot of Jasmines out there who would love to have a home. Thanks sweet Jasmine, I loved being your roommate and thank you for showing me what YOUR life is like. I can only hope to be as brave as you. ❤️

If I could ever write a book it would be called “It’s Really All About Peanut Butter” and those who know me would know why. It would be about a day in the life at an urban open door shelter. From the word “go” so much goes into action. At 6:30am surgeries start, spay neuter after spay neuter, shelter dogs with masses or minor needs for surgeries. Employees arrive one after another. Today, we weren’t open yet, I saw a handicapped younger man with a walker — a young frisky dog pulling him like heck, there was NO way I was telling him he had to wait until we opened. So sad, giving up your young dog who clearly loved you because of your own handicap. He did the right thing though, a lot of people wouldn’t have the guts or the courage or have too much pride to drop an animal off at the shelter. Call if whatever you want, some say cowards take animals to shelters, I don’t know, not always. Start the day with tears for this guy and for his dog who was whimpering behind the door the man just exited. Then on to an adoption, a dog who had been in foster after surgery, then for behavior, then the shelter was just too much to ask of him, foster for 408 days. The right owner finally reached out to his wonderful foster mom. They have always had pitties, their last one passed away at 14 and the house “was just not the same.” So off went SORA to his new home, happy tears but watching his foster mom’s tears, they were happy but there was also heartache there, she had cared for him for 408 days. The new owners were so happy with him, he loved them too. See them off. Come back into the building, a dog had bitten during a behavior evaluation, damn it. Within an hour the owner of that dog called, they had not been “forthcoming” about the history of the dog. They were afraid of the dog, but they were afraid to be truthful, and they let it sit in a shelter alone and then it bit.  I cried the owner cried for whatever had happened to this poor dog before even she rescued it. Never their fault, I don’t care what a dog does–never their fault. Bad breeding to bad upbringing, taken away from Mom too soon, they are too innocent–not their fault. Owner comes in, wants to take a cat back that came in as a stray. Oh no you don’t, this cat has not been given proper care nor has it had medical attention. Got the owner to surrender to the shelter so we can get the cat the care it needs and save its life. So much back and forth, lost dogs, lost cats, cats being returned to owners, dogs coming in and dogs going out. Bunnies, mice, turtles, so many living things depending on us for care. Yesterday, a woman with 4 dogs and 2 cats who had a house fire, she called to get food for them and flea treatment and on her way here got a call that her young sister passed away.  Dear God, my day had some tears but damn.  I want my animal back but I can’t afford to pay you for the vaccines you gave it while it was being sheltered here.  Angry adopter because we said a dog needs to be in an adult only home.  It’s for the good of everyone, the dog and the people.  So I’m sitting at my desk, it’s quiet, there are over 500 animals in this building with me, I can hear the sweeper from the cleaning service, I know the foster coordinator is still working too, I know the animals are very comfortable and it’s quiet and cozy because the best animal services staff in the world sees to it.  I look at some of the dogs, some of them make me cry just because they are here in a cage, some of them make me laugh because they are sprawled out on their beds and their little toenails are painted purple, but I love them all, we all do.  I work with the most amazing people in the world.  What we do I don’t think many can do.  It’s certainly not for the meek.  We need support, we need each other, we love each other.  I think of the day it was, the week it was, (I just gave you a snapshot) and here comes one of my adoptions counselors bouncing into my office, “hey I just adopted out a bonded pair to a woman and her daughter!”  (she’s talking about adult cats who cannot be separated–that’s a tough adoption.  It was the last adoption of the day, a good one, ending on a good note.  Tomorrow we will do it all over again, some of the stories will be the same, the players will be different.  The animals will be just as beautiful as every day.  I will do my best for them, I will give them the love they deserve, the care they need, and help them to trust if that is what they need.  I just felt the need to write.  I love my work, it’s heartbreaking at times, it’s SO rewarding at others.  But I have to do this, I have dedicated my life to this work.  Caring for those that are unwanted, abused, broken.  Spay and neuter your pets, give them love and good care.  All they want to do is love you no matter what.  Help out a shelter, we need you, the animals need you.  Thank you for reading.