Denice Heatherly—co-founder of Music City Animal Advocates, a non-profit organization whose stated goal is “to create an animal-saving culture in greater Nashville and surrounding counties” —describes her formative years, when her grandmother was a serious animal...
Stacy LeBaron—a veteran animal welfare advocate (felines, in particular) who hosts The Community Cats Podcast—recalls her first memory of a cat…who happened to be named Duncan! Still, she allows that her powerful passion for cats was cultivated cumulatively; over...
Kim Skrovanek—founder of The Humane Education Connection—recounts growing up as a passionate animal lover, tending to all the sick and injured animals that she spotted in her North Florida neighborhood. (“Yes, I was that kid.”). That passion, Skrovanek explains,...
Alison Eastwood —the actress, director and animal advocate whose Eastwood Ranch Foundation recently launched FosterFurkids.com, a website that connects rescue groups and animal shelters with a nationwide network of pet fosters and transporters—discusses a childhood...
Bruce Cameron and Cathryn Michon—the husband-wife team who wrote the screenplay for A Dog’s Purpose, a film starring Dennis Quaid, based on Cameron’s bestselling novel of the same name—discuss how the book has yet again become a New York Times bestseller (this...
Luan Dean—the Director of Mission Advancement at SPCA Tampa Bay—explains the scope of her duties at the organization, which began in 1940, while describing the work undertaken there in the earliest days, some 70 years ago. Dean also briefly traces SPCA Tampa Bay’s...
Laura T. Coffey—the author of “MY OLD DOG: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts,” which touts the virtues of adopting senior shelter dogs—recounts going to school (including college) in the Tampa Bay area and her extended stints at what’s now The Tampa Bay...
Ron King— co-founder of Ruff Ranch Sanctuary, which seeks to find homes for aging or other hard-to-place dogs while aiming to help military veterans, who will become the chief caretakers of the dogs—explains how his lifelong kinship with dogs began as a kid. He...
Cheri Thompson--founder of Healing Species, a South Carolina-based program that plucks rescue dogs from shelters and places them in a school program designed to reduce aggression and bullying, while increasing empathy in those classrooms—discusses her formative...
Mariesa and Chris Hughes — co-founders of the Mr. Mo Project, which places senior shelter dogs, who are sometimes also ill (and therefore often strong candidates to be euthanized) into ongoing foster homes, underwriting the dogs’ medical and food costs for the...
