What inspired you to start Friends of the Fairfax County Animal Shelter back in 2005? 

Karen Diviney, former Shelter Director, and I worked together at the County of Fairfax Department of Human Resources. We met in 1990 and became friends while working on the installation of a new HR system. We were passionate about animals and we were thrilled when she became the Animal Shelter Director.

Unfortunately, the shelter was in dismal shape, and she learned that she only had $10,000 in discretionary funds to be used to help pets who needed urgent medical care and for operational expenses such as training and staff development. At the time, the live release rate was 46%.

She contacted me to get together to discuss the shelter. We met on a Sunday afternoon along with her Outreach Manager, and she discussed the idea of starting a fundraising group to improve the quality of life for pets who needed medical attention. The goal was to ensure that all treatable, healthy pets would get the care they needed to find their forever home.

I asked how I could help, and she asked if I would be the President. I indicated that I had never done anything like that in the past, but “sure,” I would do it—anything to help our little friends! The rest is history, as they say.

We had our first fundraiser at my community clubhouse, and we raised $10,000! Wow, we had already doubled the available funds to help shelter pets, and we were on our way.

Looking back over 20 years, what are you most proud of?

Now that is a tough one. I will start off by saying, “Never forget your mission.” We were started to take care of the pets who had no voice and wound up in the shelter. The mission could never have been accomplished without all of our generous donors.

I would have to add that we started with a simple mission—to provide medical care for all the pets that were surrendered to the shelter to help them become healthy, happy and adoptable. Over the years, that single mission grew from just medical to include dental, spay/neuter/vaccinations for community cats, parasite prevention for cats, dogs and rabbits and a collar, tag and leash for adopted cats and dogs.

Along the way, we started and funded several pilot programs that were added to the County operating budget. This year, we added spay/neuter for rabbits.

I will also add that the live release rate for shelter pets is now over 90%. This was achieved with the help of the excellent Friends and shelter team, the veterinary staff and the funding we are able to provide from our thoughtful donors for the care of shelter pets.

What is one story you always share when people ask about the work Friends does?

Now that really is a tough one. There are so many, but this one is always so touching. One Friday evening, a resident brought in a 9-month-old Cairn Terrier who had swallowed a rock. She wanted to surrender him to be euthanized as she couldn’t afford the surgery or the subsequent care he was going to need.

Karen, the Shelter Director, happened to be at the shelter that night and chatted with the woman about Friends of the Fairfax County Animal Shelter, and that she thought we would be able to pay for his surgery and the shelter could get him rehomed. We all agreed to the request, and he went into surgery that evening.

A few days later, Karen called me and mentioned that the little dog we saved needed a foster home and asked if I would take care of him. I went to meet him; they told me to try to keep him calm. That wasn’t going to happen—he was bouncing all over the room! I thought, dang, my husband is going to wonder what the heck we got ourselves into.

Well, of course, we fell in love with him. We became foster failures and named him Eddie, after Crazy Eddie’s—a store now long out of business in NY—because he was a lovable, wild terrier, and he became my wingman and our mascot.