NOT YOU’RE ‘RUN OF THE MILL’ ANIMAL SHELTER

I am going to make a huge confession today; I read People Magazine each week.

It is the junk I thumb through to keep abreast of what is going on out there in the world.  Otherwise, my single-minded focus on helping people in conflict about animals would make for pretty short conversations at Holiday Cocktail parties.  I like to be up on recent, deaths, divorces and dresses!

Yet, in the November 19^th People Magazine on page 86, the People - Hero Among Us section spoke about a subject near and dear to my heart, Puppy-mill puppies.  A woman named Theresa Strader, founder of the nonprofit National Mill Dog Rescue in Colorado, was named this months Hero for her work rescuing puppy mill dogs.  People Magazine writer Sydney Berger submitted the piece.  It outlines Strader’s work on behalf of animals, Strader describes as,”liv(ing) in cages, frantic…who never felt sunshine.”

The article follows Theresa’s journey to her first puppy mill auction, where she was intending to pick up only 2-3 dogs; she returned with 13, to her creation of National Mill Dog Rescue.  Since 2007, when she opened NMDR, she has housed, rehabilitated or found homes for more than 6800 dogs of all shapes sizes and breeds.

The article interviewed a woman who had adopted a dog from Theresa. She spoke of Theresa as woman well known in the animal lovers world for her work saving puppy mill puppies and dogs; all of them not just the cherry picked ones.  I confess, I didn’t know about Theresa before the article in People, but I do now. 

This is why I am writing this blog today. I wanted to fill all of you, my blog readers, in on this wonderful woman, in the event you are not People readers.   In a world where so many are in conflict over animals, this woman is quietly making a difference and working to end abuse of animals in puppy mills in her own way.

I also realized, after reading this article in People Magazine, that maybe a topic I felt might not be food for Holiday conversation is appropriate after all. If People Magazine recognizes the value in continuing a dialogue about conflicts between people over animals, maybe my talking points will be a welcomed change to death divorce and dresses.

We are about to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We are thankful for all the good things we have received this year and for all the changes we have made to bring change in others and our lives. In my field, helping people in conflict about an animal resolve that conflict is something interesting to speak about at a Holiday gathering.  Actually, people may need to engage in this kind of conversation so they too can find a way, like Theresa, to make a difference for animals in their lives and beyond.

From my home to yours, Happy Thanksgiving, and may all your relationships around pets be conflict free this year.

—Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton