I have loved dogs since I was a very young. I begged my parents for a dog for years as a kid and they finally caved and we introduced Lucky into our lives. We had a wonderful 15 years with our little Lucki and she taught me so many lessons as I was growing up. I finished college and moved to DC on my own. I gave myself a few years to settle into my life, but in 2013, I knew I needed a dog to bring that extra bit of happiness into my life. That is when I discovered Lucky Dog.

On September 29, 2013, after attending several adoption events, I adopted Callie (formerly Cordova) from Lucky Dog. She has brought nothing but joy into my life. I love the saying "who saved who" because it is so true. Callie really does bring out the best in me. She is also a great runner, hiker and companion. After a year of settling in with her, I decided that I needed to give back to Lucky Dog and ensure other dogs are able to end up with loving families.

My life is a little chaotic schedule-wise so I helped where I could. I started by handling dogs at the events on the weekend. My weekends started to become to become too busy to help at events, so I looked for other opportunities to help. I volunteered to do home visits, which are an essential step to allowing adopters to bring home a dog or cat. I was able to schedule these around my life and it still helped dogs and cats get to their final home. I baked sweets for day-long adoption events even if I couldn't make the event. Finally, I started to help with data imput. Again, this was something I could do around my schedule and normally from my house. I overnight foster occasionally, but my schedule usuallly limits me on this.

Most people think that you need to be at all of the events, fostering, or being an adoption coordinator to contribute to Lucky Dog's mission. That is not true at all. There are so many roles and opportunities to help out no matter what your schedule looks like. Just reach out to Lucky Dog at [email protected] and ask how you can help. Every little bit helps to get more dogs and cats into loving homes and our team is great about working with your schedule to figure out the best fit for you.