Introduction

Hi my name is Kelly. My parent’s first children were their dogs Rufus, Nikki, and Toby. Then I was born, partly raised by human parents and partly raised by the dogs. When I was six we got another dog, Skipper, who became “my” dog. He quickly became my best friend. Moving around a lot as a kid made it hard to make friends, but no matter where we moved I still had my dog with me. He died when I was 18. I have a tattoo of him on me.

Daisy

In my family we have always had at least three dogs at a time. Tina, Daisy, Rudy, and Bella came next. Then I went to college and got my dog I have now, Spooks. The dogs in the family always came first. They eat first, the get the most attention, and we can’t even leave them by themselves when we go on vacation. They always come with.

The day we got Spooks at the shelter

Tina

In High School I had a large pet sitting business. I looked after people’s dogs and cats while they were away. Every day before and after school and during lunch I went to take care of animals. I started volunteering at the San Antonio Humane Society. I was required to go a few hours a month for a school program I was in but found myself going much more than that and continuing to go when the program was over.

Rufus and Me

Somewhere in the transition from High School to College, I found that I had a different type of relationship with animals that I never realized before. Something different than my pets or the dogs I looked after at the shelter. I realized that I also had a relationship with the animals that I was eating and it wasn’t a good one. I quickly stopped that and became vegan when I got to college. I found myself with this need to learn more about the abuse of animals all over the world and an urge to try to do something about it. I joined a bunch of different animal rights groups and started going to protests and doing other things to try to bring about awareness. This is where I am now.