 Oh! Not the spot! Oh my gosh. You're insane. How did you end up at HSCC? Have you always worked with animals? Um, no. So I moved here probably three years ago from New York City where I actually worked in production on Broadway. So it was a pretty, it's much different than what I did for most of my life. I went to college for theater, I went to high school for theater. But then once COVID hit, obviously the theater industry and Broadway shut down. And me and my partner, who was also worked on Broadway at the same time, moved up here to be with family. And we kind of, I jumped around into a couple different jobs for a while. And then I found the customer care associate position about a year ago. And I don't think that I will ever do anything else. I probably will work with animals for the rest of my life. I've never really been in a job or a position where I've ever felt so fulfilled and driven every single day. And like actually feels like I'm making like, like hands on the ground, boots on the ground, like difference with our community, which is really special. That's awesome. We've got to go to theater. Yeah. We've got to study theater. I went to college in, I'm originally from Ohio. So I went to Kent State University for college. And then I went to Performing Arts High School in Cincinnati for high school. Oh, very cool. Yeah. You were all in for a while. I was all in. It was pretty much like everything that I was going to be doing was like directing and producing. But honestly, as successful as I was, I have never been like as happy as I have been working here and being with the animals, which sounds so cheesy, but it's like so true. Yeah. It was a very different kind of direction, but it kind of made, it made a lot of sense. That's awesome. Yeah. I love that for you. What is your role here and what are your daily tasks? Yeah. So I'm a customer care associate. So I work with our community members and I do adoption counsellings. I do animal care, social media, enrichment, medication, pretty much what everyone needs me to do. We all kind of pitch in and do everything around here for each other, which is awesome. So daily tasks really are just like cleanings. If like morning animal care volunteers need help, we'll jump in and clean cat enclosures or dog enclosures, take dogs out on walks, answer emails, phone calls, all of that really boring stuff. And then in the afternoon when our lobby and our adoption floor is open, I'll do counsellings, which basically means just like going over behavioral and medical information for our friends here, answering any questions about care from our community members, helping people find like the right dogs, things like that. So it's much more, the second half of my day is much more community facing and working at SON. Wow. Yes. I love that. That's a good segue too. So what is community? Like how would you define it? Yeah, it is a big question, but it's something that I am, I think we all are really passionate about here. I think community is just anyone who is willing to help, anyone who is willing to lean on each other and ask for help and offer help, our community here in like the Chittenden County, Grand Isle County area are amazing. They are selfless and strong and it's been such a pleasure to work with them this past year and moving forward everyone is just, I don't know, just always willing to help even when it means bringing us a stray cat that is someone's outside cat. It always is just out of the goodness of people's hearts, which is really, really special and I think that's something that's definitely unique to this area. Yeah, animals really bring it out of people. Yeah, they really do. It's kind of crazy. We work with, I mean not crazy, but we work with a lot of shelters down south because their populations are so large and their animal shelters and here up in Vermont sometimes it's difficult for us to even keep cats on the adoption floor because they just fly out of here, which is really amazing. It also gives us the opportunity to work with those shelters who do have that over population and really lend a hand and help those guys spend homes just a little bit quicker. That's great. Yeah, a lot of my pets have been rescued from the cell. Yeah, it's amazing. It really is. It just goes to show that asking for help is never a bad thing. You kind of answered this a little bit already, but what does HSCC add to the community? Yeah. I think we add a really wonderful resource to our community. Not only do we have our shelter here that works hands-on and like surrender prevention, helping people keep their animals with things like our free food shelf and like our community pet clinic, which honestly has some of the most accessible pricing and any vet I really have ever seen. Even our own staff members will go there because you cannot beat the pricing or our vets. I mean, they're absolutely top-notch. Our veterinarian, Carrie, literally does the like most tiny sutures. It's like you can't even see it for like spam neuter incisions. She's brilliant. She literally did a mass removal on a rat this earlier this week and this rat, you know, it's like this big and the mass that came out of it was ginormous. But the rat, you know, which some people probably wouldn't take the risk or the time, but she did. And like the rats doing so well. Like we check on her every day. Her incision is amazing. But regardless of that, I think that HSCC just provides like a lot of resources and education. And like especially with our programs, we, I think that we really do help save a lot of lives, both human and animal, which is like the most important thing. I'm just going to make sure everything's still moving. Sorry, I'm like moving around a little bit. You're totally fine. I have it on like the autofocus setting. Oh, great. What do you enjoy outside of work? Hanging out with my own animals. I love, you know, going back to the community. I am, you know, I lean a lot on my own support system to kind of help with everything that I do here. So it's, you know, I hang out with friends and my partner and our own animals. I love to cook. So I love like going home and like just like kind of doing something with my hands where I don't have to think about it. Like hiking and camping, which I also do with my coworkers. Some time, like a couple of weeks ago, we all took a camping trip like literally in the middle of the week and we all rolled through the next day and we're so tired, but we had so much fun. Yeah, just really being outside and just like being in nature and enjoying the world. That's great. What do you have for pets? I have one dog and three cats, two of which are from here. My first rescue was this 12 year old senior lady who was really, really crabby and like no one could touch her for like her first week here. But I like went down to her enclosure every day and I like worked with her. And now she is like the most social friendly, like lovely lady in the world. Yes, I love her very much. What are your pets' names? Rudy is my dog and then Salem, Philly Cheesesteak and Zephyr are my cats. Those are great news. Is Salem a black cat? No, she's like a tortoise, like Persian mix thing. She's squishy. I love that. I was going to ask if she was named after Salem from Supreme and the Teenage Blades, but just coincidence? Just coincidence. She was me and my partner's first cat a very long time ago and he named her. And it just, it just stuck. But everyone does ask if she was a black cat. I used to love that show. Yeah. This is one of the questions that I'm personally most curious about is how do you balance the emotional toll that working with animals can take, especially animals that are like looking for homes? It's really hard. It takes a lot of like transparency and like honesty. Like I said, I lean on my own support system which includes people outside of work and inside of work quite often. You know, it's so amazing being able to come here every day and like snuggle the cats and the dogs. It does, it takes a lot of energy and emotions because we are all so deeply passionate here. So I am always asking for help. I come home after a bad day and I'm like I need to go take a walk. I need to make dinner. Like I just need to do something to get myself out of my head and into my body and just kind of wipe my feet at the door in terms of what happened that day. Of course, it's really difficult to kind of explain everything that we go through here to people who don't go through it also, which is why our own like staff is a part of my community because we are just like so understanding that we have bad days. We have really hard tough days and no one else is really going to understand that quite like one another. So you know, sometimes we'll go out and have a beer or go out to like the beach and just like hang out and just like talk it out because like while you know during the day like during while we're here we can operate and keep going and do our daily tasks but it's when you kind of sit at home and like you think about it that it really does stick with you. Which is honestly kind of why I love everyone who I work with because whether it's like our like bosses or like even our CEO constantly checks in on us just to be like are you okay? Do you need anything? Is there anything I can do for you? It's just like those basic questions and just really giving people space to process and like verbalize that you know, no, I'm not okay and the response to that is okay, why don't you go home? And so it's very understanding. So it's hard but it's honestly worth it. That's awesome. Yeah, that was like one of my biggest questions because I feel like a lot of people who are animal lovers including me might like shy away from that kind of work or like volunteering because it's like so emotional you want to take every animal home like it's so I mean like I'm the person that's going through TikTok and every time I see a shelter video I'm like In tears, yes! But like it's a really good point that like it is worth it. Yeah, it really is worth it and like while you know it's not for everyone I mean you know it's heartbreaking. It really can be. We do a lot of medical and behavioral rehabilitation here and the risk of that is that sometimes that rehabilitation work doesn't work out and we do you know have to like think about their quality of life and what's going to be the most comfortable for them and that's really difficult especially when you're medicating these animals every single day and are rooting for them but you do you do have to kind of take a step back and think okay like while we are medicating them we are saving them what is their outlook going to be after this are they going to be comfortable are they going to be able to you know be happy and enjoy what life they have left and I think that honestly sometimes it's a gift being able to give them that relief. Oh I live! She's like enough of this. She's like what are you talking about? She was looking at you for a second before she jumped down. Oh she's so cute. Yeah those are all really great points. Tell me a bit about some of the services and programs you guys offer especially those that target like underserved populations that you mentioned. Yes I love our programs and services. I was going through the website and there was like so many. There's so many. Yeah it's really you know going back to that question about community it's something that we so our programs and services include everything from a food shelf that's here on our shelter that has free food supplies gear everything from like pee pads to like pet shampoo treats harnesses and leashes even like small supplies then we'll have we have a temporary boarding program that works with people who are currently going through crisis such as either being unhoused or fleeing a domestic violence situation. We work with their case worker to determine length of stay and a plan for after their stay here at the shelter and we'll house them, we'll love on them, we'll care for them. That does include medical treatment as well so updates on vaccines, spaying and neutering for free all of that good stuff. Sometimes the animals will stay with us but it is always you know an honor to be able to care for people's animals who are suffering. We do a lot of surrender prevention so what that means is you know obviously when people can no longer care for their animals or if they are struggling themselves we will take their animals in and are so grateful that they can trust us. It really is one of the most selfless choices that people can make is putting their animals care into complete strangers and trusting that we are going to love them which we absolutely do. So and you know part of that is working to kind of prevent that surrender so we have our community pet clinic which like I said offers really great pricing and services as a free shelf. We have a couple of like financial surrender preventions that if people are seen through our pet clinic and require a certain amount of surgery. Thank you. She's like I'm just going for it. Sorry move too fast. Move too quick. If people so yeah so we can cover a certain part of their financial aspect in terms of like if it needs surgery or just medication. We also have a community like pharmacy that people can access to for like different kinds of medications and prescription food. It's all just really really great. We work with you know so many different housing authorities and community services that honestly I really do feel like we are a community service and a part of like that social working community to help everyone who is struggling. As I am sure you know the housing crisis right now in the area is absolutely abhorrent. We are taking in emergency animals where landlords are pretty much giving our community members less than 24 hours and we are frustrated and are trying our best you know we understand that everyone you know is doing is also doing their best but it's it's pretty heartbreaking that's where most of our owner relinquishments come from is housing issues. I wish I was more surprised. Yeah I mean honestly I wish that more people were more surprised but it's it's just heartbreaking and people who love their animals so so much have to choose between housing and their animals often losing both. So yeah so really anything that we can do we kind of like go through a roster of what do you need how can we help pretty much anything that we can do to keep your animals with you because really a happy like community really is like happy animals and it's really important you're drooling. I think she's enjoying. She is. She loves it. I love it. Yes you good girl. I love her paws too. So good you're good. Yeah you're a little fluffy posh. So you said you're involved in social media too so how do you guys use social media to make connections and benefit? Yeah so obviously social media is a really great tool for reuniting like lost pets with their owners like I said strays that are outside cats. Social media is a really wonderful tool to help reunite lost animals with their owners so we always you know refer to like lost and found animals of Vermont's Facebook page from porch forum we post pictures of stray animals on our own website you know just kind of hoping to get the word out and helping people like you know realize that I went who has their animals things like that so that's a really big part we also really use social media I think to kind of be tongue-in-cheek about some of our more challenging friends in terms of placements we will make really really silly reels to kind of highlight their quirks in a more positive and understanding way such as if friends need to be like the only animal in the home will be very honest and understanding and being like this is like a friend that needs to be the king of his own castle like he does not want to share you with anybody and we kind of use that language to be like you know not everyone not every one of our friends is going to be the easiest placement but we really kind of lean into that kind of campy cheeky aspect of social media that's great yeah my dog is a reactive dog and like no one can come in our house but it's like if we don't have him like no one else exactly and he's a seizure dog he has it all right but it's like if you can give them the home yeah most of them aren't easy no most of them aren't easy and I think that's also a really awesome thing that we do on social media is provide that educational aspect in a way that's not scary so like you know talking to people about reactive dogs and being and like you know how trendy off leash can be but how dangerous it really can be and kind of spinning that in a very positive way like yes those Instagram pictures look so good of your dog at the top of that mountain but think about a friend who's enjoying his hike with his human who just wants to be alone and having an off leash dog approach him that's going to ruin his whole day and kind of using that narrative of reframing people's perspectives and understanding of things like that to a much more community based thinking so yeah so I think it's we're pretty we're pretty unhinged all of the staff has access to the Instagram stories so they are we are we have fun with the Instagram stories but I mean people will come in I mean one of our volunteers adopted a cat because of this really funny picture that I took of him and I put it on our Instagram story and he was like that picture was so silly like his legs look so small I had like my wife was like you need to come like I need to come meet this cat I was like yes um you know it's it makes everything a little bit more enjoyable and lighter in terms of like thinking about sheltering and things like that yeah that's great yeah Instagram is great I think that is before unhinged and I'm also able to connect with you guys oh my gosh yes it's it's such a great and like direct access to us like people can send us questions ask us like whatever they have like anything like that send pictures and updates um yeah it's an amazing tool just to connect a little bit more intimately and allows people to just like ask questions and get a touch with us awesome yeah I love that I love just having a day oh my god she's like I gotta get my belly now okay um you cover this a little bit you've covered a lot of my questions but what is the value of accessible pet education um it's everything um it kind of like I said having access to animal welfare education means that our community is happier and healthier along with the animals that they have um we a part of our counseling sessions um when we kind of go over that behavioral medical information is how we take care of our friends here and just educating um people on practices things that um we def like things that we don't recommend or encourage um that can sometimes be a little bit touchy or um you know faux pas but we always want to um never lead with judgment always lead with understanding um and just really creating that open line of communication um just because things change you know um when I was growing up everyone deflawed their cats um now you would be hard pressed to find a vet that would do that um and it has nothing to do with people wanting to harm their animals um it just has everything to do with understanding what that practice does to those animals um so um so it's kind of just really like I said not judging just understanding um and just trying to offer better options um and work with our community who's like well I you know I love my furniture and that is behind I love my furniture too let's talk about cat scratchers let's talk about um nail cats let's talk about bringing your cat to the vet every week to get or our community pet clinics to get their nails trimmed for ten dollars like let's do that let's talk through these options instead of us being like no you can't take this cat home because really we think that if anyone wants an animal and wants to care for an animal they should be able to um and that's you know again what our programs and services offer um that food those um gear things like that just really making sure that people can care for their animals amazing yeah couch covers couch covers love it my family has so many couch so many couch covers you can get I'm sorry you can get like um like couch like adhesive scratchers oh that's good I know exactly it's there's so many different options and like that's really what we're here to like go through never to like shame or judge or anything like that um so yeah um so it's tecla right here yes perfect and what pronouns do you use uh she they okay perfect um who is tecla how do you define yourself oh I knew this question was coming I really hate it um I don't know passionate people always have such an easy time talking about like the organization they're part of themselves and they're like yes like I could talk about I do I talk about like the shelter to anyone who will listen when I'm not here and then you ask me that question I'm like I don't know um I um I guess tecla is um passionate sometimes to a fault um my passion can get a hold of me um and I can get a little too passionate about things um but really I think that I am just a person who cares um about our community and about our community's animals um and I was tired of not making a difference um and I wanted to actually help and see that change in the world um um so I guess that I am just an animal lover with not a lot else to do um I don't know I don't know I guess that's I I really guess I just define myself with my work here and my passion for our community um and like every aspect of just wanting to help um don't get me started um uh some of the other topics that are inflicting our community right now but it's but it is it's just a lot of passion and a lot of caring well that's a great answer because you are so scared it's a great answer I was nervous Olive I was nervous just like don't worry um what's most important to you like in general like to me like to you that's another um I think you have answered this a little bit yeah I mean I guess like what's what's most important to me really is like a happy and healthy community and world and um that everyone just really treats each other with kindness and empathy and understanding um I think that you know a lot of people come to us um not really knowing what they want or what they need and sometimes that really is just having someone listen to them um and if I can do that that's great if they need something else I'm gonna try to do whatever I can so I guess that really is it really is just like helping um as much as we can I'm just trying to be like open and understanding and just non-judgmental a safe place to land I guess yeah that's great it intertwines a lot with how you define yourself oh yep what do you most want other people to know and understand about you and about HSCC they give me two separate answers one whatever it works for yeah I'll stick to the what people want to know about HSCC um no um I mean I think with like anyone who works in animal welfare we really just want people to kind of like understand that it's a community effort and we have to do it all together um and that you know we do see a lot of really really difficult things situations events um outcomes but we still show up every day um we're still here um and we want to still be here for our community for everyone to you know come and say hello even if it's just walking through the lobby I mean we have regulars that will literally just bring the staff snacks and take a walk through the lobby her name is Emma Sarge and she is amazing you do not have to use her name but Snack Fairy keeps us going and she's just someone who is always just like how are you guys and we're like we're good kind of you know what actually we're okay we're okay it's the end of the day we're ready to go home but um but we really are I mean we show up every day and like if you need us we're there um and I guess that is something about myself as well is just like always being there to help um or just listen really is there anything else you'd like to add that I didn't ask about that you feel like is important no or you wanted to talk about yes actually yes I do um so um all of our food here at the shelter is donated um every single thing that we feed our animals with and pretty much use is donated um so if there is like you know that half empty bag of cat food like bring it to us if we can't use it we can give it to our community um that goes with like pretty much any kind of other pet supplies um towels dish or like old dishes linens things like that um we can always use um you can always give us a call if you don't know um but we are always open for donations um if not just for us for our community as well um it was pretty impactful after the flood actually people were calling us and saying hey I don't know how I can help but can I bring you guys a bag of dog food and we were like yep it's gonna go right onto the food shelf um it was yeah I think it was amazing um again really just highlighting how essential our community is and really not isolating ourselves um but yes that is something that I wanted that's awesome that it's a full circle yes yes it really is cause we literally wouldn't be able to function without our community and without their selflessness um both with our animal population and our donations so it's just we feel very very lucky that people trust us so much um and we definitely like to you know prove to them that it's for a good reason and were there any upcoming like community events you wanted to plug? yeah so um we just won best on profit that's how I found you guys actually second year in a row yes I went through when I was looking for like people I was like who do I interview like what's the best way to like expand like people I already like know of yes I went through all of like the winners from last year on donations for this year so it feels really appropriate that you guys won again we were so jazzed um of course every single non-profit to be nominated um with is amazing and you know sometimes at the end of the day we feel a little bit silly um to be a winner but we really are so excited so we are celebrating as a staff tonight at the 7 days parties um not like this won't go out before then maybe I will but whatever um and then we do have um a community event that is summer specific uh for beer lovers and dog lovers um it's called Bark and Brew um and it's on every I don't think it's every other Thursday but on selective Thursdays throughout the summer um we have our big dog player open for all of our community members um we have beer and food and community gatherings um it's one of the staff's most favorite events um it's wonderful um it's really really good so we do have that which we would love to see people at um even if you don't have a dog you can just come out and hang out with dogs and see some friends but yeah well thank you so much for talking to me and giving me your time it was really nice to talk to you you're so like lovely and amazing I don't know who I was talking to before I got here today but Jenna knew what she was doing yes she does um yes I have a very extensive theater background so we um I do the new segment actually for WCAX like pets with potential every Friday and so Jenna was like no absolutely um yeah I mean thank you so much for even thinking of us we love we love what we do