We love when Judy and Greg come. Judy and her kind heart always brings Sher homemade banana bread! And Greg scoops up our grouchy Happy and snuggles with him. Happy is in heaven!
Judy and Greg heard about House with a Heart over 10 years ago in a local paper. Judy cut out the article because she was so touched by the wonderful work HWAH does and Sher. Nine months later, their senior pup passed away. They had many medications and thought about donating them to HWAH. They came by with their donations and saw firsthand what an incredible place it is. They knew they both wanted to volunteer.
Here is their story:
My husband and I both grew up with dogs. Since being married, we had a senior Eskimo Spitz who my mother-in-law had adopted and adored. When my mother-in-law passed away, we immediately took her dog into our home. We were so thankful to have her with us. She developed diabetes and we never hesitated to take on the lifestyle change necessary with a diabetic dog. When she passed, we decided to donate her meds to House with a Heart. It was love at first sight. We were emotionally drained and not ready to adopt another dog at the time. We started to volunteer initially to fill our void of not having a dog around.
Our primary job is to take out and play with the visitor dogs. Then we spend quality time with Happy and Marco who I love to spend time with. I have also had other roles such as volunteering at some of the HWAH events, contacting media to do stories on HWAH such as The Today Show around 2010 and wrote some of the HWAH website content.
While volunteering, we met our second dog, Mikey, a Bichon Frise. At some point we let Sher know that we were beginning to look to adopt a dog. Sher saw the strong bond we had formed with Mikey and thought it would be a great match for us. So we decided to forever foster him. Sher was quite the matchmaker and we cannot ever thank her enough!! Mikey was the most incredible dog and gentle soul- – truly a gift. He made us smile every day and made everyone who knew him smile. He was with us for 5 ½ years before his kidneys gave out. We are so grateful for that time. On many nights after our bedtime walk, we can still remember sitting on the front steps with him looking out into the peaceful night sky, him enjoying the stars and quiet evening sounds — and we did too because of him. We will never forget Mikey’s wonderful personality, love, wagging tail or brown eyes. We still miss him so much!
We love the dogs – visitors and all of the residents – and have met so many wonderful volunteers. And then there is Sher – what an amazing person that is always giving – an angel! We also have met such wonderful volunteers that share a common bond – the love of dogs and appreciation for all that Sher and HWAH does. It is said by many but so true – we feel like we get more than we give from HWAH and all of the residents.
Thank you Judy and Greg!
