Chicago Wolves’ Courtney Mahoney on Adopt-a-Dog Nights, Community Giving, and Women in Hockey Ops

Host Julie Marty Pearson welcomes Courtney Mahoney, Chicago Wolves president of operations, to discuss how she rose from a college intern with no hockey background to overseeing multiple departments by saying yes to new responsibilities across game ops, community work, creative, TV, and merchandise. Courtney shares the Wolves’ long-running commitment to Chicagoland giving—especially their monthly Adopt-a-Dog game nights with Border Tails Rescue and Right Way Rescue, where fans can meet dogs in the arena and adopt on the spot, contributing to over 1,900 adoptions and strong retention. She also highlights additional animal-focused efforts like pet health fairs offering free vaccines in underprivileged communities and volunteer shelter support. The conversation also covers Courtney’s experience as a woman in hockey operations, the importance of growing women’s leadership, and practical ways listeners can support nonprofits with time, talent, or treasure.

01:12 Courtney Career Journey
02:51 Rising Through Roles
04:36 Passion Projects and Real Work
06:29 Adopt a Dog Nights
09:11 Beyond Adoption Giving Back
11:47 Personal Pets and Loss
13:34 Women Leading in Hockey
17:11 Community First Leadership
17:28 Women In Sports Careers
19:53 Trust Your Gut
20:45 Ditch The Shoulds
21:59 Giving Back Through Work
25:24 Shelter Reality And Support
27:27 Game Day Dog Adoptions

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Pet Protect and Connect: Using AI to Simplify Pet Adoption for Shelters, Rescues and Adopters

Host Julie Marty Pearson welcomes Liz Adams to The Story of My Pet podcast to discuss Liz’s longtime background in animal rescue and her career in healthcare technology and communications, which inspired her to create Pet Protect and Connect. Liz explains how shelters and rescues often lack time and modern tools, and how difficult or inconsistent adoption processes can deter good adopters while still risking poor matches and returns.

Her platform, Pet Protect and Connect, focuses first on helping rescues by organizing and ranking applications using weighted criteria and an AI-driven learning component that highlights top positives/negatives and produces match scores, while keeping humans in control of final decisions. The tool can also help adopters by auto-populating repeat applications via a plugin and keeping qualified adopters in the system for future matches. Listeners can learn more or request demos on the Pet Protect and Connect Website or via the app and website waitlist. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram. You can also learn more about Kenway's Cause in Hartford, CT via their Website and Facebook Page.

00:31 Liz Pet Background
02:28 Tech Career Journey
04:40 Rescue Epiphany Moment
07:04 Why Shelters Need Tech
11:21 Fixing Adoption Barriers
15:26 AI Matching Platform
19:50 Adopter Experience Tools
27:36 Education and Badges Idea
29:17 How Rescues Get Started
31:49 How Adopters Join In

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Pawsitive Change Non-Profit: Safer Cleaning and Biosecurity Kits Helping Animal Shelters Fight Outbreaks

In this episode of The Story of My Pet, host Julie Marty-Pearson interviews Keri Lestage, Adrian Fulle, and Zach O'Shea, animal lovers working in human health, They discuss Pawsitive Change, a volunteer-driven initiative donating biosecurity kits to U.S. shelters to improve cleanliness, reduce disease spread, and save lives during overcrowding. They discuss how shelters spend enormous time disinfecting and how common chemicals like bleach can poison the air, require long reentry times, and leave harmful residues on surfaces animals may lick.

Pawsitive Change provides EPA-approved, pet-safe disinfectant (Clean Republic), process guidance, and electrostatic sprayers that disinfect complex spaces faster and can help address airborne viruses like parvo and kennel cough; they also mention a surface barrier product (ArmRex) that inhibits microbial growth for up to 60 days. The team shares that they’ve reached hundreds of shelters, partnered with Merck Animal Health, and invites donations and local advocates via positivechange.org. To learn more about Pawsitive Change visit their Website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

00:33 Adrian Pet Journey
02:17 Carrie Dogs To Cats
03:12 Zach Reptiles And Foster
04:34 Shelter Overcrowding Reality
06:35 Biosecurity Kit Origin
08:29 Toxic Cleaners Problem
12:07 Electrostatic Sprayer Explained
14:22 Different Shelter Layouts
16:25 Behavior Change Roadblocks
17:24 Politics Staffing Disasters
19:07 Home Disinfectant Teaser
19:34 Safer Shelter Disinfectant
20:15 Food Surface Rinse Myth
22:19 Pets Super Senses
24:38 Airborne Virus Control
27:20 Arm Rex Barrier Coating
28:48 Donate and Ambassador Program
30:29 Grassroots Shelter Outreach
32:44 Trust and No Strings

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From Shelter Work to Nomad Life: Katherine Lacefield on Rescue, Fundraising, and Ending Judgment in Animal Welfare

In this episode of The Story of My Pet podcast, host Julie Marty-Pearson is joined by Katherine Lacefield who shares how early involvement in environmental and animal rights movements led her into shelter work, fostering, and the realities of overcrowding and euthanasia. Now living a highly nomadic life, she explains why she delayed getting pets, then расскаnts how she welcomed a healthy French Bulldog, Chaco, and later rescued Mr. Pickles—a severely neglected stray in Mexico who needed extensive treatment and ultimately became family.

Katherine also discusses the complexity of moving pets across countries and how animal welfare intersects with human issues like domestic violence, addiction recovery, homelessness, and immigration. As a fundraising consultant, she explains why she focuses on building nonprofit fundraising capacity, and she urges more gratitude, monthly giving, fostering, adopting, and less judgment and infighting in the animal welfare community. To learn more about Katherine, check out her Website and Follow on Facebook and Instagram. You can also learn more about these animal rescue organizations: Animals Need Me and SOS Animal Rescue.

00:40 Early Animal Experiences
01:30 Shelter Work and Fostering
04:12 Nomadic Life and Pets
05:41 Rescuing Mr Pickles
08:14 Traveling With Dogs
10:39 Fundraising Consulting Mission
13:40 Why She Started a Podcast
18:57 Animals and Human Issues Intersect
22:25 How to Help Locally

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Senior Dogs Deserve Love: Adopting, Caring for, and Advocating for Older Pets with Angela Dinsmoor.

Host Julie Marty Pearson welcomes Angela Dinsmoor to discuss senior pets, sharing Julie’s experience caring for her 16-year-old diabetic cat and Angela’s lifelong love of animals and rescue work. Angela explains why she and her husband adopt—not foster—senior dogs, noting their six senior adoptions (nine dogs total) ranging from about 8 to 16 years old, and describing how some seniors are with them briefly while others live many more years than expected. They explore common reasons senior dogs end up in shelters, especially when owners die or can no longer care for them, as well as financial strain and misconceptions that seniors are “boring,” emphasizing the importance of legacy planning.

Angela offers practical tips for welcoming seniors (stair safety, traction for slippery floors, routine, incontinence expectations, and slow assessment) and highlights how volunteering and “doggie day out” programs boost adoptability. She also shares her work through Grey Whiskers, providing in-home geriatric grooming in Denver, a biweekly newsletter, a community for senior pet support, and a certification program to train groomers in senior dog care. To learn more about Angela Dinsmoor, checkout her Website and Follow on Facebook and Instagram.

00:41 Growing Up With Pets
01:49 Soul Pets and Connection
03:08 Why Adopt Seniors
05:15 Journey Into Senior Dogs
06:31 Celebrating Aging Pets
07:45 How Their Rescue Works
09:00 Why Seniors End Up Shelters
12:56 Lessons From Senior Dogs
15:32 Rose Story and Forgiveness
17:55 Preparing Your Home
20:34 Helping Them Adjust
21:58 Senior Routine Benefits
24:25 Pet Proofing Home
25:36 Joy of Senior Rescue
26:36 Volunteer Impact Boost
28:25 Doggy Day Out Tips
29:32 Grey Whiskers Mission
32:33 Grooming for Mobility
34:50 Grooming as Health Sign

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Dogs Have Angels Too: Your Host Julie Marty-Pearson, interviews Sarah Cavallaro on Healing, Storytelling, and Dog Adoption Advocacy

In this episode of The Story of My Pet podcast, Sarah shares how she became an animal lover after growing up without pets, including the childhood loss of a rescued kitten and later adopting a puppy, Athena, while in college and bringing her to New York City. Athena’s ongoing bladder issues and their bond became the inspiration for Sarah’s book Dogs Have Angels Too, which explores when people surrender pets and the responsibility of caring for them.

Sarah discusses her path from running Emerald Films, a Fortune 500 commercial production company, to returning to writing as a healing, transformative process, creating characters like Ms. Pink—a woman devastated by job loss and a Ponzi-scheme collapse who finds purpose helping homeless dogs. Sarah hopes to adapt the story into a scripted TV series that promotes dog adoption and animal welfare education, and she highlights organizations supporting pets of unhoused people and keeping pets with families facing financial hardship.

To learn more about Sarah, checkout her Website and Follow on Instagram.

01:33 Rescuing Athena
03:31 Athena Inspires Fiction
05:02 From Producer to Author
06:04 Writing Through Change
07:25 Storytelling and Healing
10:18 Authenticity and Purpose
11:50 From Play to Novel
13:07 Ms Pink Hits Bottom
15:48 Meaning in Helping Dogs
16:49 Host Finds New Path
17:59 Rebuilding After Loss
19:05 Park Scene and Empathy
20:28 Unexpected Collaborations
21:23 TV Series Vision
22:20 Rescue Programs That Work
23:20 Exposing Puppy Mills and Testing
25:15 Making Episodes With Purpose
28:01 Helping Pets of the Homeless
30:58 Keeping Families Together
32:46 How You Can Help Today

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Legacy of Ebenezer the Donkey. How One Animal Became a Local Community Legend

In this episode of The Story of My Pet podcast, Julie Marty-Pearson interviews Joe Dimino about his lifelong love of animals and the remarkable community bond formed around Ebenezer, a donkey in a roadside pasture near Grandview, Missouri. Joe shares how he and his son Miles (on the spectrum) regularly visited Ebenezer with carrots, how the donkey’s loud bray and friendly personality drew countless neighbors to stop and connect, and how Joe’s local newspaper feature and online videos helped spread Ebenezer’s story. As Ebenezer aged and became ill, caregivers Randy and Shirley Phillips played a major role in supporting his care, including a stay at a horse hospital, and the community rallied with bumper stickers, memorial tributes, and even a parade float after his sudden death in 2010. Joe later created a digital book and website so Ebenezer’s legacy—and the relationships he sparked—could live on.

To learn more about Ebenezer the Donkey, visit the Website

Joe Dimino has been writing & creating in a variety of capacities since his college days at the University of Missouri-Kansas City somewhere around 1993. If you are keeping score, that would be about 29 years+. It all began at UMKCs University News as a Sports Writer & turned into a myriad of expressive avenues. Inventing poems, art, video & audio has always been in the proverbial cards. Follow Joe on Instagram and Facebook.

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Kristin on Animal Communication, Shelter Stress, and Seeing Animals for Who They Are

Host Julie Marty Pearson welcomes Kristin Hadley to The Story of My Pet to discuss Kristin’s lifelong love of animals, beginning with her first horse Snowbird, and her path to becoming a professional animal communicator. Kristen describes telepathy as a learnable, two-way language that helps animals and people understand needs, emotions, behavior, and wellness issues, and she shares how her background in speech language pathology and a message from her horse Woody led her to teach and consult professionally. They talk about shelter and foster stress, decompression time, breed bias, projections, and the importance of neutrality, clarity, and respect for animals’ boundaries. Kristin shares a foster case where understanding a dog’s purpose transformed behavior and highlights Akron Rescue Cats and Buddy’s Second Chance Rescue, which matched her with her dog Fisher.

To learn more about Kristin, visit her Website Follow on Facebook & Instagram

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