Interview with Skyla Spencer

Skyla Spencer is a country music artist & a new children's author!  She tells us how her love of animals started & about a couple of her current pets!

Animals have always been a huge part of my life.  I have always had a great respect and love for all of God’s creatures. I grew up in WV and had cats, dogs, horses, and a pet cow named Penny. Caring for animals came so easy to me. As a young child, maybe 6 or 7, I remember one time finding a small baby bunny in our back yard. It needed some TLC.  No mother was in sight and looked like it had been attacked by another animal. My dad and I fixed up a place for it in our basement and we kept it there for a few days until it regained it’s strength. Once it regained it’s strength, I set it free. I remember that day like it was yesterday. It took off and ran up the road. That was the first time I felt real sadness about parting with an animal. It broke my heart, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

Upon moving to Nashville a few years ago, I came with my two cats, Cotton and Chance. Both had brought me so much joy and I was so lucky to have them each for almost 15 years. Cotton was from a litter of cats we had, and Chance was a kitten given to me. They died a year apart. Cotton, who became diabetic as he got older, needed more care, and I learned a little more about the disease. I treated him with insulin shots for two years as prescribed by the vet. It was an adjustment in my life as I had to give him two injections a day. I planned this around my work schedule and cared for him and made him as comfortable as I could. After two years on insulin, he developed some other complications and had to have his gall bladder removed. He developed an infection that was resistent to antibiotics and took his life. I was truly heartbroken to loose him. He had been with me through so many things in life.
After the passing of Cotton, Chance seemed depressed a lot, and seemed like a different cat. I knew he was missing Cotton as they were always together. Chance developed cancer that year which took his life just a year later. I was holding him when he passed in my arms. One of the hardest things for me to do was to make the decision it was time to let him go. Everyone who loves animals and has pets know how hard it is to let go. They become a member of your family. I really wasn’t sure I wanted to even get another pet after Chance passed.

Pawl McCatney

Along Came Pawl McCatney and Princess Piper.This was two years ago. A friend of mine who lost her dog that was probably age 13 or 14 was taking good care of a stray cat in her neighborhood. She was trying to find a home for him. She loves animals, but never had a cat before and really wanted to get another dog at some point. I couldn’t take him in just yet, because Chance was dying and I knew it wasn’t the right time yet, and I wasn’t emotionally ready. She called him Pawl McCatney. A few weeks after Chance had passed I agreed to watch him for just the weekend, so I thought. I swore I didn’t want another pet and told her it was just for the weekend. The rest was history. As soon as I saw him I fell in love with him and agreed to take him if she wanted. She still comes and visits him sometimes. He is about age 8 and a large Maine Coon cat weighing probably 20 pounds. Some of his unique characteristics are: He loves to lay on your stomach, hates being outdoors, and loves music especially when I sing. He can be under the bed or anywhere in the house and as soon as I start singing he comes into the room. He is my number one fan.
I had Pawl for almost a year, but I still kind of wanted to get another cat or kitten. I heard through the same friend, that she had heard through the grapevine of someone that had a cat that needed a home. I went to check it out. They had a family and was really looking for someone to take good care of Piper.  They had several cats and a big dog roaming the back yard, and they were worried she may get hurt etc and really couldn’t keep her inside anymore.  She was this little teacup persian cat that weighed maybe 6 pounds. She was a cute tiny little thing. She looked like she could use some TLC so I just said I would take her. When I got her home she was covered in massive fleas. I bathed her and then a day later applied flea medicine and also took her to the vet. Needless to say, Pawl was furious about me bringing another cat home. It took him awhile to accept her, but eventually he warmed up to her, and liked me again. For a good month Piper would not leave her food. She would stay in the one room. I tried to get her to, but she was always afraid to leave her food. I think in the former environment she was living in she probably had some competition when it came to feeding time. After a month or so she figured it out that she was always going to have plenty to eat and started to venture into other areas of the house. Her and Pawl slowly became friends, and now love playing together. Some of Princess Piper’s characteristics are: She speaks loudly when she wants something, loves hanging out on the deck, and loves to cuddle on your shoulder.
No cats will replace Cotton and Chance, but I am so glad I decided to take these two in and give them a good home!

interview with Lucas Hoge

Country music artist Lucas Hoge answered some questions for Barking Stars about his work in the animal rescue world...and his response was so wonderful, that I'm simply posting his email!

My wife and I have fostered pets, both dogs and cats.  We tend to stop in the middle of the road when we see a stray, it's just a gut reaction.  We also started getting into personal relay transport many years ago. Meaning, if there was a pet that needs to get across the country and the owner couldn’t afford commercial transport, we would all get together and coordinate our efforts along the way to get the pet from state to state, until it was home. We haven’t been able to do any transporting lately, simply because of our busy schedule right now.  When my wife saw that Animal Planet was looking for a country singer for a pet rescue show (Last Chance Highway) she emailed them right away.  Laura is not only a wonderful wife, but an amazing manger.  The show was being produced by Al Roker, and once they found out I was a country singer that had really worked in animal rescue it seemed to be a perfect fit! I feel very blessed with the time I spent on the show and those dogs we got to save.

We started getting involved with Nashville Cat Rescue quite awhile ago.  My wife and enjoy helping out with the fostering.  We would have anywhere from 3 to 10 baby kittens at a time that all had to be bottle fed.  We would keep them for months at time until they were ready to be adopted out.  Nashville Cat Rescue works with Petsmart, so we get the kittens their shots, spayed and neutered, and then when they are old enough they go to Petsmart for adoption.  We have two cats of our own, both boys, who really seem to like little kittens much better than older cats.  We always took in the babies when I'm not touring because we can be home with them between 3 hour feedings.  We also have two small Chihuahua's that love kittens, so once they are old enough, we start socializing them with our older cats and our dogs, which then helps them in getting adopted and an easier transition into a home with other pets.

Some of the other pet organizations I work with are Guardian Angel for Soldiers Pets, which I am a spokesperson for.  The organization helps find foster homes for service men and women who get deployed and have no one at home to take care there pets.  We also are starting to work with Tennessee Death Row Dogs, a non-profit dog rescue in TN.

I became most active in the rescue world when I met my wife; she is so passionate about saving and helping out all animals and seeing her passion made me become passionate about it.

One of the first stories that got me more involved was, when my wife and I used to flip houses in east Nashville, and it seemed like there were so many dogs just running wild and seeing dogs chained up in back yards with no shelter, food or water. We got sick of it and started bringing the dogs food and building them dogs houses and in a few cases even taking the dogs home with us.

We also try and stay active on the legal side of things.  We went to Memphis when a bill was being passed for their mandatory spay and neuter law.  We drove down, stood with other animal lovers who saw that this would help, waiting our turn and spoke in front of the council in support of the bill.  It got passed that day, thanks to everyone who came out to support it!

We go thru petitions and keep up with our senators on what's coming up for animals that can benefit them, write letters in support or against laws and bills that effect the animals and their welfare.  I even chained myself to a dog house one day downtown in support of Dogs Deserve Better; they would love to see a no chain law passed, and so would I.

www.lucashoge.com

interview with Brix Nobody

1) You're known for your modeling / tattoos. Please give me some more background information for readers, especially as it pertains to your work with animals:

I grew up in Orlando, FL., so modeling is something that i have always done on some level. I started young doing print work for Disney and Universal Studios, then went on to fashion and runway then it evolved into tattoo modeling, for obvious reasons! I started getting tattooed at the age of 16 and started collecting them from there. Through traveling the tattoo convention circuit etc, I started ending up in tattoo magazines. Animal rescuing started for me at an early age, taking in any and everything I could. All of my animals over the years have been rescued/adopted. Through my modeling, I have found that I can give back (as much as I can), by promoting different rescues on all of my social media and through making appearances.

2) I met you when Operation Education had puppy mill dogs at the vet a few months ago.  How did you come across them & start working with them?  What are some of the other animal welfare projects you're involved in?  How did you get in to the rescue world?

I became involved with Operation Education Animal Rescue out of middle TN when we had moved here and I was looking to adopt a dog. It kind of snowballed from there. I am very lucky that I work a lot from home. When I am not traveling, I do my best to bring in puppies that need to be bottle fed as I am at home with my 3 (human) children. I understand that most people have 9-5 hours and when I'm in town I'm able to take on a litter of 6 puppies that have no mom and need to be bottle fed every few hours. Every city that we move to, I scope out the different organizations and try to give all the time I can. Doesn't matter what it is, cats, dogs, birds, rabbits anything! If it needs me, I'm on it!

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