Since I was a small child, I have always loved animals. My parents taught me what compassion meant at any early age. I take great pride in being an advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves. I believe in God, Karma, and that there is no pillow like a clear conscience. I believe in surrounding myself with other people who feel the same way. The love I have for my parents, my husband, my animals, and my like-minded friends cannot be described. They are the reasons I get up in the morning.
I was a licensed makeup artist and esthetician for over 10 years. I started off behind a cosmetics counter at 19 years old. I worked at several high end day spas to gain experience and fine tune my skills. After several years of doing this, I ended up working behind the counter again, for a cruelty-free line that I always loved. Later I became the account coordinator for this line, based on my sales alone. I was in charge of all area counters, their events, their sales and training, for about a dozen stores. This was my favorite job, ever. I then worked for the biggest professional beauty supplier in the state, responsible for 300+ accounts. While I enjoyed the job itself and getting to talk to some really talented, interesting people every day, it entailed a lot of driving. I decided to work in one location again for awhile, doing facials and makeup lessons/applications. I found myself being gone a lot with work and traffic. Doing bridal/prom makeup suddenly (which sort of goes with the day spa territory) became about as appealing to me as the idea of changing people’s tires for a living. That wasn’t exactly what I went to school for and was certainly not my dream. Actually, my dream job was not in the beauty industry at all. But I was (and still am) quite talented and knowledgeable in that area. I still keep my license up to date. And now people contact me (and even pay me) for professional skin care and dietary advice. – Imagine that. I give advice on a wide range of issues from different skin care concerns to how to go veg the right way, by creating high protein meal plans for people. I have worked from my home office since 2003. An idea inspired by not only my own animals, but other animals that I wanted to be able to help. My priorities changed. Suddenly my full face of makeup no longer felt like “me” and I replaced it with only mascara and lip gloss. All I wanted to do was learn as much as I could about animal welfare, try to save as many lives as I could, and inspire others to do the same. Working at home has not been an easy road and it is something most people would probably not enjoy. There is zero glamour in sitting on the phone, behind a computer all day, let me tell you. I wear many hats all day and I have come to be a master at multi-tasking. There is no gossip or drama in my workplace and I truly have the best coworkers…Even when they try to eat my lunch. I tell people that they are all in charge, I just work and live here. I do not own an alarm clock (haven’t used one since I was in school) and I get up early every day because I want to. I am blessed to wake up to all of these sweet little faces.
My passion in life is helping and working with feral cats. As an animal empath, I have a gift for being able to gain their trust and tame them by communicating with them on a level that other people can’t. These are the forgotten members of The Animal Kingdom that most people don’t give a second thought to. To me, ignoring them and allowing them to overpopulate is unacceptable. Dumping cats (or dogs) is absolutely a crime. While I do not expect everyone to do what I do, I think that the way we treat animals (or those who can do nothing to repay us in any way) is a reflection of who we are as people. Every day we have a choice to do the right thing. For me, doing the right thing entails saving lives. It is the hardest, most gut wrenching, emotionally and financially draining aspect of our lives. It is not something we want credit for. The biggest gift for us (and all the animals out there) is for people to simply be responsible. Somewhere along the way, I think that people have forgotten how to care about others…Or that we all have time to make a difference. Compassion Is A Choice
Advocate for Animals 