Pawfee Podcats

A special episode 28.5 to bring you the results of Amos's DNA test! Amos is the puppy Grace recently adopted from HHHS. <3 He came from a litter of 7, so the adopters of his siblings were very interested to hear the results as well. We had a lil guessing game on our Facebook page, and like us, most followers thought he would for sure have Saint Bernard in him...but no! Listen to our parody of Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" as Grace tells you all the breeds that DID show up on the test.

We also give an office cat update about our feline friends in the administrative offices of Helping Hands Humane Society.

If you're interested in the medical side of animal welfare and shelter life, then you'll be excited about this episode! Your hosts Gremi (Grace and Emi) interview their coworker Rachel all about her job working in the HHHS Medical Center. From surgery prep to advice on how to work efficiently (spoiler alert: you NEED more pockets!), Rachel reveals it all! We are amazed she had time to do an interview with us after she led us through a day in her life at our humane society. Big props to Rachel and our entire medical team for all they do for the hundreds of animals in our care on a daily basis!

If you have follow-up questions for Rachel or any stories, feedback, or ideas for our podcast, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] or [email protected]! As always, thanks for listening, and don't forget that we're all in this together.

In this episode, your hosts Gremi (Grace and Emi) interview coworker Jenna Petesch who is the Foster & Rescue Coordinator at HHHS (plus many other hats, like all of our employees, including helping in behavior and intake). We talk all things foster care and transfer to rescue. These are wonderful lifesaving programs that activate a village of supporters in helping homeless animals.

We don't have an official office cat update in this episode, although we do give a little update on Papaw Geppetto and will share more information next week!

Please get in touch if you have further foster/rescue questions or think of other comments, feedback, or stories to share with the podcast. Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. 

In this episode, Gremi talks about HHHS's Shelter Showdown with Melissa and Doug of WIBW, updates on Amos the puppy and some tips about raising puppies (a hard but important job!), plus of course office cat updates, a myth-bust, plus a little preview of a topic we'll be talking a lot more about in the next couple of months!

In this episode of Helping Hands Humane Society's podcast, Grace and Emi (Gremi - your hosts) interview Kathy Maxwell, Executive Director of HHHS. They discuss project donations for the low-cost spay neuter clinic that will be building right inside the shelter! Kathy touches on why the donors support the project and why it's important to us and our community. If you're interested in donating to help us buy equipment once the clinic is built, please email Kathy at [email protected].

Also, HUGE NEWS, Grace adopted a puppy!!! Lots of puppy discussion. If anyone else is raising a puppy right now or has fond memories or lessons to share, please reach out to us at [email protected] or [email protected]. Get ready for regular puppy updates alongside our office cat updates.

Our shelter is located in Topeka, KS and we do have training classes open to the public (puppy, basic obedience, agility, and more). Hop onto our website www.hhhstopeka.org to learn more if you're in our area!

This week we (Gremi, Grace and Emi, your podcats hosts) interview Manager of Customer Care and Adoptions, Michelle McCart. This is her second time on the show, and we discuss a variety of fun topics including changes we've made to our homes just for pets, wacky experiences working at the shelter, double adoptions (sending two animals home together), foster set ups for foster homes and foster offices, etc.

We hope you enjoy these insights into the life of an animal welfare worker. Please feel free to email us at [email protected] or [email protected] with any feedback, questions, comments, or stories for the podcast!

In this episode of the Helping Hands Humane Society podcast, your hosts Grace and Emi (AKA Gremi) are honored and excited to interview their coworker, Pam. Pam is the lead Animal Care Tech at HHHS and has gained a lot of experience in her two years here. She views all of the dogs under her care as her babies, and she has some very insightful wisdom to share about how to work with them and, when necessary, let them go. Pam is our go-to when we're struggling with some emotional turmoil or simple life problems (like losing our keys). She always has a listening ear, kind response, and good advice to give.

Pam busts a myth about adoption expectations and tells us about some of the wacky experiences she's had in her job. If you've adopted a dog from us in the last two years, it's very likely they were one of her babies for a time! We'd love to hear from you if you have an adoption story, comment, or question for the podcast. Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

"Yes," Dr. Grace assures us, "old lady or old man cat fur is definitely a *thing*." In episode 22 of Helping Hands Humane Society's podcast, your hosts Gremi (Grace and Emi) answer a listener question about how we age the stray animals who come up for adoption. We go to two of our in-house experts for answers - Margaret Price, Manager of Admissions (also animal behavior guru, knower of all things pocket pets, and employee of HHHS for 20 years), and Dr. Jami Grace, Veterinarian (tolerator of our ridiculous medical check requests, patient answerer of endless questions like "Why does he smell kinda funny?", and singular full-time on-staff vet for the hundreds of animals in our care). As expected, our conversations with them are enlightening and lead down a few rabbit holes regarding guessing both ages and breeds of incoming animals. Margaret helps bust a couple of common myths while she's at it!

You'll get an important reminder about dental health for pets, some insights into what it's like to work at a humane society, updates on our office felines and the behavior dogs we work with, as well as our thoughts on Starbucks' newest flavor of compassion juice: pistachio. 

As always, thanks for listening, and please don't hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] and/or [email protected] if you have any questions, comments, feedback, requests, or stories for the podcast!

Here comes 2021! Gremi discusses some goals for the new year, both for our pets at home and for the shelter. We are oh-so-tentatively stepping into this new year as we would toward a shy and scared dog or cat...not making eye contact, body turned non-threateningly to the side, soft voices, treats in hand, hoping to coax it into being our friend! 2020 has taught us many lessons. It held many challenges and revealed some great rewards as we survived through it. 

Please let us know what you'd like to hear from our podcast in 2021! Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. We're also open to your stories, comments, feedback, etc. We love to know who is listening and what you're interested in learning or hearing more about regarding Helping Hands Humane Society.

Have a safe and happy new year!

Special Christmas Eve Day episode! We tell you all about Christmas for the Animals that we held at our shelter and bust some myths surrounding pets as Christmas presents. We also tell you about Grace's super cool next door dog neighbor who has a very serious job and is about to get titanium teeth! As always, we give an office kitten update and serenade you with a pet-related parody. Merry Sniffmas, everyone!

Thanks for listening, and please feel free to reach out by emailing us at [email protected] or [email protected] with your comments, questions, stories, or requests. The goal for our podcast is to give you insight into how our shelter works and the animal welfare world in general. We know so many people out there care a whole lot! We hope to help you understand how you can best help homeless animals in your community.