Spend an hour with Betsy Robb, 28, and Kelsey White, 27, and you'll learn that the Little Rock Animal Village takes in an average of 17 critters a day, and that all these women want for Christmas is a cat-playroom, and that pit bulls have the best "wiggle-butts."
Before she became an accountant at CJRW, Robb wanted to be a veterinarian. Her best friend, White -- an accounts manager for the Oxford American -- had been fostering shelter dogs for over a decade. Back then, White and Robb played volleyball for Little Rock's Lutheran High School, but they didn't become close until their years at Hendrix College in Conway.
Three years ago, Robb became treasurer of the board for Friends of the Little Rock Animal Village, a nonprofit that raises money to help the city shelter. White joined the board soon after, and the night before her second meeting -- in October 2013 -- she and Robb stayed up late for a brainstorming session that resulted in Santa Paws -- a cocktail party that pairs music with a silent auction and adoptable pets.
Last year, Santa Paws drew 109 guests -- up from 75 the year before -- and raised more than $10,000 for the Animal Village. At this year's event, Saturday at the Greek Revival Trapnall Hall, the goal is 120 guests and "a million dollars," Robb says. (If they don't hit that, she'll be satisfied with $15,000.)
To buy tickets, which are $40, or inquire further, visit FriendsOfTheAnimalVillage.org, or call (501) 376-3067.
Auction items include an amethyst necklace from Stanley Jewelers worth $675, a piece by Pine Bluff-based glass artist James Hayes (who flies to Japan to teach and demonstrate Christmas glassblowing) and tickets to the Arkansas Repertory Theatre's Little Mermaid (expected to sell out).
Guests can wander from room to room, taking pictures with Santa, basking in the Americana stylings of guitar-and-harmonica duo Fret and Worry, drinking Stone's Throw beer and munching on desserts from Sweet Love bakery.
Money raised by Friends goes to veterinary bills and other projects that further the nonprofit's ultimate goal -- to make Little Rock's city shelter a place where all healthy animals get adopted. Along those lines, Friends has collected $25,000 toward the $60,000 it needs to build "Joey's Playroom," a tribute to the stray cat that haunted the KTHV, Channel 11 studio-garden before being adopted by the staff and made an on-air "personality."
The playroom will be "a place where cats can just roam and play. People who are interested in adopting can see how they do with other cats and see them in a more natural, homelike environment," White says.
Already, on the first and third Thursday each month, it's "Cats' Night Out" at the Village. Cats and potential adopters are free to roam the building together, providing cats the rare chance to escape their kennel.
"When you hear city shelter, you immediately think of the pound, which is a horrible word," White says. "Without a doubt, when people go see the Village for the first time, they're blown away ...."
"It's clean, it's bright, it's welcoming," Robb says. She spends a lot of time at the Village, exercising animals, taking photos for Petfinder.com and bathing dogs who are traveling on the PetSmart Rescue Waggin', which weekly transports adoptables from overcrowded shelters to waiting families in states with low shelter populations.
"Only 317 pets have been reclaimed this year" at the Village, according to White. "I think that many people don't know that Little Rock Animal Village [which is also animal control] is where you go to find your missing pet."
SECONDARY MISSION
Today, Robb fosters two pit bull mixes, Cricket and Peanut. Peanut spent his early years on a chain, and when he came to Animal Village, he had an old leg injury from being hit by a car. Six months ago, Friends helped Peanut get surgery, and the 30-pounder "butt-wiggled" his way into Robb's heart.
"I'd love to keep them both," she says, "but that would make it difficult for me to keep fostering." Over the lifetime of one dog, she estimates that she can foster 20.
Not long ago another pit bull did become, irrevocably, Robb's. "Vegas belonged to some friends of mine, and they had a 6-month-old child and were renovating their home ... one day they texted me and were like, 'Do you want Vegas?... If we don't find a home for him soon, we're going to have to put him to sleep.'"
Robb immediately took Vegas as a foster, intending to find him a permanent home once an infected toenail healed. When the infection proved malignant, Robb knew she couldn't give him up. Vegas outlived his prognosis by a year, and Robb, who had never spent much time around pit bulls, became an advocate for the breed.
"They're up against so much in the world. In the South, especially, they have such a stereotype. And the breed bans are really difficult, because if you're trying to get a pit bull adopted, it's a very small pool, and then of course, there's a lot of people who have never interacted with a pit bull and they think awful things about them," she says.
White (who coined "wiggle-butt") also has a soft-spot for the breed, after fostering a pit bull in high school. "They are just the sweetest, most affectionate, cuddliest dogs," she says.
Animal Village is always looking for volunteers and adopters.
According to Robb, shelters that euthanize often take in thousands more animals annually than no-kill shelters. In some cases, such as Animal Village, they are legally obligated to do so. Instead of turning away from these shelters, "ask what you can do to help," she says.
High Profile on 11/29/2015