Daily Inspiration: Meet Gwen Kelly

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gwen Kelly.

Hi Gwen, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The story begins when I adopted Lucy. She was a pittie mix, black with white markings. I will say that I was apprehensive because I heard the horrific stories of pit bull terriers, but never had any personal experience. I learned that black dogs and cats have a harder time getting adopted. I learned about the pet overpopulation because of her so I decided to volunteer at the local shelter to walk dogs and learn more. A whole new world opened up; one that I did not even know existed in this day and age. A good friend who has spent many years in the animal welfare world helped educate me on the pet overpopulation crisis at the shelter level and also talked about the organization she was the volunteer director of at the time – Georgia SPOT Society. Because she was in her seventies and suffering from compassion fatique from animal welfare, she passed the torch on to me even though I pushed back saying I did not have the time as I still work a very full-time job. I finally succumbed to the task and have been the volunteer director for the last five years. Digging into statistics was overwhelming and I soon learned the pet overpopulation is more of a major crisis than I even suspected.

At Georgia SPOT Society, we provide low or no-cost spaying and neutering for pet owners. We cover the state of Georgia working on a voucher system. We work in as many impoverished areas as possible. Vets throughout the state work with us, offering us lower rates because of what we do. When someone calls us, Janet, another long-time volunteer takes the pet owners information and will then locate a vet close to them. A voucher is provided to the pet owner. The pet owner turns in the voucher to the vet and once the service is performed, the vet invoices us. This ensures that the money is used for its intended purpose.

We are a 501(c) 3 non-profit and rely solely on private donations and grant monies. Grants are becoming increasingly harder to get. We would love to find a backer that would finance us so we could ramp up our efforts to spay and neuter.

There is never a shortage of people needing our help and we often have waiting lists until more funds come in. I would love to have someone volunteer who has connections on getting money in the door.

To help the cause, my sister knits and sews scarves and totes that she donates 100% to me so I can sell to make money for SPOT. I am also an author. I have a children’s picture book about Lucy Lu getting adopted and I have the first book published of my murder mystery series – Sutherland’s Crossing – A Beau Crenshaw Detective Novel. The next book in the Beau Crenshaw series – Untethered Justice – will be available soon. I also have a coloring book and a line of blank journals. All sales are donated to SPOT. I am passionate about writing and felt that this was a great way to draw in a broader audience while bringing awarenes to Georgia SPOT Society and the pet overpopulation issue.

We currently service about 400 to 450 dogs, cat and feral cat colonies per year but would love to substantially increase this number. Spaying and neutering is the only way we are going to get out of this mess and minimize the pet suffering. What we do will have a huge impact without forcing policing or policies. Like I said earlier, there is no shortage of people wanting to do the right thing.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No. We are never at a loss for people needing help but are always needing money. We are always needing a broader reach but because it is really only Janet and myself, this is difficult to do. People volunteer but they drift away because the jobs we need help with are rather mundane. We can’t afford to pay anyone to do marketing and whatnot so this has been limiting. I still work a very stressful full-time job and I walk dogs at the local shelter because they didn’t ask to be there and need time out, so my time is stretched.

400 to 450 animals is not horrible because when you consider 1 animal has the potential to create 300 in a single year, we are helping but imagine what we could do if we had even more money.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a full-time job, I work in commercial real estate but my real passion is writing and helping animals.

I am very proud of my children’s book – Life Lessons of Lucy Lu as there are a few messages in the book that are wonderful learning tools for children. It helps kids to understand the importance of adopting a pet and it also helps kids to learn to never give up on their own dreams because dreams really can come true.

I am also proud of my book Sutherland’s Crossing-A Beau Crenshaw Detective Novel. The next book in the series is called Untethered Justice and you may already guess from the title that it is about animal abusers being murdered off.

As I get closer to retirement, I want to shift my focus on my writing and Georgia SPOT Society. I want to bring in a larger audience to help fund Georgia SPOT to keep helping the people and the animals.

What I have learned is that there are so many people out there who absolutely love their pets but weren’t born into high paying jobs or families who take care of them financially. They could be people scraping by on social security and helping these people spay and neuter their pets so unwanted litters don’t end up in the shelter or in the wrong hands is so rewarding and so needed. Some people have been so stressed by wanting to do the right thing and when we help them, they are beside themselves with gratitude. This is what it’s all about.

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I believe that a lot of people don’t actually know the name Georgia SPOT Society, Inc or what it does because we have not had enough help to push the name hard enough. If you mention the name FurKids or Lifeline Animal Shelter, most people will have heard those name before but if you mention Georgia SPOT Society they may not have a clue what we do.

On a more customer service level, one thing people will not know until they work with us, is that we are responsive and care about helping. We work hard on finding the best vet and honoring our word. We take our job seriously even though we are volunteers and every penny we get for SPOT is used for spaying and neutering.

People may also not realize that we help feral cat colonies. Helping these colonies is crucial to keeping the pet overpopulation under control and in keeping the cats as healthy as possible. Something many people don’t know is that an unspayed dog or cat can get Pyometra. It is extremely painful. The Google definition will say it better than me – Pyometra is a life-threatening infection of the uterus in female dogs and cats. It occurs when bacteria enter the uterus and multiply, causing it to fill with pus. It occurs during hormonal changes during heat cyles. Spaying will eliminate this.

And the last surprise is that my foster dog, soon to be my adopted dog, Callum is the Ambassador for Georgia SPOT Society. He models the scarves and bandannas and LOVES his job. He was badly abused, having an embedded collar and mange, so to see him thrive is also why I do what I do. He spent well over three years in the shelter, being overlooked because he has some behavior quirks so when my Lucy Lu passed away, I knew I needed to bring him home.

Pricing:

• Most of the totes and scarves we sell range between $10 and $15
• Life Lessons of Lucy Lu is $12.99 for the paperback
• Sutherland’s Crossing-A Beau Crenshaw Detective Novel is $12.99 for the paperback

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spotsociety.org
• Instagram: https://l.instagram.com/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgwenkellyauthor.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DPAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnH4q9sbYnx-sHrwDj_7PwYDbZ4neDGNwxng8YaiKx0zwtqWiqtHB5vXZdnZU_aem_uABHJOxUc5_EfdiD459BSQ&e=AT31M0-6-4_ETSJppQomukW4s0JsKnzG1b7vcbQIp8LorUjzYH3H_suLkZ1tMSKjxampue2r-ns0nRlBKs9PacwXJNNzRrtlHOSyTSuHRKXV6LtFX5OvEEFnuw
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064702355045