Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Johns.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Lisa, So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My personal path into the animal welfare field has been a bit unconventional. I first became involved in a humane organization in 2009 when I moved to American Samoa for work. I was an attorney and had accepted a contract position as a lawyer for their government. At that time there was no veterinarian on the island and consequently no consistent way to spay/neuter dogs and cats. Populations were out of control. There were homeless, starving and sick animals everywhere you turned. I began volunteering with a small group which worked in conjunction with another animal welfare group on the mainland to coordinate free mass spay/neuter clinics on the island. We were able to bring volunteer veterinarians for two week periods to provide hundreds of spays and neuters. I soon realized that I enjoyed my hobby more than my job! Upon my return to the United States, I decided to seek employment in the animal welfare field. In June 2012 I accepted the position of Shelter Manager at Good Mews and have been here ever since. Working at Good Mews is a wonderful and rewarding experience. People often ask me if I miss my past career in law. The short answer is no. I love what I do now, more than ever before!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Anyone who is driven, ambitious and working for change faces struggles along the way. I suppose my first obstacle was making the radical decision to leave behind a legal career to focus on animal welfare. While many of my friends thought I was crazy, it was an eerily easy decision for me to make.
One of the main challenges I faced as shelter manager of Good Mews came in 2015 when we were forced to vacate our leased space that had housed our shelter for the last 13 years. At the time, property had already been purchased by Good Mews and building on our new state of the art shelter facility had begun, but unfortunately would not be complete by the time we needed to be out of our current space. With great difficulty, we were finally able to find a vacant veterinary office which would accommodate our needs in the interim. What followed were two very stressful shelter relocations. The first relocation to our temporary shelter for six months and then finally to our new free standing shelter. We moved into our new building in October 2015 and despite some initial growing pains are doing great!
Good Mews Animal Foundation – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Established in 1988, Good Mews is Georgia’s oldest cage-free, no-kill cat shelter. Our founder, Gloria Skeen, was a flight attendant who recognized a serious stray cat over-population problem and set out to do something about it. With a few of her cat-loving friends, she started taking in cats and spaying and neutering them, while at the same time, learning all she could about forming a nonprofit organization. Nearly 30 later, Good Mews has morphed from a small group’s passion to help stray cats into a million-dollar, state-of-the-art adoption facility in Marietta.
Good Mews occupies 5,500 square feet of bright and airy space filled with cat trees, perches and toys to stimulate the resident cats’ natural tendency for exploration and play. We believe strongly that no healthy cat should be euthanized simply because there is no space to house them, so we fervently support a no-kill philosophy. About 100 cats live at Good Mews while they await their forever families, and another 30-40 — mostly kittens — live in foster homes until they move to the shelter. Our mission is “finding good homes for good kitties,” and our adoption counselors act as match-makers to help families find just the right feline for their home and lifestyle.
With just three paid staff, Good Mews relies heavily on more than 350 volunteers who donate their time in areas such as cleaning the shelter and feeding the cats, socializing shy cats, administering medications to cats who need them, planning special events, fund-raising, and much more.
Good Mews offers several innovative programs such as Home at Last (HALO) that helps special needs cats find their forever homes by paying for their medical bills for chronic conditions even after they’ve been adopted. We also offer a unique “Yoga with Cats” class that has been featured on CNN and in publications worldwide. And our “Reading to Cats” program invites students in grades 1-8 to read aloud to the cats, helping kids build confidence in their reading skills while helping to socialize the cats. Both the yoga and reading programs reinforce the human-animal connection that is so important to the well-being of both species.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I measure my personal success by the success of the organization that I am intrinsically involved in. As a part of Good Mews, I want to see the organization grow, with the ultimate goal of increasing adoptions and saving more lives.
Pricing:
- Our adoption fee is $75 to adopt a cat or kitten. All Good Mews cats and kittens are spayed/neutered, microchipped, dewormed and vaccinated with age appropriate vaccines prior to adoption.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3805 Robinson Road
Marietta, GA 30068 - Website: www.goodmews.org
- Phone: (770) 499-2287
- Email: info@goodmews.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodmewscats/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodMewsAnimalFoundation/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodMews
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/good-mews-animal-foundation-marietta-3
Image Credit:
Rebecca Pruett Photography for the bottom four pictures; Jean Hess for the picture of me
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