A small sampling of the authors protraits. Images: Muttville, Dahlia Gallin Ramirez
Seven years ago, when my daughter Sissel was 11 years old, I thought it would be a good time to start doing volunteer work together. Should we work with people? Plants? Dogs? Sissel chose Muttville. We were not a dog family yet, but we were about to become one.
Sissel and I began volunteering on Tuesday evenings at Muttville headquarters - walking dogs, feeding them, cuddling them, and cleaning up after them. We learned all the corners and closets of the old Muttville building. Our specialty was giving the dogs baths, which we called “restoring dignity.” We loved bundling newly clean dogs in towels and watching them trot around proudly (okay, maybe a little manically) afterwards.
Even though Muttville has hundreds of volunteers, Sherri and the staff somehow made us feel as if we were the most special, beloved, and valuable volunteers of all time. That’s their magic, not ours. You can test this by asking all the other volunteers if they feel the same way; they’ll say yes.
We volunteered every Tuesday right up until Sissel went to college (my husband and I still volunteer). During those years, Sissel interned at Muttville. She became their resident artist. She became a dog whisperer. She developed an incredible work ethic. We adopted senior dogs. My sister adopted a senior dog. My mom adopted a senior dog. Friends who didn’t even think they needed dogs adopted senior dogs. But I’m jumping ahead.
First Came Figgy
When we started volunteering, we also decided to foster. There were so many incredible heart-melters to choose from, but we were drawn to a quiet little loaf in the isolation unit: Figgy. She was an adorable Shih-tzu in hospice status because of mammary tumors. We took her home with us, and – no surprise – fell in love with her.
This was going to be Sissel’s first dog, our first family dog, and we wanted to make sure that we were all prepared for a hospice adoption: giving Figgy the time of her life for however long we could and bracing ourselves for the eventual loss. Sissel was in. So were we.
We had Figgy for one wonderful year, during which she ran around our house like a puppy, burrowed into endless piles of laundry, pawed our legs for dinner, and got pulled around town in a homemade wagon made of skateboards that we named “the shred sled.” Prepared as we were for her dying, it was still much too soon.
Thank you, Figgy, for teaching us to live in the present, to spoil everyone you love every day, and for being the best first dog a family could ever have.
Sissel Becomes an Artist
When we first got Figgy, Sissel drew a picture of her in a bowl of ramen. Next, she drew all of the Muttville dogs. We shared the drawings with the Muttville staff and soon people were asking Sissel if they could commission her to draw their pets. That’s how Sissel began doing pet portraits and donating the profits to Muttville.
Seven years on, Sissel has done over 300 dog portraits. Her work can be seen all around Muttville – on t-shirts, calendars, pins, posters, and stickers. When we meet new Muttville people, they almost always say, “Sissel drew my dog!”
Thank you, Muttville community, for showing Sissel how to overcome shyness, how to be a working artist, and how to give back to something she cares about. You made her feel loved and important.
Then Came Olga
We didn’t think it would be possible to love another dog as much as we loved dear little Figgy. But then came our gentle giant, Olga, a Great Pyrenees so majestic and glitteringly white it was hard to understand how she could have ever become lost.
Within the first hour of arriving at our house, Olga crawled into bed with us, put her huge front leg around my husband Andrés, and fell asleep. She is a natural therapy dog, an elite lounger, a loyal guardian, and the first dog I’ve ever known who pets you back.
Thank you, Olga, for showing us that, yes, we could love another dog in a big way.
Juliana & Fuzzle
Very few friends can say that they met on a modeling shoot, but that’s how Olga met Fuzzle, the dog who would become my sister Juliana’s first dog.
Both dogs were being photographed for a Muttville holiday card. Olga had the model looks but not the posing chops. Every time they got her to sit, she would melt into the floor and flail her paws around for belly rubs. Fuzzle, however, was a natural. A small, silly, chunky white lamb, she was just perfection.
I casually remarked to my sister, “If you were ever to get a dog, that would be the one.” And it turned out that Fuzzle did need a foster. In Juliana’s mind, this was going to be a short-term situation only. But, as in all good rom-coms, they wound up falling in love.
Thank you, Muttville adoption coordinators, for your gentle and all-knowing encouragement. And thank you, sweet Fuzzle, for cracking the door to my sister’s heart and letting the dogs in.
Janet & Dr. Feldman
Once my sister got a dog, the next domino to topple was my mom. She had barely finished the sentence, “I think I might be ready to fost–” when we tossed a little Chihuahua-Papillon mix with frosted blonde ear tips into her lap. She named him Dr. Feldman. Feldy, as we now call him, got my mom walking miles a day – something she would never have imagined (or desired) before, but which she has since learned to love. Feldy is now 18 years old, a little blind featherduster with diabetes and thyroid issues, but, by God, he will outlast us all.
Thank you, Feldy, for rolling back the clock 1 years on my mom’s health, and bringing about 50 new neighborhood friends into her life.
Our Family Transformed
Thank you, Muttville. You have been life-defining for our family. Our daughter has grown up surrounded by the cutest dogs and the most incredible, generous people. All of our lives are fuller and funnier. Our family gatherings are now just called “Dog Club,” and 70% of our conversation is about our dogs.
What on earth did we ever talk about before?