May 2, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of Save A Pooch, we welcome Sarah Cavallaro, award-winning author of Dogs Have Angels Too. Sarah shares the deeply moving story behind her novel, which follows a woman’s emotional journey from career burnout and homelessness to personal healing—thanks to the transformative power of shelter dogs. We explore themes of resilience, the human-animal bond, and the often-overlooked crisis of homelessness among older women. Sarah also opens up about how real-life rescue experiences shaped the story, and what we can all do to support both animals and the people who care for them. Whether you're a dog lover, fiction fan, or advocate for second chances, this episode will leave you inspired.
EPISODE NOTES: Finding Redemption Through Rescue with Sarah Cavallaro
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EPISODE NOTES: Finding Redemption Through Rescue with Sarah Cavallaro
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/save-a-pooch-rescue-dog-welfare-pet-life-radio-original--6669238/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Save a Pooch on Pet Life Radio. I
am Beverly Hindla. You're host. Thank you for listening in today.
Our special guest today is Sarah Cavolaro, author of the
award winning novel Dogs Have Angels Too Now. Sarah's powerful
story takes us through the fall and redemption of a
woman who loses everything, her career, her marriage, her home,
(00:31):
and finds help and healing through the unconditional love of
shelter dogs. Now. Sarah's work not only shines the light
on the emotional lives of animals, but also reflects on homelessness, reinvention,
and the quiet hero is working in animal rescue every day.
So it's a story that speaks to the resilience of
both humans and animals. When we get back from these messages,
(00:54):
we'll be joined by Sarah Cavla.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Say goodbite out of your competition and advertise your business
with an ad. In Pet Life Radio podcasts and radio shows,
there is no other pet related media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
Pet Life Radio, with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
(01:19):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit petlife radio dot com slash advertised Today.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Let's talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Welcome back to Say Poosh. We're speaking with Sarah Carvlaro,
author of Dogtop Angels Too. Well. Sarah, thank you so
much for being here to Your book is emotional. I
have incredibly from passionate. So before we dive, did you
share a brief synopsis of Dogs Out of Angels Too
for our listeners.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Yes, it's about a woman who loses everything. She was
a high powered executive in marketing in New York. She
goes through a complete trauma in that she loses her job.
She's in her fifties. She is it's during the financial
crisis of I Believe eight. The Ponzi schemes are running very,
(02:29):
very strong, and she loses her retirement. She therefore cannot
afford her rent. She loses her apartment. She has super
pride and she doesn't want to let anybody know. She
does apply for jobs, but she doesn't actually get them
because she loses teeth and she doesn't have the funding,
the funding, you know, or the resources to get some teeth.
(02:50):
So she goes to Central Park often and she becomes
she Her original name is Alena Schwartz. She morphs herself
into Miss Pink because she loves to wear pink. She
ends up being a top dog rescuer and rescues a
lot of women who are also going through similar issues.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And the dogs. And that's pretty much.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
What it is. It's a journey of self discovery, it's
a journey of redemption. It's an optimistic and it's a
reinvention and it's saving people and animals.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
That's amazing. So what inspired you to write it? And
I was also wondering how much of her story was
drawn from your personal experience? Well, as a writer, I'm
always drawing from my own personal experience. It may not
be as literal. It could be the spiritual aspects of
it or what I needed to learn from certain circumstances.
(03:45):
So my background is I was a founder and the
president of a very successful TV commercial production company, and
i'd done that for many many years. It was located
in New York, and I'd often go to Central Park
and just for rest, just to rest my mind, and
I talk to people. And this Lena Schwartz, who I'm
(04:08):
calling her Lina Schwartz, but that's not really her real name.
This woman would sometimes come and sit on a bench
next to me and we talk, and she talked about
her life, and her life kind of paralleled some aspects
of my life at the time. I mean I was
always down and owning your own company, you know, and
being independent, and you know, going through a lot of
(04:29):
different personal crisis. So I kind of fictionalized her story.
But she did love animals, and she was going through
a really hard time, and she was desperately trying to
reinvent her life, and so I created stories around how
she did that. That's amazing. So her journey is obviously
deeply tied to her connection with dogs. Now, can you
(04:51):
talk about what animals have meant to you and your life?
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Well, they've meant everything to me because when I was
first of five, I wasn't a to have them when
I was a little girl, even though I did find
a little kitten and I took the kitten home, and
I was a young girl, and my father didn't want
animals in the house, and so he took the little
kitten and put the kitten in a grocery store kind
of entrance way or a parking lot entranceway, hoping that
(05:18):
somebody would find this kitten. I'm hoping they did find
the kitten. But when I went off to college, I
ended up it was in Ohio, and I ended up rescuing,
going to a shelter. And in those days, it was
in the seventies, they were euthanizing all oft and I
rescued a little puppy, and this puppy came and lived
with me in the dorm, even though we weren't allowed
(05:40):
to have them. And then I moved to New York
and I brought my little dog with me, and her
name is Athena. And the main character in the book
is Athena. And it's all about saving these animals and
not euthanizing them just because they're abandoned or they're old
or whatever. I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I think it's a crime to kill any animal like
that unless it's a violent situation and you can't help it,
right right, that would be the duel scenario where you
know the euthanization rate is zero. A lot more in
that in that industry. Now, the character that you mentioned
is it Athena. Yeah, a little Athena.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
She looked like a little fawn. And I made a
story around her in the book because I had a couple.
I made up a story because this I've observed this
and it actually happened to me. I had a boyfriend.
It didn't like my little dog, and.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He shame Yeah, he would be reten. Well, he didn't
like the little dog because the dog had bladder problems
and she peeded a lot everywhere. And it didn't bother me,
but it bothered him. So in the book, I have
the boyfriend telling her, look, if you don't get rid
of this dog, I'm leaving. And so she's actually forced
to surrender her dog, and who rescues her, Miss Pink,
(06:55):
and the whole narrative on this young woman, Cindy. Cindy
has to prove to Miss Pink that she can take
care of that dog before Miss Pink's going to give
her back the dog because Miss Pink legally adopted Athena.
So you know, there's that narrative. It is what do
you do when a couple's fighting over who wants a dog?
Who doesn't want a dog? You know, and you have
(07:15):
the dog. So it's about taking care of your animals regardless, right,
And so Athena's story in the book, or I guess
athena story in your life. Was that one of the
major like inspirations of the scenes in your book.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Yes, one of them. I mean I have many. I
have I have many, many different aspects of the book.
I have the dog rescue aspect and how to create
that and to stop doing the puppy mills. And it's
all through storytelling.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I mean, it's you.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
These are characters that are evolving and growing and learning
their own path. And I have a venture part of
it in which I have the wife of the Ponzi
schemer who's also losing everything because the FBI have a
they've arrested her husband and they're taking away her money.
And she has a little dog named Abigail that she
(08:08):
walks in the park. And Miss Pink becomes friendly with
Miss Wolf and Miss Wolf is this very wealthy lady
who lost all of her money, So what did they do?
She kind of teaches Miss Wolf also to be responsible
and how you handle that. And she also wants some
of Miss Wolf wants to hide her money, so she
(08:28):
puts it into diamonds so that the FBI don't get it,
and they make dog collars. And so where does this
money go out? It goes to building shelters. So everything
has a cause. There's a reason.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That's amazing that you tied all those dots together. No
wonder why you're a TV commercial produced. I wanted to
do an adventure and fun also and lighthearted, but I
also needed to have I wanted all of the missions
in there, like why do you you know? Why do
you keep your money? You want to save something? You
(09:01):
want to say right exactly? And I really commend your
storytelling because really the lessons that stick to people are
those told stories. I really commend you for that. Let's
switch gears a little bit because I do want to
touch on the new ones. Look. I guess at homelessness
among women because your book also touches on that. So
(09:21):
what is it that you wish more people understood about
this issue?
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Well, I'll tell you this is a very very important
issue to understand because you have to understand a how
people become homeless, and especially women. Women have enormous pride
in their looks and you know the way that their
environment is. Like, there's a homeless woman near me. I
live in Los Angeles and she literally has created a
(09:46):
mini apartment that she sweeps on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Wow. Yeah, Like it's decorated, Okay, And it tells me
so much about who she is. Yes, she's she's I
think mentally, something happened mentally. I can't diagnose her. I'm
not a you know for sure, but something happened in
her life that created this. And so when I when
(10:14):
I lived in New York, I saw a ton of
women going through financial crisis. Tons of women had lost
their jobs in these big companies in eight when we
had the financial crisis, and they didn't know how to
get jobs. They didn't know what to do. A lot
of them were in their late fifties. And it's a
very worrisome situation when you know you're a hot you're
(10:38):
an executive. Where do you go? What do you do?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
You have very high rent, your kids are in college,
Like maybe you're supporting it's a single woman that's supporting
her family. So homelessness, Okay, Now, how do you get
there many many ways people become homeless. I think mental, mental, emotional,
all that really pushes you into that position. And obviously
the whole drug thing, but that's another story. So the
(11:03):
homelessness is I aligned with a really interesting organization and
I actually speak about them a lot, and that is
that the homeless people should be able to hold onto
their dogs and those dogs should be taken care of.
And this feeding Pets of the homeless, which you could
find on the website the dogs have Angels to dot
com website. They take care of the dogs of the homeless.
(11:26):
They feed them and they give them medical care around
the nation. And it was founded by a woman who
in New York saw homeless women and homeless men with
their dogs and she said, well, how do you take
care of these animals? And so she founded this organization.
So that's part of it. Also, you know, Miss Pink
becomes homeless, but she has She becomes sometimes homeless, and
(11:50):
sometimes she goes into shelters, but she finds more comfort
in sleeping in the park bench than she does in
sleeping in the shelters because the shelters are very repressive
and they don't allow they didn't allow then the dogs.
I don't know what they are now in New York,
but they didn't allow her to keep her dogs, so
she wanted to keep all her dogs, and so she
(12:11):
chose to be homeless. And that's something I touched upon
in the book and created a little story about that
as well.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Oh wow, that is an issue that can be debated
for sure, and that is do homelessness? Is homeless? Is
dogs better off being with homeless? Sum on how I
should say versus being in a shelter. Soone's glad that
he did touch on that in your book to raise
more questions that need to be asked in this arena.
But let's go to a quick break and when we
(12:40):
get back, we'll continue our conversation with Sarah Calolaro, begging.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
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Speaker 4 (13:11):
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Speaker 2 (13:20):
Welcome back to save a pooch. We're talking with Sarah Cavolaro,
author of Dogs Have Angels Too. So the theme of
redemption that runs through Lena's life and the lies of
the dogs that she works with. What would you ideally
hope readers take away from that that parallel.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Well, you have to really be responsible for your animals.
And you have to, I mean truly be responsible. You
have to train them properly, have to take care of
them properly. You have to love them, and it can't
be your convenience that you love them, and you have
to really think of the welfare of the animal. Miss Pink.
Thing of Miss Pink a lenis Towards aka Miss Pink.
(14:04):
She thinks of the animals and what makes her so
inspirational is they trump her needs. And I love that
And if I can share that, it teaches me something
and it gives me hope and it educates me. And
I would love to just pass that on because it
(14:25):
has a sense of altruism and and I believe in altruism.
I don't think that it's a I know people say
it's not, it can't happen, but I believe it can
because it's just to shift in consciousness. It's just to
shift in how you see something.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Well, when you said that statement, you have to repeat
again their needs triumph perse. Yeah, and that brings me
to like my example with my parents because they're elders,
that they want a dog for their company and you know,
just having they want a so called guard Doug. But
when I when I'm talking to them about this, truthful,
(15:00):
are you really going to walk the dog?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
If you want a guard dog, both guard dogs would
need stimulation and constant training to embody being a guard dog.
Are you willing to do that? No. So it's a
perfect example of me telling my parents, you know what, No,
you cannot have a dog. As much as I would
love you to see or I'd love to see you
more happy and you know, bring more joy through having
(15:23):
a dog. You to deserve a dog because you won't
be able to walk them or give it the attention
that it needs. So that's a really great statement that
you you mentioned there. Well, are your parents can they walk?
One can? One can barely. But if one that can
walk doesn't even walk in South well, I don't know
if you walk another another being Yeah, Well, there's a
(15:47):
whole thing about senior dogs too now because senior dogs
are really good with older people, but they take a
lot of care. And also there's an expense and people
have to look at the expense of him linked dogs too.
You know it's not it's not cheap. No, it's certainly isn't.
Certainly isn't, especially with the unexpected costs. So yeah, finances
(16:09):
is the top reason up there. So there's there's organizations
actually that will pay for some of the healthcare too.
There's so many now that are so fantastic. There's so
much awareness in this area. I think it's like phenomenal.
It never was like this ten years ago. I mean,
this is this is something else. So I'm hoping all
(16:30):
of this awareness is going to slow this this process
of cruelty down and right I'm hoping, I believe. I'm
I actually interviewed someone who whose purpose is to help
seniors that have dogs, but they don't have to surrender
them based on their capability. So I thought that was
a really interesting mission that they have. But you're right,
(16:54):
they are popping up more and more, so that's great
to see.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Yeah, it's seen your dogs cost. What happened is when
they get senior obviously, the medical care. The people can't
afford that, so they surrender very quickly.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, oh yeah, actually yeah, all of the fossil dogs
I've had came from seniors not being able to take
care of them, and those dogs were perfectly fine, exactly. Yeah. Now,
you write so beautifully about the silent trauma that animals carry.
In your opinion, what can listeners do to better support
shelter pets in their communities.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Well, adopt them and also foster them, adopt them and
stop the puppy mills, because that's what they can do too.
You know, it's like, at the core of it, right,
educate people to not take animals that they can't take
care of. But that's a hard one because everybody wants
an animal. And then you know, after a couple of years,
you know, life is always changing, as we know, and
(17:50):
sometimes not for our convenience. You know, there's a lot
going on in this life.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
So I don't know, I would just say try to
foster and adopt this and keep these facilities really well
financed so that they can take care of the animals properly,
for sure. For sure. What's your take on ethical breeding?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I don't have a I'm not proficient in this, you
know what I mean, I don't know what ethical breeding means.
I can say one thing, Puppy Mills is not ethical breeding.
You can't breed just for profit. I mean, that's not
ethical in my opinion. You just can't breed and breed
and breed and breed animals. It's like these keeping these
horses or to keep them pregnant all the time. It's
(18:31):
not right, it's not good for them. So I don't know.
I guess that's ethical or I don't know what ethical is,
but I think it's cruel really cool to keep an
animal pregnant all the time so that you can make
money off that animal. That to me is kind of gross.
So right, that's my.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well, thank you for that is an area that is Yeah,
I'm not to knowledgeable on that as well. I do
know that there are are some organizations that educate people
on ethical breeding. Again, yeah, I'm not even gonna try
to reiterate some of that. That's like a discipline unto itself,
and it's all ye actually a business, like they have
(19:14):
business principles attached to this. Like I'm sure that these organizations,
you know, these full bread you know where they breed
full you know, show dogs and all of that. I'm
sure that they have their rules. Oh yeah, for sure.
It's stringent when it comes to I mean, if you're
thinking about that word ethical, but yeah, that's a loaded words.
(19:34):
So it's loaded. It's loaded.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
It's loaded, because I don't know if ethical is just
one definition. Everybody seems to have different definitions of what
their means. So is it the law? You know, the
law is different than ethical, So right.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
What is the law? I don't know what the law is?
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Actually, I really don't in regard to I know, poppy
mills in some states are illegal, but in other states
they're legal.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
So what does that mean? I mean, you're going to
have more problems in one state than another. And you know,
I guess that's where like a lot of conflicts are
in this whole in this whole industry of the fuzziness
of terms and rules and whatnot. So let's talk about
your upcoming projects, or let's turn it light a little hopeful,
hopeful and more and more in control of what we
(20:23):
can do as humans, right, yeah, exactly, tell us about
your upcoming projects or initiatives.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Okay, one really major initiative that I'm trying to put
the pedal to the metal as my son, Oh.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Please tell me you're gonna produce a movie. Come on.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yes, I don't know if I will produce the movie
because I did TV commercials, I did do movies. But
what I would like to do is get this move
this book. It was adapted into a screenplay, but then that, yeah,
well it didn't move forward in the way that that
it was a beautiful it's a beautiful screenplook. So I
would like to get is made into a movie by
(21:01):
you know, a fantastic movie producer or director or you know,
a studio. And I would also love to do a
TV series because I see this also as a TV
series nice and align with you know, the that group
of people. And so that's what I'm really focused on now.
And also this.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Could be a fantastic platform for dog adoption once this
moves forward, because you're going to use the dogs in
the work for sure. Yeah, So I think it could
be great. I think it brings a lot of awareness.
I think it can align with a lot of rescues.
There's a lot of wonderful.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Actors and actresses that are dog lovers and dog rescuers.
So I'm hoping, you know, God willing that this moves
in that direction. Well, I put it all out there
that it does.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Thank you. You would be tackling more than multiple issues
in that in your work here. I'm ready for and
I think that there's a lot of people that would
be would love to get involved with this. It has
a lot of meaning and its visual So that's that
very very much Sole And you are talented at bringing
(22:13):
out the emotions.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Oh really, thank you?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, well we are out of time.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Sarah.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Thank you again for joining us and for bringing such
a heartfelt voice to the world of animal rescue. And
your work reminds us that healing can come in the
most unexpected forms and that love is transformatives. Thank you, Beverly,
Thank you so much for having me a guest.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Thank your audience.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah for sure. Thanks to our show producer Mark Winter.
Thank you Nark Winter for making the show possible. And
you can learn more about Sarah and dog tab Angels
Too by visiting dogsab Angels Too dot com. We'll also
have the link posted on our show page. If you
have any questions, comments, or ideas for a show, please
email me at Everly at petlitradio dot com. So, until
(23:03):
next time, spread animal compassion.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlight
radio dot com.
Is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Save a Pooch on Pet Life Radio. I
am Beverly Hindla. You're host. Thank you for listening in today.
Our special guest today is Sarah Cavolaro, author of the
award winning novel Dogs Have Angels Too Now. Sarah's powerful
story takes us through the fall and redemption of a
woman who loses everything, her career, her marriage, her home,
(00:31):
and finds help and healing through the unconditional love of
shelter dogs. Now. Sarah's work not only shines the light
on the emotional lives of animals, but also reflects on homelessness, reinvention,
and the quiet hero is working in animal rescue every day.
So it's a story that speaks to the resilience of
both humans and animals. When we get back from these messages,
(00:54):
we'll be joined by Sarah Cavla.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Say goodbite out of your competition and advertise your business
with an ad. In Pet Life Radio podcasts and radio shows,
there is no other pet related media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
Pet Life Radio, with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
(01:19):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit petlife radio dot com slash advertised Today.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Let's talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Welcome back to Say Poosh. We're speaking with Sarah Carvlaro,
author of Dogtop Angels Too. Well. Sarah, thank you so
much for being here to Your book is emotional. I
have incredibly from passionate. So before we dive, did you
share a brief synopsis of Dogs Out of Angels Too
for our listeners.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Yes, it's about a woman who loses everything. She was
a high powered executive in marketing in New York. She
goes through a complete trauma in that she loses her job.
She's in her fifties. She is it's during the financial
crisis of I Believe eight. The Ponzi schemes are running very,
(02:29):
very strong, and she loses her retirement. She therefore cannot
afford her rent. She loses her apartment. She has super
pride and she doesn't want to let anybody know. She
does apply for jobs, but she doesn't actually get them
because she loses teeth and she doesn't have the funding,
the funding, you know, or the resources to get some teeth.
(02:50):
So she goes to Central Park often and she becomes
she Her original name is Alena Schwartz. She morphs herself
into Miss Pink because she loves to wear pink. She
ends up being a top dog rescuer and rescues a
lot of women who are also going through similar issues.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And the dogs. And that's pretty much.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
What it is. It's a journey of self discovery, it's
a journey of redemption. It's an optimistic and it's a
reinvention and it's saving people and animals.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
That's amazing. So what inspired you to write it? And
I was also wondering how much of her story was
drawn from your personal experience? Well, as a writer, I'm
always drawing from my own personal experience. It may not
be as literal. It could be the spiritual aspects of
it or what I needed to learn from certain circumstances.
(03:45):
So my background is I was a founder and the
president of a very successful TV commercial production company, and
i'd done that for many many years. It was located
in New York, and I'd often go to Central Park
and just for rest, just to rest my mind, and
I talk to people. And this Lena Schwartz, who I'm
(04:08):
calling her Lina Schwartz, but that's not really her real name.
This woman would sometimes come and sit on a bench
next to me and we talk, and she talked about
her life, and her life kind of paralleled some aspects
of my life at the time. I mean I was
always down and owning your own company, you know, and
being independent, and you know, going through a lot of
(04:29):
different personal crisis. So I kind of fictionalized her story.
But she did love animals, and she was going through
a really hard time, and she was desperately trying to
reinvent her life, and so I created stories around how
she did that. That's amazing. So her journey is obviously
deeply tied to her connection with dogs. Now, can you
(04:51):
talk about what animals have meant to you and your life?
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Well, they've meant everything to me because when I was
first of five, I wasn't a to have them when
I was a little girl, even though I did find
a little kitten and I took the kitten home, and
I was a young girl, and my father didn't want
animals in the house, and so he took the little
kitten and put the kitten in a grocery store kind
of entrance way or a parking lot entranceway, hoping that
(05:18):
somebody would find this kitten. I'm hoping they did find
the kitten. But when I went off to college, I
ended up it was in Ohio, and I ended up rescuing,
going to a shelter. And in those days, it was
in the seventies, they were euthanizing all oft and I
rescued a little puppy, and this puppy came and lived
with me in the dorm, even though we weren't allowed
(05:40):
to have them. And then I moved to New York
and I brought my little dog with me, and her
name is Athena. And the main character in the book
is Athena. And it's all about saving these animals and
not euthanizing them just because they're abandoned or they're old
or whatever. I mean.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I think it's a crime to kill any animal like
that unless it's a violent situation and you can't help it,
right right, that would be the duel scenario where you
know the euthanization rate is zero. A lot more in
that in that industry. Now, the character that you mentioned
is it Athena. Yeah, a little Athena.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
She looked like a little fawn. And I made a
story around her in the book because I had a couple.
I made up a story because this I've observed this
and it actually happened to me. I had a boyfriend.
It didn't like my little dog, and.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
He shame Yeah, he would be reten. Well, he didn't
like the little dog because the dog had bladder problems
and she peeded a lot everywhere. And it didn't bother me,
but it bothered him. So in the book, I have
the boyfriend telling her, look, if you don't get rid
of this dog, I'm leaving. And so she's actually forced
to surrender her dog, and who rescues her, Miss Pink,
(06:55):
and the whole narrative on this young woman, Cindy. Cindy
has to prove to Miss Pink that she can take
care of that dog before Miss Pink's going to give
her back the dog because Miss Pink legally adopted Athena.
So you know, there's that narrative. It is what do
you do when a couple's fighting over who wants a dog?
Who doesn't want a dog? You know, and you have
(07:15):
the dog. So it's about taking care of your animals regardless, right,
And so Athena's story in the book, or I guess
athena story in your life. Was that one of the
major like inspirations of the scenes in your book.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Yes, one of them. I mean I have many. I
have I have many, many different aspects of the book.
I have the dog rescue aspect and how to create
that and to stop doing the puppy mills. And it's
all through storytelling.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I mean, it's you.
Speaker 5 (07:47):
These are characters that are evolving and growing and learning
their own path. And I have a venture part of
it in which I have the wife of the Ponzi
schemer who's also losing everything because the FBI have a
they've arrested her husband and they're taking away her money.
And she has a little dog named Abigail that she
(08:08):
walks in the park. And Miss Pink becomes friendly with
Miss Wolf and Miss Wolf is this very wealthy lady
who lost all of her money, So what did they do?
She kind of teaches Miss Wolf also to be responsible
and how you handle that. And she also wants some
of Miss Wolf wants to hide her money, so she
(08:28):
puts it into diamonds so that the FBI don't get it,
and they make dog collars. And so where does this
money go out? It goes to building shelters. So everything
has a cause. There's a reason.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That's amazing that you tied all those dots together. No
wonder why you're a TV commercial produced. I wanted to
do an adventure and fun also and lighthearted, but I
also needed to have I wanted all of the missions
in there, like why do you you know? Why do
you keep your money? You want to save something? You
(09:01):
want to say right exactly? And I really commend your
storytelling because really the lessons that stick to people are
those told stories. I really commend you for that. Let's
switch gears a little bit because I do want to
touch on the new ones. Look. I guess at homelessness
among women because your book also touches on that. So
(09:21):
what is it that you wish more people understood about
this issue?
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Well, I'll tell you this is a very very important
issue to understand because you have to understand a how
people become homeless, and especially women. Women have enormous pride
in their looks and you know the way that their
environment is. Like, there's a homeless woman near me. I
live in Los Angeles and she literally has created a
(09:46):
mini apartment that she sweeps on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Wow. Yeah, Like it's decorated, Okay, And it tells me
so much about who she is. Yes, she's she's I
think mentally, something happened mentally. I can't diagnose her. I'm
not a you know for sure, but something happened in
her life that created this. And so when I when
(10:14):
I lived in New York, I saw a ton of
women going through financial crisis. Tons of women had lost
their jobs in these big companies in eight when we
had the financial crisis, and they didn't know how to
get jobs. They didn't know what to do. A lot
of them were in their late fifties. And it's a
very worrisome situation when you know you're a hot you're
(10:38):
an executive. Where do you go? What do you do?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
You have very high rent, your kids are in college,
Like maybe you're supporting it's a single woman that's supporting
her family. So homelessness, Okay, Now, how do you get
there many many ways people become homeless. I think mental, mental, emotional,
all that really pushes you into that position. And obviously
the whole drug thing, but that's another story. So the
(11:03):
homelessness is I aligned with a really interesting organization and
I actually speak about them a lot, and that is
that the homeless people should be able to hold onto
their dogs and those dogs should be taken care of.
And this feeding Pets of the homeless, which you could
find on the website the dogs have Angels to dot
com website. They take care of the dogs of the homeless.
(11:26):
They feed them and they give them medical care around
the nation. And it was founded by a woman who
in New York saw homeless women and homeless men with
their dogs and she said, well, how do you take
care of these animals? And so she founded this organization.
So that's part of it. Also, you know, Miss Pink
becomes homeless, but she has She becomes sometimes homeless, and
(11:50):
sometimes she goes into shelters, but she finds more comfort
in sleeping in the park bench than she does in
sleeping in the shelters because the shelters are very repressive
and they don't allow they didn't allow then the dogs.
I don't know what they are now in New York,
but they didn't allow her to keep her dogs, so
she wanted to keep all her dogs, and so she
(12:11):
chose to be homeless. And that's something I touched upon
in the book and created a little story about that
as well.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Oh wow, that is an issue that can be debated
for sure, and that is do homelessness? Is homeless? Is
dogs better off being with homeless? Sum on how I
should say versus being in a shelter. Soone's glad that
he did touch on that in your book to raise
more questions that need to be asked in this arena.
But let's go to a quick break and when we
(12:40):
get back, we'll continue our conversation with Sarah Calolaro, begging.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
To hear more of your favorite show, Colorful. Episodes of
all our shows are available on demand. Go to fedlife
Radio dot com to fed our entire lineup of possum
ped podcasts. So dig us up in iHeartRadio and iTunes.
Let's Talk Pats live only from pet Life Radio.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Let's Talk Past, Let's pet pet Life Radio, Headline Radio,
pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Welcome back to save a pooch. We're talking with Sarah Cavolaro,
author of Dogs Have Angels Too. So the theme of
redemption that runs through Lena's life and the lies of
the dogs that she works with. What would you ideally
hope readers take away from that that parallel.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Well, you have to really be responsible for your animals.
And you have to, I mean truly be responsible. You
have to train them properly, have to take care of
them properly. You have to love them, and it can't
be your convenience that you love them, and you have
to really think of the welfare of the animal. Miss Pink.
Thing of Miss Pink a lenis Towards aka Miss Pink.
(14:04):
She thinks of the animals and what makes her so
inspirational is they trump her needs. And I love that
And if I can share that, it teaches me something
and it gives me hope and it educates me. And
I would love to just pass that on because it
(14:25):
has a sense of altruism and and I believe in altruism.
I don't think that it's a I know people say
it's not, it can't happen, but I believe it can
because it's just to shift in consciousness. It's just to
shift in how you see something.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Well, when you said that statement, you have to repeat
again their needs triumph perse. Yeah, and that brings me
to like my example with my parents because they're elders,
that they want a dog for their company and you know,
just having they want a so called guard Doug. But
when I when I'm talking to them about this, truthful,
(15:00):
are you really going to walk the dog?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
If you want a guard dog, both guard dogs would
need stimulation and constant training to embody being a guard dog.
Are you willing to do that? No. So it's a
perfect example of me telling my parents, you know what, No,
you cannot have a dog. As much as I would
love you to see or I'd love to see you
more happy and you know, bring more joy through having
(15:23):
a dog. You to deserve a dog because you won't
be able to walk them or give it the attention
that it needs. So that's a really great statement that
you you mentioned there. Well, are your parents can they walk?
One can? One can barely. But if one that can
walk doesn't even walk in South well, I don't know
if you walk another another being Yeah, Well, there's a
(15:47):
whole thing about senior dogs too now because senior dogs
are really good with older people, but they take a
lot of care. And also there's an expense and people
have to look at the expense of him linked dogs too.
You know it's not it's not cheap. No, it's certainly isn't.
Certainly isn't, especially with the unexpected costs. So yeah, finances
(16:09):
is the top reason up there. So there's there's organizations
actually that will pay for some of the healthcare too.
There's so many now that are so fantastic. There's so
much awareness in this area. I think it's like phenomenal.
It never was like this ten years ago. I mean,
this is this is something else. So I'm hoping all
(16:30):
of this awareness is going to slow this this process
of cruelty down and right I'm hoping, I believe. I'm
I actually interviewed someone who whose purpose is to help
seniors that have dogs, but they don't have to surrender
them based on their capability. So I thought that was
a really interesting mission that they have. But you're right,
(16:54):
they are popping up more and more, so that's great
to see.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Yeah, it's seen your dogs cost. What happened is when
they get senior obviously, the medical care. The people can't
afford that, so they surrender very quickly.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, oh yeah, actually yeah, all of the fossil dogs
I've had came from seniors not being able to take
care of them, and those dogs were perfectly fine, exactly. Yeah. Now,
you write so beautifully about the silent trauma that animals carry.
In your opinion, what can listeners do to better support
shelter pets in their communities.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Well, adopt them and also foster them, adopt them and
stop the puppy mills, because that's what they can do too.
You know, it's like, at the core of it, right,
educate people to not take animals that they can't take
care of. But that's a hard one because everybody wants
an animal. And then you know, after a couple of years,
you know, life is always changing, as we know, and
(17:50):
sometimes not for our convenience. You know, there's a lot
going on in this life.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
So I don't know, I would just say try to
foster and adopt this and keep these facilities really well
financed so that they can take care of the animals properly,
for sure. For sure. What's your take on ethical breeding?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
I don't have a I'm not proficient in this, you
know what I mean, I don't know what ethical breeding means.
I can say one thing, Puppy Mills is not ethical breeding.
You can't breed just for profit. I mean, that's not
ethical in my opinion. You just can't breed and breed
and breed and breed animals. It's like these keeping these
horses or to keep them pregnant all the time. It's
(18:31):
not right, it's not good for them. So I don't know.
I guess that's ethical or I don't know what ethical is,
but I think it's cruel really cool to keep an
animal pregnant all the time so that you can make
money off that animal. That to me is kind of gross.
So right, that's my.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well, thank you for that is an area that is Yeah,
I'm not to knowledgeable on that as well. I do
know that there are are some organizations that educate people
on ethical breeding. Again, yeah, I'm not even gonna try
to reiterate some of that. That's like a discipline unto itself,
and it's all ye actually a business, like they have
(19:14):
business principles attached to this. Like I'm sure that these organizations,
you know, these full bread you know where they breed
full you know, show dogs and all of that. I'm
sure that they have their rules. Oh yeah, for sure.
It's stringent when it comes to I mean, if you're
thinking about that word ethical, but yeah, that's a loaded words.
(19:34):
So it's loaded. It's loaded.
Speaker 5 (19:36):
It's loaded, because I don't know if ethical is just
one definition. Everybody seems to have different definitions of what
their means. So is it the law? You know, the
law is different than ethical, So right.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
What is the law? I don't know what the law is?
Speaker 5 (19:52):
Actually, I really don't in regard to I know, poppy
mills in some states are illegal, but in other states
they're legal.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
So what does that mean? I mean, you're going to
have more problems in one state than another. And you know,
I guess that's where like a lot of conflicts are
in this whole in this whole industry of the fuzziness
of terms and rules and whatnot. So let's talk about
your upcoming projects, or let's turn it light a little hopeful,
hopeful and more and more in control of what we
(20:23):
can do as humans, right, yeah, exactly, tell us about
your upcoming projects or initiatives.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Okay, one really major initiative that I'm trying to put
the pedal to the metal as my son, Oh.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Please tell me you're gonna produce a movie. Come on.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yes, I don't know if I will produce the movie
because I did TV commercials, I did do movies. But
what I would like to do is get this move
this book. It was adapted into a screenplay, but then that, yeah,
well it didn't move forward in the way that that
it was a beautiful it's a beautiful screenplook. So I
would like to get is made into a movie by
(21:01):
you know, a fantastic movie producer or director or you know,
a studio. And I would also love to do a
TV series because I see this also as a TV
series nice and align with you know, the that group
of people. And so that's what I'm really focused on now.
And also this.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Could be a fantastic platform for dog adoption once this
moves forward, because you're going to use the dogs in
the work for sure. Yeah, So I think it could
be great. I think it brings a lot of awareness.
I think it can align with a lot of rescues.
There's a lot of wonderful.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Actors and actresses that are dog lovers and dog rescuers.
So I'm hoping, you know, God willing that this moves
in that direction. Well, I put it all out there
that it does.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Thank you. You would be tackling more than multiple issues
in that in your work here. I'm ready for and
I think that there's a lot of people that would
be would love to get involved with this. It has
a lot of meaning and its visual So that's that
very very much Sole And you are talented at bringing
(22:13):
out the emotions.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Oh really, thank you?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, well we are out of time.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Sarah.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Thank you again for joining us and for bringing such
a heartfelt voice to the world of animal rescue. And
your work reminds us that healing can come in the
most unexpected forms and that love is transformatives. Thank you, Beverly,
Thank you so much for having me a guest.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
Thank your audience.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah for sure. Thanks to our show producer Mark Winter.
Thank you Nark Winter for making the show possible. And
you can learn more about Sarah and dog tab Angels
Too by visiting dogsab Angels Too dot com. We'll also
have the link posted on our show page. If you
have any questions, comments, or ideas for a show, please
email me at Everly at petlitradio dot com. So, until
(23:03):
next time, spread animal compassion.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlight
radio dot com.
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