December 4, 2025 • 8 mins
...and bring your dog! Santa and Mrs. Grinch are there for photo ops.
Jeff Wallitsch and Friends of Metro Animal Services leader David Payne have details in this chat with Terry Meiners.
Jeff Wallitsch and Friends of Metro Animal Services leader David Payne have details in this chat with Terry Meiners.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Joe, thanks a ton, you're a news radio
eight forty wh s. Terry miners here. Jeff Wallach has
returned to the scene of the crime. Go to see again, Jeffrey.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's good to get you in because I know you're
usually working with people's plants or whatever and who knows what,
and you're out freezing in the cold. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Like I was telling you earlier, I'm pulling out frozen
pumpkins to put in people's Christmas decorations.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So that was really fun. I enjoyed that. And I'm freezing.
My feet are so cold right now.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's what happens. I mean, I thought that you had
enough experience where you know, to wear four pairs of
socks or whatever. She forgot.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, I didn't even look at the weather, and it
was really bad. I didn't know it was gonna snow.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The couple I was like, because it was like sixty
degrees last week.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
By the way, my wife is very, very picky about
her plants. We came to your place on a hikes Laine.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
No hikes, explain, not Hicks Lane Hikeslane.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hikes, Layne, and she picked out a whole bunch of
these fancy plants and they all look great. That's good.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You haven't killed them yet, No, I have.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I don't mess with it. I had to put a
lot of the dirt out there. Okay, you know whatever
that stuff is we bought for the Foundational dirt.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
T top so and all that. Yeah, that's whatever that is.
She's like, I need another bag on there, you know,
like I'm a mule. And anyway, they all look good
and they have snow is sitting on them and they're
holding them.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, it's pretty, isn't it. All the snow.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We don't we have to be careful with our trees
and shrubberies and so forth in terms of how much
weight is sitting on them for a prolonged period.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, so it is good. So I did look at
the weather forecast for the next couple days. Supposed to
warm up a little bit. But yeah, if there's going
to be a lot of snow on your plants and
stuff like that, it is good to try to knock
that off. But there's plants are very sturdy, especially like
your evergreens and things like that. There are some shrubs
that are going to be like the arbor bidies. Sometimes
(01:50):
will be weak with all the snow. So if you
do have newly planted shrubs, the snow is going to
be around for a little bit of time. It's really
easy to shake it off or just like take your blower.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, a blower or a broom or something. Just don't
hit it hard because you don't want to break down ice.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
That's the one thing. When you try to get the
ice off, that's really where you're gonna get your damage
from the winter snow and storms and things.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Just good to remind people of that, all right. So
the Walletch Winter Festival, it's coming up this Saturday. Also
in the studio with us is David Payne from Friends
of Metro Animal Service. It's good to see you, David,
you as well, Terry, glad to be here. Thanks for
dropping by here. I guess you're a beneficiary then, of
the Walach Winter Festival this weekend.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yes, sir, yes, sir. We're going to be out there
eleven to two, you know, encouraging people to bring out
their animals. And we also appreciate Waltch because they're donating
a percentage of sales, but also they're going to donate
some things from the Wish list that we have for
the animals this year, trying to make sure they have
a great Christmas, just like everybody else.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
How is our Louisville Metro Animal Services funded? Is it
doing well right now or is it a struggle? You
having a fight to get your piece of the pie?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You know, since I started there about two years ago
with Friends of Metro Animal Services, we've slowly been increasing
with our market share here, just trying to bring more
information to the people about what is happening. Last year
they had an intake of about eight thousand animals. This
year we're going to bring in about ten thousand. So
it's one of those things that has continuously climbed since.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I mean, that's a staggering, not not wrong to just
think about the care of these sweet things.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
And we have amazing volunteers. There's tons of animals and
foster care as well, and there's just great opportunities for
people to get involved that don't involve just donating, but
just being in the shelter and helping out in any way.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, I'm glad that people
like the Wallach Gardens folks are there to help and
help you fundraise and all that I saw. These Some
event highlights, Jeff include Christmas trees. You're probably pretty good
with those too.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, I'm pretty good. This is our second year. We're
going into eighty years next year at the Garden Center,
and this is our second year of having Christmas trees,
so we're super excited.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I didn't realize you just picked that up. Last year
we did.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
They were like, let's do Christmas trees. We have nothing
else to do.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So they're like, okay, yeah, yeah, you got no other
work there. I mean the place you have on Hikes
Lane is fantastic, goes on and on. There's so many
amazing things. So now Christmas trees are out there too.
Are you like the crabby guy in the Christmas movie?
He's always smoking?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Just take this.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So it's actually really sweet. What we do is we
name all of our Christmas shit out. All of our
team does. And actually a lot of the animals. I
think there's like nine animals that you guys are trying
to get adopted. They we have named the some of
the trees after those animals. So take a look when
you're coming out on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It's super cute. We have their pictures and stuff. On it,
So they should adopt the tree.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They should adopt the tree and the animal. So if
you adopt the animal, maybe we'll just give you.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The tree too.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Like that, Like what did he say? What did he say?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Give it a waste? Give it away?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What else happens during this winter festival on satad So I.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Love a good bar. So we're having a hot cocoa bar.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So there's no alcohol this time, sorry, but it's very
family kid friendly. Bring your dogs, bring bring everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Is there a liquor based hot cocoa bar that I
didn't know about?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
You?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Could you like Bailey's? Yeah, like there's what like hot
you already have it set up. Why don't you come
back later in the day after the festival's over. Or
you could have bring car wine or something I don't know. Yeah,
you gotta have.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Old wine like that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
The bathtub gin you got going on?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Abe?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And did I see this right? Santa and Missus Grinch.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes, they're gonna be there. You can take pictures. It's
all free.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You don't have to pay for anything with the pictures
with Santa. Bring your animals, bring your kids, bring your family,
bring everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Is this scandalous that Missus Grinch is with Santa Claus.
Missus Claws remains at the North Pole. I didn't even
know the Grinch was married. This is why the liquor
at the hot Coco side piece. Oh boy, we have fun. Yeah,
it's gonna be great. And is there music?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
We will have music somehow holiday music will be event
holiday music. If you had that form the back of
Mariah Carey stalled out, so she will maybe be there.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And on this she.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Gets a dollar fifty. Every time that song plays somewhere.
It's like, oh my goodness to sing, but that's all. Yeah,
I can sing for you and that'd be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Winter Festival at Wallach Gardens is this Saturday eleven till
two and that's twenty six oh eight. Hike s Lane
free to attend, of course. And you said bring your dog.
Oh yeah, bring family.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
It's family friendly like you said, and bring your dogs
as well, you know, try to get a whole family
environment going.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
So we do have a lot of questions.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
If you can't make it to the event, how can
we donate to the animal services because you go online
and donate, or how do you how do we do that.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
No, great question. I mean we have our website which
is fomaslou dot org. You can go there backslash it
if you want to for our donation page. You can
also come to the shelter at three five two eight
Newburgh Road or open twelve to six almost every day,
so you can go in there and drop off your items,
maybe even go back into the kennel's area and see
some of the animals.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's fantastic. FOMAS, of course means Friends of Metro Animal Services,
so you can spell it out f O M A
S l O U for Louisville dot org. Yes, sir,
all good David, Thanks, great to see you.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, appreciate it. Terry, Erry Christmas cheff good as that's
good to see you.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
We'll be by. Mary'll be in there again and she's.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Come get at Christmas tree and a dog.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
She needs a garland thing. One of those garland deals
goes over the front door. Christmas tree. Mary, I kind
of wrecked our.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, there's I'm sure there's a Merry Christmas tree. There's
no Mary Wallace ever because there's.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Like twelve all right, Saturday eleven until the Wallach Gardens
Winter Festival. This Saturday eleven, till too great to see
you both. Back in a minute on news radio had
forty w H A S.
All right, Joe, thanks a ton, you're a news radio
eight forty wh s. Terry miners here. Jeff Wallach has
returned to the scene of the crime. Go to see again, Jeffrey.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's good to get you in because I know you're
usually working with people's plants or whatever and who knows what,
and you're out freezing in the cold. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Like I was telling you earlier, I'm pulling out frozen
pumpkins to put in people's Christmas decorations.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So that was really fun. I enjoyed that. And I'm freezing.
My feet are so cold right now.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's what happens. I mean, I thought that you had
enough experience where you know, to wear four pairs of
socks or whatever. She forgot.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
No, I didn't even look at the weather, and it
was really bad. I didn't know it was gonna snow.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The couple I was like, because it was like sixty
degrees last week.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
By the way, my wife is very, very picky about
her plants. We came to your place on a hikes Laine.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
No hikes, explain, not Hicks Lane Hikeslane.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hikes, Layne, and she picked out a whole bunch of
these fancy plants and they all look great. That's good.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You haven't killed them yet, No, I have.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I don't mess with it. I had to put a
lot of the dirt out there. Okay, you know whatever
that stuff is we bought for the Foundational dirt.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
T top so and all that. Yeah, that's whatever that is.
She's like, I need another bag on there, you know,
like I'm a mule. And anyway, they all look good
and they have snow is sitting on them and they're
holding them.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, it's pretty, isn't it. All the snow.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
We don't we have to be careful with our trees
and shrubberies and so forth in terms of how much
weight is sitting on them for a prolonged period.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, so it is good. So I did look at
the weather forecast for the next couple days. Supposed to
warm up a little bit. But yeah, if there's going
to be a lot of snow on your plants and
stuff like that, it is good to try to knock
that off. But there's plants are very sturdy, especially like
your evergreens and things like that. There are some shrubs
that are going to be like the arbor bidies. Sometimes
(01:50):
will be weak with all the snow. So if you
do have newly planted shrubs, the snow is going to
be around for a little bit of time. It's really
easy to shake it off or just like take your blower.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, a blower or a broom or something. Just don't
hit it hard because you don't want to break down ice.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
That's the one thing. When you try to get the
ice off, that's really where you're gonna get your damage
from the winter snow and storms and things.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Just good to remind people of that, all right. So
the Walletch Winter Festival, it's coming up this Saturday. Also
in the studio with us is David Payne from Friends
of Metro Animal Service. It's good to see you, David,
you as well, Terry, glad to be here. Thanks for
dropping by here. I guess you're a beneficiary then, of
the Walach Winter Festival this weekend.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yes, sir, yes, sir. We're going to be out there
eleven to two, you know, encouraging people to bring out
their animals. And we also appreciate Waltch because they're donating
a percentage of sales, but also they're going to donate
some things from the Wish list that we have for
the animals this year, trying to make sure they have
a great Christmas, just like everybody else.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
How is our Louisville Metro Animal Services funded? Is it
doing well right now or is it a struggle? You
having a fight to get your piece of the pie?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You know, since I started there about two years ago
with Friends of Metro Animal Services, we've slowly been increasing
with our market share here, just trying to bring more
information to the people about what is happening. Last year
they had an intake of about eight thousand animals. This
year we're going to bring in about ten thousand. So
it's one of those things that has continuously climbed since.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I mean, that's a staggering, not not wrong to just
think about the care of these sweet things.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
And we have amazing volunteers. There's tons of animals and
foster care as well, and there's just great opportunities for
people to get involved that don't involve just donating, but
just being in the shelter and helping out in any way.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, I'm glad that people
like the Wallach Gardens folks are there to help and
help you fundraise and all that I saw. These Some
event highlights, Jeff include Christmas trees. You're probably pretty good
with those too.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah, I'm pretty good. This is our second year. We're
going into eighty years next year at the Garden Center,
and this is our second year of having Christmas trees,
so we're super excited.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I didn't realize you just picked that up. Last year
we did.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
They were like, let's do Christmas trees. We have nothing
else to do.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So they're like, okay, yeah, yeah, you got no other
work there. I mean the place you have on Hikes
Lane is fantastic, goes on and on. There's so many
amazing things. So now Christmas trees are out there too.
Are you like the crabby guy in the Christmas movie?
He's always smoking?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Just take this.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So it's actually really sweet. What we do is we
name all of our Christmas shit out. All of our
team does. And actually a lot of the animals. I
think there's like nine animals that you guys are trying
to get adopted. They we have named the some of
the trees after those animals. So take a look when
you're coming out on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It's super cute. We have their pictures and stuff. On it,
So they should adopt the tree.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They should adopt the tree and the animal. So if
you adopt the animal, maybe we'll just give you.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The tree too.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Like that, Like what did he say? What did he say?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Give it a waste? Give it away?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What else happens during this winter festival on satad So I.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Love a good bar. So we're having a hot cocoa bar.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So there's no alcohol this time, sorry, but it's very
family kid friendly. Bring your dogs, bring bring everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Is there a liquor based hot cocoa bar that I
didn't know about?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
You?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Could you like Bailey's? Yeah, like there's what like hot
you already have it set up. Why don't you come
back later in the day after the festival's over. Or
you could have bring car wine or something I don't know. Yeah,
you gotta have.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Old wine like that.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
The bathtub gin you got going on?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Abe?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And did I see this right? Santa and Missus Grinch.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes, they're gonna be there. You can take pictures. It's
all free.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You don't have to pay for anything with the pictures
with Santa. Bring your animals, bring your kids, bring your family,
bring everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Is this scandalous that Missus Grinch is with Santa Claus.
Missus Claws remains at the North Pole. I didn't even
know the Grinch was married. This is why the liquor
at the hot Coco side piece. Oh boy, we have fun. Yeah,
it's gonna be great. And is there music?
Speaker 3 (06:11):
We will have music somehow holiday music will be event
holiday music. If you had that form the back of
Mariah Carey stalled out, so she will maybe be there.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And on this she.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Gets a dollar fifty. Every time that song plays somewhere.
It's like, oh my goodness to sing, but that's all. Yeah,
I can sing for you and that'd be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Winter Festival at Wallach Gardens is this Saturday eleven till
two and that's twenty six oh eight. Hike s Lane
free to attend, of course. And you said bring your dog.
Oh yeah, bring family.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
It's family friendly like you said, and bring your dogs
as well, you know, try to get a whole family
environment going.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
So we do have a lot of questions.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
If you can't make it to the event, how can
we donate to the animal services because you go online
and donate, or how do you how do we do that.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
No, great question. I mean we have our website which
is fomaslou dot org. You can go there backslash it
if you want to for our donation page. You can
also come to the shelter at three five two eight
Newburgh Road or open twelve to six almost every day,
so you can go in there and drop off your items,
maybe even go back into the kennel's area and see
some of the animals.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's fantastic. FOMAS, of course means Friends of Metro Animal Services,
so you can spell it out f O M A
S l O U for Louisville dot org. Yes, sir,
all good David, Thanks, great to see you.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, appreciate it. Terry, Erry Christmas cheff good as that's
good to see you.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
We'll be by. Mary'll be in there again and she's.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Come get at Christmas tree and a dog.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
She needs a garland thing. One of those garland deals
goes over the front door. Christmas tree. Mary, I kind
of wrecked our.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, there's I'm sure there's a Merry Christmas tree. There's
no Mary Wallace ever because there's.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Like twelve all right, Saturday eleven until the Wallach Gardens
Winter Festival. This Saturday eleven, till too great to see
you both. Back in a minute on news radio had
forty w H A S.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com