SHOW TRANSCRIPT

 

[00:00:05] Speaker 1 All right. Welcome back to another episode of the Go with John Show. We are here today with Sam Wolbert from the Arlington County Animal Welfare League. Welcome, Sam.

 

[00:00:15] Speaker 2 Thanks, John. Thanks for having.

 

[00:00:16] Speaker 1 Me. Did I get that right?

 

[00:00:18] Speaker 2 Close. The Animal Welfare League of.

 

[00:00:20] Speaker 1 Arlene, darling. Yes. Yep. I am an imperfect human like the rest of us. So. Well, welcome and thanks for coming in. So. So today we want to talk a little bit about pets and we kind of want to dovetail into the the homebuilding world and the real estate world, because that’s kind of what the focus of our show is here. And then later, we want to hear a little bit about your organization, and I know you maybe have some stories for us, so sounds good. So, you know, one of the things that I do on a on a regular basis is when I sit down and meet with people and I ask them if they have pets and they say yes, and in particular if people have dogs. I have some suggestions with how they can configure their home to make life easy or on them to make life easier on them with regard to pets. So I’ll often recommend like a dog wash or, you know, consider we would ask our buyers to consider where do you want the, the door to your home to let your dogs in and out of the backyard. So you’re bringing them in to maybe a mudroom versus letting them come in to a carpeted area of the home. So so those are things we kind of work on. Have you do you what kind of advice would you have for people who are building a home or moving or doing a renovation with regard to their pets?

 

[00:01:40] Speaker 2 Yeah. Well, where to begin?

 

[00:01:42] Speaker 1 Exactly. Yeah.

 

[00:01:43] Speaker 2 That there’s so many considerations as far as pets and homes and what you’re looking for. So it all depends. With cats, I’ll start with cats because they’re a little bit easier. Right. The the idea with a cat is they like to have space vertically as well as, you know, some open space in the home as well. But cats really like to climb. They like to explore. So when you are building our home or buying a home, one of the things to consider is what? What can you do vertically with the space that you have? Is it just an open room or are there shelving or are there things you can do for the cat to climb and kind of get into nooks and crannies because they really like to explore in that way? Dogs, it’s going to be a little different. Dogs, it’s kind of case by case. Right. I have an older dog, so I’m a little bit more mindful of the fact that she might not be able to walk as stable as she used to. So we have carpeting kind of around the home. We have hardwood floors, but we kind of have carpeting to help her move around. Right. With an older dog, you also want to be thinking about stairs. Are you looking at a multi floor home because an older dog may not be able to get up and down those stairs as easily as a younger dog?

 

[00:03:06] Speaker 1 You know, same thing happens with humans.

 

[00:03:08] Speaker 2 Yeah. Exactly. Or like myself, it’s. It’s a little harder to get out of bed in the morning. You know, I don’t want to trudge down multiple flights of stairs. So those are some of the considerations with with the dog and flooring we as a pet owner and this goes for all ages of animals. You want to consider the floor too, right? What we tend to recommend is a little bit of a hardwood floor because it makes cleaning up messes easier. Right. Some of that vinyl that can withstand the nails and the scratching and the pet messes.

 

[00:03:43] Speaker 1 And, you know, it’s it’s interesting you bring that up. I think the whole building industry has gone to luxury vinyl plank. Yeah. So you can get all different kinds of grades of, of, of flooring. And when you say vinyl, it’s not like the old school, you know, resilient vinyl floors that you’re that you’re thinking about. I mean, these floors look like hardwoods. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they’re very durable.

 

[00:04:08] Speaker 2 That’s what I was just going to say. Durability because of those, especially if you have a bigger dog, they can scratch up the floor pretty easily just by walking around.

 

[00:04:17] Speaker 1 And then you get the cartoon effect. Like when the doorbell rings and the dog wants to run to the front door, they run in place for a minute before they get their traction.

 

[00:04:24] Speaker 2 That’s exactly. Yeah, I have seen that plenty of times as well. One of the things, too, I think not a lot of people consider in homes is what how are you going to block off an animal? Right. Because there are times you might have guests coming and going and depending on what kind of dog you have, they may not always like that. Right. The people come in. You might also have a dog that likes to get in the kitchen trash. And if you’re leaving, you want to keep the dog out of the kitchen. Right. So some of those open floor plans, those are great. Those are fantastic. But you’re going to want to consider, depending on the kind of dog you have, how can I keep. This animal. This. This in a.

 

[00:05:05] Speaker 1 Certain.

 

[00:05:06] Speaker 2 Area. In a certain.

 

[00:05:07] Speaker 1 Area. That’s good advice. Yeah.

 

[00:05:09] Speaker 2 So. So, once again, with dogs, it’s case by case with cats. They love that space. They love that verticality. And sometimes you just have to kind of think from a dog perspective. We might love something that they’re just not going to get, that it’s just more, you know, it won’t register to them. One of the things to I know you had mentioned kind of the mudroom and we’re seeing a little bit more of that, you know, for lack of a better term, kind of those luxury items, mudroom, the baths with retractable faucet. So you don’t have to necessarily bend down to get your dog in there. You can move that fostered around. I think what is being one of the trends now are Nooks. And you kind of see this on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, all those social media where kind of little spaces that you wouldn’t necessarily have anything before under stairs as a perfect example or maybe kind of an attic. People turn that into a little pet room, right? So you can have, you know, your little bed and maybe like a little food bowl for the animal to kind of relax and have their own space once again, if they want to get away, if if you need to kind of block them off. So, yeah, there’s there’s plenty of new little cute ways that you can kind of make some of those spaces attractive. Right. The other thing I would mention as a builder, I’m sure you see this, about two thirds of families have pets. Mm hmm. So so these just are little cute things that you’re doing that that aren’t going to that’s just going to be for you. I mean, if you’re thinking of resale, if you’re thinking of renters or whatever the case may be, people want spaces for their pets. There are so many pets now, especially in the Arlington area where we’re at that that that is going to be attractive to someone coming in, looking at that home to have those kind of unique spaces.

 

[00:07:06] Speaker 1 Mm hmm. Now, that’s. That’s so true. What are do you know what’s the percentage of pet owners what the breakdown is of the pets they are like? What percentage of people own dogs versus cats?

 

[00:07:19] Speaker 2 Ooh, you know, that’s a very good question. I know there’s a lot of research out there. I don’t know if there’s a concise answer. Right. The trouble with trying to break it down is that usually people who have cats like myself, I have three cats, but I have one dog. Right. So they’re they’re especially in Arlington where there tends to be multi multilevel homes, not necessarily single family homes or not as many as as some areas. You tend to see a little bit more cats than dogs. Right. And then the dogs that you do see tend to be a little bit smaller just because we’re all on top of each other. Right? Right. Right. But yeah, certainly. I mean, cats are because you can generally have more of them tend to be a little bit more popular in this area.

 

[00:08:06] Speaker 1 Well, and they’re self-sufficient.

 

[00:08:07] Speaker 2 They are. Yeah. They’re a little bit more self.

 

[00:08:10] Speaker 1 Yeah. You don’t have to come home twice a day and walk the cat.

 

[00:08:13] Speaker 2 Exactly. Yeah. I was just going to say, I don’t have to worry if I leave overnight. My cats are fine. It’s the dog that I have to worry about.

 

[00:08:20] Speaker 1 Right. So now how? So? How often do you bring your dog to work? And how often do you bring your cats to work?

 

[00:08:28] Speaker 2 Well, the dog you know, I like to say pre-COVID, the dog was coming in with me every single day during COVID. She retired. She decided she got used to living at home. She did not want to be back in the office. So I will bring her in, you know, maybe once a week, once every other week. But she does not want to be there. She would prefer to be at home on the couch sleeping with the cats. Yeah, with the cats. And then get fed before I leave and then when I get home. Right. That’s kind of her lifestyle.

 

[00:08:57] Speaker 1 Yeah, that’s pretty nice. Yeah, that’s pretty nice. So what do you how do you feel about folks using crates for their dogs? Do you what’s your position on that? Yeah.

 

[00:09:08] Speaker 2 Crates are a great tool for dogs. What we would recommend is that the dog is kind of trained to to learn to associate that crate with positive behavior. A lot of dogs. It kind of mimics the den of what they kind of were, you know, thousands of years ago, what they had been brought up in. So it can be a very comfortable space for dogs. Once again, talking about having a dog have their own space. A crate is a fantastic example of that. If you are going to crate route, obviously starting early would be ideal getting them used to it at a young age. But you can also I mean, they can get used to, you know, anything. It’s just with the right training. And that would be once again associating that crate with a positive kind of association. So we would recommend treats, put some treats in the crate. Let the dog go and let the dog come out. Kind of let the dog get used to it on their own. We wouldn’t say, put the dog in the crate, leave it there for 8 hours, go and do something that that would be what you want to build towards. But you’ve got to start slow and using treats, toys, blankets, things that they’re familiar with is a great way to do that.

 

[00:10:21] Speaker 1 Yeah, I’ve done it both ways with pets I’ve owned over the years and I think if you if you crate train a puppy, they tend to love the crate throughout their life that’s there. That’s their happy place or their safe place or their. It’s their couch.

 

[00:10:36] Speaker 2 Exactly.

 

[00:10:37] Speaker 1 Yep. Yeah. Where they go and they get away. And, you know, my, my philosophy was if my dog was in his crate, I left him alone. Yeah. I didn’t call him out. I just kind of said, okay, you’re in your space and you can stay there.

 

[00:10:50] Speaker 2 And that’s that is a great philosophy. A lot of times we have to remember dogs and cats, they’re they’re individuals, too. They have their wants and desires. And while I may want to constantly shower affection on to them, they may wanna get away from me. Right. And so having that crate, having four cats, having those nooks and crannies are great spots, are a great place for them to kind of, you know, come and go.

 

[00:11:17] Speaker 1 Right. So let’s let’s talk about since I’m in the real estate industry, let’s talk about moving. So do you have any advice for folks when they’re moving and they have pets, how to manage their pets throughout the move?

 

[00:11:31] Speaker 2 Yes. So I, I, I’m sure you’ve undergone some moves. I’m sure. Yeah, it is for people it is very stressful. Yeah, we know it’s happening. So you can imagine for your pets who don’t know what’s happening, it’s it’s even more stressful. So for moves it once again it kind of depends on the pet but we always recommend starting slow. You don’t want to on the day of the move say, all right, this is it, let’s get out of here. You want to kind of build up into that?

 

[00:12:06] Speaker 1 So how do you build up?

 

[00:12:07] Speaker 2 Well, it depends. You know, if you are moving from a home, you let’s say you already have you’ve closed on the home. That’s yours. Right. You can start, you know, bringing that that animal to the home, kind of let them get used to it. Maybe starting in one room, letting them kind of get their surroundings in that one room. Right. Introduce a second room. So so they’re kind of familiar with the new space.

 

[00:12:36] Speaker 1 Would you do that for cats and dogs?

 

[00:12:39] Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There is a lot of, you know, cats. A lot of people think cats are they’re they’re are simple just kind of you know, they hang out and they do. Right. But they still have a lot of those tendencies that we may not associate with cats, which is they get stressed out as well. They also need that familiarity and they need to kind of build up towards it. The big thing with the move, if you don’t have that space and it’s kind of like you’re you’re moving from a home to your car for a week and then to another home. We would maybe someone that the pet is familiar with, you know, have you had a dog sitter that they’ve gone to, a friend that they can stay with? And once again, it’s kind of starting slow. So let’s say you do have that friend. You bring it over.

 

[00:13:28] Speaker 1 Bring acclimate.

 

[00:13:28] Speaker 2 Yeah, bring the pet to the friend’s place for a couple of days, do some move in, bring them back. So you’re not doing everything at once. Just kind of focusing on taking it a little bit slower than you might necessarily if you don’t have that pet. Right. The big thing, too, is movers. You know, people are not necessarily movers, but while you’re moving, people may be in and out of your home. You may be shuffling things in and out, making sure that the pet is secure somewhere during that process. Because we do see there’s plenty of stories of pets getting out during that time. Right. And that’s when, you know, having the crate, having those spaces that you can kind of for lack of kind of keep them secure while people are coming and going. That’s when those spaces are really critical.

 

[00:14:18] Speaker 1 Right. Right. That’s that’s good advice. So now you told me before we started chatting today that you so you’re going through a small renovation in your home? I am. So so tell us about that and tell us, how are you managing your crew of three cats and one dog? It sounds like your dogs are pretty laid back at this point.

 

[00:14:41] Speaker 2 The dog is laid back. I’m very fortunate. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how am I managing it? I’m not sleeping very well. Yeah. No, it’s, it’s I mean, it’s a process because we have people coming and going at all hours, it seems.

 

[00:14:57] Speaker 1 So how are you managing the pets?

 

[00:14:59] Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the dog can. She can. I’m fortunate that I can bring the dog to work so that that’s something I don’t have to worry about with the cats. We do have a spot that that they can be kept in. The issue is it’s in it’s it’s kind of in the basement where the breaker is, where the water. Right where you can turn the water on and off. So the workers do have to kind of go in occasionally and the cats have gotten out. But luckily we have signs all over the home where those people. Just reminding everyone that cats can and may be loose. So please be mindful when you’re coming and going. Luckily, two of the cats I mentioned have three. Two of the cats are a little bit shyer, so they’re going to try to avoid those workers as much as they can. My one boy cat, his name is Wayne. He is your stereotypical troublemaker, and he’s going to be in their business and kind of hanging out with them. Yeah, but so far I think he’s also been scared of all the loud noises, all the commotion. So he’s also kind of.

 

[00:16:06] Speaker 1 So they’re a little jittery at night when you come home.

 

[00:16:09] Speaker 2 Well, you know, they are fine when the workers aren’t there, but they are a little stressed out. And one of the thing I did want to mention that during the move and also during renovations or things that there are, you know, you can get pheromones, which which kind of can help. There’s some evidence showing that it kind of helps ease some tension. So for cat it’s it is a feel away and for dogs it’s called adoptable and once again just kind of calming pheromones. Food is a great, great resource not necessarily for cats because they they may not be as food motivated as dogs, but with dogs you can freeze Kongs, keep them busy with other things where they may not be as stressed with people coming and going.

 

[00:16:55] Speaker 1 Right, right, right. Right. Good advice. Good advice. All right. So we’re going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we’re going to have more with Sam Wall Bird and the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. Thanks for coming in, Sam.

 

[00:17:07] Speaker 2 Thank you.

 

[00:17:12] Speaker 1 All right. Welcome back. We’re still here with Sam Wolbert yet? No, you haven’t left yet. Haven’t scared you off yet. So thanks for sticking around. So. So, Sam, we’re talking about the Animal Welfare League of Arlington today. And thanks again for coming in. We really appreciate you taking time to come in and share some stories and some advice with our with our listeners. So so let’s talk about Arlington specifically and let’s talk about before we talk about Arlington specifically, let’s talk about some advice you may have for folks regarding their backyards.

 

[00:17:46] Speaker 2 Yeah. So once again, you know, backyards are a great spot for those dogs to kind of hang out. And one of those considerations you want is to make sure if there’s fencing and secure fencing, if the dog is going to be outside, we don’t recommend just leaving the dog outside all day. But obviously, you know, getting outside is important. And so you want to make sure the dog can be secure in the yard. One of the one of the things, too, is the plants. People don’t necessarily consider the plants or what may be in the home. The SPCA has a great list of what are toxic to both dogs and cats. And sometimes those backyards, if there’s a garden already in place, they might have some things that aren’t necessarily good. If you’re if you have a dog that’s a grazer or can get into that kind of trouble. Yeah. So so looking at secured fencing, looking at proper shade in this area in Arlington, it’s hard to find a big green grass, a lot of trees fenced in yard, but maybe a little bit outside. Those are some of the considerations you want to look at. And then, of course, Beyond the Yard is looking at the neighborhood. Is it a pet friendly neighborhood? Right. What are their rules and regulations? Are you part of an H? Okay. There are sometimes breed restrictions or size restrictions depending on the place that you’re moving to. That’s definitely a consideration because you don’t want to buy a home, move in and find out the dog that you have might not necessarily be allowed into the community. And then finally, vets. We’re very lucky here in Arlington that we have a lot of vets and a lot of great veterinary clinics. Some areas are a little bit more sparse. But today, especially after COVID, with everyone that adopted an animal, vets are backed up. So if you are moving to a new area, you want to get in as a new client because you don’t want to wait until there’s a problem, right?

 

[00:19:49] Speaker 1 Oh, that’s good.

 

[00:19:50] Speaker 2 Yes. So so you want to make sure that they are aware of you. They’re aware of your pets. So so we would recommend, if you’re moving to an area, check out the vets. Get in as as a client. Don’t wait until you need that emergency service, because so many vets now are not taking new clients that you don’t want to. If you’re waiting until that point, it’s going to be too late.

 

[00:20:08] Speaker 1 Right. Well, you know, that’s an interesting point, because I think you will know better than I will for sure. But wasn’t there a huge explosion of pet ownership during COVID?

 

[00:20:19] Speaker 2 There was, yes. And especially where I work, the Animal Welfare League, we we couldn’t keep animals. You know, there were so many people very fortunate. This area, it’s a very pet friendly community here in Arlington. But there are so many people who wanted to adopt, who wanted to foster because they were home and there was nothing they needed.

 

[00:20:40] Speaker 1 Company. Yeah.

 

[00:20:41] Speaker 2 And so they look to us to, to kind of provide that service, which was great on our end. It was just hard to kind of meet that demand. But as, as we’re two years into this now and a lot of those foster homes became permanent homes and people welcomed pets into their home. Now we’re seeing the flipside of that is so many people have pets. There are some vets that kind of got out of the industry during COVID, might have retired early, that there is a veterinary shortage. So so getting those vet appointments for for, you know, for basically anything is now a delay, right?

 

[00:21:20] Speaker 1 Right. Amazing. Amazing. That’s good advice. So so tell us, what is the Animal Welfare League of Arlington?

 

[00:21:28] Speaker 2 Yeah. So the Animal Welfare League of Arlington is the Animal Resource Center in Arlington County. We’ve been around since 1944. Our mission is to improve the lives of animals and people by providing resources, care and protection. And we are basically your one stop shop for anything animal related here in Arlington County or the City of Falls Church. So that includes adoption services. We have a very robust adoption program if you’re looking for a dog or a cat. We have a nationally recognized kitten program. So we are actually bringing in a lot of kittens for for our foster families. And we’re also traveling to other parts of the area, to our excuse me, other parts of the country. To kind of talk about how successful we are and to kind of spread that mission. So we have adoption services, we have community support programs that includes a pet pantry. So we offer up 10,000 meals a month to people in this community who may be struggling to feed their pets. We have vet assistance grants. If you’re undergoing an emergency or you need chronic care for your pet, we can help out. We have community care clinics and vaccine and microchip clinics. So what does that mean? We will help vaccinate or microchip anyone who comes to our shelter. And we’re also in communities doing that as well, communities around Arlington. And we offer a spay neuter vouchers, too. So if you might have found a kitten kind of on the street, you wanted to keep it. We can help get get that kitten spayed or neutered. And we offer behavior support. So going back to those stories of the dog that that might might get into trouble, might get into the kitchen trash, if you have some of those issues, we can help out with that. And finally, we are also have the contract for animal control in Arlington County. So we’re actually in the community helping to keep pets and people safe. And on top of that, we do as part of that that our animal control team, we do a wildlife program, we have a wildlife resource center. So if you have any issue at all with wildlife, we can help out.

 

[00:23:44] Speaker 1 That’s amazing. So so you guys are a turnkey solution for the animal welfare in Arlington County. So you do everything from the animal control all the way up to providing training support for pet owners.

 

[00:24:02] Speaker 2 Yes. Yes.

 

[00:24:03] Speaker 1 Amazing.

 

[00:24:04] Speaker 2 We do. We we will help out owned animals and we will help you get in on the animal. Right.

 

[00:24:11] Speaker 1 Right, exactly. So as as part of the animal control facet of your business, what kind of things may you come across in your in your daily rounds?

 

[00:24:26] Speaker 2 Yes. So the animal control team is always in the community. And part of being in the community in Arlington County is that you see a lot of interesting things. One example was this past January, you’ve heard kind of the story of why did the chicken cross the road? Well, in this incident, the chicken crossed the road to get to the Pentagon, and we were called in by Pentagon officials because there is a chicken waiting around their security checkpoint. We don’t know how it got there. You know, what is a chicken doing running around the Pentagon? We never found that out, but we were able to to go in and assist. We brought the chicken back to the shelter, hung out with us. No one came to kind of claim it. So it became our chicken and wound up being adopted by one of our one of the animal control officers that was originally on the scene. But in the meantime, we put something out on social media, and you never know how these stories are going to play out. But this one just blew up. It got picked up by news not only across the country but around the world as far as England and India and even went so far to be featured on the Jimmy Fallon show. You wrote a song about this, The Chicken Crossing the Road to get to the Pentagon. So it’s stories like that that just on a given day, you never know what you’re going to come. Right.

 

[00:25:49] Speaker 1 Well, and that makes life fun.

 

[00:25:52] Speaker 2 It does, you know, because you don’t know what’s.

 

[00:25:53] Speaker 1 Coming and you don’t know where it’s going when it does come.

 

[00:25:56] Speaker 2 We have a great job where when I think the only thing where you can pet cute, cuddly animals or hang out with chickens.

 

[00:26:05] Speaker 1 Right. That is good. Good story. So, any other stories?

 

[00:26:09] Speaker 2 Yeah. How much time do we have here?

 

[00:26:12] Speaker 1 So. So we have we have a good time.

 

[00:26:15] Speaker 2 Well, the a couple of years ago, another story that kind of garnered a lot of national attention is we work closely with a lot of areas, a little bit outside of Arlington County because we’re able to bring in animals, kind of help out those jurisdictions by bringing in animals to Arlington from which we can adopt. What are these areas reached out to us because they found a cat that had an arrow through its head. It had been shot by an arrow. Luckily it missed all the vital organs in the cat. Seemed to be fine. It was bright, it was alert. It was still affectionate. It was eating, drinking, coming up to people. So we said, Yeah, bring it to us. If that cat is willing to be fighting, we’re going to fight for that cat. Right? So we we wound up taking the cat and we were able to remove the arrow. It was fine. A lot of antibodies. And a lot of care went into it. And then we found a perfect adapter for it. This this specific person was actually going through some personal issues the day that the cat came to us, saw the story, and just followed the cat’s progression throughout. And and today that cat is living large. You know, it just goes to show you a you know, there is in the animal welfare world, it’s not all kittens and puppies and wonderful stories. You do see some unfortunately heart wrenching stories like that. But we are here at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. We are in a great position that we’re able to help out and able to assist. And when you can see a cat like that, the cat’s name was Cupid because it’s on Valentine’s Day that it came to us.

 

[00:28:03] Speaker 1 Oh, my gosh. Valentine’s Day with an arrow.

 

[00:28:05] Speaker 2 Yes.

 

[00:28:06] Speaker 1 That’s the only name appropriate. Yeah.

 

[00:28:08] Speaker 2 So when you’re able to see that cat Cupid, you know, go through such hardship, come out on the other side, just loving life, it really puts, you know, kind of some of the issues that we deal with into perspective right now.

 

[00:28:23] Speaker 1 Very, very, very true. Very true. So so the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, you’re a nonprofit organization.

 

[00:28:30] Speaker 2 We are.

 

[00:28:30] Speaker 1 So how do you how. So, obviously, you have a contract with Arlington County, so you have revenue from that source. But do you also accept donations?

 

[00:28:39] Speaker 2 We do. You can go to our website, A.W. LA dot org. Donations, in-kind donations as well. I mentioned the pet pantry. A lot of that pet pantry is supported by folks who who are bringing us food that we can then turn out into the community. But we’re also looking for volunteer support. Fosters, too, is a big component of what we do. We we there’s about 3500 animals each year that come through our doors. And some of that is wildlife, but most of it is companion animals. And a lot of that we we get into foster homes before they can get adopted. So fostering is a big need. And then as well as just sharing our stories, sharing our social media, following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, I think the kids are on TikTok now. Right? We’re always, you know, just just sharing something about the cat Cupid or the chicken named Penny. Penny who cross the road. That that brings a lot of awareness into the work that we’re doing here in the community.

 

[00:29:41] Speaker 1 Fantastic. So is there is there anything else you want to add to our conversation today?

 

[00:29:47] Speaker 2 Anything else I want to add? I don’t think so. I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk about what I do and also to hopefully provide some tips to folks who are either looking to move or are in the process of moving. Because so often, you know, we those of us who have pets, we love our pets. We want to do whatever we can for them. And having the proper spaces is one way in which we can give them a good, fulfilling life.

 

[00:30:14] Speaker 1 Absolutely. Sam Walbert, thank you so much for coming in. Animal Welfare League of Arlington and your website again is.

 

[00:30:23] Speaker 2 A la dot.

 

[00:30:24] Speaker 1 Org. Wonderful. And I hope everybody goes and makes a donation. And thanks again for coming. Thank you.

 

[00:30:30] Speaker 2 Thanks for having me.