For the love of pets

Humane Society manager shares how she began working with pets

MOSES LAKE — In the line of work Mary DeHerrera is in, she can have as many pets as she wants.

Her office is a pet lover's dream where fury, four legged friends greet her with wagging tails and wet kisses as she starts work each morning at the Moses Lake-Grant County Humane Society.

For a year, DeHerrera has been managing both the humane society and Calico Cat Thrift Store in Moses Lake after having worked in the health care field.

Proceeds from the Calico Cat Thrift Store benefit the humane society.

The change is one DeHerrera was ready to make after having previously worked in long term care. When her best friend, who had wanted to be a veterinarian was diagnosed with breast cancer and could not fulfill her career goals, DeHerrera decided going to veterinary school would be a way to finish something for her best friend that she also had an interest in.

DeHerrera received the job last January after completing veterinary classes online and knew she would be taking a risk applying for the position as the only experience she had with animals was with her pets at home.

Working with a local veterinarian and practicing on her dogs at home, taking their temperatures and learning the parts of the body, DeHerrera got the experience she needed.

As a child it never surprised her parents when she came home with stray animals, everything from tad poles, birds, mice and cats and dogs, she said.

One time when she was 12, 300 pollywogs DeHerrera had been keeping in a fish tank all got their legs at the same time and scattered themselves throughout her parents home.

"The frogs had to go," she said laughing.

Another time, DeHerrera remembers burying a dead mouse in a potted plant in hopes it would come back to life.

After working at the humane society for a year, DeHerrera says she is content with her decision to change careers.

"I know this is the right place for me," DeHerrera said. "We have so many success stories that at the end of the day I'm like 'yeah, we're doing the right thing.'"

The hardest days are those when no pets are adopted or DeHerrera has to make the decision to put an animal down.

That's when DeHerrera hopes the next day will be an adoption day or a chance to get the word out about the humane society and the pets there that need loving homes.

DeHerrera says the goal of the humane society is to educate people about how to care for pets and prevent cruelty to animals.

So far working full time with animals, DeHerrera finds she still needs those people skills she picked up while working in health care.

"It's PR (public relations), those animals don't sell themselves," DeHerrera said of her job at the humane society and building relationships with the public.

Dividing her time between the humane society and the Calico Cat, DeHerrera's devotion to the animals is something her staff have in common with her.

Eleven-year-old volunteer Kristyna Reyna comes in the summer and during breaks from school to help at the humane society.

Eventually Reyna wants to be a veterinarian and study at Washington State University, something she has wanted to pursue since she was 4 years old.

Reyna says if anything the humane society is a safe environment for the animals, not a jail-type facility that some people have come to think of it as. "We have fun with them and name them," Reyna said of the animals.

Adult staff member Connie Schei used to come and walk the animals at the humane society with her three children in the summer time before she began work there.

Like DeHerrera, what Schei loves most about her work is that she can have as many pets as she wants.

"If I don't fight for them who will?" Schei said.

For more information, call the humane society at (509) 762-9616 or go to www.petfinder.com.