Ask Ask Roxie Roxie we move on. First thing, they want to pet the dog. And my first
Words of Advice from an ‘09toPet question them is: 'Do you have a pet?' and they'll bring out
their phone. We just have a conversation!” Bella and Bonnie are a volunteer team with Pups n' Planes, where “comfort” dogs and their owners offer distressed travelers a little sugar. “People are waiting, their flight has been canceled, or they may have a four-hour wait, and they are upset.” “One time, two little girls stopped to pet the dog, and I looked up, and the mother was crying. Her husband was being deployed. I spent probably a half-hour with them, and the dad thanked me so many times because it got them thinking about other things,” Bonnie says. Airport staffers implemented the idea after learning how well it worked at the Los Angeles International Airport. Pups n' Planes has been reducing blood pressure and turning frowns upside down for six years. “In the car, she knows that we are almost at the airport. She gets so excited! Her job is to make people smile. She does that job.” And if you saw Bella, you would smile, too. The girl team also spends time at the airport USO, softening the loneliness and longing of our troops, so familiar to military life. While Bella offers kisses, Canine Explosive Detection Supervisor Sgt. Andres Lopez, and his police dog Keyno, provide safety and security. “We are there to make sure that the traveling public is safe, the dog makes that any threats associated with aviation there aren’t real threats,” says the airport K9 police officer. Lopez and Keyno “nose around," sniffing out threats that could come from a parked car, a suitcase, or a person. “Dogs are about as mobile as you can get,” says Lopez. He means the nose is mobile.
SNIPSA, INC.
Bella is a volunteer with Pups n' Planes,
the airport greeting committee. She wears her little pink right around the corner Low-cost spay and neuter, coat, cheering up tired travelers at the San Antonio International Airport.
BY BERIT MASON
Workin' for a Living!
The only thing I want to hear being snipped is a yard of fab-ric! But another snip is “SNIPSA,” a fifteen-year-old pet rescue group founded by a veterinarian couple, the Espys, who wanted to offer theJobs community low-cost spay and neuter. Dogs with “We offer discounted spay and neuter services weekly at BY BERIT MASON our office,” says Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator Lexi Blaik. Aside from the funny name, which means Spay-NeuterInject-Protect San Antonio, the other interesting thing is their The San Antonio International HUGE! location: a pet rescue right in theAirport middleisof Olmos Park. It recently brokeknow a record, But you’d never it! flying some 15,000 people A DAY, forI’ve a total of 10.36 million passengers 2019.that it was there. passed by 100 times and didn’tinnotice Passengers most certainly frequent the airport, but pupson dothe too. “So, there is a reason why our name isn’t blatantly Meet Bella. front of the building. We want to be known in the community, a petite with light, made wavy hair, offering everyone butBella thereishave beendog precautions so that we don’t get a sheofmeets thedropping sweetestoff smile. Several hours a week, Bella lot people animals at our doorstep,” says and Blaik. owner Bonnie Gioiello roam the airport, searching out the tired, Arriving to work some mornings, staff have been welcomed the weary, and the bored. by a forlorn pup or cat sitting by the door, some bad pet par“If they look up and smile, they are a dog lover. If they don't, ent having dumped it. “We are a small mom-and-pop boutique rescue,” says Blaik 34 APRIL | 78209magazine.com 38 APRIL2020 2021 | 78209magazine.com
of this tidy place that provides vaccinations and I.D. chips, along with pet merchandise. And seeing how clean and sterile looking it is, it’s no surprise that in the back is a small surgery station, where they do the “snipping.” About thrice yearly, they hold “The Big Fix,” a M*A*S*H style operation, “…where we set up in a church or a gymnasium or a college, and we take it over. We set up a bunch of surgery stations and recovery areas.” Volunteers, vet techs, and veterinarians perform the procedures that prevent more unwanted animals. The last Big Fix fixed some 450 cats and dogs! In 2020, they sterilized 2,055 animals. “If we are not fixing these animals, even if we can rehome them, we are still going to have that revolving door of animals coming in and out,” says Blaik. Airport therapy dogs help soothe people who may be upset because of a Surgery, shots, long andwait, microchipping are free for qualifying delayed or cancelled flight. zip codes. Those zip codes are determined by how many police calls come in for strays. Any neighborhood with lots
