2023 September Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate

More paths traveled.

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sept 23

contents

LAKEWOOD/EAST DALLAS

ADVOCATE

VOL. 30 NO. 9

PROFILE

8 Erin Aldrich

DINING

14 Gemma

FEATURES

18 Record man

22 Bongo the missing cat

28 Animal welfare

32 Shelter surge

Lakewood resident Shelby Bobosky’s prairie dog, Emily.

Read more on page 28.

Photography by Lauren Allen.

MOMENT OF TRUTH

Olympian Erin Aldrich-Shean says she was 16, attending Lake Highlands High School, when a coach from the University of Arizona began grooming her

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB Photography by EMIL LIPPE

Afew years ago, by all appearances, Erin Aldrich-Shean had the perfect life.

To local sports fans, the East Dallas neighbor is a legendary dual athlete. Back at Forest Meadow Junior High, her coaches petitioned for her to compete at the Texas Relays, where she won the high jump against an all-high-school field. She had decided at 6 to become an Olympian, and that high-profile performance set a course for her participation in the 2000 games.

Injured in a professional volleyball match, she missed a spot on the 2008 USA Track and Field team, she says. Being a two-sport athlete came with risks, but she wanted to be a role model for girls, to “show them you can be great at more than one thing.”

In 2011 she married Andrew Shean in a picturesque ceremony after winning a $100,000 Four Seasons wedding contest. And by 2019, the couple, their two sons and golden retriever had made a beachside home in San Diego, where Erin’s charisma, work ethic and intelligence led to success selling commercial real estate.

But Erin harbored a secret she found too shameful even to tell her spouse. “I thought I would take it to my grave,” she says. However, it dawned on her while watching a movie that her nondisclosure might be hurting other women.

The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland detailed stories of alleged sexual abuse by late pop star Michael Jackson. It unlocked

stifled memories, she says, and inspired Erin to confront her past and the man she says abused her and other athletes.

While watching Leaving Neverland, Erin realized she and her parents, like the victims in the movie, had been brainwashed by a person they loved and admired.

In her case, that was John Rembao — Erin’s high-jump coach at the University of Arizona and later the University of Texas — a trusted friend who was even in Erin and Andrew’s wedding party.

The rush of realizations knocked the wind out of her. “I could barely breathe,” she says. “It seemed like what happened to me, that I was like one of those boys.”

She began to grasp a bigger picture, that other women probably had been victimized too.

In 2020, Erin, along with former University of Texas athletes Londa Bevins and Jessica Johnson, filed a class-action lawsuit against Rembao, alleging sexual abuse and harassment between 1997 and 2000. The lawsuit also named the NCAA and its Board of Governors as defendants for failing to protect athletes.

Rembao, who also has coached at Southern Methodist University, Stanford University and California’s Los Gatos High School, began recruiting Erin for Arizona when she was a junior at Lake Highlands High School.

In the 1990s, long before he ever touched her, Rembao spent long hours talking to Erin on the phone, flattering her athletic abilities, and gradually moved into commenting on her looks, she says. Sustained, progressive flattery brainwashed her into believing she and Rembao had a special romantic relationship.

“He was grooming me by calling me beautiful and sexy,” she says. “I was in love with him even before he touched me.”

In August 1996, Rembao volunteered to chaperone her at the world junior track and field championships in Sydney, Australia when her LHHS coach was unable to travel.

“He bought the whole family into it,” she says. “My parents fully trusted him. Everyone in the [sporting community] loved him.”

On that trip, when she was 18, she says, Rembao first initiated sexual contact. He said he would leave his wife and convinced Erin she could never be an Olympic athlete without him being her coach, she says.

Rembao’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment, but he and his client have denied all allegations. “I maintain I did not

groom, assault or harass these women,” Rembao told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

The case against Rembao was dismissed by plaintiffs after the parties reached a confidential settlement, according to Lynn Ellenberger, attorney to Erin and the two other women. She adds that the suit against the NCAA was dismissed by the court in 2021 based on the statute of limitations.

Erin says one of the hardest things to accept was that, years ago, she did not support a fellow victim, Jessica Johnson, who filed a deposition when she was at UT being coached by Rembao.

“I had a flashback to 20 years ago, when [Rembao] pulled me to the side of the track and said Jessica was accusing him of things,” Erin says. “And I believed that he wouldn’t do that.”

Now a practicing veterinarian, Johnson has said that not being believed was devastating. Johnson was one of the first people Erin contacted when she came to her senses about her relationship with the coach.

“It took her probably a year to forgive me and move forward,” Erin says of Johnson, who would become her co-plaintiff in the fight against Rembao and the NCAA.

Johnson was out of the country this summer and unable to discuss the case prior to publication, but she verified by email that she and Erin have reconciled and remain friends today.

Erin revealed her experiences to her husband, her parents and a mental health professional. In therapy, she wrote a letter to Rembao, confronting him, asking why he hurt her, begging him to resign from coaching. Later, she called Rembao and requested a meeting.

Had he responded, that might have been the end of it. His silence created a “pivotal moment” in which she stopped feeling empathetic.

“That made me mad,” Erin says. “I wanted him to listen. If he’s not going to give me that respect, I do not feel so bad about stopping his coaching career.”

She filed a report with SafeSport, established in 2017 to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct on minor athletes and impose sanctions.

Erin’s disclosure to SafeSport was a “critical piece” in the effort to protect young athletes, according to Olympic tennis player Tracey Smith, a sexual assault survivor who interviewed Erin on her show Open Stance.

“By detailing her former coach’s dangerously slow and methodical grooming process that led to her sexual abuse, Erin brought a focus to the

WHEN EXPERIENCE MATTERS MOST

A History of Exceptional Dentistry

potential dangers and inherent power imbalances in the coach-athlete relationship,” Smith said on the show.

Despite its dismissal, the lawsuit represented a “tremendous call to action” that could help empower athletes at every level by promoting lasting institutional change within the bodies responsible for athletes’ well-being, Smith added.

In March 2020, USA Today reporter Christine Brennan’s story about the allegations against Rembao broke the same week COVID-19 lockdowns dominated the headlines. “It was overshadowed and not as groundbreaking as we hoped,” Erin says.

Nonetheless, the negative publicity and SafeSport sanctions ended Rembao’s last coaching job. Los Gatos High School terminated his employment after hearing of his SafeSport suspension, according to the Sentinel.

Erin was pleased with SafeSport’s quick action despite its voluminous case load.

“I think the reason we pretty much instantaneously got him banned was because he was coaching high school girls,” she says. “That bumped it up to the very top. We got him out of sports, which was the objective in all of this.”

During the pandemic, Erin’s career in commercial real estate seemed doomed (“we did not know if the world was ending or what,” she says). Her husband (chief academic officer at an online college) works remotely, so they sold their Southern California house to return to Dallas.

Today they live in Lakewood, and Erin, after working with a performance and life coach, decided to become one herself.

In her new role as owner of Ascension Coaching & Consulting, her most painful experiences have become some of her most valuable assets.

“I have been in so many places, competed at the highest level in two sports, lost and regained motivation, been unhappy and happy,” she says. “I just knew I had to leverage it all and help others going through similar phases in life.”

LIVE AROUND THE LAKE

The pappardelle pasta dish is prepared with braised rabbit, pancetta, swiss chard, pecorino and thyme.

A bistro called Gemma

Owners prepare for remodel that reflects the changing Knox-Henderson area

Story by AUSTIN WOOD | Photography by KELSEY SHOEMAKER

In Paris , the bistro concept traces its lineage from the original bistrots, intimate spaces whose menus reflect the romantic nature of the city, where a good wine list is mandatory.

Thousands of miles away, Stephen Rogers and Allison Yoder’s Gemma embodies this spirit, serving uncluttered yet sophisticated dishes influenced by their past. That means seasonal ingredients, leaving diners remembering each bite. The menu, succinct yet not lacking variety, tells the story of the couple’s career journey which took them to New York City, Northern Italy and Napa Valley.

Rogers and Yoder were destined for careers in music, working in restaurants to support themselves while living in New York City. Rogers was a pianist and opera coach. Yoder was an opera singer. Performing abroad during summers, they describe their time in Italy as an important moment in their development as restaurateurs.

“We would go for the summers in Italy and spend two or three months performing there, but we would travel on the weekends, and I think that’s where we really started thinking about

food, wine and culture,” Yoder says.

“We started thinking maybe this will be our life in the future. It was just sort of jokingly, but that’s kind of how it started.”

After 10 years in New York, the couple ended their musical careers, moved to Miami and focused on working in the hospitality industry fulltime. Yoder managed a restaurant, and Rogers worked as a hotel general manager for two years before being recruited to run the Press Restaurant in Napa Valley.

It was in Napa where Rogers began the somewhat accidental process of becoming a widely respected chef. A chef vacancy in the Press kitchen pushed him to step up at a critical moment.

“This restaurant had done very poorly on the review before — they got one or one and a half stars — so this time we got three out of four, which put me in company with some really fine chefs in Napa Valley, which was kind of ridiculous. And the rest is history,” Rogers says.

Eventually Rogers and Yoder gained enough experience in Napa to feel confident operating their own restaurant. Making the move to Dallas, they opened Gemma the day after

Christmas in 2013 after only a few months in town. Originally billed as a California bistro, the menu was a product of the couple’s travels and career stops.

“In California they borrow; they do whatever — they’ll do Italian, a little Asian and a little French — and that’s kind of the inspiration of Gemma,” Yoder says.

Almost a decade later, the same ethos remains evident in the menu — house-made pasta, diverse seafood dishes, classic French staples and more at reasonable prices. Gemma and its something-for-everyone menu has become a major player in our city’s restaurant scene.

“You can eat there three times a week and find something new, because we have steak, we have duck, we have pasta, we have ceviche, we have salads, heirloom tomatoes and burrata, so there’s something for everyone,” Yoder says.

According to Yoder and Rogers, some of the most popular items include the braised-rabbit pappardelle, steak frites and seafood items such as scallops, in addition to other nonentrée items.

While the menu remains relatively consistent, it is not static. They add

seasonal accents to keep it fresh.

“We don’t do a lot of that, but certain things like tomatoes, you’ll have to put on heirloom tomatoes, or melon or watermelon,” Yoder says. “Summer does go, especially in Texas, very late. You know, you’ll see heirlooms in October, which is great, and corn still.

Gemma also features a highly touted wine list often from smaller wineries, handpicked by Yoder and Rogers.

Yoder and Rogers have also created a compelling cocktail menu, featuring house inventions such as the Texas Heat, made with jalapeño-infused tequila and endangered classics like the Grasshopper from a bygone era.

Ahead of its 10th anniversary, Gemma is poised for a transformation. When Gemma opened as a California bistro back in 2013, it was an East Dallas outlier. Now, at the center of East Dallas’ culinary robust Knox-Henderson neighborhood, the owners want Gemma to reflect the neighborhood’s evolution.

“We went from a destination restaurant where we had the Highland Parkers driving over and complaining about the potholes, and now we’re in the middle of a neighborhood, so we want it to feel like it’s in the middle of a neighborhood,” Rogers says.

Yoders and Rogers aim to create a cozy neighborhood bistro, a dimmer, more

intimate space as opposed to the current bright and open Martha’s Vineyard-esque concept, they say.

With the renovation set to be complete in September, changes will include darker flooring, bistro tiling and a reimagined bar.

Yoder and Rogers were not ready to name specifics but say there will be moderate menu changes.

“We want it to be where in September there’s those good old Gemma staples,” Rogers says. “But then there’s also like, ‘Oh, this feels different. This is exciting. This is a new direction.’”

Gemma, 2323 N. Henderson Ave., 214.370.9426, gemmadallas.com

Above: The shrimp ceviche is served with fresh avocado, fresno chile peppers and cucumber, and is paired with a side of sweet potato chips.

Right: Gemma’s chopped salad includes salumi, tomato, cucumber, peppers, red onion and manchego.

BEHIND THE MUSIC

East Dallas label Idol Records has been rockin’ and rollin’ for 30 years

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB |

Erv Karwelis grew up in Rockford, Illinois, a town about 90 miles outside Chicago and the birthplace of rock band Cheap Trick. Karwelis’ dad, Butch, belonged to a band called The Thunderbirds. As Butch headed home from a show one night, a drunken driver killed him. He was 24.

“I was just a baby, about 8 months old,” Karwelis says. “I don’t remember much about him other than what people have told me. I still have his guitar. Thank God I never sold it.”

Photography by LAUREN

Music might have been a way to feel connected to his dad, Karwelis says.

The Thunderbirds drummer, who is his mom’s cousin, and other Rockford musicians, took young Karwelis under their wing. As a teen he learned guitar and played in some bands, but, he says, “I am no virtuoso musician, and I am kind of shy.” His interest, and talent, lie in the business side of music.

Today Karwelis lives in Lakewood with his longtime girlfriend Rena Pollard. He

ALLEN

chose their house on La Vista for its guest quarters — now an office containing a few computers and thousands of records and CDs — from where he operates Idol Records, the label he started in 1993.

If you’ve enjoyed the music of Old 97’s, Lorelei K, Motorcade, The Deathray Davies, Flickerstick, Black Tie Dynasty, Watershed, Vanessa Peters or any from a vast portfolio of Idol Records artists, Erv Karwelis is to thank.

About 60% of the artists Karwelis

represents are locals, from the DallasFort Worth area. The Idol Records frontman’s first love is rock, but he backs all genres from all over the world.

After Rock Valley College and University of California Los Angeles, Karwelis booked bands in Chicago until he landed a job at LA’s Tower Records, where in 1990 he saw the complete replacement of vinyls with CDs.

He became a buyer, worked for a couple of independent record labels and then secured a position at Sony Music.

It was the early ’90s — records were out, CDs were in and the world’s first web browser was introduced to the general public. Idol Records got up and running in ’93, while Karwelis was still with Sony. They relocated him to Dallas, which, at first, he was “a little nervous about” due to “the stereotypes of what Texas was, I guess.”

But major record companies including Sony, Universal and Warner had Dallas headquarters. There were tons of record stores and a top-five radio market, Karwelis says, all of which made Dallas attractive to a guy who loves the business side of music.

Another Big D draw: Our city had a phenomenal music scene, he says.

As a newcomer, Karwelis lived near the East Dallas-Deep Ellum border at a significant time in local-music lore, an era when Nirvana or Radiohead was as likely as beloved locals The Toadies or Tripping Daisy (Tim DeLaughter) to be on stage.

“Those days I was meeting people who ran the clubs and checking out bands all the time, at, like, Deep Ellum Live. There were some major bands, too. The first time Pearl Jam played Dallas, they played Trees, and there were like 40 people there,” he says.

The first record he produced was a compilation CD of a dozen local bands, “a showcase of Dallas.”

“Within a year of me putting that out, four of those bands (including Hagfish and Baboon) signed major label deals,” Karwelis says. “It’s funny, too,” he says, that artists he worked with on that 1993 recording are still putting out new music.

For example, Baboon vocalist Andrew Huffstetler and guitarist James Henderson are members of Motorcade, which last year dropped See You in the Nothing.

“They may have kids in college, but they’re still playing,” Karwelis says. “I’ve also got bands whose members are 20 years old. Idol Records was already a decade old when they were born.”

Karwelis has found that the skills and willingness to perform live can make or break an independent band. When live performances stopped for more than a year in 2020 because of COVID-19, it threatened the success of a lot of bands and the label.

Karwelis kept musicians afloat by providing Idol Records music for TV shows, movies and commercials, “everything from big advertisements to reality shows on the Home and Garden TV network.” It was something he learned to rely on during the NAPSTER years, referring to an early-internet site “where everybody’s just getting everything for free.”

“It kept me and us alive when no one was paying for music,” he says. “And luckily, I’d built relationships with music supervisors, the folks who coordinate music for films, TV shows, commercials and agencies.”

Admirals and Dead Flowers were in Chevy truck ads.

Motorcade did a Whataburger com -

mercial. “That pretty much helped us to record their second album.”

Probably the best-known band with which Karwelis has been associated is East Dallas’ Old 97’s, who, themselves, have appeared in TV and films ( The Break-Up with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, a recent Guardians of the Galaxy ). Up-and-comers include Rose Garden Party, Secrecies and Lorelei K, fronted by East Dallas’ buzz-worthy Dahlia Knowles, who just set off on a national tour.

His 30 years running Idol Records have been a “roller coaster,” Karwelis says. “Ups and downs, good times, rough times.”

The Dallas music community has been no stranger to tragedy. A few artists Karwelis has worked with have died — one from COVID-19, at least two from cancer, and one was murdered. Dallas’ music community is so tight-knit and interwoven (many musicians play in multiple bands) that what happens to any member affects them all.

When East Dallas-based Bastards of Soul suddenly lost frontman Chadwick Murray to heart disease last year, it shot a painful ripple through the whole industry. Each member of BoS is also in at least one Idol Records act.

Dallas musicians’ successes, and there have been plenty, are often the result of widespread local support and can feel communal. “It is like a family,” Karwelis says.

Even in an age where anyone can publish their music online, “record labels still definitely have a purpose,” Karwelis says. “You get these bands in front of people and help them navigate the industry.”

That’s Erv Karwelis’ version of being a rock star, and, he says, “It feels good.”

The Owenses’ search to their cat involves psychics, social media & the police

Story by SIMON PRUITT

by LAUREN ALLEN

It’s Meow Or Never

Illustration

on the morning of Saturday, April 8, Rocky and Joanna Owens woke up to find that their beloved cat, Bongo, was gone.

To the family, Bongo is more than just a pet. They welcomed him into their home during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, bonding their family during stressful times.

“I’ve never had a cat less than 15 years. Our last cat lived to be 21,” Joanna says. “Bongo is only 2 1/2 years old. Our hearts are broken over this.”

Rocky last saw his cat on their home surveillance recording.

“We have a video of him sitting in the middle of the backyard. These cameras always record about a minute and then shut off until there’s motion again. All of a sudden it goes to the next video, and he just disappears. It was a real head-scratcher.”

Since then, the search has been on. The family covered their neighborhood and surrounding streets with signs featuring Bongo’s face and a phone number — huge roadside posters advertise a $3,500 reward for the Munchkin Scottish Fold with Garfieldian orange fur.

“We’re pretty introverted. This has us hanging a 10-foot banner with our cat on it,”Joanna says. “Everyone knows where our house is, both of our cell phone numbers, where the cat belongs, the money we’re offering for him.”

The signs are hard to miss, with a huge photo of Bongo’s beady eyes on a loud, mustard yellow background. Photos of the signs have been reposted across neighborhood sites, and there are threads on Reddit and TikTok.

“There’s a woman who lives next door that said more people were talking about Bongo at the polls on Election Day than who was actually running,” Joanna says. “Then I get all the prank calls from kids meowing into the phone.”

After the initial wave of the street signs and door-to-door fliers, the Owenses still had no leads, prompting them to try online pet lost-and-found sites.

Someone texted the Owenses saying he knew where Bongo was along with an address in DeSoto. “It was so detailed,” Joanna recalls. “We drove down there and knocked on the door, and this guy answers, and he’s like, ‘I don’t have your cat.’”

The man explained to the confused couple that he was a victim of a targeted attack by hackers that infiltrated the lost-and-found system and sent out automated messages to families with missing pets saying that he had their animal.

Rocky and Joanna found themselves back at square one, though not without further intrigue.

Joanna says someone called the cops on her for knocking on their door, and that wasn’t the couple’s only run-in with potential legal issues.

“Rocky got a call from a woman [who] basically told him that we were going to get a $200 a day fine if we kept the signs up,” Joanna explains. “My approach to that was that if I can’t go to jail, fine me, I don’t care.”

Joanna wasn’t too bothered by the call until she began receiving videos sent by neighbors of the caller, “at 10 o’clock at night going into people’s yards and taking the signs.”

Desperate, the Owenses turned to a supernatural source.

“One of our neighbors texted Rocky and said, ‘I know this sounds like an insane idea, but I’ve used this person because I’ve had a lot of trouble losing animals at my house. She’s an animal communicator, and I think you should call her.’”

The idea behind animal communication services is that these experts are able to understand a pet’s feelings and behaviors by reaching their conscience telepathically. In the case of Bongo, the communicator would, hopefully, tap into the cat’s psyche to psychically locate him.

“We did call this woman and talk to her. She asked me to send her a picture of Bongo. She said that he was in a house with an older woman. That’s kind of all she told us,” Joanna says. “She said the energy she got from him is that he’s regretful, but he’s safe, and he knows he’s going to be OK.”

She also gave Joanna the number of another animal communicator, who told her essentially the same thing, that Bongo was with a woman and safe, that the woman loved Bongo. Both psychics said the woman was calling the cat “cutie.”

The second “communicator” told Joanna she knew nothing of her conversation with the first pet psychic.

If nothing else, the similarities between both

communicators eased the family’s fears and increased their optimism.

“I feel like we have 20 new best friends that check on us daily, from the animal communicators to our neighbors, to people online reposting us,” Joanna says.

People are invested. They want Bongo home as much as they want the Owenses to be happy.

“A lot of people just call because they want to talk,” she says. “I had some woman sit and talk to me about her diabetic cat for 45 minutes one night. I had somebody text me the other day and say, ‘Hey we live in New York City, but if he makes it here we’ll find him.’ We are living in a bizarro world, I get it. But nonetheless, we’re here.”

Rocky and Joanna continue to hold out hope, even six months after Bongo went missing.

“So many people have lost so much in the past 3 1/2 years,” Rocky says. “I lost my father, my best friend, many other friends. When you’ve lost one more thing, and you feel like there’s something you can do about it, you think, I’m not losing this one too. Any phone call that comes in could be that one lead. You just get obsessed with it.”

If Bongo is still out there, he could return to a home filled with new friends and experiences, but a home that still loves him. Until that day comes, if it ever does, Rocky and Joanna Owens continue to search.

“I don’t know when to call it quits,” Joanna says. “I think there will always be a part of me and my heart that will be seeking him out.”

We don’t build them like they used to.

With nearly two decades of Dallas home-building experience, you can depend on our team to stay up to date with the latest building practices. Whether it’s a new build or remodel, expect a healthier, more efficient, beautiful home with Bella Vista.

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In this neighborhood, you need a proven professional to help you find what you’re looking

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PUB: Advocate Lakewood/ Lake Highlands

CONTACT: Catherine Pate cpate@advocatemag.com

RELEASE: 8/15/23

INSERTION: September

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WOMEN OF COMPASS REAL ESTATE

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Marla Sewall and Meg Beaird are a highly experienced Dallas real estate partnership known for their unwavering commitment to building relationships and delivering exceptional customer service. With over 20 years of combined experience, Marla and Meg bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. Driven by a genuine passion for helping their clients achieve their real estate goals, Marla and Meg prioritize building strong, long lasting relationships. Understanding that buying or selling a home is a significant life event, they go above and beyond to provide personalized guidance and support every step of the way. “We know how trying real estate transactions can be and it is our mission to mitigate that stress for our clients.”

Their dedication to customer service also extends well beyond the transaction . Says the pair, “whether it’s offering advice, recommending trusted professionals, or simply staying in touch, we are committed to our clients for the long haul!”

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SPEAKING FOR THE SPEECHLESS

This Lakewood lawyer promotes animal rights and responsible care

Story by RENEE UMSTED

EVEN THOUGH SHE HAS ONE, LAKEWOOD NEIGHBOR SHELBY BOBOSKY IS THE FIRST TO SAY PRAIRIE DOGS SHOULD NOT BE PETS.

They’re wild animals, she says.

But unlike other members of her species, Emily the prairie dog gets to spend her days running in her wheel, exploring the Boboskys’ backyard and munching on rodent pellets and Timothy hay.

Emily and another prairie dog who has since died, Peter, came to the Boboskys through the Houston Humane Society. They were both rescued in an animal cruelty seizure.

“She has fit so nicely into our home, and so did Peter,” Bobosky says. “She’s so fun.”

In addition to Emily, the Boboskys have two rescue dogs, Fern and Isles.

“I’m the dog lady,” she says. “I’m constantly walking my dogs.”

Bobosky, who has had 12 pets throughout her life, is not just an animal lover. She’s an animal advocate.

In 2009, she volunteered to help her law firm with a case involving a puppy mill raid in Kaufman County. One person was responsible for more than 500 dogs, but the animals weren’t receiving sufficient care, such as food, water or shelter.

“I thought, how was this legal? And it was because there was no regulation against that kind of treatment of dogs in large-scale breeding facilities,” she says.

Though at the time she was on the animal welfare committee for the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, she had no experience practicing animal law. But that incident in 2009 made her question how she, as an attorney, could make a difference for animals.

Two years later, wanting to spend more time with her three sons while still putting her legal skills to work, she left her full-time job and joined the Texas Humane Legislation Network as a volunteer board member.

In 2019, she became executive director of the organization. Its mission is to promote the humane treatment of animals through legislation and advocacy.

Every two years, Bobosky and colleagues go to Austin and try to convince legislators to pass bills that will be beneficial to animals and kill bills that won’t.

Here’s an example. Up until 2013, it was legal in Texas to euthanize dogs and cats using a gas chamber. According to the Humane Society of the United States, it takes minutes for animals to lose consciousness inside a gas chamber, compared to seconds if a trained technician induces euthanasia drugs. And if the chamber

is old or not well-calibrated, or if the animal is especially young, old, ill, stressed or placed in the chamber with other animals, it can take much longer for animals to lose consciousness. Thanks to Bobosky and the THLN, there’s a law against it.

In October 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, which requires that if dogs are tied up outside and left unattended, they have to be given water, shade, shelter and enough room to avoid standing in water or animal waste. The bill also requires dogs to have protection from the elements, a collar that fits and shelter that allows them to turn around and lie down. It prohibits dogs from being restrained with a chain, a restraint with weights attached or a restraint that’s too short.

Getting the law on the books was no walk in the park. Earlier in 2021, Abbott had vetoed a different version of the legislation, saying, “Texas is no place for micro-managing and over-criminalization.”

There was opposition from many groups, and crafting legislation enforceable across the state took time.

“It was the hardest bill that we have ever passed,” Bobosky says. “I’m very proud of that because the No. 1 problem throughout Texas is dogs on chains, just languishing in the sun.”

Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

She’s also lobbied at the national level. Not long ago, Bobosky found herself in U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s office with animal welfare activist Carole Baskin, advocating for the Big Cat Public Safety Act.

Closer to home, Bobosky advocates for furry friends as chair of Dallas’ Animal Advisory Commission. She and her fellow board members meet several times each year with the director of Dallas Animal Services to discuss issues, receive status updates and learn how they can assist the shelter.

“I just always ask people to support our local shelters because they need it, and it’s a very, very difficult job,” Bobosky says.

About seven years ago, she decided to share her knowledge with the next generation of attorneys. Students at SMU’s law school can enroll in Bobosky’s classes on animal law and wildlife law.

In the discussion-based courses, Bobosky covers topics including pet deposits and pet rent, animal cruelty, the link between interpersonal violence and animal abuse, climate change and wildfires.

There’s still more to be done when it comes to caring for animals, Bobosky says. But responsible pet ownership is a good place to start. Spaying and neutering pets can help mitigate overpopulation in shelters, and keeping dogs on leashes can help prevent dog bites.

But she’s reassured by the East Dallas community.

Several years ago, Bobosky was fostering a dog named Mahala, who was found as a 6-month-old puppy, having never encountered people.

One afternoon, Bobosky was taking Mahala for a walk on the Santa Fe Trail. A bus drove by and made a noise that scared Mahala, who escaped and ran.

Seven people had volunteered to search for the dog by the end of the night, and they found her.

“Random strangers that I had never met before stopped everything they were doing that night to help me find this amazing dog that now has a great life in New York,” Bobosky says. “But it could have really turned poorly if those people didn’t stop and help.”

THE SHELTER SURGE

In Dallas, stray and lost dogs roam the streets. Found dog signs cover lamp posts. And shelters and rescues are struggling to keep up.

Story by EMMA RUBY

Photos courtesy of DALLAS

ANIMAL SERVICES

Sophia Rodriguez had been living in her Oak Cliff home in the Clarendon Westmoreland neighborhood for a year or two when she noticed a few feral cats roaming the area in 2013.

In an attempt to be a good neighbor, Rodriguez trapped the cats and took them to Dallas Animal Services to be neutered before returning them to the streets.

Nonetheless, 10 years later, Rodriguez says her neighborhood has become “overrun” by stray cats, and resources for those who want to help have dwindled.

“Now as I walk up and down the block, I see kittens everywhere,” Rodriguez says. “We didn’t see overpopulation of kittens or even dogs, but I’ve noticed since (COVID-19) ... we’re seeing overpopulation.”

Across Dallas, many neighborhoods are seeing a surge in stray dogs and cats roaming the streets.

You’ve likely seen the dogs running along hot streets unleashed, untagged, unchipped. Every other post on the Nextdoor app seems to be a post looking to rehome a dog, a post about a found dog or a post about the number of dogs overpopulating shelters and rescues.

In apartment complexes, residential areas and restaurant hubs, feral cats — which once were fondly seen as an adorable method of pest control — now roam in packs and reproduce faster than anyone can keep track.

According to Dallas animal activists and Dallas Animal Services, it’s a problem that can no longer be ignored — and one that will be difficult to solve.

Population problems

Shelters usually see a surge in population during the summer months, says Amanda Atwell, spokesperson for Dallas Animal Services.

It was especially true this summer, as DAS’s shelter on Westmoreland Road struggled to keep up with the dog population, which hovered around 140% capacity for weeks on end.

The 300-kennel shelter regularly had around 400 dogs, leading to dogs being doubled up in kennels, makeshift kennels being erected in hallways, a decreased ability to take in strays and an increase in euthanizations.

While the shelter saw anywhere from 10 to 40 adoptions a day, its daily intake was nearly always double that.

“The issue that we’re having is not something that is going to be solved overnight. It’s going to take weeks of just having more positive outcomes than we have animals come to our shelter,” Atwell says.

Large dog breeds such as German Shepherds, or breeds that have been historically labeled as aggressive such as pit bulls, are most common at the shelter.

“People just don’t want big dogs right now, and so part of the issue is finding the market for those big dogs,” Atwell says.

Atwell says a rise in housing costs, which has led to more people renting, has contributed to fewer people taking in large dogs, restricted breeds or multiple dogs.

In a June briefing to the Quality of Life, Arts & Culture, Dallas Animal Services said the department was experiencing a staffing deficit of 21%.

According to Atwell, those shortages are not in the animal care department and have not impacted the shelter’s ability to care for the animals in its population.

But Rodriguez says the summer’s strain was obvious when she went to the DAS shelter in mid-July with two “bitty little” kittens that had been abandoned near her home. She and her daughter decided to care for them after it was clear one was struggling in the summer heat.

But when Rodriguez’s daughter took the cats to the shelter, she says an employee did not evaluate the cats before sending her away. Rodriguez returned the next day with the kitten, who was at that point “near death,” and was told it would be euthanized because of a lack of space in the shelter and the cat’s

failing health.

“I felt like if they’d taken him in (the day before), maybe he would have had a better chance. But now he was basically dying. Like, he looked like he was suffering at this point,” Rodriguez says.

The experience stood in stark contrast with the one she’d had 10 years prior, bringing in feral cats to be neutered as part of a trap, nurture and release program. While the program still operates, Rodriguez says she has noticed it is not as robust as it once was, and her neighbors have begun turning to shelters in neighboring cities.

The cat population at the shelter fluctuates but hovered around 30%-40% in the later months of summer, Atwell says.

The DAS shelter does have a cat NICU for infant cats that have been abandoned, but Atwell says the shelter generally encourages the public to leave kittens outside and wait for a mother to return for the “best chance of life.”

“We’ve looked at studies, and community cats are able to thrive without being a nuisance. We will take them in and spay or neuter them, and then we release them into the population,” Atwell says.

Fostering a found dog

Rescues are also feeling the burden of the number of stray dogs in Dallas.

According to Leslie Sans, founder and executive director of Dallas Pets Alive!, the rescue group is experiencing the largest dog population since pre-COVID.

Dallas Pets Alive! is a foster-based group that aims to pull medically or behaviorally needy dogs from the DAS shelter, but Sans says she has been unable to find

the number of foster families necessary to field the number of dogs the rescue wants to help.

“I need fosters and I need adopters more than ever before to step up and to choose to open their homes to these animals in need so the shelters can take in the strays that don’t have a place to go,” Sans says. “But right now they have to have an outlet to create that space.”

Dallas Pets Alive!’s intake inquiries from community members who find a stray or are looking to rehome their pet have increased 50% since summer 2022.

Sans says that the high number of inquiries led the organization to emphasize the Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender, or PASS, program. Through the program, the rescue is able to support anyone who may have found a stray and is willing to foster it instead of taking it to the shelter.

Junius Heights resident Amanda Wiltz says the program was a “lifesaver” for her family after they took in a German Shepherd that had been found roaming around Preston Road and Northwest Highway.

Preston, the German Shepherd, was not used to being inside a home, went through toys and food “like crazy” and exhibited other behavioral challenges that led Wiltz to look into fostering him until a permanent home could be found. Through the PASS program, Wiltz was able to access training resources, supplies and support for other challenges that came from bringing in a stray until Preston was adopted.

Wiltz, whose own dog was a foster fail, says she experienced bringing her dog home

from a Chicago shelter one day before she was set to be euthanized. The shelter said the dog was aggressive, but Wiltz says she later discovered the dog had been displaying aggressiveness because she was pregnant.

The experience causes Wiltz to worry about dogs that may be “wrongly euthanized” because of an insufficient or incorrect behavior assessment.

“Knowing Preston and him not being used to even being indoors that much, I just knew that his behavior assessment was probably not going to be great and that he had a higher chance of being on the euthanasia list at a shelter. So I just honestly couldn’t live with the thought that if I had turned him back into the shelter, that he would potentially be euthanized,” Wiltz says.

The push for awareness

Rebecca King has “maxed out” the number of stray animals she is able to take care of.

A retired Gil Elementary School teacher, King says after taking in five cats of her own, she turned to the Nextdoor app as a way to raise awareness for the stray animal issue.

King started the Nextdoor group Dallas 4 Paws For Change, which has over 200 members who share information and resources about rescues and shelters.

“I’m trying to make a positive difference in my little bit of help that I could, by communicating to the public about opening their awareness of what’s going on and trying to help others find homes or rescues for the dogs that are in need,” King says.

But the power of the inter-

net goes both ways.

While King has been able to foster a community that focuses on positive, productive feedback and awareness, she has seen flare-ups online.

King says she considers the shelter to be in “crisis mode” but acknowledges that it has easily become a scapegoat for the emotional issue.

“There’s so many people that are bad-mouthing the shelter, saying that they’re just killers,” King says. “You know, they don’t want to have to put down all those dogs. I don’t believe that they just don’t care, that they just want to kill them all. That’s just crazy talk, but it spreads like wildfire all over the net, and people are really being turned against the shelter.”

A primary concern of King’s is animal dumping, which has long been an issue.

One group that has formed in response to the dumping is the Dowdy Ferry Animal Commission, which monitors cameras placed along Dowdy Ferry Road, which has become a frequent spot for people dumping dogs.

As of 2021, the commission had responded to 780 dumped dogs in six years, Jeremy Boss, one of the founders of the group, told reporters.

Dowdy Ferry Animal Commission’s website features graphic videos of dogs being left behind by owners. Although hard to watch, the videos raise awareness for the issue and have helped police find the perpetrators on multiple occasions.

Without awareness, Sans says animal rights groups will continue to be in the difficult situation they are in now.

“I don’t foresee it getting any better until we start talking about it and letting the community know that we have to have their help to solve this problem. We absolutely do,” Sans says.

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