THE LAST WORD

WRITING HAPPY ENDINGS BY ANNMARIE MARTIN

The goal: 800 lives saved in 2019.

The result: 1,123 pets placed in loving homes.

The Greater Huntsville Humane Society’s staff and volunteers

wrote happy endings to the stories of those vulnerable animals.

New CEO Anne Caldwell is proud of their achievement – the first time they’ve topped 1,000 – but she’ll never be satisfied with that number or any other. She’s read the whole book on neglected, abused and abandoned animals, and she knows too many of them have no good end in sight.

Each animal that enters the Humane Society shelter on Johnson Road brings a story. They’re sad, hopeful and heartbreaking. Anne’s eager to share them with anyone who’ll listen.

There’s Jeb, a gentle, calm, loving dog with a strong spirit. A volunteer found him roaming the woods, malnourished, with signs of abuse, including a broken jaw.

“Once you get involved in this world,” Anne says, “you become a magnet for animals. Our volunteers are always finding them.”

Jeb’s story is still being written. He’s safe with a foster family now. The Humane Society raised money for surgery to fix his jaw. After that, he’ll be ready for his own happy ending.

When you save an animal, you may be saving yourself, too. That’s how Anne characterizes her personal shelter adoption story. Anne had been an animal lover all her life but not necessarily an advocate. At age 23, she was working at the Madison Public Library when she realized she needed help.

“I had lost a couple of family members who were very close to me. I had lost a very close friend. I had gone through a rough break-up. What makes you smile no matter what? Puppies.”

At Huntsville Animal Services, she faced a depressing sight. “It is a clean, wonderful no-kill facility. But there’s still something so sad about walking in the doors and seeing kennel after kennel, row after row, stuffed full of animals that don’t have anywhere to go.”

Anne found her smile in the puppy corral. “I fell in love with an ornery jerk of a little dog. His name is Randy. He was skin and bones. He had fleas. He was sick and mean and sad. But he put his little paws up and wanted me to pick him up.”

That surprised an employee. “He stopped short and said, ‘Whoa! How did you do that? He won’t let anybody touch him.’”

Randy brought back Anne’s smile and much more. “He showed me how crowded the shelters are. Once I knew it, I couldn’t erase this nagging in my brain: ‘How are you going to fix this problem?’”

Anne volunteered with Huntsville Animal Services and A New Leash on Life. She fostered animals. She left the library when A New Leash offered a paying job. Then, her dream came true. “I saw the job listing for the CEO of the Humane Society while I was on my honeymoon. I applied from Mexico on a whim.”

At her age, she didn’t expect to be considered, but the board of directors had no problem with a 29-year-old. After 50 years, the Humane Society wanted fresh blood and new ideas. They hired her last June.

Under Anne’s leadership, the Humane Society has expanded its reach to take in animals from kill shelters in seven Alabama counties beyond Madison. The Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship named her 2020 Nonprofit Entrepreneur of the Year on Feb. 28.

This story has plenty of plot twists ahead. Anne wants to strengthen the state’s animal cruelty and spay/neuter laws and continue to raise awareness of animals’ plight. Read more at ghhs.org.

- EstéeLauder “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”