Somewhere between airports, conference rooms, humane education programs, grant workshops, book deadlines, and far too many cups of tea, I realized something surprising: I hadn’t written a personal blog post in nearly three months.
Not because life slowed down; quite the opposite.
In many ways, the last few months have been some of the busiest — and most meaningful — of my career.
This spring took me across the country, speaking at conferences, leading trainings, and having conversations with people who care deeply about animals, leadership, compassion fatigue, veterinary access, humane education, and the emotional weight that often accompanies caring professions.
I spoke with shelter staff trying to do more with fewer resources. Veterinary professionals navigating exhaustion and workforce shortages. Humane educators teaching children how kindness toward animals can help shape safer, more compassionate communities. And leaders trying to hold organizations together during incredibly difficult times.
And somewhere in the middle of all of that, my book, Humane Perspectives: Leadership in Animal Welfare, officially entered the world after years of work.
This season also included moments I still don’t quite know how to write about without sounding overwhelmed with gratitude. I was honored to receive the APHE Nathania Gartman Heroes Award, along with the APHE Educator’s Choice Award for The Happy Tale of Two Cats. Both recognitions meant more to me than I can probably put into words because they came from people working every day in humane education and animal welfare — a community I care deeply about.
And on top of all that, I recently returned to a project I originally wrote nearly two years ago — a customer service book for animal advocates. I had even asked a respected leader in the animal welfare field to write the foreword before life, deadlines, and other projects pulled me in different directions. At the time, I made the difficult decision to temporarily set that manuscript aside so I could finish Grant Writing Boot Camp for Animal Advocates after realizing, following a workshop I gave last January, just how desperately that resource was needed. At the same time, Humane Perspectives was already in the making and nearing completion.
Sometimes writing projects don’t happen in the order we originally planned.
Sometimes the work simply tells you what needs to come first.
It has been one of those seasons where the work feels important, but life also starts moving faster than your ability to sit still long enough to write about it.
Ironically, writing has still been happening constantly.
Just not always here.
There were newspaper columns, presentations, workshops, interviews, training materials, grant proposals, speeches, and countless notes typed into my phone at odd hours while waiting to board flights or sitting in airport terminals wondering whether I still remembered what day it was.
And while I’m deeply grateful for every opportunity, I’ve also been reminded that meaningful work often happens in small moments — in conversations after presentations, in stories shared over lunch, in classrooms full of children learning empathy, and in exhausted animal welfare professionals who simply need someone to say, “Yes, this work is hard.”
Those moments don’t always immediately become blog posts. But they should.
Animal welfare feels especially heavy in many places right now. Veterinary shortages continue affecting communities across the country. A spay/neuter clinic recently told me they had to close all but one day of spay-neuter surgeries last week because they couldn’t find a contract vet to perform them. Shelters remain overcrowded. Compassion fatigue is real. And yet, somehow, I continue to meet people who show up every single day, determined to keep helping anyway.
That kind of resilience stays with you.
So while I may not have been writing here lately, this season has been filled with learning, listening, teaching, traveling, editing, and thinking about where this work — and this writing — may be headed next.
And honestly, I’ve missed this space.
So if you’re still here reading after my accidental three-month disappearing act, thank you.(And feel free to use any of these blog posts as educational material for your followers.)
More writing is coming — including essays and reflections on leaders in animal welfare whose stories deserve to be preserved and shared. One of the first is about Ledy VanKavage, whose friendship and leadership have shaped not only the field, but many of the people fortunate enough to work alongside her.
I’m looking forward to getting back to this space more regularly — sharing the stories, lessons, and conversations that continue to remind me why this work matters so deeply.
