The following story was recently featured by the Baylor Alumni Association.
Alumnae Spotlight
Reprinted with permission from the Baylor Alumni Association.
Originally printed in Between the Lines.
By Meg Cullar
When a woman drove by a pile of trash on the side of the road near Waco and saw a puppy in the debris, she knew just whom to call: Waco's Fuzzy Friends Rescue. The no-kill animal shelter takes in hundreds of homeless animals annually, has a constant population of about two hundred, and adopts out between seven and eight hundred pets every year.
Fuzzy Friends is the brainchild and passion of Betsy Sharp Robinson '71 of Waco. Recently, Robinson won a Jefferson Award to honor her dedication to homeless animals. The Jefferson Award for Public Service, sponsored locally by KWTX-TV, is considered the "Nobel Prize of volunteerism," according to Valerie Parker, programming and community service director at KWTX. Four citizens were chosen from the Central Texas area (Waco, Temple, Killeen, and Belton), Parker said, and from among those Robinson was singled out to go to Washington, D.C. for the national ceremony.
"I was totally surprised and, of course, very humbled because there are so many deserving people," Robinson said of the prestigious award. "I had no idea I had even been nominated."
The nomination came from a Fuzzy Friends board member and Fuzzy Friends marketing and special events director Becki Goss-Shepherd, who thought Robinson was a shoo-in for the award. "Betsy is unique as the founder of such a large and successful organization," she said. “She is here daily, and the two of us work on all our special events together. She is fully involved in every decision."
Although founded in 1997 in someone's back yard, Fuzzy Friends really took off in 1999 when a ten-thousand-square-foot building and eight and a half acres of land were donated to the group. After extensive renovations and a more recent grant from Waco's Cooper Foundation, the facility now includes custom features like a quarantine area, an adoption kennel, and big-dog exercise yards with misting systems to combat the Texas heat. The organization has fifteen employees.
"I have loved animals all my life," Robinson said. "My parents were so sweet to let me bring home everything imaginable—hamsters, fish, horses, donkeys, and of course dogs; they are my favorite." Robinson also credits her husband, local businessman Clifton Robinson '63, for supporting—and sharing—her love of animals. Although they have owned up to six dogs at a time, Betsy Robinson said the family has established a "four and no more" rule to keep things under control. "Being at Fuzzy Friends every day, where we get so many wonderful animals that are beautiful and precious and fun-loving, I have had to learn to resist or I would have a house full," she said.
Robinson said that God literally "set my heart on fire" with the passion to help homeless animals twenty years ago. At first, she volunteered at the Waco Humane Shelter, an organization she still supports and praises. During her seven years as a shelter volunteer, Robinson began to imagine something more. "I began dreaming of a no-kill shelter where the animals would have more time—a place where healing and transformation and rehabilitation could happen," she said. "If a dog came in with broken limbs, heartworms, mange, or some other treatable or curable condition, we could take care of that."
Robinson came up with the name "Fuzzy Friends," and the rest has been Waco history. The group is well known not just for saving animals but for serving people. Through a pet therapy program, Fuzzy Friends takes dogs (and one extremely mellow cat) to nursing homes for visits. Fuzzy Friends is also an Adopt-A-School partner with Waco ISD's Cedar Ridge Elementary School, where volunteers take dogs to help in the reading program for at-risk youths.
"The results have just been amazing," Robinson said of the tutoring program, which won a Gold Star Award from the Waco ISD in 2004. "Not only have the students' reading skills improved, but the children have improved across the board in every area at school and with self-esteem and confidence. We're very proud of that outreach program."
Fuzzy Friends is also known for its creative fundraisers, including the New Year's Eve Barkin' Ball, an annual pet calendar, and a dog fashion show.
But what about the fate of the puppy found in the trash? Fuzzy Friends shelter was full that day and unable to take in the gray toy poodle, but the receptionist at Fuzzy Friends called Robinson anyway. "I know how you love poodles," she said, "and I thought you might want to foster the puppy." So Robinson met the woman who found the dog in a church parking lot and took the nine-month-old puppy that was so covered in thorns, stickers, and filth you couldn’t even see her eyes. The puppy growled at Robinson so fiercely that she had to approach wearing garden gloves. Veterinarians sedated the puppy to get her cleaned up, and then her true colors began to show—and Robinson was smitten.
Now the puppy from the roadside trash heap goes by "Bitsy" and lives a life of luxury in Robinson's home (see photo above). "I bought her a page in last year's Fuzzy Friends calendar," Robinson said. "The caption said, 'Dumped in the trash—recycled as a queen.'"
Robinson would like to see such a happy ending for as many animals as possible. And, as the Jefferson Award committee noticed, she is doing more than her share to make that happen. |
