Timothy Coleman (00:00.334)
Welcome to the I love one and dogs podcast created produced and hosted by Heidi Huebner with engineering and production by Timothy stonedancer Coleman. This show was created to celebrate good wine, amazing pets, and people from around the world who are doing great things in their local communities.

Timothy Coleman (00:19.118)
Hi Tim. Hi everybody. Welcome back to our show. We're so excited to be back again. Yes. How are you sister? So anything new in your life I need to hear about before we delve in? Oh, listen, you know what? It's been a very wild and crazy, you know, set of days and weeks here in the Bronx, New York, but everything has, um,

You know, I think at this point, honestly, to be honest, I'm just learning to take every day like one moment at a time, right? Like there's so many things that are happening in life. I feel like everybody's like super intense with every little thing that happens. So I'm just learning how to breathe my way through it. How about for you? You know, it's funny, I feel the same way. And I've had conversations with friends, just, I don't know why we just feel like we're all over the place all the time. Yeah. And it's the same thing I've learned.

It's all always going to work out. Whatever it is. If we just breathe and take a minute. I swear by my headspace app that I will use that if I just feel like I'm, yeah, I'll put it on. There's like, you know, quick meditations or breathing things. And I'm being able to do that more on my own when I just go take a beat. Because we've it works out the universe has us. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And if you

participate in the belief that everything that is happening right now was meant to happen, and that there's a lesson inside of it, whether it's good or bad, whether you like what's happening or not, then I think it allows us to take a much bigger view of all these little small individual things in life. Very well said, my friend. I love that. I feel like I need to write that down.

so I'm glad this is recorded. Yeah, me too, me too. Well, listen, I'm really excited for our guest today. Bill Crowe is an amazing person, friend, mentor to me, and has just done so much to make the world and things for people and animals better. You know, Bill and I have a background. We've known each other for a long time, much like you and I.

Timothy Coleman (02:40.812)
We come from the entertainment world Bill has a beautiful voice and was an incredible dancer and he can still do the splits He can and bend forward and stuff I think our bodies just always remember how to do that, but He's just he's done so much and from entertainment. He moved into this nonprofit world. So without further ado Let's bring on our guest. Mr. Bill Crowe. Hi everybody Hey, Bill, welcome to the show

Thank you. Happy to be here. So Bill, tell us a little bit about your background in entertainment. When did you start classes? When did you first know you wanted to do that? Well, it was in college. I auditioned for a show and got in and it was like, I was bitten, you know, by the bug. And so I ended up changing my major to theater.

And then from there, moved to New York after I graduated and, you know, worked my fingers to the bone and all I got was bony fingers. So I started doing other things and, you I wanted things to be fulfilling. I didn't want to just, you know, work. So I started volunteering for a lot of nonprofits and at the time age was raging.

So I was volunteering for Project Angel Food and things like that. And then they really needed people. They needed people that could manage things because everybody had a really warm heart and wanted to do well, but they didn't necessarily have the management skills or the administrative skills. And before I knew it, I was the director of Project Angel Food.

and was running that for a while and from there moved to other nonprofit organizations. And about 20 years ago, my love for animals kicked in with my experience with nonprofits and I started running the Pet Care Foundation. And we're a nonprofit who saves animals in LA city and LA county. And I've been doing that for, it'll be 20 years in December.

Timothy Coleman (05:03.182)
I'm going to back up for one second. No, no, no, it's all good because it's all again part of this growing up. Did you have animals? Oh my God, so many. And you know, you think of that kids are the ones that bring in the strays. Well, my father was the one that brought in the strays all the time. And my mother would just roll her eyes and go, oh my God, another one. But we always my dad's love for animals. He just could not turn away a stray. So.

We had multiple cats, multiple dogs, always. So again, the animals were part of your life growing up as a child and entertainment, but there was always this draw to do good, help, this heartstrings. Hey, and that's actually where, is that where we met? That's where we met. There was a heartstrings, which was an AIDS benefit musical. And.

Heidi and I were both dancers and singers in that, and that's where we met 10 million years ago when God was a baby. That was a great show. And I don't even remember what year that was. It was a long time ago. But again, we had this connection and this wonderful group of friends and then kind of lost track because...

This was before social media and cell phones and all of that stuff. Yeah. And then, you know, shortly after I got this job, I was, you know, trying to figure out who was who in the animal world, because I didn't know. And people kept talking about Heidi, who worked for the LA animals shelters. I, you know, I wondered, you know, Heidi, is it Heidi, my Heidi? And so I ended up calling her.

And, um, you know, she answered her phone. This is Heidi. I was like, is this Heidi Schumer? And she went, yeah. And so, you know, it was like, Oh my God. So we were meant to be come back together. Absolutely. I re I literally remember where I was sitting at my desk answering the phone. Right. And it was like, Oh my God, Wilkrow. Of course we had a thousand things to catch up on.

Timothy Coleman (07:27.214)
and both being in the animal world at the same time, like in jobs, like actually doing, making a living with our passion. It was like, how lucky are we? Yeah. Yeah. And I still feel that way. As hard as working in the animal world is, and most nonprofits are that way, it's very rewarding. You have to focus on the successes that you have because...

If you don't, you're just going to be sad all the time. And if you're sad all the time, you're not as effective. So absolutely. And just really quickly, I don't know if you can see my shirt, but I have to say this dog dog mom. She is a dog mom. And cat and horse and everything. We're mothers and fathers to all living creatures.

This is one of my favorite shirts. I just, I wanted to make sure. I'm glad you like it. I love it. I have a lot of shows I'll be wearing for this show that Bill has given me. I tend to buy, there's a website called greater good .org and they sell products and all the product, the money from the product sales go to animal organizations or you can pick whatever charity you want, you know, breast cancer, you know, hungry, all that stuff.

Before we continue on with our interview with Bill Crow, I wanted to just share the wine of today. Yummy. Edna Valley Chardonnay. This is another standard I always have at my house. It's just a nice little light wine. And I'm going to be cracking this baby up later tonight. That looks delicious. Are there any wines that you like? Any fun cocktails? Well, I mean, there's not particular brands, but...

I tend to go for Pinot Noir. No matter what I'm eating, I just love Pinot Noir a lot. It's a little lighter than Merlot and just a little sweeter than Cabernet. So I just really go for Pinot Noir. That is a good wine. I'm going to have to find a good one and feature that on a future show. Tim's also a red wine lover.

Timothy Coleman (09:47.598)
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. My favorite. And just like you, Bill, it doesn't really matter what I'm eating. But I think different red wines pair really well. Most of my week, I'm a vegan, but on Sundays, I cheat. This is my cheat day. And I have salmon. So, you know, of different ways and kinds. So yeah. Yeah. Well, and again, please, everybody, we would love to know what your favorite wines are. Or if you are going to try the Edna Valley Chardonnay or if that's

one of your staples too. You can find us on I love wine and dogs all one word on Facebook to be interactive with us, or you can find us on Instagram. Again, I love wine and dogs all one word. Okay, so let's get back to Pet Care Foundation. So Bill Paula, tell us how Pet Care started and then we'll go into everything that you're doing. Okay. Um,

Paula Kent Meehan founded Pet Care Foundation and you can Google her. She's a very well -known lady in the beauty industry. She created the company Redken and she started from nothing. She was a high school dropout. She just was allergic to hairspray. So she created her own hairspray and then she thought, well, there are probably other women that might be allergic to hairspray.

So she created her own hairspray that she could use herself. And back then, salons did not sell products. So she went around and was peddling her hairspray to all the salons. And before you know it, they were selling it in all the salons. So she's really credited for that whole retail thing that goes on in salons now.

But anyway, she became a very wealthy lady from Redken and she sold it to L 'Oreal in 2004, right before the big Northridge earthquake. And so she made a lot of money from that sale and she always loved animals. She always had dogs and cats. And right about 20 years ago, she decided to start a foundation and she hired me to...

Timothy Coleman (12:09.23)
basically create it and define what it was going to do. And I'm very grateful to her. She passed away about 10 years ago, but she left a lot of her estate to the foundation. So it's where it could go on in perpetuity. That's beautiful. That's what we're doing today. Keeping her legacy alive. Yeah. She was an amazing woman and I'm grateful that I got to know her. And...

I'm also a part of Pet Care Foundation as a board member. And they do so many great things. Bill, let's talk about some of the programs that Pet Care has got going on. Well, our biggest one is our grooming program. A lot of people may not realize it, but strays and even owner surrender dogs that come in, they're often just a mess. Like you can barely recognize that they're a dog. They're so matted and dirty and...

fleas and ticks and horrible things that nobody wants to bring into their home. Well, we clean them up and make them beautiful. And then everybody wants to bring them into their home. And the grooming program has a 96 % adoption rate, which means that every dog that we groom has pretty much has a 96 % chance of being adopted. And we've been doing that for quite some long.

quite a long time and it really falls in line with Paula's whole history, you know, because she was in the beauty industry and we came about it quite by accident because her granddaughter -in -law came to me one day about five years after we started the foundation and said, you know, I'm a dog groomer. And so we just started very small and now we have eight groomers working in all the city shelters every day of the week, even Saturday and Sunday.

We groom about 800 dogs a year, which is, you know, it's amazing. The city shelters love us because we do that. And then we also do a large scale adoption events. And there are six LA city shelters and seven LA county shelters. And so we do the adoption events simultaneously in each shelter. And,

Timothy Coleman (14:37.004)
It's so much better than doing it at a location because people can come to the shelter and see every animal, not just the ones that were selected to go to the park, you know, for an adoption event. So it gives every animal at the shelter a chance. And those have been really successful. And then we also do a lot of social media networking. It works. I mean, every, every animal that we.

decide to network, their chance of getting adopted just goes way up. And we also do a TV show that we go into the shelter and we film the animals and put it up on air. It airs on Beverly Hills City Channel and West Hollywood City Channel and LA City Channel. And it has a pretty high adoption rate as well. So if you get on TV, everybody wants you, you know? That's really amazing.

put everything up there. But where can people find, what's your website? It's Petcare. And then Facebook and Instagram? Yeah, it's all just just Petcare Foundation, hashtag Petcare Foundation.

So please check out the website. I'm the grooming. I love all of the programs, but the grooming program, when you see these dogs and we're going to put some before and after pictures up as well, it, they smile, you know, can you imagine you can't walk or move your arm because the hair is so matted and all of a sudden you can move your limbs and you, dogs don't want to be dirty like that.

Yeah, they just don't you know, even if they're short haired dogs and they don't have that tangled hair Just getting a bath if a dog's never had a bath in nine years I mean what the before -and -after pictures don't show is the smell the difference is Amazing, you know you go from a dog that you can barely be around because they smell so bad to one that smells like flowers Yeah

Timothy Coleman (16:48.172)
It's just beautiful. It's my favorite program that you guys do. It touches your heart when you see some of the before and after pictures where you see this picture and you go, is that a dog or is that a dirty mop? Can I ask you a quick question? Sure. My question would be once the animal is adopted, what is your process in terms of

You know, I think about a college and of course, it's probably not at this level, but I think about it like an alumni program, right? Like the animals that have come through. Are the new owners sending you updated pictures and video and like, hey, here's how little Matthew is doing now, et cetera? Yes, quite often they do. They send pictures and videos and letters and emails and texts saying how happy they are. And, you know, and occasionally,

we get the ones that say this is not working out. You know, and we try to help them with resources to make it work out. And if it doesn't, then we continue on to try to rehome the animal as well. That's really powerful because sometimes, you know, especially kids, I think we've all been through that. I want a dog. I want a cat. I want a little, you know, I had I was a foster parent for a while and I and the girls wanted red -eared turtles.

And so I was like, okay, sure turtles, that can't be that intense. And it was intense. Right? So you do need those additional supports and resources. So I guess just for our listeners, I just wanted to make sure people know it's not just about like you adopt the dog and then you're on your own. There are additional supports out there to help you properly care for the type of animal that you have. We have a lot of, if you go to our website, petcarefoundation .org and click on pet info, there's a,

myriad of resources there. And then we can also can serve as a connection to other resources and dog trainers, cat therapists, you know, all kinds of stuff. We'll be right back after these messages. Sawyer Lindquist wines are a collaboration between Bob Lindquist.

Timothy Coleman (19:07.468)
and Louisa Sawyer Lindquist. The wines all have a distinctive flair and reflect the balanced style of those two talented winemakers. Conveniently located in the charming village of Arroyo Grande, California, you can visit their website to get more information about their selection of wines or schedule a wine tasting for you and your friends. And don't forget to let them know that you heard about them on the I Love Wine and Dogs podcast. Welcome back to the show.

I wish every city shelter had a grooming program. It would just make a huge difference. So if anybody hearing this is so inclined to say, hey, how do I do this? Get in touch with Bill and they can help you. This is the model for other shelters to be able to use. All right. What's the hardest part about this job? And do you ever want to throw the towel in? I never want to throw the towel in, no.

But the hard part is people who don't want to put it to work in, you know, like things magically happen sometimes and it's wonderful when they do. But quite often you bring an animal into your home and they're scared. They don't know where they are. They've been through all kinds of trauma. And, you know, it takes them, it takes them a while.

You know, I always tell people it may take six months, it may take a year for this animal to come to their full personality and be completely secure and at home with you. You know, it may not, it may happen magically that day, you never know, but I always say you gotta be willing to put the work in, you know, like any relationship.

You've got to want to make it work. You've got to provide the love. You've got to provide the security and training if it means training too, because they don't know where they are. They don't know the rules in your house and they don't know you. So sometimes it takes time and sometimes people aren't willing to do that for whatever reason. So it gets a little frustrating when the people are not willing to do that.

Timothy Coleman (21:30.476)
All right, so Bill, why do you think, I feel like we had a while where we were doing really good about not about adoptions in the shelters and not all these animals coming back. And I feel like they're all were overloaded again. Well, we are. I mean, during COVID, the shelter is almost cleared out because people were home. And so they.

They went and adopted, they went and fostered, and it was wonderful. But then, you know, once it relaxed, the shelters got overrun again. And now, especially with dogs now, it used to be cats, but now it's dogs, especially big dogs. We're just so full of big dogs, it's crazy. Which is why we always say, please adopt, don't shop. We have so many beautiful animals in the shelters and rescue groups have.

you will find what you're looking for. And yeah, and to follow up with that, I just want to say it may take a little more time than calling a breeder and getting what you want. But if you want a particular breed, there's pretty much a rescue group for every breed. If you can't find it in a municipal shelter and it may take a little bit more time, but it sure is worth it, I think. 100 %

Bill, what can people in the community do? How can people help in their community? And if you're not ready to adopt, what are some other options that people can look into? Well, all of the municipal shelters and the rescue groups, the nonprofit rescue groups, they have foster programs where you can take an animal into your home for a short period of time or a long period of time.

and foster it so that they have more room at the shelter and more room at the rescue group to save others. You can also, if you can't do that, you just don't have a situation where you can bring an animal into your home. You can always volunteer. All the rescue groups need volunteers. All the city and county shelters need volunteers. Without the volunteers, the animals would be miserable because they just don't have the staff to sit and pet an animal for.

Timothy Coleman (23:56.108)
30 minutes or whatever, or take them out for a walk. They just don't have the staff or the funding to provide the staff for that. So volunteering is amazing and it's so rewarding. And if you don't have the time for that, you can always donate. They always need, even the just newspapers, the shelter and the rescue groups, need newspapers to put down in the cages and of course food.

Food is important. Toys, any blankets, pillows, dog beds, you can always donate. And of course, money. Money's always welcome. Right. And with social media, I always thought, wouldn't it be cool if local schools could partner with their local shelters and like each kid. I feel like they used to do that. They would do little field trips to read to the dogs and cats. But...

take it a step farther and they become an advocate and, you know, post pictures of the dogs at school. Like, hey, this dog or cat or bunny, guinea pig needs a home or a foster home. That's actually a really good idea. I don't know if that goes on right now, but yeah, if every kid was assigned an animal to network, that would be an amazing program.

So we're going to talk about that offline and see if that's let's do a pilot and see how that works. I think that would be spectacular. Yeah, I do too. And would make a difference, right Chubbs? Yeah, Chubbs. Chubbs a rescue. Yes, they're all rescues. Now she's going to take... I Purebred pug rescue. So you can get a purebred animal if that's your heart's desire. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Bill, if I had a magic wand. You don't? I, well, I might. Bibbidi -bobbidi -boo. If I could grant a wish or two for you, off the top of your head right now, what would that be? It would be that every pet guardian...

Timothy Coleman (26:24.652)
I don't want to say owner, guardian, would be a responsible guardian. They would spay and neuter. They would give them proper care and they would adopt and not buy from breeders. So that's a multiple answer. I'm sorry. That's okay. I, you know, if you have a couple more, throw them out there. As long as we're waving magic wands. I just thought I'd get them all in there. I like it. I like it.

It's absolutely true. That's why I always tell people, you've got to be willing to give it at least three months at the very least because they've got to learn your household. They've got to learn you. They've got to, you know, and most animals are very anxious and willing to learn all that. And they want to learn it quickly because dogs especially want to please cats do too. Don't get me wrong, but, um, dogs, especially.

They're people pleasers, most of them. They wanna be your friend, they wanna be your companion, they wanna gel with your life, but you gotta give them time to learn what that is, especially if they've been through a rough time and they take them longer to trust. Older dogs tend to learn that faster. I tried a gear.

people towards the four, five, six year olds, you know, because they pick it up faster. You know, they've been through it, so they learn faster. I understand people love puppies, puppies are cute, but you know, it's like bringing an infant into your home. They take a little bit longer to learn. You know, you gotta be willing to go through all the mistakes that they're gonna make and they're gonna make them. And...

Patience, yes, patience is a virtue. Absolutely. She's falling asleep. You should have a glass of wine too, Heidi, complete the picture. So Bill, you just touched on something that you need to look for the dog or animal that's right for your lifestyle. Oh, yeah, please.

Timothy Coleman (28:49.836)
That's the one thing that I want to say. Please do your research if you're wanting a dog, especially because different breeds have different characteristics. Like if you're a couch potato, you don't want a husky. You know, they're beautiful, but they have to run, they have to hike, they have to have a job to do. And if you're not willing to play with them and hike with them, or at least walk a lot with them, they're not a good breed for you. You know?

Get something more couch potato with. Or same thing like a Jack Russell. Jack Russells are busybody. They need to be stimulated as well. So don't think little dog equals, oh, they don't need that much exercise. Right. Especially Jack Russells. They love to go, go, go, go, go. You know, that's why they do a lot of agility. They were bred to be very active. So if you're not a hiker jogger,

Don't get a Jack Russell, don't get a Husky. You know, get something that's calmer. Yeah, thank you. That's really, really important because I mean, right now we're inundated with Huskies at the shelters. It's heartbreaking. They're gorgeous. They're gorgeous, but people get them because they're gorgeous. And then they have, and then they don't train them properly. And then they've got this a hundred pound dog that's running around their house, you know, driving them crazy.

And so they turn them into the shelter and it's unfortunate. But, you know, it's like Heidi said, you would be shocked that the shelters would be so full of these beautiful, beautiful animals, but they are. There's so many huskies. Huskies and German shepherds. I love German shepherds. I know. I have one sleeping right there. And pit bulls, of course, they're full of pit bulls.

But surprisingly, German shepherds and huskies are right up there with pit bulls in the shelters. So do you have, you know, is there some sort of a chart that exists? You know, I think one of the other things that people don't consider is the size of the space that they live in as they're choosing, you know, their forever family member. I live in New York City. I'm in the Bronx and it's an apartment building and one of my neighbors.

Timothy Coleman (31:13.868)
has a great Dane. And I remember the first time I saw she's a beautiful, very well behaved, you know, great Dane, but she's so big for the space. And so he's always outside trying to walk her. And, and now I'm like, Hey, listen, I'll volunteer to walk her if she needs an extra walk during the day, like I, she needs to stretch her legs. I can see it. Right. So how do you, how do you coach people when they come in looking for their new family member? What are the types of

things that you say to them so that they're actually in the right mindset and they're not just taken in by the cuteness of the animal. Right. Well, I'm a firm believer of if you want it to work out, you can make it work out. Like this guy that you said with the Great Dane in an apartment, he's made it work. And it sounds like he's willing to make it work. The question is, are you willing to make it work? So you can have a Great Pyrenees or a Great Dane.

in an apartment if you are willing to get them out and walk, you know, three or four times a day. If you're not, then no, get a smaller dog. But you know, you can, every situation you can make it work. It's the person, you know, what's going on in your head, what's in your heart, what can you do to make it work? Because the dog is gonna love you and all he wants,

All the dog wants is for you to take care of him and love him back. That was good. Um, one more quick thing I want us to touch on. She is completely asleep. She's out. I love it. I love it. I love it. Um, if you already have another animal at home, you have to be careful and you have to introduce the new pet into the home the right way. That's critical. Right.

You can't just bring them in and go, here, here's your new brother. Even humans would reject that. So it's important to either do your research, learn about how to introduce an animal to another animal, which there's a myriad of websites, ours included, which can give you that information. Or if you have the funds, it's great to hire a trainer to help you.

Timothy Coleman (33:40.236)
bring them and let them introduce the animals slowly. And quite often it's a process of keeping them separated for a few days, a few weeks, something like that, if you can. But do the research, do the homework. It always pays off if you do. Yeah. The resources are out there. I'm going to give a quick plug for this company called The Zoom Room.

I love them and they are nationwide. They're a franchise and I didn't know it there. I took Ripley the puppy or Roddy puppy there for puppy socialization and play groups and training and they also have agility and obedience for older dogs and sometimes something like that might be a little more reasonable than having a private trainer depending on what your situation is. But you know,

There are resources out there. You can reach out to Bill on Pet Care Foundation in your local communities, reach out to me. We're all here to help and support you because that's what it's all about. It's all of us working together. Takes a village, as they say. Well, on that note, Bill Crow, I love you. Thank you so much for being our guest. You're welcome. I love you too.

Thank you for all the amazing work you're doing and continuing to do. Tim, what can I say? I'm so lucky that you're my partner in this journey. Thank you. Hey, listen, thanks for having me along for the ride. I love you completely. Even if we didn't meet in some sort of a pet environment, we still met on the entertainment connection and I'm so happy to be here. All right, everybody. Until next time, take care, adopt and don't shop.

Make it a great day.