“If you can’t afford a pet, you shouldn’t have one.” We hear this quite a bit. Certainly it comes from a place of compassion for animals; I myself thought this long before I understood what happens here at PRCKC. Or what the reality would be if everyone who struggled from time to time couldn’t have a pet. Our shelters –...Read More
“Because of her, I’m never sad,” Charlie says from the front porch of his tiny home at the Veteran’s Community Project. He lives there with his best friend, a pibble mix he calls Blue. Blue loves people and proves what we say about the bully breed all the time: they’re wonderfully sweet and good for people. That’s the thing, right?...Read More
A week rarely passes that I don’t think about John. Anytime I try to tell someone about him I immediately feel my heart stumble, and the words start stacking up in my throat like cars at a busy intersection. I don’t believe I’ll ever forget what he turned to me and said as we sat together in our wellness clinic....Read More
Just down the road from PRCKC HQ is a small community where lives are being put back together piece by piece. It’s called the Veteran’s Community Project. Most people know it locally from the small houses that are being built at 89th and Troost. It’s called the Village. And it does have a village feel about it. Walk through on...Read More
The marred knob on my basement door tells the story. It was probably 20 years ago. My neighbor invited me over to grill out for the fourth. As it turned dark, he pulled out a box of fireworks and began shooting them into the sky. We knew our dog, Annie, was not a fan of thunder and assumed that fireworks...Read More
We believe in the power of pets to change lives in dramatic ways. And this submission, made by an PRCKC client, reveals how true that actually is. We are running it here with only a little editing for length and clarity because it’s an incredible testament to the impact pets have on our lives. … I was a mess. I...Read More
Marie was trying to give her dog, Precious, away. “I need someone to take her,” she said without looking up. Surrenders – that’s what people in our business call it – happen for a lot of reasons and, typically, none of them are good. An owner has passed on and family can’t take care of the pet, a high energy...Read More
I learned to be terrified of tornadoes in the spring of 1977. As I lay hidden underneath a wrestling mat with hundreds of my fellow students in a large gymnasium, a twister was leveling the other two schools in my hometown along with what seemed like most of the neighborhoods. There was no terror for us; we couldn’t see or...Read More
Two hours. That’s all I spent outside and a good deal of the time I was in and out of the van, heater blasting full volume against the rush of cold. When we finished – not sure of the time – it was murky and dark. The wind was pushing down on us from the north with teeth made of...Read More
Imagine a world without shelters. We do. We imagine them out of business, closed tight, the grounds and buildings put to an entirely different use that has nothing to do with animals being housed until they find homes. And it’s not because we don’t like and partner with shelters or want the staff who dedicate their lives to animals to...Read More
