Today we’d like to introduce you to Tammy Wynn.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My favorite quote is Mark Twain’s, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” I thought my purpose on this earth was going to be revealed to me by the strength of my continual drive toward the pursuit of excellence, but instead, it was revealed to me in a moment of excruciating pain that brought me to my knees. In 1985 I patiently waited to adopt two kittens born to a momma cat in a family member’s barn. Once they were old enough, I brought Cagney and Lacey into my home. I never had children of my own, so these two were the delights of my life. They went through so many chapters of my life with me. They were my constant. When they were 18, Cagney’s health began to fail. I was hoping my veterinarian would help me, not only through losing a pet for the first time but truly through the loss of my child. Instead, it seemed to be a routine procedure for her, void of emotional support and education for me. I was devastated, and even though I was a licensed human therapist myself, I was unable to find grief support specifically for pet loss. Still struggling through that loss, a year later, my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He elected hospice care, and my eyes were opened to something missing in the veterinary world. For the last 6 months of his life, he had pain management and symptom control at home, and his family was provided education about his condition and emotional support. I realized it was exactly what I had needed the year before when I went through the loss of Cagney alone. I needed a nurse to come out to the house and teach me how to care for Cagney at the end of her life and offer guidance to me on how to navigate the emotions of losing a family member. The loss of my father brought on a spiritual epiphany that collided with my loss of Cagney, and two words were put in my heart, animal hospice. My father died in 2004, and I googled animal hospice because I thought I was supposed to go and volunteer my time there. Instead found those two words did not come up together. My father left me with entrepreneurial genes, and I realized I was supposed to invent this. It took me 6 years to put it all together. I took a job as a social worker at a human hospice to really learn the concept of hospice, so I could mirror it for the pet world. While there, I saw the key role the nurse plays in hospice. While I knew I could provide emotional support to families, I also knew I needed to go back to school to become a registered vet tech to really understand the disease process for pets. So, at the age of 50, that’s what I did. In 2010, 6 years to the day (and hour) of those two words being placed in my heart, I opened the first of its kind in the world animal hospice called Angel’s Paws.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Revolutionizing the way end-of-life care is handled by the existing giant industry of veterinary medicine is daunting. But I feel I was specifically called to this work; because of my very nature as a social worker, I am a collaborator and not a competitor. When I started, I had zero veterinary practices in my city partnering with me. Today, I have over 100 veterinary practices who work with us and see the value in helping their families be able to say goodbye to their beloved furry family member in the intimate setting of home. Another interesting challenge was I truly believed that “if I built it, they would come” because I felt many pet parents were like me and wanted this level of service. But what I have discovered is they will come if they know about it. I say after 12.5 years, we are still the best-kept secret. Word of mouth has been our very best form of advertising, but I underestimated the impact marketing has on a business. That is why I’m always so appreciative of entities like VoyageOhio Magazine helping us to tell our story.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We offer a radically different approach to the end of a pet’s life. We view the whole family as the patient and have an interdisciplinary team to take care of both the pet AND the human family in the process. We provide all of the end-of-life services under one roof. Once a family receives a devastating diagnosis of their beloved pet, they can opt to treat their pet’s pain and symptoms at home through our in-home hospice and palliative care program, all the while receiving access to guidance and emotional support for themselves. We help families wrestle with the difficult question of “when is it time,” and when it is time, we go to their home to allow them to give their pet perhaps the greatest gift of all, to transition from the comfort of their own home surrounded by the people they love. If the family opts for cremation, we then bring the pet back to our facility, where they are checked in, much like you check into a hotel room. They are not a number to us. We treat them with dignity and respect all the way through the process. Within a couple of days, instead of receiving a bag over the counter at a busy vet practice, the family is invited to come to our facility to receive their pets’ ashes back in one of our two beautiful chapels. We give the families a private moment to celebrate the life that graced them with unconditional love. We recognize that this is not an ending but rather a beginning of a new chapter of life without the pet physically present. So, we offer free pet loss support groups to allow people to be with others who truly “get” their pain. They provide hope to each other because they are attending the group at different stages of grief and, more importantly of healing. For people who need a little more help with the grieving process, we also offer one-to-one grief counseling and coaching. This has all become my life’s work, and it has actually helped me personally live the mission of our service, helping people go from “pain to peace.” What a surprisingly beautiful journey it has been!
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Gosh, I’m full of sayings, but it truly does take a village to create something like Angel’s Paws. My husband, who has provided unending personal support, sage business counsel, and a shoulder to cry on (yes, the work we do is sad, and we cry regularly), is the first on my list to thank. This mission was way too big for one person to fulfill, and we would not have been able to have helped over 20,000 pets so far without the amazing team who has joined me. People say to them all the time, “I don’t know how you can do this work”… but we all agree while the sadness hits us at our core, it is still the most meaningful work any of us have ever done. The veterinary community who opened their minds and hearts to our radically different approach to end-of-life care and viewed us as an asset rather than a liability. And the community of pet parents who were willing to look for and find a different way to provide their pet with a smooth landing at the end of their journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.angelspaws.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelspaws/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AngelsPaws
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelspaws
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEgDuydRECgzvczn1p1PKNg
Image Credits
Brenda Pottinger
Jim Talkington
