I’ve always loved animals and I’ve always known I wanted to help them. I grew up with a dog named Sammy and a cat named Buffy, and the first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a veterinarian; I didn’t really know about shelters and animal rescue until I was an adult.
When Jamie was about eight or nine, we were living in an apartment in Vancouver, Washington. We had pretty much always lived in places that didn’t allow pets, so she hadn’t ever had one. This apartment also didn’t allow pets, but one day some neighbor kids were going around with two kittens that needed a home, lest they be sent to the pound. I was already planning to move so I decided to take a look. For whatever reason, I was really only considering the girl, I could get away with just one cat, right? But as luck would have it when the kids told me if I didn’t take them both, the boy would end up at the pound, I fell for it! I named those two kittens Journey and Sully and thus began Jamie’s lifelong love for animals. They moved with me everywhere I went and lived to be 15 and 16 respectively.
Journey 
Jamie and Sully
Jamie Grows Up:
After high school, Jamie went off to college in South Dakota. During her time there, she started working at a pub. At some point she started seeing a cat coming around the pub, looking for food. After a while, realizing this cat must not have a home, she took the tiny cat home and named her Alex. After that came Ash, a cat found wandering in the snow and hiding under the trailer she was living in. When she decided she’d had enough of South Dakota, she took Alex and Ash and moved back to Oregon, where she then adopted a calico cat she named Bandit.
Alex 
Ash 
Bandit
During her lifetime Jamie experienced the love of many other animals: Brownie, Charley, Casey, Mouser; Abby, Daisy, Bandit (dog), Rocky, Loki, Julio, Satan, Ami, Emma, Stevie, Peek-a-Boo; I know there are dozens more, but it’s virtually impossible to remember them all!
Ami 
Abby 
Daisy 
Emma 
Julio 
Satan 
Stevie & Peek-a-Boo 
Bandit
We are a family of rescuers, choosing adoption over purchasing; spay and neuter over breeding; helping homeless people with animals. Jamie even went so far as to wrap a dead cat she saw on the side of the road in her sweatshirt and took it to the nearest vet so it wasn’t left to be destroyed by traffic or wildlife. I have a soft spot for the “less-adoptable”-the seniors and animals with special needs. I adopted Emma because she was blind; Stevie, who was a feral left temporarily blind by the anesthesia when he was trapped and neutered; Peek-a-Boo, my foster failure because she was terrified of everything and everyone; and 12-year-old Hemingway with a host of medical issues. I became vegetarian when I was about 25 and Jamie followed in my footsteps, even raising her son vegetarian.
The next chapter begins in 2020 as our way of honoring the memory of our beloved Jamie:
Animal rescue is in our blood, it’s what we do, it’s who we are. Our pets are our family and if we can keep pets out of the shelter system by keeping them with their family, we are saving lives.
August 2020: Articles of Incorporation are filed and Jamie Brianna’s Legacy Fund becomes official.
December 2020: We made our first official donation, to the Palm Springs Animal Shelter for their Saving Animals with Veterinary Emergencies fund. They use this fund to help families keep their pets during a veterinary crisis.