Leading with Empathy: Behind the Scenes with Heidi

By Helia Zarkhosh, RedRover Communications and Marketing Coordinator

What does a typical day look like for RedRover staff members? How do we answer the call for help when people have nowhere else to turn? In this series, “Leading with Empathy: Behind the Scenes at RedRover,” we share staff stories about our efforts to bring animals from crisis to care. 

Heidi with her childhood dog, Gretchen

In this feature, we interview Heidi Colonna, consulting writer and editor for Kind News magazine, about how her childhood love of animals – and her childhood dog, Gretchen, in particular – set her on a journey of self-discovery to find her purpose in humane education. Along the way, Heidi realized the power of books and storytelling, particularly stories about animals. Her bond with Gretchen inspired her to write Dear Gretchen, a memoir about their relationship – and how their bond endured even after Gretchen’s passing. 

1. How did you first develop a love of animals?
   Helping animals is part of my first memories. I remember making little hay huts for mice in my backyard and bringing them cheese, and rescuing a bird egg with my mother as a young child. I used to draw animals a lot. I remember my dad stopping the car to feed stray dogs. It was in the family.
2. How did you get started with a career with animals?
   Volunteering at my local shelter during my second year of college was the first step towards working with animals in need and with nonprofits. At the time, I was in a literature class focused on animal perspectives. That class deepened my understanding that animals were indeed important. I had never been a reader, and when books changed my thinking and my direction in life, I saw that they had power.
3. How did you first get involved with Kind News?
   I first held Kind News in my hands in 1998 at the National Association for Humane and Environmental Education (NAHEE), the youth education division of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), where it was first published. I was so pleased to see a publication devoted to children and doing good for animals, something I had just decided to devote my career to. Four years later, I got a job marketing Kind News and working on humane education workshops and award programs.
4. What made you want to become an author?
   It first dawned on me to write a book in 2008 when I had been working around books for some time between college and my role with NAHEE. A distinct story came to me about my childhood dog Gretchen and her friend Hugo that I felt needed to be a book. At first I thought it should be a picture book, but as ideas about my own pre-teen life going through family changes and struggles came to me, I knew it was a middle-grade novel. It’s called Canis magicus and will be published on December 1, 2022.
5. You’re also a teacher. What connection do you see between that profession and your other work?
   I taught middle school for five years after leaving HSUS. Like workshop presentations, teaching is great practice at breaking down complex subjects in a succinct way. It’s a skill that comes in really handy when you have a lot to say! My teaching background comes into play daily in my Kind News writing, editing, and outreach work as well, particularly since I became a substitute teacher working with a range of grades, from preschool to eighth. I know from direct experience what kids are working on in each grade. I have an understanding of what teachers need in a supplementary resource, how busy they are, and what kinds of activities and topics complement the curricula.
   
6. What inspired you to write Dear Gretchen?
   One factor was the loss of pets in my circle of friends and acquaintances. A lot of it, you hear about on social media. It felt so constant, and mine is a story that I’m always compelled to tell someone who’s just lost a pet, as a means of giving them hope.
7. How did Gretchen’s loss change you?
   When Gretchen passed away, our whole life together flashed before me, particularly what she did for me as a kid going through grief, loneliness, and change. Her loss helped me see all that she meant to me and why our bond was as strong as it was. I think that our bonds are as strong as what we’ve done for each other and our need for each other. I led the way in adopting her after she was abandoned, and she got me through childhood grief. She helped make my childhood all that it should be, full of love and fun and adventure. She not only loved me and brought peace during a turbulent family time, she showed me what true love looks like through her relationship with a neighborhood dog, Hugo.
8. How do you think Dear Gretchen has impacted others?
   For most people, I’ve heard that it’s brought about tears but also some smiles. I’d like to think that that process is at least one step in moving through their own grief.
   
   
   

   Heidi with her childhood dog, Gretchen

9. Why do you think it’s helpful to teach kids about dealing with grief?
   It’s important that they know what they’re feeling is normal, others go through it, it will get better, and there are little things they can do to care for themselves.

Heidi has been an integral part of helping Kind News reach students across the country through her writing, editing, and outreach. Join Heidi and RedRover’s efforts to further strengthen the human-animal bond by sharing Kind News with a student or teacher in your life.

Learn more at KindNews.org >