Staff Stories: Connecting with People Through Caring for Animals

By Claire Downie, Membership and Administrative Assistant –

Caring for animals has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember – after all, my mom is the original cat lady. I grew up hearing stories about our cats, the small pack of rescues she’d collected before I was born. I asked repeatedly, as I had heard all the stories before, to hear about where each of them came from, how she’d found them, how she’d named them, and my favorite story of all: In the ‘90s she’d kept four tuxedo cats, (masquerading to her landlord as one tuxedo cat) in her studio apartment.

As I grew up, we went from having family pets to fostering cats when my mom started working at the local animal shelter. There were some undeniably sweet moments (hello, pile of kittens sleeping on the bathmat!), bittersweet moments when we became a hospice foster for sickly cats, and a lot of things I still laugh about – how many teenagers get to say they spent a Saturday afternoon “sulfur dipping” cats to treat their ringworm?

While the most memorable parts of watching my mom work involved the cats themselves, as an adult, I now know how many non-cat skills I also learned from her. Just by sitting in the background, I listened to her talk on the phone, connecting with different people caring for animals in a way that always sounded warm, but polished and professional. While I didn’t know it at the time, a lot of what I was watching her do turned into the work I would get to do to this day.

RedRover Membership and Administrative Assistant, Claire's mom

Claire’s mom with colony cat Jean Genie

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When I was in my last year of college and needed a second job, I found a position in my university’s alumni relations department. While it wasn’t the most glamorous job, it was my first formal exposure to fundraising, and it opened my eyes to the possibility of a career in fundraising. The work felt natural, even in the pricklier moments – talking over a shared experience felt meaningful rather than forced, and it unknowingly combined a lot of the skills I’d been watching my mom do for my entire life: writing, relationship-building, and connecting genuinely with different types of people every hour of the day.

I knew that animals would always be a big part of my life, but I never imagined that a job where I’d get to help animals was in the cards for me. After all, I’d watched my mom do it all, but I learned over time that working in a shelter wasn’t for me. When I saw a posting for a job at RedRover, I knew this was where I had to work. Three years later, I still can’t believe how lucky I am to work with so many animal people, and to come to work every day and connect with donors, coworkers, and everyone we talk to, about animals.

Thanks for all the inspiration (and for my two cats), Mom!