Who I Am

Hi, I’m Denise – vanilla latte aficionada, oxford comma enthusiast, fan of canines. In my professional life, I’m a marketing translator with an educational background in, you guessed it, translation, digital marketing, and content creation. In my free time, I’m a volunteer at my local animal shelter and writer of shelter stories.

The Short Story about Shelter Stories

How It All Began

Shelter Stories was sparked by what was supposed to be a one-time visit to the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter here in Texas in 2018.

In a nutshell, the four-leggers needed photos to show off their good looks along with a bit of accompanying copy, while I had a new camera and a keyboard. So, I decided to tell shelter stories to highlight a few of the dogs I got to meet, hoping readers would catch a glimpse of their individual personalities through my words.

Becoming a Volunteer

When I started writing shelter stories, I was not yet a shelter volunteer, but I was beyond grateful for having the opportunity to be involved in my community. Thanks to the staff and volunteers at the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter, I was able to find my new passion. And in January 2020, I signed up to become an official volunteer at the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter, where I now help promote the shelter dogs through content creation and marketing efforts.

What It’s All about

So, what is Shelter Stories all about? It’s about putting shelter dogs into the spotlight to help them find their forever homes through creative, partially fictional storytelling – dogs don’t write diaries, go on vacation, travel to global destinations, throw holiday parties etc. But here, on Shelter Stories, the canines get to live out their fairy tales… and they often start in the Weatherford shelter’s charming photo barn, with green-screens, festive backdrops, photo props, delectable treats, and adorable personalities.

Shelter Stories is also about sharing my experiences with promoting shelter dogs in hopes of sparking a conversation and an exchange of ideas to help all of us within the shelter and rescue community explore new and efficient ways for finding forever homes for each and every shelter dog.

What’s New

Most recently, I’ve added the “Marketing” category to the Shelter Stories blog. There, I want to focus on sharing resources that animal shelters and recue groups can draw inspiration from for promoting their adoptable canines.

When I first started getting involved at my local animal shelter, I looked for ways to market shelter dogs more effectively and efficiently. But many of the articles I found offered only basic advice for shelters and rescues, pointing out the importance of taking high-quality photos of the shelter dogs and posting them to social media… but not much more. And when I looked to articles for marketers, they were often quite technical and written for those with an actual marketing budget.

So, I made it my goal to bridge this resource gap, slowly but surely, by writing about marketing and content creation specifically with animal shelters and rescues in mind.

What Else?

As you’re reading through my posts and pages, I invite you to share your feedback, thoughts, and recommendations or even questions with me.

Please remember to be kind – I am hoping to turn this blog into a useful resource for all of us in the shelter and rescue community and into a destination for shelter dogs to shine, but I am still learning, trying to find my voice, and figuring out this blog thing in general.

The Disclaimer

Shelter Stories is meant to be fun and draw attention to shelter dogs. It’s not meant to give you behavioral information about any of the featured dogs, so please do not rely on any of the writings on this site to decide whether or not to adopt or rescue a dog.

After all, I am just a writer, not a dog behaviorist, and all descriptions of the dogs are just my own opinions, based on my personal observations, are often fictional in nature, and are not professional assessments. So, if you’re interested in any of the dogs featured on this site and still available for adoption, please take the time to meet the dogs and determine for yourself if they would be a good fit for you and your family or rescue organization.

Please also note that views and opinions expressed on this site are solely my own and are not supported or endorsed by the Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter.

The Inspiration behind Shelter Stories

You read the in-a-nutshell version above, but the longer story is that I originally went to the shelter for a writing assignment for a class I was taking.

During that visit, I met Glen, a cheerful canine who exuded the kind of goofy charm that I thought would draw in crowds of adopters and result in a long line of humans wanting to make him part of the family. I took some photos of him and a few of his canine friends and shared them with the volunteer who had introduced me to them. She posted the pictures on social media. But Glen and his joyful, life-loving personality didn’t seem to grab anyone’s attention or have a scroll-stopping effect.

So, I went back to the shelter to get more pictures, better pictures, with different poses, with a focus on Glen’s energy, his active side, his silly charm, his affectionate personality, his passion for treats, his fashionable side. Nothing. As his friends were being adopted one by one, Glen was left behind, overlooked in his kennel.

I kept going back to the shelter to visit Glen and keep him company and find him his forever home, pointing out his amazing traits to anyone who would listen and highlighting his adorable qualities online. Then one day, someone came just for him. But by then I had already fallen in love with the idea of being able to make a difference for the shelter dogs and so, even after Glen was adopted, I just couldn’t stop going back to the shelter. So, there you have it, Glen is the spark behind Shelter Stories.

But he is also the continuous inspiration behind Shelter Stories. You see, Glen was adopted, but down the road, due to unfortunate circumstances, he found himself looking for a new home again. That second quest for a home involved boarding, several foster homes, and a long trip to Canada, where he then found his forever human. He had finally arrived at his destination: home. And in a somewhat symbolic way, goofy Glen became bold Brazen.

In his forever home, Brazen enjoyed unconditional love, true companionship, and a life full of adventures until he passed away in early 2021. His journey was one of hope and of resilience. His story was about friendship and endurance. His life… an inspiration… to help all shelter dogs find their forever humans, get their forever homes, and become forever dogs.

And because Brazen’s story is such a meaningful one to me (and to enough other humans to have resulted in Brazen having his own informal fan club), it’s his silhouette you see in the Shelter Stories logo, created from a photo of him sporting a hat in true Brazen fashion: with bold confidence and goofy charm.