A Day in the Life of... Casey Oliver

The operations director of The Pet Rescue Center spends her days making sure pets find happy homes. Check out some photos of the center's adoptable dogs and cats.

Photo By Ed Olen

Find Puppy Love Visit The Pet Rescue Center’s website for information on adopting a pet, details on their upcoming Providing Shelter Benefit, Oct. 7, 2011 at [seven-degrees] in Laguna Beach, or to make a donation of time or money. :: thepetrescuecenter.org

"She’s just so pathetic I can’t stand it!” says Casey Oliver, operations director and registered veterinarian technician for The Pet Rescue Center in Mission Viejo, of the recently relinquished white terrier mix in her arms. The adorable, scruffy, white dog once called Cupcake ended up being adopted by Oliver herself, who promptly changed her name to Alice Pooper. The Pet Rescue Center, a nonprofit that shares a building with the Alicia Pet Care Center, was founded by Blythe Wheaton in an effort to reduce the number of animals being euthanized in Orange County through education and spay/neuter and rescue programs. When Wheaton needed an operations director, Oliver was the natural choice – and not just because of her fondness for pathetic pets. She’s been volunteering her time as a nurse to The Pet Rescue Center since its inception in 2007. Here we look at what a typical day is like for Oliver and company.

7 A.M. Oliver begins the day by tending to her own canines: her terrier mix, Alice Pooper, and her lab, Sky, who is also a relinquished animal she adopted through The Pet Rescue Center. “[The volunteers and employees] tend to get attached,” says Wheaton, “so almost every single staff member has adopted a PRC animal.” Oliver then gets her daughter ready for school and drives from Dana Point to Mission Viejo.

8:30 A.M. After dropping off her daughter at school, Oliver makes it into PRC. “The first hours are spent saying good morning to all the rescues,” she says. At this point, the animals have already been walked and fed and Oliver gets a status report about each one, including eating habits and anything extra cute they’ve done. “Trust me, they do a lot of cute stuff.” It’s Oliver’s favorite part of the day. “I love seeing all their faces and knowing that they are all happy to see me,” she says. Sometimes it’s the only socialization they get outside of short potty walks throughout the day. “Fifteen minutes of cuddle time can really make their whole day,” says Oliver.

9:30 A.M. Oliver does follow-ups on phone messages and e-mails. “The quantity of messages may not seem like a lot,” says Oliver, “but 90% of them are important and require time.” Most e-mails are applications to adopt animals, requests for applications or people trying to find a home for an animal. “Going through applications is very serious to me,” says Oliver.

10 A.M.-3 P.M. Oliver conducts interviews with families visiting potential pets. Many of the people see the dogs on Petfinder and by the time they begin the adoption process they’ve already fallen in love. “It’s essentially an online dating service for families and pets,” says Wheaton. These are families that have already been through the strict application process. Oliver observes the interaction between the two, and a second interview is usually set up. “I don’t think an adoption should happen in less than two visits,” says Oliver. “These animals mean a lot to us.” She also manages volunteers throughout the day, who come in to spend time with the cats or walk the dogs. “Leash training can be a big help when it comes to most of our dogs, and can massively improve their chances for adoption.”

4-5 P.M. Oliver continues working through applications and e-mails as well as updating any websites PRC-adoptable pets are on. “I try and re-post biographies constantly and rotate cute front page pics of them so people can see a variety of cute faces.”

6 P.M. Any adoptions that go through in a day have to be finalized, which means taking care of payments, microchip information and changing the pet’s status on all PRC’s websites. In the two years since it opened, The Pet Rescue Center has successfully placed 300 pets. “Like Monty, who got adopted last week,” Oliver says of a recent success story. “Monty did not walk the first week that we had him. Sure enough, with enough volunteers coming in and coaxing him to walk and staff coaxing him to walk, he was just a big silly puppy a week later.”

7 P.M. Oliver gets home and spends time with her family. They eat dinner and get ready for the following day. “I probably sit down and take my shoes off around 10 o’clock at night,” she says, “but my job is a good job for a Mom. I feel devoted to [the animals]. Those are my babies. I feel like they’re my kids back there.”