by Timothy Sullivan, Lawyer

As some of you know, a few weeks ago our beautiful 12-year-old Golden Retriever, Kiltie, died.

We’re all still feeling the loss – we still expect to be greeted enthusiastically when we come through the front door – but as with all grief, every day seems a little better.

Partly because of our recent loss, and partly because we’ve long supported survivors of domestic violence, we’ve purchased two tables for the SafePet Ottawa gala event on November 3.

SafePet Ottawa’s aims fall squarely into the “this is so important, but I never thought about it before” category.

SafePet Ottawa fosters companion animals for women and their children who need to exit from domestic violence into the safety of local Violence Against Women (VAW) shelters.

We are veterinary clinics, fosters, behaviourists and sometimes your next-door neighbour.

We provide necessary veterinary intake and long- or short-term fostering for the duration of a woman’s stay in her shelter.

Upon exiting a shelter, we reunite owners with their pets so that they can move into a better future together.

Many women delay leaving physically abusive situations because they are fearful of what might happen to a pet left behind, and are unable to take a beloved pet or companion animal with them to a shelter or other emergency housing. This delay can mean additional violence – or worse.

SafePet Ottawa isn’t as well-known as it should be, so we wanted to tell you about it – if you get a chance, we encourage you to visit their site to find out more. We think it’s a very worthwhile cause.