Volunteer >> Volunteer Spotlight

Pat McGuiness

A dog who could play leap-frog led Pat McGuiness to a lifetime of love for animals, and to Our Companions. Read about our great office and Special Events volunteer here!

Pat McGuiness talks about “the dogs in her life.” There were lots of them, but three she remembers especially fondly: her grandmother’s dog Putsy, a collie mix, who somehow learned how to play leap-frog with the kids: “She would lie down, we’d jump over her, then we’d lie down and she would jump over us.” Most recently, there was her dog Max, whom she fostered and then adopted when he was a year old, and lived to be sixteen, was adopted from the Hartford Pound. Before Max was Natasha, a white Samoyed, who also lived to be fifteen: Pat has a knack for keeping her animal friends alive through a very ripe old age.

Pat does office work for Our Companions, and Special Events. Why Our Companions? “I read about this dream…to build animal sanctuary. I made a call, and decided that this is the group I want to volunteer for.” Pat started in 2005, and worked, at first, on the Foundation Committee, researching foundations who gave grants to animal welfare groups. “We cold-called, searched them out on the web…what we needed to do was to find out if we could get money from them. We’d go online and fill out applications.”

Having a background in the corporate world, Pat brings lots of useful skills to her volunteer activities. Her “long-time career,” twenty-eight years, was with Aetna, at the corporate office on Farmington Avenue in Hartford. After taking an early retirement, she started with MDI Entertainment, who created the second-chance instant lottery games for state lotteries. Most recently, she worked for UnitedHealth Group. She now pursues her passion for flower arranging at Design to Order, a florist in Manchester.  Pat’s business background shows in the careful, detail-oriented work that she does in the office, but also, she says, at the Special Events table: “I did set up a lot of events, training sessions, meetings. I was involved with trade shows…I open a conversation at the Our Companions table by asking them if they’re aware of the Sanctuary being built in Connecticut. Then they’re always interested. I try to make the table as enticing as possible.  Adoptable kittens always do the trick!”

“Pat’s professionalism in the office and at events impressed me right from the start,” says Paul Johnson, Our Companions’ office manager. “She really cares about doing things right. I apprenticed with her, in a way: the first event I attended as a Special Events volunteer was the Downtown Manchester Spring Celebration, last April. Pat drew loads of people to the table on a damp, cold, rainy day, and I admired her technique for striking up conversations with people passing by, and getting them to donate, and  sign on to our mailing list.”

“Cat person” or ‘”dog person?” Pat’s both. She has two cats now: Mr. Hobbs, a Maine Coon cat rescued from an animal hospital. Mr. Hobbs was given up when he was eight years old; he’s now 18. Then there’s Moby Dick, rescued from a boat in Mystic, by kind people who couldn’t keep him. Moby Dick is “the biggest tomcat I’ve ever seen, the perfect image of a fishing harbor cat.” She fondly remembers the 5-day-old kitten, rescued from a window well, who became her daughter’s first cat, Putsy (named, of course, after her grandmother’s dog), joined by Yokon a few years later.

Now the dog in Pat’s life is Sydney, whom Pat calls her “grand-dog,” her daughter’s Australian Shepherd mix. Pat’s love of animals influenced her daughter Colleen, Sydney’s mom, who has a successful career with VCA animal hospitals.

Pat’s seen a lot of Our Companions history. We hope she’ll be with the organization for a lot more!

Previous Volunteer Spotlights

October 2009 - Risa Davidson
August 2009 - Deb Soricelli
June 2009 - Henry Petrofsky
March 2009 - Jacquie Roy
Dec 2008 - Gretchen Labau
Sept 2008 Todd Johnston
July 2008 Lyn Garson
May 2008 Daryl Carbone
March 2008 Sue King
Jan 2008 Jon Phillips
Dec 2007 Angela Pugliese
Nov 2007 Sara Zinn
Oct 2007 Ian and Kim Green
Sept 2007 Fern Golensky