Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Scarbrough.
Lisa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have had a unique compassion for animals since childhood where my father taught the importance of animal care through first hand encounters with displaced pets and wildlife, from an orphaned raccoon requiring special attention or an adorable litter of puppies.
In my young adult days, I rescued animals on my own, but I only had so many friends and friends of friends who were willing to adopt. One day, my vet, Dr. Pam Fandrich, told me I should start a rescue so I could take donations to help pay for care. I was 23, thought it couldn’t be that hard, and six months later, I had a non-profit on my 24th birthday. I did not think I would still be running it two decades later.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t know anyone who could say starting a non-profit is a smooth road. I’ll also say that I don’t know anyone who starts something themselves that ever has a day off. For the first decade, I was single, only had to care for the animals left with me. But when I became a mom, that juggling act became real. I still worked a full-time job and did the rescue in all my other spare time, which was getting less with a son. But then we opened an actual shelter, and I really had no idea what that was going to do. The stress has more than doubled as has the workload and the pressures to keep volunteers and donors engaged. It ultimately took a major toll on my mental and physical health. I’ve been able to find more of a balance as my son has gotten older and we got involved in Scouting America, forcing me to make time on my calendar to go off on some adventure in places I love. I still have to answer daily emails, facebook messages and texts, but I’m in a better headspace now than I was for a lot of years. I also have Ménière’s disease (diagnosed in 2009) that makes some days physically exhausting to manage, if I can even make it out of bed.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As I told Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune, I’m a professional pooper scooper. But really, that’s on a good day, a day where all I have to do is come in, make sure our shelter pets get the care they need, enjoy fresh air on walks and in play yards, and then go home. But that’s not most days. I spend a lot of time driving to and from vet appointments, supplies and animals to foster homes, picking up meds, and whatever else is needed. I also spend a lot of time on emails and Facebook messages answering the flurry of daily requests for animals needing new places to go and working with my intake coordinator to see if we have spaces and resources available. Unfortunately, a lot of times, we don’t, so that weighs heavy on me later.
I have often joked that my greatest achievement in 22 years of running Coastal Pet Rescue is that I’ve only been in the back of a cop car twice but never charged. I get to see the results of what people can do. Having been raised with a completely different mindset, it tears me up. I operate great in a crisis, I’m able to make things work somehow, but I will fall apart when I’m finally on my own.
How do you define success?
Well, after 22 years, we’re still standing, so we’ve done something right. I don’t think there is any one thing that defines success as it is different for every individual. I have taken a much different path in life than my parents and siblings. But at the end of every exhausting day, I put my head on my pillow knowing that I did everything I could in my day to maintain my ethics and do the best I can with what I’ve got.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://coastalpetrescue.org/adopt
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coastalpetrescue/
