We recently connected with Jia Caruso and have shared our conversation below.

Jia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One deeply underappreciated facet of being a service provider is the kind of crazy stuff that happens from time to time. It could be anything from a disgruntled client attacking an employee or waking up to find out a celebrity gave you a shoutout on TikTok – the sudden, unexpected hits (both positive and negative) make the profession both exhilarating and exhausting. Can you share one of your craziest stories?

I think what people often forget is how financially and emotionally charged running a rescue can be. Beyond the material donations, the success of a rescue is really dependent on how stable the nonprofit is in receiving consistent funding and support from the community, and since OC Pom Rescue is still new, we don’t qualify or have access to grants that many longstanding rescues have. This became very apparent last year when the rescue inherited 57 Pomeranians from a hoarding case from Northern California (known by our followers as the “Road Trip Pack”). Overnight, we went from 5-7 foster dogs to over 60 and we had to move fast!

It took our entire volunteer village (and then some) to get every pup transported, vetted, and then placed into a foster home to decompress before eventually being adopted. Many of our volunteer fosters took in multiple dogs sight unseen, and everyone came together to network and ask for monetary donations. Board members even stepped in to cover the initial cost for vetting because we had no funds. We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars unexpectedly. It was a really stressful time for the rescue, but it also brought our community closer because we heavily leaned on each other for support in making sure this large group of intakes were taken care of.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started as a volunteer foster with OC Pom Rescue during the height of Covid. My husband and I had just lost our senior rescue, and we thought there couldn’t be a better time to foster than when we were forced to stay home. Fostering helped our hearts heal and eventually I was asked to join the board.

Today, I act as the Director of Finance and focus on corporate record keeping and bookkeeping for the rescue. And while there are many reasons to be proud of this rescue, I am most impressed by the diverse group of women involved and how everyone incorporates their area of expertise to support its cause. We have educators, lawyers, business owners, students, and entertainment professionals donating their time. I believe that we have the best volunteers around.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

One of the most important aspects about our rescue is that we each have the same drive to achieve success for this organization. We may be part of different generations and have different ideas about how to achieve success, but ultimately the end goal is the same. Recognizing that there are multiple roads to the same location is important and has been helpful with managing our growing volunteer group.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We hear time and time again that we are one of the best rescues to work with, not only by the vendors we partner with but also fellow business owners that let us share space with them at fundraising events. A lot of that is because we strive to maintain a positive environment for volunteers and adopters alike. I’ve said it before, but we really do have some of the best volunteers and they are all passionate about the Pomeranian breed and are knowledgeable about what goes into taking care of our pups. Just recently we held our Pom Prom event at a new location and the feedback was outstanding. The owner and his staff were incredibly generous and the turnout was better than we could have imagined. It is because of our amazing volunteers and followers that truly make us the best out there and we are grateful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ocpomrescue.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ocpomrescue
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theocpomrescue

Image Credits
Karley List Patricia Shaw