For Starters

I forgot to post the story of how we met. It's one of the most common questions I am asked, and it's a fairly interesting tale. I have been a volunteer for No More Homeless Pets in Utah, a program of Best Friends Animal Society for almost four years. I have been most active with fundraising via merchandise sales & educating the public at community events, and training new volunteers. I have also had my hand in assisting to organize a few smaller scale fundraising of events such as the yearly Muttster Mash Halloween dog costume contest hosted by Dogs R Us. One of my fellow volunteers (and fellow animal enthusiast) Julie Memmott and I worked at the NMHPU booth at the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival downtown last year. Her husband Dave and his friends stopped by the festival one evening to check out the music, and they stopped by our booth to say hello to Julie. She introduced me to Jon Dunn (who I believe was feeling pretty good after consuming umpteen beers with Dave and their other friend Scott Seeger prior to and during the festival). She randomly informed to him that I had just purchased a Harley Davidson (which I had in fact--a 2005 Sportster 1200 Custom--and was very proud of). We chatted a bit and Jon asked about NMHPU and told me he wanted to volunteer. Julie scoffed, but he passed me a business card, and said he was serious. At the time, I was in charge of all the volunteers that do this kind of work, so I put him to the test right away. I explained to him that we were there not only to sell t-shirts and Frisbees and key chains and hats, but more importantly to educate the public and to expand our postal and email contact databases. In this way we take a “grass roots” or “word of mouth” approach to our cause, and we gather names and addresses so we can notify more and more people of our fundraisers and yearly events—basically increase our client contact base. So I told him, the next person that approaches the booth, I want you to get them to sign our mailing list, and I want you to get them to buy something. Not long after, an unassuming man wandered up to the table eating an ice cream cone. (Who, ironically, wound up being an acquaintance of Julie’s who was employed by her distant cousin or something, but that’s another story). Jon pestered and hounded the guy (in a friendly, non threatening manner of course) until the guy gave in, signed the list, and bought one of our most expensive items. Love at first sight, I tell you.

Actually, that’s only part of the story. The other part is later in the evening when the guys had wandered off to stand in the beer line, or otherwise wreak havoc elsewhere, Julie and I tended our booth and chatted with passersby and sold various merchandise. After a while the guys returned, and Jon picked out a hat he wanted to buy. He gave me a $20 bill and I owed him $5 or so in change. I jokingly said to him “I’m sorry, I don’t have change” and pretended to put the $20 bill in my pocket. The look on his face was sheer disgust. “What?” he asked, getting irritated. “I’m sorry”, I said, “I’m broke. I need the money”, and once again pretended to slip the money into my own pocket. “You’re the one who bought the Harley!” I realized a little late that this person apparently had no sense of humor. “Just kidding”, I sheepishly muttered under my breath and proceeded to dig out the cash box from under the table and give him his change.

Skip forward a few weeks. I don’t recall exactly how we corresponded—e-mail I think—and he went in the NMHPU office to take their staff-given volunteer orientation so he could start volunteering with the group Julie & I worked with. I didn’t have much contact with him personally, but he worked at various events toward the end of the summer. And at the request of the NMHPU PR director Erin, he even got an ad aired on the radio station he works for, KSL, plugging a special “Katrina Cats” pet adoption that was taking place after the infamous hurricane. I sent him a few casual e-mail invitations to go hang out or grab a beer together, and I was sincere in my offers to socialize. I thought he was funny, and sarcastic and cynical, and I didn’t have too many friends here in town any more. I thought we would probably get along. He never took me up on it, though, and I thought he was rather stuck up and assumed he just plain old-fashioned didn’t like me.

Flash forward a few months, it was early October and we were scheduled to work at a fundraiser called “Bark in the Park” along with Julie. The night before the event I called Jon on his cell phone (it was late & I had been home addressing invitations to another fundraiser). He was leaving his friends at the bar and informed me he had just gotten in a tiff with Mayor Rocky Anderson over some story he had done and was very frustrated, and oh by the way where do I live because he was coming over. He arrived and we proceeded to drink beer until some ridiculous hour like 3:00 a.m. Knowing we were expected at the park the next day at noon, I figured he could crash at my place and we could go to the park together and meet Julie in the morning. But that’s not exactly how it worked out. He crashed and burned, and I mean I could probably have set him on fire and he would have slept through it. Still feeling woozy from the previous night’s antics, I crawled out of bed, into the shower, and out the door. I was an hour late meeting Julie, and the event was doomed anyway. It was freezing and it rained all day. We were drenched, and we finally packed up to head home early. Julie asked “Where’s Jon?”. “He’s at my house sleeping” I said. “What?? Is there something going on that I should know about??” she asked anxiously. “No, we just tied one on last night and he is still sleeping it off” I said. “That little #@$%”, she proclaimed, “I’m not going to let him forget this one”, and we packed up our canopy and merchandise, shivering wet and cold. I know she didn’t mind he wasn’t there, except for the fact that it was freezing, we weren’t prepared for the weather, and we really could have used his help!! I went home expecting to find him gone; crawled away to his own home and bed. But no, his truck was still there in front of the house, and he was still inside, sleeping like a baby.

At the time, I was also co-organizing the Muttster Mash fundrasiser with the NMHPU staff, and my friends at Dogs R Us, a local dog kennel. I asked Jon to emcee the event. We just wanted someone on the mic to introduce people as they paraded their costumed dogs around for the judges. At first he declined my invitation, and told me “I can get you someone more famous”. I told him that was very nice, but that we really wanted him to do it since he was already a volunteer. I thought it put a much more personal spin on things to have a fellow Animal Ambassador host the event. He finally accepted, and ended up doing an excellent job, by the way. The night of that fundraiser is what we consider our first “date”, and not long after that night we became pretty much inseparable, as we remain today.