DAILY NEWS PEOPLE : SHERYL GREENE.Byline: - Andrea Hescheles You could say that her love for cats knows no boundaries. She's pulled cats out of trash cans, rescued cats abandoned on college campuses and on the streets. One time, she even rescued an abandoned 2-week-old kitten while traveling in Italy, bringing it back to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. with her because she couldn't just leave it there. Why does Sheryl Greene do it? For one thing, she loves animals and can't ignore them. For another, she sees a problem and is helping to fix it. ``It's the old adage: `If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem,' '' said Greene. ``People are irresponsible. I have pulled emaciated e·ma·ci·ate tr. & intr.v. e·ma·ci·at·ed, e·ma·ci·at·ing, e·ma·ci·ates To make or become extremely thin, especially as a result of starvation. cats and dogs Cats and Dogs A slang term referring to speculative stocks that have short or suspicious histories for sales, earnings, dividends, etc. Notes: In a bull market analysts will often mention that everything is going up, even the cats and dogs. off the street (left there) because people think they can fend for themselves.'' In an effort to control the feral cat population, she has helped create legislation for better animal welfare laws such as no-kill shelters and preaches the importance of spaying spaying: see castration. and neutering neu·ter adj. 1. Grammar a. Neither masculine nor feminine in gender. b. Neither active nor passive; intransitive. Used of verbs. 2. a. . ``Spay spay v. To surgically remove the ovaries of an animal. spay, spey to remove the ovaries. See also ovariohysterectomy. spay hook see spay hook. or neuter neu·ter adj. 1. Having undeveloped or imperfectly developed sexual organs. 2. Sexually undeveloped. n. A castrated animal. v. To castrate or spay. neuter 1. one dog. One cat. The stray population is a huge problem,'' said Greene. ``And I'm out there trying to make a solution. ``I either have too much compassion or misplaced mis·place tr.v. mis·placed, mis·plac·ing, mis·plac·es 1. a. To put into a wrong place: misplace punctuation in a sentence. b. compassion but I can't ignore them. If it's got fur on it, I rescue it,'' said Greene. ``Somebody has to do it.'' RESIDENCE: Northridge BORN AND RAISED IN: Born and raised in Connecticut. Moved to the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. 20 years ago. OCCUPATION: Attorney. MARITAL STATUS marital status, n the legal standing of a person in regard to his or her marriage state. : Divorced. CHILDREN: None. VOLUNTEERISM: For eight years, Greene has been a volunteer with Cat Crossing Inc., a non-profit cat rescue organization. ``We rescue cats, spay them, neuter them, find homes for them. Every single Sunday.'' The organization's main purpose is to rescue and place ``orphan'' cats into safe and loving homes. They do everything from screening prospective homes to buying advertising and providing the administrative backup needed to run the adoption program. Cat Crossing also works with the city of Los Angeles' spay and neuter program and the city's feral cat program. Volunteers answer phone calls and distribute vouchers that the City of Los Angeles' animal services provides to offset the cost of spaying and neutering dogs and cats. HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED?: ``When I went to UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX to do undergraduate work, I saw all of these cats running around the campus. I saw a problem and I knew I had to find an outlet. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how the thought came to me to start checking out adoption groups. I looked in the Sunday paper to see who was running adoptions. I saw Cat Crossing and I've been doing it since.'' WHY DO YOU VOLUNTEER?: ``The curse of compassion. I cannot not volunteer. It's almost like an addiction for me. I can't stand the suffering and this lessens the suffering. Since I happen to love animals, especially cats, I just gravitated toward it. Everybody should volunteer. We have an obligation to do something. For those of us who are affluent, you don't need to have lunch in Beverly Hills every day. Read to a kid, clean a park, plant flowers in South Central. Do something. That's my philosophy.'' BIGGEST DILEMMA: ``Getting the word out and making people realize this is a problem that needs addressing. My bigger dilemma is getting the law to recognize that animals are not property. They should be considered companions with a value closer to that of a human being. When a couch or a pair of shoes can have more value than an animal, that's low.'' MOST DIFFICULT DAILY TASK: ``Dealing with the daily phone calls. Dealing with the people (who are giving up the animal), people who don't understand what we're trying to do. People who don't help financially.'' FAVORITE DAILY TASK: ``Calling the people who have adopted and hearing how happy they are with their cat. Extra joy is feeding the kittens, but the best part is the follow-up phone call that they are thrilled. The most gratification is getting that recognition and to know that we saved somebody from death and they wound up in a fabulous home. It's very gratifying grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. .'' BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: ``My biggest disappointment is that after 10 years, the problem has only started to abate abate v. to do away with a problem, such as a public or private nuisance or some structure built contrary to public policy. This can include dikes which illegally direct water onto a neighbors property, high volume noise from a rock band or a factory, an improvement . We're not getting the volume of kittens we used to see. We used to see 30 to 40. Now 20 to 25. And the slowness of the process - that after 10 years of doing rescue work, I'm still doing rescue work.'' GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: ``Every good placement is an accomplishment. Placing the number of cats we've placed through the years, that's a great accomplishment, too. We've placed over 5,000. Working with animal services to get the laws changed to get the Department of Animal Regulation more compassionate.'' GOALS FOR THE FUTURE: ``Seeing mandatory spay and neuter laws for dogs and cats. Making all of the animal shelters in Los Angeles no-kill.'' WHO RELIES ON YOU THE MOST AND WHO YOU RELY ON: ``The animals rely on me. I rely on them. They keep me on the right course. They keep me in line with what's really important.'' HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS?: ``Success is placing 5,000 cats over a 10-year period. And the fact that we are still operating. The fact that we have remained a cohesive group; we still like each other. FAVORITE ACTIVITIES: ``I like to run. I ski in the winter, water ski in the summer and take the dogs hiking.'' HOBBIES: ``I collect cat books. Anything written about cats.'' WHAT WOULD BE A PERFECT DAY FOR YOU?:``A perfect day would be to not have to rescue anyone. To know that there's no one out there that has to be rescued. That's a perfect day.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Sheryl Greene Evan Yee/Staff Photographer |
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