Pets And Wellness Society

The next Board of Directors member we would like to profile is Kayde Schuler! Kayde has been our incredible Secretary for the newly formed PAWS foundation and is a champion for pet therapy in the region! Kayde has called Fort McMurray home since September 2008, although had been working summers here while attending university since 2005. In the many years she has spent in Fort McMurray she has met many amazing people and friends. In 2015, she decided to give back to the comm...unity, while spending more time with one of her cats, by becoming a member of PAWS. Crusher, her cat, was amazing with everyone and loved being in the program until he retired in 2019 due to medical reasons. His favourite place to visit was the Rotary House where he had a couple regular visitors that enjoyed his company, petting and carrying him around, although, he also enjoyed the Library, the schools reading programs and Bridges. Since Crusher's retirement he has enjoyed spending time at home, sleeping in the sun and has gotten a new baby sister, much to his dismay, named Cardi, a rescue French Bulldog puppy. Including Crusher, Kayde’s fur kids total 6, all who love and adore Crusher! Kayde has stayed active with PAWS by becoming an Alumni member, assisting with multiple pre screens and courses and in 2019 became the first Secretary for the newly formed PAWS Board of Directors. Kayde is happy to take on this exciting role with the new Society and cannot wait to see what the future holds for PAWS. See more

Our next Board of Director introduction features Mindy Lambert. And you’re see this correctly! Mindy’s therapy animal is an amazingly sweet cat, Pangur Bán. It takes a very special feline to become a certified pet therapy animal, but we do test cats as well! Mindy was born and raised in Calgary and relocated to Fort McMurray in 2016. Mindy considers herself a cat person, and growing up, her house was always filled with cats, up to 14 at one time! Her family began fostering... and re-homing kittens when she was a teenager, which is how she found Tez (Tezcatlipoca), who stole her heart as a kitten in 2009 and has been with her ever since. Shortly after moving to Fort McMurray, Mindy expanded her cat family with Pangur Bán. From the start, Pangur was a friendly, chill cat who loved people. Visits to the vet and road trips to Calgary and Edmonton were like vacations for him, and he loved hamming it up and convincing new people to fawn over him, rub his tummy, and play with his rainbow snake. It didn’t take long to realize that PAWS was the perfect program for him to spread the love and snuggles, so Mindy signed them up in summer 2019 and even joined the Board of Directors herself in fall 2020. In his downtime, Pangur loves taking long naps, zooming around the house and bouncing off the walls with his younger brother Charly (Charlemagne), and making sure every inch of the house is covered in cat hair. Meanwhile, Mindy keeps busy vacuuming up the cat hair, acting as a human launch pad for all three cats to jump off of, and using her opposable thumbs to open cans of cat food. See more

Our next Board Member introduction, we highlight Whitney Dallaire and her adorable pooch Lucky! Whitney Dallaire and Lucky joined the Pets and Wellness Society in March of 2018. Lucky was born in August of 2007 and is a sweet and gentle girl who is as loyal as they come. Lucky’s calm demeanour is why Whitney felt she would be a perfect addition for the pet therapy program. Lucky enjoys visiting a variety of venues; however loves the airport and greeting travellers on their jo...urneys to and from Fort McMurray. Allowing individuals the opportunity to interact and receive the mental health benefits from animals is one of the main reasons why Whitney and Lucky began this journey with PAWS together. In her down time, Lucky loves to lounge and sleep as that’s her way of keeping her youthful look. She loves to play fetch, but don’t be fooled as she’ll only break a sweat for her favourite orange, chuck it ball! See more

Welcome!! If you’re new here, we look forward to getting to know you hopefully on a visit! Our pet therapy visits are still on hold, but we are ready to get back out there when it is safe! Also on hold is our new team pre screening and training. We can not safely complete the assessment and training given we need to get close to your dogs who are close to you! We are hopeful that by the new year we can resume and get new teams on boarded! If you are interested in being added to the list, please email [email protected] Don’t forget to share our page to your family and friends so we can grow our community. We started a fresh new page when we became our own entity and look forward to what the future holds

Our next PAWS Executive member is our President/Treasurer and a true champion of Pet Therapy in the RMWB: Koralee Samaroden Koralee is a founding member of the PAWS program. Before PAWS became an individual non-profit, it went by the name Paws for People and was an entity of Canadian Mental Health Association. Koralee maintained the volunteer Program Coordinator role during this time and has had 3 dogs in the program. Today, Koralee is the Board of Directors President and still, PAWS greatest cheerleader! In her spare time, Koralee is a champion for the sport of agility in the community and wants everyone to have fun with their dogs through positive learning. Koralee is passionate about PAWS as she has seen over the years the difference a visit with an animal can provide.