Melody Kelso is one of the original founders of The Pet Connection, Inc. She has been training dogs for over 15 years. After doing a 3-month internship with Anne Mackey in 1993, she completed a one-year internship with Westwood Animal Hospital and was hired as one of the primary dog trainers for their clinic. She has trained in various animal hospitals and provided educational seminars for various organizations including Animal Haven, Companion Animals, Johnson County Community College, Johnson County Mental Health, Longview Community College and Ranchmart.

In 1996, she operated a day care, pet sitting and dog training service for a little over a year before she closed the doors to be the executive director of Animal Haven. Through her work with Heart of America Humane Society, Abandoned Animal Rescue, Border Collie Rescue and Animal Haven, she has fostered hundreds and hundreds of dogs. Many dogs rescued by Melody are considered special needs requiring work with aggression, separation anxiety, fears, basic training, deaf, blind, etc.

Melody is the proud owner of Sasha, a Chow/Shep champion, abused. Ali, 9 years old, trained to herd and play Frisbee, brain damaged. Hannah, 7 years old, trained to be herself. McD, a 7 year old feral. Herd, 15 years old, certified to work with the elderly and children. Diamond, 12 years old, a local Frisbee champion.

President of the Board/Manager/Foster Care/Obedience Training
Involved in rescue since 1993

Jason Huff is one of the original founders of The Pet Connection, Inc. He became involved because of Melody Kelso. Jason graduated from High School in 1994 and went on to get a degree in Sociology from
KU in 1999. He started fostering for TPC in 2000. He started studying animal behavior in 2002. He became
a full-time employee for TPC Rescue Development in 2003. He became a Board Member in 2005 and started teaching Behavior Consultant classes for TPC in 2006. In 2006 he became Director of Operations in charge of starting new programs and overseeing the dog adoption program.

Some of his duties include:

• Assists as a Vet Tech
• Remodeled current shelter in 2006 to current
• Helps out wherever needed

Andrea Straub was born in Bratislavia Czechslovkia. Her family defected to the United States in 1968 when the Russians invaded. She graduated from K-State in 1988. She moved to Las Vegas and resided there until 2000. In Vegas, she worked in private practice. She also owned her own mobile practice which was limited to taking care of pot bellied pigs. It was called PIG-R-US. She came to Kansas to take care of her father who has cancer. She continued with private practice until 2007.

It was in 2007 that she made the big leap from private practice to the nonprofit veterinarian services. She found it to be a passion of hers due to the fact that she loves surgery. She felt the most important aspect of working nonprofit was being able to be of service to lower income people. She has practiced 20 years and feels she is now doing the work she was meant to do.

Outside her profession, she is a mother of two busy children, Monet and Torin. Her hobbies are triathlons, 1/2 marathons and amateur competition for bodybuilding. She has a wonderful running partner, Caymen, a boston terrier (he can run 9 miles!). She has an 18 year old siamese cat. She also owns a two legged cat (has front and back leg same side) that had a fight with a car engine fan belt and lost. Her name, of course, is LT. Dan!

Brandi Bruns has a Bachelors of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Missouri in 1998 and a Masters in Public Administration with a non-profit emphasis from Keller Graduate School of Management in 2007. She has been involved in animal rescue since 2000. She started at a local rescue group volunteering in 2000 but left when they started only in-taking puppies & kittens. She came to The Pet Connection, Inc. as a volunteer in October 2001. TPC hired her in March 2002 as a shelter manager. In addition to regular job hours, Brandi volunteered nearly 300 hours in 2007 and is on track to nearly double that in 2008.

Brandi is an expert in trap-n-release (TNR) of feral cats.  In 
her neighborhood alone, she has fixed over 22 feral cats and 
re-released them.  In addition to those 22 cats,   she has vetted & re-homed an additional 25 cats from the feral colony into permanent 
homes through The Pet Connection.  7 of these cats were feral when 
trapped and were tamed by Brandi.

Brandi has two cats Aeriel (12) and Tinkerbelle (4) and two 
dogs Lady (4) and Meeko (1).  All of her pets have been either adopted 
from shelters, were from an unwanted litter, or were being re-homed by 
their previous family.

Her duties include:

• Basic animal needs (food, water, medications, micro-chipping, TLC)
• Screening adoption applications, approving or denying adopters, processing adoptions
• Website administration
• Data entry
• Adoption follow-up calls
• TPC monthly newsletter
• Cat foster care

Sharon Bratcher has volunteered with The Pet Connection, Inc. since 2003, putting in over 1500 hours in 2006 alone. She has been working for TPC for a year.

• Reception manager
• Data entry
• Spay/Neuter clinic scheduling
• Adoption follow-up calls
• Intake scheduling
• Records management
• Scheduling medical for TPC pets for adoption

Jeanine Mindrup is one of the co-founders of The Pet Connection, Inc. Jeanine graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Elementary Education. She began working in animal rescue in 1998 after learning about the foster home system. She fostered dogs for Animal Haven from 1998 - 1999, until one of her fosters decided to permanently live with her. She co-founded The Pet Connection, Inc. in 2000. She is one of the shelter managers for TPC and a foster parent for some of the dogs looking for their forever homes. She has assisted in spay/neuter clinics, helped with fundraising, and is working part-time as a receptionist/adoption counselor.

Shelter Manager/Foster Care
Involved in rescue since 1998

Jenny Caiharr's work with The Pet Connection, Inc. began in 2003. She has had a licensed foster home since 2003, where she has been working with feral cats and fearful/aggressive dogs. She has been teaching obedience classes since 2004.

She received an Associates of Arts from Johnson County Community College in 2000 and went on to get her Bachelors of Zoo Science from the Friends University in 2003. Her professional responsibilities include being the secretary for the Kansas City Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers and the Vice Coordinator of the Mangabey Species Survival Plan for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. She is a member of the American Association of Zoo Keepers and Association of Zoos and Aquariums. She has attended numerous workshops and seminars:

• Old World Monkey Taxon Advisory Group Social Behavior Management Workshop
• Positively Trained, Working with Fearful Dogs
• Gorilla Workshop, hosted by the Gorilla Species Survival Plan
• Amercan Association of Zoo Keepers annual Conference
• The Art and Science of Animal Training presented by Natural Encounters

Her papers/studies include the following:

• Food Choice/Preference study on Desmodus rotundus, Vampire Bats
• Size Does Matter, Sexual Selection study
• Pudu pudu Pudu Husbandry Survey
• Ultrasound Conditioning of a Captive Western Lowland Gorilla Gorilla gorilla

Mel McCormick graduated from high school in 1992. She went on to work in Gainsville, Florida, at the Alachua County Animal Shelter as a Kennel Tech from 1995 to 1996, where she was in charge of animal care and basic vet care. She continued her work at the Olathe West Vet Hospital as a Vet Tech and Groom Assistant. From 1999 to 2000 she worked for the Humane Society of Lee County in Fort Meyer, Florida as an Administrator Assistant and a Kennel Manager. She was with the Florida Key ASPCA as an Office Manager from 2001 thru 2002, where she ran the Marathon Shelter and was in charge of transition of Management. She was with the Winding River and Country Way Kennels as a Manager from 2003 - 2005. She has been working for Whole Foods since 2005. Mel currently serves as a TPC Vet Tech and Shelter Staff.

Julie Cross began working in veterinary medicine as a receptionist. She was trained on the job as a technician and has been in this role for seven years. She currently works at Stanley Veterinary Clinic as a full-time technician. At TPC, Julie serves as a technician in our Spay/Neuter Clinic. She really enjoys working in the non-profit arena and finds it very fulfilling. In her spare time, she also pet sits for disabled pets. Julie has a 7-year-old pit bull named Ella and a cat she rescued from TPC named Miles.

Jake Dalton worked at The Pet Connection, Inc. during his senior year of high school to achieve 40 hours of community service.

After the completion of the 40 hours, he continued his work as a volunteer at TPC. His work ethics were good and we needed help, so we asked him if he needed a part-time job. He started off just helping with cleaning and general animal care. He quickly learned how to administer medications and microchipping. He has since learned a lot about dog behavior and helps out with our obedience classes and training with dogs that are up for adoption. He has since graduated high school and plans to attend a vocational school next year.

Joe Zuptich began working at The Pet Connection in May 2008 at the behest of his girlfriend Lory Lacy. She had noticed that Joe’s mood was always brighter after being around animals, especially dogs. Since they share a small apartment, and work crazy hours playing together in their rock band Firebox, Joe was not able to have a dog. In 2005 they adopted a feral cat after one of their shows. In 2007 they added fish to the family that were adopted after a show at a country club. Although the cat (Pepper Anne) and the fish (Tagliotti) were great companions, Joe still yearned for a wagging tail. By 2008 Joe had resorted to wandering around the dog park alone just to get his canine fix. Clearly something had to be done.

Joe was tipped off at a musician’s jam that the Pet Connection needed help, and he began pestering them until they relented and gave the untested dog lover a shot. What followed has been an on the job crash course in behavior, patience, scooping, bitten fingers, slip lead lassoing, leadership, and bleach!

In June 2008 Joe and Lory adopted a second cat, Abbott, from TPC and are currently saving for a house so they can give one of the fine pooches at TPC a forever home.

Julie Larson is a Certified Herbalist and graduate of Prairie Wise Herbal School. She has worked at many different animal hospitals as a groomer and vet tech. But due to her husband’s career in the airborne, she had to keep moving and was never able to stay in any one place more than a year. Julie is from KC but has been to Germany, Wisconsin, North Dakota, North Carolina and South Carolina. Her passions are organic food, natural remedies and energetic medicine such as Reiki (which she is trained in first and second degree). Julie has 3 dogs, 7 cats, and 4 sons (18, 16, and 8 year old twins).

Penny Minniear began with The Pet Connection in February of 2000 when she went into PetSmart with her newly adopted dog MAX to shop. She met Melody and Jeanine looking for volunteers to help with their new group. By April of 2000 she had become a foster failure by adopting the very first dog she fostered. Max loved his new sister Rachael, so the three of them became a family. Penny has worked in the various areas of shelter work, fostering, , helping with events, fundraising, Spay Neuter Clinics and Teaching Obedience classes.

Volunteering at The Pet Connection has provided the opportunity to do what she loves, work with animals. The training and education received working in the shelter environment allowed Penny the hands on experience to gain the knowledge needed to help rescue animals in the rural area where she lives and start Pets Are Worth Saving, Inc.

Her family consists of – the dogs -Max, Rachael and Sierra, the cats – Scrappy, Oreo and Cinnamon, the pigmy goats – Toffee and Licorice and the Sugar Gliders Sweetie and Darwin. And don’t forget the Husband – Roger who also volunteers many hours working in Pet Rescue

• Aaron Mindrup
• Carmen Sigler
• Vicki Hendricks
• Cynthia Williams