Dana's Story
Dana has had dogs since the day she was born. Her family's black lab, Tory, led the way to a lifelong love. She learned about rescue late one winter night in her hometown of Weaverville when she was about 12 years old. Her father was a Real Estate broker and had visited one of his rural listings earlier in the day. He'd found three dogs apparently abandoned on the property and couldn't get them out of his mind. The family bundled up and drove through the dark and snow to save the terrified, shivering Mastiff, Heeler, and their pup. The Heeler, Daisy, made it very clear that she was moving in and they found homes for the other two. Daisy was a constant joy and challenge. Dana learned about the ceaseless commitment required of rescue dogs and the undeniable rewards and struggles that come with them. Since then, rescue pets have always been a part of her life - from Austin, the weirdly wonderful stray cat, to Lyla, the unbelievably high maintenance American Eskimo with a vet file as big as a dictionary. She has spent countless hours volunteering at Bay Area shelters and dreaming of a rescue of her own. She believes that dogs are the best teachers of patience, resilience, and forgiveness. Dana lives in the East Bay with her husband Paul and their dog, Rico, a mixed breed whose only goal is to make you smile. When she's not loving on dogs, she is running a research company with her brother and business partner.
Carolyn's Story
Growing up in a family of animal lovers, Carolyn developed a love and appreciation for animals at a young age. She has always had dogs and cats in her life and has never been without a pet of some sort. She loves volunteering in her free time especially to help animals in need. For the past 20 years she has been volunteering at dog and cat rescues caring for the animals and using her photography skills to take photos for adoption ads, product merch, social media and bios. When the opportunity presented itself to be involved in starting Hair of the Dog, she jumped at the chance to work with like minded individuals and knew she could contribute a great deal getting this rescue off the ground. She has extensive experience working at startup companies and the focus/determination needed to make things happen. She's very proud to be part of this organization and team and looking forward to helping many dogs find loving permanent homes. She feels honored to be able to do this work. Carolyn lives in East Bay with her rescues. When not working her day job in engineering, she enjoys hiking with her dogs, road trips, spending time in nature, photography (especially dog photography) and all the Bay Area has to offer.
Jennifer Lucas
Board Member
Secretary of the Board
Head of Development & Fundraising
info@hairofthedogrescue.pet
Jenn's Story
While it may sound a bit ironic that Jennifer doesn’t currently have a dog of her own, she brings years of animal rescue experience to the organization—much of it originally focused on cats. She volunteers at Cat Town in Oakland at least once a week. Whether cat or dog, Jennifer firmly believes there is nothing more rewarding than helping a forgotten pet find a loving forever home.
After being a longtime friend of HOTDog—and even spending a short time as a foster—Jennifer eventually joined the board. In her role, she helps lead the organization’s development and fundraising efforts, working to ensure the rescue has the resources it needs to continue helping dogs in need.
At home, Jennifer is lovingly supervised by her cat, Prince, who is firmly convinced that dogs are unnecessary and that he alone should be more than enough pet for any reasonable household. Jennifer insists that one day a dog will join the family—but for now she remains under Prince’s watchful eye and his ongoing reminders that he is, in fact, perfectly sufficient.
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