My search eventually led me to Pets of Older Persons (POOPS NSW) in NSW. The charity itself sounded perfect, but I wanted the funds to remain in Western Australia and wondered whether they had a WA chapter. Somehow, I unearthed the email address of POOPS NSW founder Kath Gazzard, who worked at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. Kath had started POOPS NSW in response to the Aged Care Assessment Team’s frustrations when elderly people who needed to be hospitalised, refused to leave their pets. Kath responded to my email instantly. No, she wrote, NSW was the only Pets of Older Persons, but there was nothing to stop me starting one in Perth.

Very disappointed and a little shell-shocked by her statement given all my commitments, I felt starting a chapter in Perth was definitely not something I had time to take on. But Kath didn’t let up. So at our party a couple of months later I asked if anyone would be interested in volunteering if such an association were to start in WA. About a dozen family and friends put their names on a list. Meanwhile we asked the local RSPCA to hold that year’s donation in trust for POOPS pending our potential partnership. 

Kath sent me reams of forms and statistics, gave me permission to use a WA slash across the NSW brochure and tried to start negotiations between the two RSPCA branches. In April 2010, we gave talks on the radio, presentations to all the major hospitals, many senior citizens groups, bowling clubs and community centres. That year we were also successful in our first application for a grant from the City of South Perth for $1,000. To receive the grant, we needed a business bank account, which meant we also needed a committee. Rapidly my family agreed to become committee members. 

It was in April also that I first spoke to Kath. She called to tell me she was dying with only months to live. It was a great shock. I am no stranger to death and we had never met, but she was one of the most amazing people I have been privileged to know. She was passionate about POOPS and thrilled at the idea of another chapter in WA. I vowed then and there I would do all in my power to make POOPS in WA work.

A team of wonderful and talented people, too many to name, gave willingly of their time and skill to set up a website and work on POOPS WA branding, including our very own brochure and posters. Plus we continued to spread the word on radio, through community newspapers and presentations to other groups.  We were off and running!

If you’ve read this far, it will be clear that POOPS did indeed involve a long birthing process and it took a great deal of work from some terrific volunteers to make it happen. That nearly ten years later, POOPS is not only alive, but continuing to grow and thrive, would have given Kath immense happiness. Indeed, I’m convinced she knows anyway. 

From a personal perspective, I have met some of the most remarkable, hard-working and unselfish people on earth through my own POOPS journey.