DAN POLYACK

I grew up in a house full of a variety of pets, except, strangely enough, for the cat.  However, my bio wouldn’t be complete without mentioning my love for the guinea pig.  In fact, the first animal “rescue” that I ever witnessed was when my mom brought home two guinea pigs, Lady Jane and Lord Byron, from the medical research lab where she worked as a secretary.  I’d like to say that I was too young to understand how she managed to get these two pigs “rescued”, but I do remember she was quite a charmer with her feminine wiles. Needless to say, a few months later, and after having measured poor Lady Jane’s stomach at a whopping girth of 18 inches, she gave birth to 8 little piggies. These childhood experiences really impacted my love for animals, and as an adult I was lucky enough to have had several pigs of my own. I know, it seems like having a pig is a poor substitute for a dog, but when you are living like a nomad, they are just a tiny bit easier to cart around with you.  In fact, when I drove out to LA from Chicago, I had my, now elderly, mother as a co-pilot (if you consider sleeping the #1 duty of a co-pilot) and five pigs stuffed into my tiny little pick-up truck.  It was quite an adventurous road trip, and I have the home movies as proof.  For instance I filmed one-handedly while cruising down the highway at 90+ mph the moment when my mother’s upper denture rolled out of her mouth during a “nap” and landed on her stomach.  

Anyway, those pigs brought me a lot of joy, and I couldn’t have been happier to have known them…well that is until we adopted Monchis, our first boxer.  And now, thru SAR, we are adding Whiskey to our clan.  My only wish as a volunteer is that one day I am able to payback to a dog in need just a smidgen of the joy that SAR has brought into my life. 

And congrats to Rafa on making her dreams of SAR a reality.  Now, can someone help me to fulfill my other childhood dream of owning a goat?  Stop laughing, I’m serious!