#IAmHomewardPet – Ashley Ventura

Ashley Ventura is a dog walker, dog room feeder/cleaner, foster parent, a member of the Homeward Pet Dog Behavior Team. She and her husband Tom have been volunteers at Homeward Pet for three years.

Ashley is no stranger to the importance of volunteering in the world of non-profit and animal welfare.  In addition to the time she gifts to Homeward Pet, and the foster work she does with Imagine Peace for Pups Rescue, Ashley is the VP on the Board of Directors for Rooster Haus Rescue, an organization dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and giving permanent sanctuary to neglected and abused farmed animals.

Tell us a little bit about yourself?  

Growing up, my family always had dogs, but they came from breeders and pet shops, so I didn’t learn about rescues and shelters until I was much older. I studied computer engineering at the University of Miami and accepted a job with Microsoft right before I graduated, which brought me to this area. I just had my ten-year anniversary with Microsoft where I work as a software engineer on gaming-related technologies.

Tell us a little about any pets in your household?

I share my home with my husband Tom (who is also a Homeward Pet volunteer!), our three dogs Spot, Gracie, and Buddy, and a very grumpy fat-tailed gecko named Euler [pronounced,, ‘Oiler’].

We adopted Spot from Homeward Pet almost three years ago. He came from Eastern Washington as a stray with a shattered toe and some very persuasive sad eyes. I took him home for a kennel break over the long Christmas weekend, and the rest is history. He’s a cattle dog / pit mix who gets along with everyone and loves to make new friends.

Gracie joined our family a few months later. She’s fearful of strangers, new situations, loud noises, sudden movements, and more… but she comes out of her shell around other dogs. She was supposed to be a longer-term foster while Spot taught her how to be a dog, but she bonded to him (and me) so strongly that I couldn’t imagine her living anywhere else. She still struggles with fear, but she’s come a long way since we met her. Most people think she’s a yellow lab mix, but she’s actually half Doberman and half pit (confirmed by two different DNA breed tests — I didn’t believe it at first either!).

Buddy is our most recent addition. He’s a a cattle dog / min pin mix who came to us as a foster in June 2021, through Imagine Peace for Pups Rescue. He’s three years old, 25 lbs, housetrained, low energy, low maintenance, great on leash, and good with dogs. After a very short time, it became obvious that our family couldn’t be full without him, and he was officially adopted by us in August.

How did you first get involved with volunteering at Homeward Pet?

I’ve always been a dog person and had thought about volunteering over the years, but I had the naïve impression that being around shelter dogs would be too heartbreaking. In 2018, I unexpectedly and suddenly lost all three of my dogs to various illnesses, and my house became unbearably quiet and empty. I had a friend who had talked about volunteering with the dogs at Homeward Pet, and I really needed to be around dogs and find a new purpose, so I signed up as a dog care volunteer.

Tell us about your volunteer experience with Homeward Pet?  

I started as a dog feeder/cleaner. It doesn’t sound glamorous but being a feeder/cleaner meant that I got to interact with all of the dogs in the shelter on any given shift and ensure that their basic needs were met.

After a few months of feeding and cleaning, I trained as a dog walker, and continued to perform both roles a few times a week.

Finally, after volunteering for about a year, I joined the Dog Behavior Team (DBT) at the end of 2019. As a DBT volunteer, I work with the dogs who need a little extra attention to ensure that they have successful adoptions: the rowdy and rambunctious dogs, the shy and fearful ones, the reactive ones. Each DBT dog has an individualized plan that we use during training sessions to focus on the areas that need the most behavior modification. These dogs tend to have longer stays at the shelter, and can be challenging to work with, but it’s so rewarding to build relationships with them and see them make progress and eventually find the right homes.

I’m also a foster volunteer! Working from home during COVID-19 has made it so much easier for me to foster. I love that Homeward Pet’s foster program has expanded so much over the past year, so that most animals awaiting adoption are able to spend that in-between time in a home environment where there’s less stress than a shelter. Fostering is a way that my own three can volunteer as well – as foster siblings!

As you think back on your time as a volunteer do you have any memories that stand out?

When things first shut down due to COVID-19, most of the animals in the shelter were sent to foster homes. There was one behavior team dog, Sam, who stayed at the shelter. She was the only dog in the shelter for several months, and she got to go on all kinds of fun outings and field trips with a different volunteer every day. Sam loved to play with other dogs but her play style was a little too intense for most dogs. My dog Spot loves to wrestle hard too, so I asked and got the green light to bring him into the shelter for play dates and walks with Sam during this time. I love that Spot, who is a Homeward Pet alum himself, got the opportunity to volunteer with me and make Sam’s stay at the shelter a little more fun.

Why is volunteering at Homeward Pet important to you?

I feel like a lot of people have outdated assumptions about adoptable dogs and shelters — that they’re all damaged goods with behavioral problems living in sad places until someone can “rescue” them. I think it’s important to be able to show people first-hand that these stereotypes just aren’t true. I love sharing happy stories and pictures from the time I spend volunteering. I also love being able to make a positive difference in the lives of the dogs that come through the shelter.

Another strong motivator that got me started volunteering, and has kept me going, is my employer’s generous matching benefit. Not only do they match cash donations, but they also match my volunteer time by directly paying the organization for the time that I spend volunteering. It’s amazing to know that my actions can have an even greater impact. I would encourage everyone to see if their employers offer this amazing benefit.

What would you say to someone who was thinking about volunteering at Homeward Pet?

Set aside any preconceived notions you might have and give it a try! There’s a great support system of mentors for new volunteers, and all the staff members and volunteers I’ve worked with over the years have been so welcoming and helpful. Some of my closest friends today are people that I’ve met while volunteering at Homeward Pet. And if hands-on animal care isn’t for you, there are so many other ways you can help: reception, facilities, making phone calls, writing thank you letters, helping prep for events, picking up donations for the pet food bank… there’s a volunteer opportunity for everyone.

I’m grateful that I live so close to such an amazing organization. Homeward Pet is doing cutting edge things when it comes to progressive and novel approaches to rescue, and I’m so humbled that I can be a small part of it.

#IAMHOMEWARDPET