Janet has been an avid animal lover since the day she could speak,

so her involvement with the two organizations she chose doesn't surprise anyone. If you ask her why she loves animals so much, her answer is always, "very simple, they give unconditional love". Since early childhood she has always interacted with animals, be it her West Highland Terrier "Buttons" as a child, her burmese python "Cecil" when she was 16, her two parrots Max and Nikko, all her different reptiles, rabbits, turtles, whatever she could share her life with, she did. At present, Janet dotes on her two beloved Maltese dogs, Bianca and Amber who are both ten years old and have been at her side through thick and thin. Bianca especially can, what she says "See through my soul. Bianca knows just when she needs some extra T.L.C. or when Janet is just a little down. In fact, Bianca sits right next to her during each and every Figure Workshop. They are constant companions. Animals are the most wonderful creatures God created.

Because of her love for animals and her strong desire to bring more animals into her life, Janet yearned to add to her family and then a new wonderful phase in Janet's life began, she and her husband decided that they wanted to have children and adding more animals to the mix was put on the back burner for a time. So how could her love for animals continue to expand and her desire enrich their lives continue? In the early 1990's Janet became involved with the North Shore Animal League in New York, New York ( http://www.nsalamerica.org) as well as The Best Friends Animal Society (http://www.bestfriends.org) in Kanab, Utah. With The North Shore Animal League, she sponsors three dogs, Mona, Honey and Frankie, where she sends money each month to help pay for their medical, shelter, food and other care necessary until they are adopted. After that time, the League will pass her sponsorship along to three other needy dogs, something which Janet has been doing since the early 90's (Mona, Honey and Frankie are her latest three in need). With The Best Friends Animal Society, her involvement is a little different, she sends in monthly as well as yearly contributions (often Christmas time she will send some extra toys and chewy biscuits for the little guys!!). This particular place is a huge sanctuary where they have a “no-kill” policy and will neuter and spay all dogs and cats in need. They take in elder animals as well as sick ones and all animals with special needs. And their facility is absolutely beautiful! They have animals from horses, lambs, cats, dogs, snakes rabbits, birds, to any animal that can be rescued and sheltered, they find a way to accommodate them! Even volunteers come down to the beautiful hills of Utah for a weekend or even a week and donate their time to help out. This is something Janet is planning to do in the near future as well.

Recent Charitable Events...

Taylor Marsico decided to invite her kindergarten class at the Ridge Street Elementary School in Rye Brook, New York to help her with our yearly holiday donation package for The Best Friends Animal Society with her great idea of decorating dog collars!!!! So on December 13, 2006, Taylor, Janet, Olivia Parton (one of the other class mothers) along with a beautiful decorated box (that little Brooke Hope helped decorate at home with Taylor), went to her school and with her classmates and Mrs. Fagan, her teacher decorated 25 dog collars and shipped them off to the Best Friends Animal Society the very next day. A very special surprise was our friends from All Paws pet store in Rye, New York donated a beautiful package of toys, dog biscuits, bones and several other goodies for our four legged friends to enjoy over the holidays! And we would like to thank them for their generosity and thoughtfulness for doing so!