BROOKPARK, Ohio — Vanessa Petrosky is the epitome of a dog lover. She has two dogs of her own and is currently fostering a litter of nine puppies. She helped save the momma from the streets.
Petrosky knows a lot about dogs. She’s worked in the veterinary field for more than 10 years and also deeply cares about their safety, so she started her own nonprofit called Remi’s Pet Recovery.
“We track lost dogs (and) return them. Hopefully once we trap them, we get them back to their owners to help alleviate the stray dog population. So we work on stray dogs as well,” said Petrosky. “There’s nothing more sad than when you see a stray animal just defeated with no soul, no nothing and it’s just eating garbage and it runs from you and it’s just living in the elements whether it be winter, a snowstorm, the thick of the heat, the freezing. There’s nothing more horrible to see an animal out there just trying to survive so it’s very rewarding when I can spend my time to get that animal off the street you know I’m helping the community I’m helping the environment as well.”
Going to lengths most wouldn’t, she quite literally goes on the hunt. She’s driven hundreds of miles and even slept in her car overnight.
“It could take weeks. It just depends. Every dog is different. Every case is different, and I learn something from every case,” said Petrosky. “That’s my biggest thing: Trust the process. And that’s the hardest thing for me to get people to understand. It’s a process. Not always can you drop a trap and just trap a dog, especially these types that come from, you know, hoarding situations, semi-feral dogs that are not used to coexisting in a home now with humans and other dogs.”
She said she’s willing to face challenging pups to get them the help they need, but they’re not her biggest obstacles.
“My biggest obstacles are the public, and then people that don’t understand the process,” she said.
She is fierce and passionate, yet some call her crazy.
“I’m just me, and I’ve been called a lot of things. I’ve been called the pet detective,” said Petrosky. “I love to be crazy. I’m different. I’m unique, and I always like to be different and unique. So you could call me crazy, but I love me. I love being crazy.”
She doesn’t care what people think because she’s on a mission.
“I do what I have to do, within reason. And people know that my ultimate goal is to get the dog back,” said Petrosky.
As much as she tries, not all dog hunts have happy endings.
“I mean there’s been dogs that we’ve trapped that have turned and tried to bite us. It’s, you know, they’re aggressive,” she said.
But most do like the story of runaway dog Hannah, who came from a hoarding situation and is very skittish. She ran away from her owners in September 2020 while they were taking her to the groomer.
Julie Wheeler.
“We had just about given up hope,” said Hannah’s mom, Julie Wheeler. “I just looked at her, and I saw Vanessa standing out there, and I just fell apart. It was like, I had been preparing myself for the worst. And a miracle happened. I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am to her. If she had not come to help us, I truly do not believe this story would have had the same ending.”
“I still watch it [the video] and I still smile, just knowing that I did that,” said Petrosky.
Hannah is just one of hundreds of dogs Petrosky has rescued since she founded Remi’s in 2016. In 2014, it took her and a team of people months to capture a recently adopted dog named Remi, hence the name of the nonprofit “Remi’s Pet Recovery.” Since that day, Petrosky knew she found her calling.
“I would love it to be my full-time job,” said Petrosky. “I love helping people. I love doing things for others.”
It’s a tedious process, but a process she loves, as she’ll do anything to help our lost and forgotten furry friends.
“Somebody has to do it, and I love doing it,” said Petrosky.
Remi’s Pet Recovery is currently run solely on donations and grants. For more information on Remi’s Pet Recovery you can visit their website.
