Heaven Can Wait houses a number of cats and dogs. Each animal has a story and a personality. Founder Kim Hessel (pictured) petting a cat. (Wil Brennan, CMRU.ca)
Heaven Can Wait Animal Rescue Foundation is working to create better situations for cats and dogs. Foundation Founder Kim Hessel has been taking care of animals in the High River area for over 25 years.
When asked about the current state of animal welfare, Hessel said, “It is really awful out there right now. There’s just no other way to say it, and I don’t know what the answer is.”
Even without knowing the answer, Kim and the Heaven Can Wait crew work day and night to help give these animals a better life.
Supplying food, shelter, and care
Heaven Can Wait’s main role is keeping animals safe and cared for, which is much more work than it sounds like. Kim Hessel says that at any time they can be housing up to 200 cats while still holding dozens of dogs. Heaven Can Wait prides itself on their “Spay It Forward” program, where they will cover 50 per cent of the spay-neuter surgery cost.
Hessel says, “I wanted to reach people that didn’t have a lot of resources but still needed their animals vetted.”
Heaven Can Wait emphasizes that these animals have a good life, so where a traditional shelter waits till an animal is adopted to give them spay-neuter surgery, Heaven Can Wait will spay everything upon arrival.
As much as they do at Heaven Can Wait, Hessel says, “I feel like it’s never enough. I know it’s not enough, but I also know we have limitations. There’s only so much we can do.”
What you can do to help
The objective of better animal welfare is not a job that Heaven Can Wait looks to do alone.
This work is not for the light-of-heart; Hessel says, “It’s way more work than what people realize. They’re alive. We can’t just take a weekend off. You can’t just sleep in, if you don’t feel well, you still have to get up and go and do work and take care of them.”
If you are passionate about this issue or just passionate about animals, Heaven Can Wait can always use more volunteers. There are ways for you to help out this issue. Firstly take the initiative to educate yourself by doing your own research.
Kim Hessel says, “I think that’s really how people can help and certainly learn what’s in your community.”
Some other local resources include:
- Calgary Humane Society
- CB Rescue Foundation
- ARTS Senior Animal Rescue
- Pawsitive Match
- High River Veterinary Clinic
- Highview Animal Clinic
Animals can have such an important impact on many lives. If you need help or want to help, please reach out to Heaven Can Wait.
When asked about what stories could help tell this story, Kim Hessel said, “Maybe the more people that know about animal welfare in general, the more interest will get moving forward.”
Author’s reflection
This project has been quite fun to work on. Getting a chance to work with animals and document them has been a very personal experience. My family have owned animals my whole life but as a student living away from home, this has really reminded me how important of a presence animals have in my life. The personality of each animal was evident while I was filming on location—one cat even cozied up in my camera bag.
Kim was such a terrific person to work with, whether it was scheduling or just simply being able to talk about Heaven Can Wait in detail. With all the information that Kim gave me in our interview this story could easily make an hour long video. She made the whole experience very personal and comfortable to be a part of. The experience becomes so much simpler when an interview subject wants to help you, and Kim definitely wanted to help.
The point of this project was to highlight people making positive impacts on the community, but it was also meant to add a creative element to the finished product. I wanted to take on the task of animating the Heaven Can Wait logo. As someone who doesn’t have the most experience with motion animation, I am proud of the finished product. I enjoyed that their logo was simple but still professional, so I tried to add to the elements already shown in the logo—the sun and clouds. Adding more sunlight to the logo seemed important because Heaven Can Wait helps to give these animals and people a brighter day.
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