Since then, Chelley is pleased to say she’s done more taking them home and saving them than burying them.

Throughout her life Chelley and her ever patient husband, Ted, have owned dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, birds, horses, donkeys, sheep, goats—is there anything left? Numbers were kept to a tract house minimum while living in Orange County but after moving to Tehachapi, Chelley was a woman gone wild. Finally, she could have the large animals of her dreams. And that’s just what she got—along with a whole lot of little ones too!

Besides rescuing, fostering and adopting out dogs and cats, Chelley is a novelist, a freelance writer and a photographer. She sold her first novel is 1993 and has since sold two more novels, two anthologies and 2 short stories. See her complete bio at www.ckitzmiller.com. When she gets a notion to do something quick and easy, she writes magazine articles and shoots the photos to go with them. And, yes, she sells them!

Chelley met Gene Stirm, her partner in crime, while taking a photography class that Gene was conducting and grabbed hold of his coat sleeve to learn all she could about taking great photos.

Now, the Kitzmillers and the Stirms take camping trips together and while Gene and Chelley go off taking photos, Ted goes fishing and Patricia creates beautiful jewelry.

It was on one of those camping trips, when Oscar was sniffing around the campsite, never out of Chelley’s site because she kept him on a leash, that Gene took his first picture of the agile little Yorkie..and the rest his history. The moment Gene and Chelley saw his digital image, they knew he was destined to bring joy to others and to help homeless pets.