Geoff Bennett: Tonight’s Brief But Spectacular features a longtime activist affectionately known as The Dog Lady.

As the founder of Downtown Dog Rescue in Los Angeles, Lori Weise is dedicated to helping the homeless stay united with their pets. Here’s her take on reimagining rescue.

Lori Weise, Founder, Downtown Dog Rescue: I became known as The Dog Lady back in the late ’90s. And that was because I think most of the people I was helping back then either couldn’t remember my name, didn’t know my name. They just knew, hey, it’s the lady that helps us with the dogs, The Dog Lady.

Heidi was my first dog that I got when I was 4 years old. I was not a child that was really outgoing or anything like that, so she was a great sense of comfort for me. One of the challenges we have working with homeless people with pets is gaining their trust.

I founded Downtown Dog Rescue, and it was really created out of necessity. I saw so much suffering with people and animals living on the street without basic necessities. We serve homeless and low-income families with pets, mostly in South Los Angeles. We provide spay and neuter, vaccinations, microchipping, pet food, all types of supplies, but our primary focus and all of our energy is really spent on keeping families together, keeping people with their pets.

If a person is doing the best they can with what they have, we come in and we will help them out and get them up to a level that passes with animal control and such.

Man: He looks like a little gorilla. That’s your friend now, Lori.

Lori Weise: The number one thing we always ask is, what are they trying to achieve? If they had endless amounts of money, what would they do right now for their pet?

We get them to the point where the person feels as though they’re actually doing something. They’re not justified as somebody that’s unhoused, that doesn’t have a job. They’re accomplishing something for their pet, for their future.

The housing crisis in California, in the United States is directly connected to my work. And as the rents have risen so incredibly high in Los Angeles, it just makes our work so much more difficult. If you’re walking or driving along, you see somebody with a pet that’s homeless. I really implore you to please consider just saying hello to them, just like you would anybody else.

Compliment them on their pet, if you’re that type of person like me. I have to go up to every single person with a dog. Please don’t say, let me help you. Let me do this.

You have no idea what that person’s capable of doing. This is, in most cases, generational trauma. And no one, no one person is going to fix another person.

My name is Lori Weise, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on rethinking rescue.