www.TheNewBarker.com THE NEW BARKER 53 by Anna Cooke It has been more than 20 years since Tricia Bonati received the phone call that changed her life, and the memory is still very clear. She had been working with Hillsborough County Animal Services (HCAS) on an abuse case involving Poodles. The investigation hit a snag, and rescuing the dogs was put on hold. Then came the phone call from the director of animal services. He told her there had been a break in the investigation, and to prepare to go get the dogs – right away. “They had to all be out by eight o'clock the following morning,” recalls Tricia. “In less than 12 hours, we assembled volunteers, arranged for transportation, arrived at the site and removed 270 dogs,” she said. “We showed up to remove the Poodles. No one showed up for the SharPeis or Chows, so we took those dogs too. I knew we would find fosters for all of them. We just had to get them out of that situation.” Continued on following pages Joie de Vivre The Joy of Helping Poodles. Tricia Bonati with some of her dogs. g