Jun 18, 2026 · 1 hr 11 min · 9 segments
**A conversation with** **Meridith Perry****, who inherited a Mississippi animal shelter on the brink of collapse.** When she took over, the facility was broke, dangerously underequipped, bound by…
Meridith PerryGuestKara OchterbergHost
I was helped for a few years prior to, to me coming on board as the interim director.
And I laugh and I say that because I was only supposed to be there 90 days and it was two and a half years, but you know, so I had a history with them already a couple of years prior.
I have been on the board and I was helping the, my main function was helping to get dogs out of the shelter with various rescue groups.
She, she had some groups she was already transporting to, and then I had some groups that I had relationships with.
And so I was trying to, that was really my main function was then I helped do a little bit of grants with Paul, who I think is still on her board.
And then I took a step back and decided that, I think it was about 2020, end-ish of 2021.
I was like, I need to, I got to something, I got to kind of cut something out for a little bit.
And so, so I resigned from the board and I was gone for, I think about a year, maybe a year and a half.
And the one day I got a call from, and I hadn't really talked to anybody on the board since then.
I mean, you know, every now and then somebody would check in and say, Hey, how are you doing? And then one day I got a call and they said, hey, the director has resigned her last days, I think September 1st or August 3rd.
are you willing to come fill in for a little while? Are you willing to help us out? And I, so I thought about it for a couple of weeks and I said, I finally came back and I said, yes, I can help for 90 days because I have my own company that I've got to run and my own building and employees and customers that I deal with every day.
So I didn't really have the bandwidth to go in and be at the shelter every single day and, and, be the dedicated person that that kind of organization needed.
And so I went in and it turned out that hiring another permanent person was going to take a lot longer than we expected.
And so when I got there, One of our issues that we had had while I was there was how long some of the dogs had been there.
When I first started helping move some dogs out a couple years prior, I think the longest length of stay was about three years, maybe close to four.
I was helped for a few years prior to, to me coming on board as the interim director.
And I laugh and I say that because I was only supposed to be there 90 days and it was two and a half years, but you know, so I had a history with them already a couple of years prior.
I have been on the board and I was helping the, my main function was helping to get dogs out of the shelter with various rescue groups.
She, she had some groups she was already transporting to, and then I had some groups that I had relationships with.
And so I was trying to, that was really my main function was then I helped do a little bit of grants with Paul, who I think is still on her board.
And then I took a step back and decided that, I think it was about 2020, end-ish of 2021.
I was like, I need to, I got to something, I got to kind of cut something out for a little bit.
And so, so I resigned from the board and I was gone for, I think about a year, maybe a year and a half.
And the one day I got a call from, and I hadn't really talked to anybody on the board since then.
I mean, you know, every now and then somebody would check in and say, Hey, how are you doing? And then one day I got a call and they said, hey, the director has resigned her last days, I think September 1st or August 3rd.
are you willing to come fill in for a little while? Are you willing to help us out? And I, so I thought about it for a couple of weeks and I said, I finally came back and I said, yes, I can help for 90 days because I have my own company that I've got to run and my own building and employees and customers that I deal with every day.
So I didn't really have the bandwidth to go in and be at the shelter every single day and, and, be the dedicated person that that kind of organization needed.
And so I went in and it turned out that hiring another permanent person was going to take a lot longer than we expected.
And so when I got there, One of our issues that we had had while I was there was how long some of the dogs had been there.
When I first started helping move some dogs out a couple years prior, I think the longest length of stay was about three years, maybe close to four.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
