Earlier this year, a small, fluffy Shih Tzu mix named Phineas wound up at the Baltimore County Department of Animal Services. The rescued dog was “a complete mess,” recalls volunteer videographer Deborah Stone, with a wonky eye, patches of discolored fur and a fearful, feeble demeanor.
It took weeks but BCAS was able to restore Phineas to good health and place him in foster care.
The organization then asked Stone, a Pikesville resident and former WJZ-TV reporter, to produce a video showcasing Phineas, now a happy, playful pup. He was soon adopted into a loving home in the area.
“If you had seen him that day in the shelter,” says Stone, “nothing could have been sadder than that. As a huge animal lover, it brings me joy to contribute to positive outcomes for animals.”
Stone’s videos about dogs like Phineas will now have a greater impact. They are featured on Friday mornings on “WJZ at 9” in a new segment called “Furever Homes.” Each week, a video of a rescue pet will be featured live on the morning news show and streamed online, with the hope that its new owner will tune in.
“’WJZ at 9’ features news and stories from the community, and we want to celebrate really good news in our community,” says Gail Bending, the station’s news director. “There is an ability to reach so many people through the show and we want to use that ability for good, and help dogs and cats find homes.”
The “Furever Homes” segment is a big plus for Stone’s video work, which made its humble beginnings on her blog about eight years ago. After working as a TV reporter and anchor for two decades, she was retired for a number of years when she began a blog to raise awareness about shelter and rescue pets.
Using her iPhone and simple editing software, Stone produced videos of animals available for adoption, depicting them on walks, playing with children, kissing their foster owners or interacting with other family pets.
For Stone, the video work is an opportunity to combine her professional reporting skills with her passion for animals.
“I wanted to tell the kinds of stories I had always told in TV news, but stories that involve animals,” she says. “I’ve always loved animals from the time I could remember. When I was a child, I begged for a dog. My parents said, ‘We’ll get you a dog if you stop biting fingernails.’ And I never bit my fingernails again.”
Back then, most prospective “pet parents” purchased their animals. But as an adult pet owner, Stone was advised by a breeder to adopt a new dog at a local shelter.
Since that time, Stone has become passionate about rescue animals, building relationships with rescue organizations and shelters trying to find homes for them.
Shelters — especially open-ended shelters like BCAS that must accept all animals left at their facility — are often squeezed for space and issue pleas to rescue organizations for animals they cannot care for. In turn, rescue organizations will collect some of these animals and try to get them fostered or adopted. Thanks to these efforts, millions of animals are not euthanized each year.
“In many parts of this country, people don’t really have a lot of elevated awareness of the importance of saving lives of animals. But there are many people who do,” says Stone. “And they started a new way of thinking about animal shelters, that they shouldn’t just be a place where animals go to die but a place that can help animals get out alive.”
With the “Furever Homes” segment, Stone hopes more animals can have a chance. Through WJZ — which had more than 3.8 million views of their on-air and online news content in April of 2022 — Stone’s video work can reach a much broader audience.
The feature is also a great fit for WJZ, which used to host a segment called “The Friday Puppy,” a program that brought shelter puppies up for adoption to the station’s set. During the pandemic, the station could not always host guests, so Stone’s videos are a novel way to publicize animals looking for homes.
“When you work in a newsroom, one of the things that most people feel very strongly about is being able to use our voice to help the community, and that community definitely includes animals,” says Bending. “The whole purpose is to reach the right person for each pet.”
Besides airing on Friday mornings, the “Furever Homes” broadcasts will re-air on Saturdays and stream online. The more videos she can produce, says Stone, the more information potential owners will have.
“You get a much better picture of the dog from the video than from a picture alone,” she says. “The video tells the story of the dog — the cute, funny things it does. Like the one featured on WJZ today, it sleeps with its legs up in the air. That’s a cute tidbit you would never get from a picture.”
Stone is thankful that this medium can reach a bigger audience and hopeful for the future of her video pets.
“I have deep gratitude to WJZ and Gail Bending for putting these on the air and making them part of their programming, because who knows what that could bring?” she says. “Hopefully, wonderful things.”
Hanni R. Werner is a local freelance writer.
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