Meet Helen Cooney

We were lucky to catch up with Helen Cooney recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Helen, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I love this question. Something I often tell people about working in animal rescue is that these animals are the greatest teachers of resilience. I adopted Sammie, whom our organization is named after, during one of the most difficult periods of my life – unemployment due to COVID 19, a recently failed engagement, and a brand new auto-immune disorder diagnosis that left me very, very sick for a prolonged period of time. Sammie had been left behind by his family when they evacuated for a hurricane, tied up outside, left to fend for himself before being picked up by a rescue, put through a prison rehabilitation program, then shipped across many states and continuously passed up for adoption. A new family had just retracted their adoption application for him when I decided to get him. When I first brought him home, he would not let me near him. He was terrified of me – and I was a little scared of him too, to be honest, as he was a big, skinny, wolfy looking shepherd. It took weeks for me to gain his trust and be able to pet him without him releasing this agonizing yelp. But despite his fear, despite what he had been through, I could tell from the very first night that deep down he wanted to trust me. He still wanted to be loved. And all it took was a little patience and then boom, he turned into my shadow. I tell people his resilience in my time of struggle inspired me to not only persevere, but to re-evaluate the priorities in my life. And that’s how we ended up with Sammie’s House.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I founded Sammie’s House Animal Sanctuary, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, in 2022 from my little apartment in Washington, DC. Since then, we’ve moved to Central Florida and operate a property focused on being a sunset home for senior dogs that otherwise would be euthanized in local shelters due to their age, medical conditions, or overcrowding. Our vision for the future includes animals of many different species – and being a place of education and peace in our community. As an animal welfare advocate, I want to show people, utilizing our social media platforms and our physical facility, that animals are not throw-away objects to be discarded at the end of their lives. They deserve love and sanctuary despite declining health or inability to continue working. Many of our senior dogs, for example, have come to us in pitiful shape, both physically and mentally, but with the help of a wonderful vet and proper care, along with a whole lot of rest and love, they are now back to their goofy, life-loving selves, even being in their golden years. It brings me so much joy, personally, to witness their almost miraculous transformations, and to be able to share that with others.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I would have to say the three most important qualities that have helped me along the way have been vision, perseverance, and optimism.

Vision first and foremost – for an almost 10 year career, I was enjoying my day to day work but not entirely sure of my life’s purpose. I was building useful skills and learning a lot, both professionally and personally, but I’m definitely the type of person who needs to feel like I’m working for or toward something larger than myself. When COVID happened and I was given the chance to take a step back and think about what my dream for myself and my impact on the world around me would be, I was able to follow my vision and I continuously return to that vision to keep us on track as we grow as an organization.

I named perseverance because, as anyone starting something new and a little out-there will tell you, there are plenty of people who will tell you it’s crazy, or it’s too risky, or it will be too hard, or that they don’t “get it” – essentially, they’ll tell you not to try. To just keep doing what you’ve been doing. Whether it comes from a place of love or not, it is very easy to listen to them and let them hold you back. But if you have an idea you just can’t stop thinking about, you have to listen to your gut and go for it. If you fail, you fail. But that’s a whole lot preferable to having never tried and living with regret, in my opinion.

Lastly, optimism. This might not come naturally to some people, but being an inherent (maybe sometimes blind) optimist I believe has served me well. It allows me to face obstacles and challenges with an everything-is-“figureoutable” attitude. If you believe you can figure something out, then you probably will. If you believe things will likely work out for the best, then they probably will. A setback is a learning experience, never a reason to give up – and if you think that way, the only thing that can stop you from achieving something is yourself.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

Overwhelm has been an ongoing challenge for me, because I tend to put a lot on my plate at once. There are a couple of lessons I have had to learn to combat letting myself get to the point where I feel overwhelmed: one, learning to to take a break; and two, asking for help.

It has always been hard for me to say no to things, and I certainly enjoy being busy. But occasionally I’ll be going and going like the Energizer Bunny and then feel myself edging close to the dreaded burnout. Feelings of overwhelm can show up as lack of motivation, guilt, decision paralysis – but I often find it’s that time that I really need to listen to myself and switch gears completely. Can I reschedule things for a day? Can I turn off my phone for a few hours? Can a deadline be pushed back? I’ve had to come to terms with that fact that taking a break, even a singular day to refocus and recharge, is not selfish. In fact, it’s necessary.

It has also always been hard for me to ask others for help. I grew up as an only child and I have a fierce independent streak. I love and take pride in being able to take care of myself, and handle things on my own. However, I’ve come to realize that just because I can do something myself, doesn’t always mean I should, or that I need to. I’ve added two amazing women to the Sammie’s House team recently, along with a handful of volunteers, and seeing the work they do for SH makes me shake my head that I ever thought I could do as good of a job, all by myself, doing everything.

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