We recently connected with Lynn Spencer and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lynn, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I can’t really say that “I found my purpose”, but rather that “my purpose found me”.
Being a child born into, and growing up in, the horse racing industry, I was surrounded by horses and cats 24/7. As well as other animals, such as goats, birds, chickens and occasionally dogs. But mostly horses and cats, as they get along famously well. Cats are very calming to horses, and coveted in the racing stables as they deter mice from the horse feed. I have a picture of me at about the age of two or three, walking one of my father’s racehorses, “Hodge Direct”…I remember “Hodgy” so well…he was the sweetest horse…it never occurred to me that he was a giant compared to me. I remember feeling protective of him, feeling the need to make sure he was happy…as if it was my job. (Please note that as an animal rescuer I do NOT condone the sport of horse racing…it was simply what I was born into. However, due to all of my knowledge regarding the sport, I am extremely against the NYC Carriage Horse Industry, with many of the carriage horses being lame and/or retired Standardbred race horses. There is nothing romantic about a horse carriage ride – it’s abusive).
It was a very nomadic lifestyle…just the other day I counted 47 times I’ve moved…those were 47 times that I could either remember and/or that I knew of via what family history I could gather. Most of the moving was between upstate New York and lower Delaware, often living with either set of grandparents as my father and either biological mother or step mother were elsewhere at a racing meet. I remember taking home to my New York grandmothers’ house an injured bird I had found on my way home from school. I was about 6 years old…I carefully brought it in to the house…my step grandfather said it was a “Myna” bird…they gingerly put it in a bird cage we’d had in storage…gave it food and water…it died the next day…that poor bird’s death had a profound effect on me…I felt I had failed him. Later that summer I remember I accidentally sat on a bumblebee and killed it, so I gathered the neighbor kids who my sister and I played with and conductd an elaborate funeral for the bee…it was I who gave the eulogy. I was 6. (Ironically I am deathly allergic to bees). My heart ached for that dead bee. Let us now jump to around 2008…I had recently moved from the Upper East Side in Manhattan, NY to Bloomfield, NJ, a few blocks away from Montclair. It was a condo complex, and on the complex grounds, wandering lethargically and mostly underweight, were a lot of stray cats. This tore me up. Nobody seemed to care. I made friends with a woman down the hall in my unit and together we began to TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) these poor cats, and I myself set up a feeding station and made sure they were fed daily. I had started to volunteer with a local 501c animal rescue group and from them I learned how to trap. At first, myself and my neighbor were having volunteers trap, and of course we were paying the clinic cost. Rather quickly though, I began trapping these cats myself. I was very determined to TNR this very large colony.
I’m proud to say that I did. This complex also had 2 large ponds across the street as well as a large running creek, inhabited by mallard ducks and Canadian geese. Due to that I finessed my bird rescue skills. I made many transports to The Raptors Trust during that time, having rescued several orphaned flocks of ducklings and goslings, as well as injured geese, and once a seagull who had her left wing torn almost completely off. It was the day I found out that my biological mother had passed away that I heard a voice in my head calmly say “You are here to rescue animals”. I am not an overly religious person. I have studied and participated in 6 different religions due to my extensive travels, but my religious beliefs are very personal and quiet. However, I do believe that day I had a “calling”. It was simple, direct, and I respected and accepted it. I have never stopped rescuing and I never will. My purpose found me. Or, I was simply put here to do what I do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am an actor. After a disappointing year of college in Virginia, (it was boring and I was paying for it myself and therefore had no family obligations to stay), I moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. I had just turned 19 a week prior. I had no family in NYC. I knew no one. But due to my extensive travels throughout my young life, I was very independent and used to being alone. Not knowing a soul or knowing where I was or what was going to happen next was extremely exciting to me. During my first three days in NYC, I got a job as a hostess in an Upper East Side celebrity restaurant, I enrolled in on-camera acting classes and was a resident at The Barbizon Hotel for women. (The hotel had not gone coed just yet…I got there at the tail end of the only female residency option). Two weeks later I did my first walk-on on a soap opera, and a month later I was free-lancing with a big agent. It was all very exciting and I was also very “green”…one of my co-workers had asked me once why I was in NYC…I answered “to be an actress”…he then asked “do you have a headshot?” and I replied, mortified I might add: “NO! I’ve never been arrested!”…After my first commercial audition, my agent called, very excited. “Lynn! You got a first refusal!”…I replied “OMG I am so sorry. I did the best I could”…she chuckled a bit and said “No honey, you got a first refusal…that’s a good thing”! To which I replied “Well how is it a good thing? If this is the first time they refused me, jeez, how many more times are they going to refuse me? I mean, if they don’t want me, can’t they just tell me ONCE?”….OMG. I was sooooo green…
As time went on and my presence became more known, so did the creeps and vultures. Although I never dealt with Harvey Weinstein, I had many horrific dealings in the industry with men like him. It was never ending, the molestation attempts, the drugs in the drink, the threat of being blacklisted should I speak up. Luckily I was resilient and tough. But I told one agent in a HUGE agency to go EFF himself when he indicated I had to sleep with various men to get anywhere. Needless to say, I was blacklisted…
I voluntarily left the industry at a young age and threw myself into the restaurant industry which I absolutely loved with a passion. After years of bartending / managing restaurants in Manhattan, via an odd segue, I took a huge position as the surgical residency coordinator at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Medical College of Cornell University. This job would change my life in many ways, and I loved it with a passion as well. But it was after many years of this job that I had an epiphone…I had not moved to NYC to become a big hospital administrator…I had moved there to be an actor. I made the decision to resign from the department of surgery and return to acting, albeit at a much older age range…and I had to start from scratch. I was already a member of AFTRA, as I’d had to join as a teenager due to my soap opera work, so the bulk of my work was in Comedy Central shows as it was an AFTRA contract. I did my due diligence…lots of off-off Broadway and off Broadway…under 5’s on Comedy Central, principal work in short films, etc. Gradually my efforts began to pay off. I joined SAG and I was back. And honestly, I needed to be older!
I am generally very quiet about my work. If people see me in something and mention it that’s cool, but it’s my job. I’ve had some kick ass auditions recently and look forward to many more…but publicly I tend to talk about my rescue work more than my acting work, as I usually have kittens and cats who I’ve rescued that I need to get adopted. Trust me though, I am an actor. I am at it every day. Just like my rescue work. I have always fantasized about combining both efforts…I am currently working on something (writing) to make that happen.
There IS an effort I want people to be aware of: Once a week I take a train to Newark Penn Station to then grab a taxi to Bloomfield where I feed two colonies of feral, TNR’d cats. I blog this weekly trip on my facebook page…I call the feeding stations “Spencer’s Cafe”…I have made this weekly trip FOR YEARS. (with the exception of the past few weeks as I have not been able to afford the transport). I make this trip with a large tote bag loaded with cans of cat food and containers of dry food…I feed an enormous amount, and leave bags of canned food for the main feeder. I am not allowed on the property across the creek, so I take the canned pate food out of the can and toss it across the creek to them. This weekly mission is a prototype for a 501c effort I am slowly putting together: the mission is to give a break to colony caretakers, whether it’s a day off or several days off. I would have a van loaded with food (and traps) and drive to various feeding locations that have been coordinated for this effort, and give the caretakers a much needed break. I myself am a colony feeder. I know how hard it is…it’s all out of pocket and keeps you tied to a site…you can’t go anywhere or do anything. I want to give these people a much needed break or holiday. The van will be “Spencer’s Cafe” on wheels. That is “one” of my goals and dreams.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Independence: For me, my independence was key in my journey. Not being afraid to be alone. Not being afraid to go places by myself in order to achieve an effort, whether it be to rescue an animal in need or to research an environment necessary to further a character I am developing. Not being afraid to walk a path alone. There is a certain sense of fearlessness in Independence that is completely necessary when it comes to animal rescue AND acting. I have to remain fearless in order to finish this journey of mine.
Curiousity: I am an AVID researcher. I actually worked for two years as an operative in a PI agency in NYC. One of my favorite jobs/adventures! I interviewed for the job on a Thursday…the next day, I was in a car with a retired cop who was a PI with the agency on my way to Maine to work a case. Boy was that an adventure! I broke the case too! But curiousity in general. I can’t take everything for face value…I want to know MORE. In order to solve things, you have to start from the beginning….
Kindness: There is a certain peace in kindness. I believe that if your heart is kind, it is peaceful. I also think that kindness is powerful…there is a quiet power in kindness…I love kindness. It rules me.
Advice? OMG I don’t know if I am worthy of giving advice. But…I am always open to taking it! It’s never too late to learn something new and valuable and I NEVER think I know everything…I am always open to new ideas and others ADVICE!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
My current number one challenge/obstacle is lack of funds to maintain and further my rescue work. Although I am a longstanding volunteer with A Pathway to Hope, a 501c animal rescue group based in North Jersey, I am also an “Independent” rescuer. I have been executing TNR here in the town of Keyport, NJ where I reside for the past 3 years. I have two “rescue partners” I work with here, Pete Deegan and Denise Smith, and between the three of us, we have spayed/neutered and vaccinated over 65 cats and kittens, and adopted out 20 of those kittens. All of this work is out of pocket. I was severely set back due to the writers/actors strike that went on for about 5 months. I am still trying to catch up. All I can do to resolve this is try to work my butt off. I am trying, that’s for sure!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynnspencer13/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spencer1369
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnspencer13/
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3428507/
