As a
young child, Colleen Paige’s love of animals was evident. At the age
of five, she rescued her first animal, a Bengal cat with a gouged-out
eye. Along side her love of animals, was her love of music. As a teen,
she started her career as a singer in Hollywood and has graced well
known venues from Santa Monica to San Francisco – enjoying
opportunities such as appearing on Star Search and professionally
recording her first song at the age of fourteen.
In the midst of a budding and successful music career at age eighteen,
Colleen and other friends were being driven by a mutual friend, who,
when momentarily distracted, went through a red light. Struck from the
side by another vehicle, the truck rolled four times, ejecting Colleen
through the windshield and two of her friends out the back tailgate.
Although Colleen was near death, thankfully, everyone survived. After
a long recovery from serious injuries that left her scarred for life,
a fateful incident brought about her interest in pursuing an animal
career, when she was given a German Shepherd named Spike by a
friend, to give her companionship and comfort her during her long road
ahead. This dog became Colleen’s best friend and encouraged her to get
out and walk, speeding her painful recovery.
Sadly, she wasn’t aware of the dog’s occasional unprovoked, aggressive
tendencies toward other dogs – and one day, he bolted away from her,
attacking a small dog in her apartment garage. Causing some injury to
the dog, but thankfully not being fatal, the owner understandably
filed a complaint with the apartment manager. Immediately she was
faced with eviction or the excruciating task of having 24 hours to
find a new home for the love of her life
Colleen re-homed him without realizing that he was about to live a
miserable life with an abusive family. When she went for a visit many
months later, she was horrified to see the life he was living.
Emaciated, filthy and chained to a car, she tried with all her might
to rescue him from this horror she had unknowingly thrown him into -
but to no avail. She vowed that day to do whatever she could to
educate dog owners about responsible pet ownership and prevent this
from happening again to any other dog.
Colleen fights for those who cannot speak for themselves. From dog and
cat rescue to wildlife conservation and saving horses from slaughter,
Colleen's love of all creatures runs deeper than the deepest ocean.
Additionally, she was also a Paramedic in Los Angeles for six years
while studying animal science. This gives her the experience of
dealing with dogs in car accidents, as well as a deeper knowledge of
dog attack injuries and the mechanics of such injuries that many
industry professionals lack. Because of this experience, Colleen is
often asked for her expert advice regarding dog bite cases. Colleen
has devoted most of her career to rescuing dogs and cats and also
rehabilitating orphaned, wild and endangered animals. Both of her dogs
are rescue’s, with Sailor her lab mix, being the worst case. This
normally fifty five pound dog weighed only 27 pounds when Colleen
found her in the shelter, a sad, flea ridden, emaciated little girl
with lumps all over her body from being beaten. Colleen had to wait
five days until the dog would be up for adoption, so every day she
went to the shelter, sitting for hours outside the stall just talking
to Sailor. After what felt like forever, the day came when Colleen
could take Sailor home. The first time Colleen presented a bowl dog
food – Sailor retreated to the corner, urinated and yelped in terror.
It was sadly clear to Colleen that Sailor had been beaten for eating
anything. After three months of hand feeding Sailor, Colleen
was able to help her overcome her fears and now she is the happy,
healthy, well adjusted dog she always deserved to be. This is another
reason that Colleen works as diligently as she does – to help dogs
overcome this kind of trauma and educate animal lovers about the
plight of abused and neglected pets.
Colleen's expertise with wild animals lies in the emotional
development of animals in captivity, helping animals overcome
emotional stress and assisting them in acclimating to new
surroundings. Colleen is available free of charge to counsel animal
sanctuaries and zoos on environmental and enclosure requirements for
their animals' health and well being.
Colleen is the daughter of Emmy Award winning actor Robert Paige and
actress JoAnne Ludden. For a decade now, Colleen has been offering
in-home animal behavior consultations on a national level. Although
Colleen has always worked with animals, she is also a former Paramedic
and spent 6 years rescuing people and pets from car accidents in Los
Angeles.
Additionally, Colleen is well known for her fun and charismatic
personality and although she is nationally recognized, her client list
expands geographically as far as England, Ireland, Belgium and the
Philippines. Among other things, Colleen has been a guest expert on
numerous radio and TV shows advising people about how to solve their
dog problems simply and easily by using her renowned, “canine savvy”
techniques. She is also
currently pioneering the connection between autistic children and
autistic dogs, bringing awareness to what she believes, is the reason
why many dogs end up in the shelter....."developmental disabilities".
When it comes to writing, Colleen's expertise has delighted readers
across the globe in publications such as
The
Los Angeles Times, Victoria Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Denver
Post, Men's Health Magazine, Urban Dog Magazine, Modern Dog Magazine,
Women's Health Magazine, OK! Magazine, Fido Friendly Magazine, The
Seattle Times and many more.
Readers especially
enjoy her often comical “think pieces” about the world of dogs and
their humans. Colleen is also part of a wonderful anthology called
“Christmas Dogs”, (Chamberlain Bros. 2005 - Penguin Group), has an
audio Dog Training book called “Dog Drool” and her latest
international book "The Good Behavior Book for Dogs", (Quarry Books)
can be found at all major book stores.
Scheduled for release in 2008,
Colleen will introduce her new "all pets" related lifestyle
magazine called Pet Home which can be found at
www.pethomemagazine.com
that will showcase all of Colleen's talents rolled into one! From pet
friendly interiors, to pet advice, cooking, gardening, traveling, pet
health, holiday fun, crafts, book club, celebrity features,
recommended pet products and more, Colleen is being called the Martha
Stewart of the animal kingdom.
Colleen’s most current work is being the founder and CEO of the Animal
Miracle Foundation, which is the mother-ship to six national
lifesaving pet holidays Colleen created which includes National Dog
Day, a dog holiday for August 26th created by Colleen to honor dogs
more than we currently do, to give them "a day", to show deep
appreciation for our long connection to each other - for their
endearing patience, unquestioning loyalty, for their work, their
capacity for love and their ability to impact our lives everyday in
the most miraculous ways. National Dog Day wishes to encourage dog
ownership of all breeds, mixed and pure - and embraces the opportunity
for all dogs to live a happy, safe and ”abuse-free life”. The goal
behind the holiday was to be a platform of public awareness for the
adoption of 10,000 dogs nationwide every year on National Dog Day. In
2006 the goal was exceed to total over 12,000 dogs adopted across the
country in one day. Colleen encourages dog and cat lovers to donate at
least $5 to their local shelter whenever they can. Most people don't
give because they feel that they can't give enough. If a million
people donated $5 or even $1 to their local shelter...that makes a
HUGE difference to many animals in need!
The Animal Miracle Foundation will be partnering annually with
shelters and businesses nationwide to promote these holidays and
encourage people to adopt pets from shelters nationwide and learn
about wildlife conservation. For more information about Colleen,
please visit
www.colleenpaige.com
Please visit Colleen's other sites at:
www.colleenpaige.com
www.nationaldogday.com
www.nationalmuttday.org
www.nationalcatday.org
www.nationalwildlifeday.org
www.horseprotectionday.org
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