Terri Coles :: Chairman Meow
Terri Coles is a writer and editor living in Toronto with her husband, baby, and two cats who think all the baby’s things are expensive toys for them. Aside from her work with Pawesome, she has written for publications including Reuters, Chatelaine, Good Dog, iVillage, and Torontoist, and has the requisite mommy blog. She loves animals and all things about pets, but is particularly interested in pet health and science, new products, and animal rights. She has given up the fight against cat hair and now considers it an accessory.
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Jolene Robichaud :: contributor
Jolene Robichaud is originally from Maine but now hangs tough in Brooklyn, NY with her two cats Henry and Arthur. She grew up with dogs, cats, a neighborhood horse, fish, and a fox family in her backyard for whom she would make ham sandwiches and leave by the fox hole (on a plate) alongside a glass of grape Kool-Aid. She has yet to receive a thank you card.
Jolene spends her work days as the registrar at a well-known ballet school and plotting how to teach her cats to Skype so she can call them and gossip during the day. Jolene has written for TheSecond City and Improv Olympic in Chicago. She is also a contributor for Good Dog. Her recent screenplay earned her workshop via the Sundance Institute.
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Kira DeDecker :: contributor
Kira DeDecker lives in Arizona with her husband, Tim and their three dogs, Peetie, Sox, and Bixby. She is a self professed crazy dog lady and has been known to talk in embarrassingly high pitch voices whenever she is within ten feet of anything cute and furry. When she isn’t making a fool of herself in public she spending time with her own pack where they appreciate her animal obsession (sorta). In the last few years she has launched Kira DeDecker Photography where she gets to live out her dream job as a dedicated pet photographer. In her spare time she likes to volunteer her time and talent for good causes in the animal community.
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Maria Atilano lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband and Olde English Bulldogge, Emma. Although allergic to most furry-things, she is a consummate lover of animals and their YouTube videos. Emma is her first pet — if you don’t count the turtle, Leonardo, she had when she was a kid — and so far is an only child. Maria spends her day as a librarian and her night as a tea-drinking, book-reading recluse. (Emma spends both her day and night being either sleepy or manic, depending on how receptive mommy and daddy are.) With an MLIS and two English degrees under her belt, she enjoys blogging and pinning, but often spends her spare-time either buried in a hefty novel or contemplating writing her own. Unfortunately procrastination tends to get in the way, leading to impromptu Netflix marathons and a sudden urge to bake bone-shaped cookies.
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Tara Ramroop Hunt :: contributor
Tara Ramroop Hunt loves getting high on cute-animal crack, on- and offline. When she’s not running toward your pets or watching Maru get into boxes, she writes and edits content for the web. Her work also appears on Muni Diaries, The Bold Italic, Weddingbee, and in online curriculum for the Academy of Art University. In exchange for food, water, and a b-o-n-e to play with, a mismarked Boston terrier allows Tara and husband, Jeff, to share her San Francisco flat. Tara’s time away from animals and the internet is for traveling near and far, planning the best bus route for her destination, shaking her fist when it fails, practicing Bikram yoga, and retrieving untold calories in her eating and drinking paradise.
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Katie Redmiles :: contributor
Katie Redmiles grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, with a lifelong desire to one day have a dog of her own. After a cross-country move brought Katie and her soon-to-be husband to San Francisco, they promptly adopted their pup, Happy, creating a happy little home in a new city. Combining her two favorite passions – Happy and writing – Katie blogs over at Happy the Great’s very own blog. A year and a half after adopting Happy, Katie fell in love with a photo of a rescue dog named Joey. She’s been enjoying life with two 7-lb-ish papillon/chihuahua mixes ever since. After two years of the start-up life in San Francisco, Katie returned to the Washington, DC, area two pups richer where they now have a yard of their very own. Katie is an online marketing specialist for a local tourism company and dabbles in freelance writing on the side. Katie’s favorite activities include complaining about San Francisco weather (still), practicing yoga, trying new recipes, window shopping and spending time with her family.
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Former Pawesomers
Sarah Han :: founder
Sarah Han resides with her dog Benny, two cat friends, P. Kitty and Biggie Smalls, and her cat-allergic partner, Tim in Oakland, CA. She hopes that one day she can add a dog friend to her current furry family, but for now, cats rule the house. She is a writer/editor by profession. Her work has appeared in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, Wired magazine, and Apartment Therapy. She is currently a Producer for The Bold Italic.
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Sonia Zjawinski :: founder
Sonia Zjawinski lives with three former Brookyn street cats – Dim Sum, Gizmo, and Pookie – an adopted dog named Milo, her sister-in-law’s dog, Chip, a brand new baby boy… oh, and her life partner, Bruce. She lost her dog Lulu in August 2009 though Lulu’s legacy fashionably lives on in t-shirt form. Speaking of t-shirts! Through the Pawesome store, Sonia sells rad shirts to help pay for her and other rescuers efforts to help stranded kitties. She hopes to move to a farm in the near future, where she can live out her fantasy of helping abandoned and neglected animals. In the meantime she gets in trouble in Santa Cruz.
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Leda Marritz :: contributor
Leda Marritz has had a lifelong affinity for animals. She learned to love them from her mom, and while you wouldn’t think New York City would be a place to raise tons of animals, somehow her family did it. She has been involved in animal welfare for many years, serving as a foster home, volunteer, and adoption & foster care coordinator for local groups, most recently Rocket Dog Rescue.
For her day job, Leda is the marketing and communications manager at Deep Root Partners, a sustainable urban solutions firm. Although she loves all animals, currently Birdie, the cat, is her only pet. In the meantime, she wants to hang out with your animals whenever she gets the chance.
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Emily Shishkin :: contributor
Emily Shishkin grew up with cats her whole life. She’s owned show stopper cats like her first who strutted his stuff at the York, PA Cat Fancy club, along with street savvy felines from Brooklyn. Her love of kitties led her to help out the cat ladies of Brooklyn with trap-neuter-return work, along with fundraising. While her day job has nothing to do with creative writing, she’s happy to find fun things to write about for Pawesome. Currently, Emily’s in the market for house so she can get one more kitty and build a catio for them all. That will make her a master level two crazy cat lady.
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Michelle Devereaux :: contributor
Michelle Devereaux used to wallpaper her bedroom with the kitty centerfolds from Cat Fancy magazine when she was a kid. She is fairly embarrassed that you now know that. Originally from Canada, Michelle has felt a lifelong kinship with furry creatures of all kinds, but has always had a special affinity for her feline friends. When she isn’t watching movies, sleeping, or staring into space, she can usually be found plotting to take over the world with the help of the formidable cat army she has so far managed to amass. Which, due to rental restrictions, currently numbers two.
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Stuart Luman :: contributor
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