Donna Williamson

Already, five have found new homes through the help of Donna Williamson, an animal control officer for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

"A lot of people are surrendering their animals now," Williamson said.
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Many are underweight, Williamson said, but they are all healthy and receiving proper veterinary care.
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Williamson will work to screen potential owners, performing regular checkups at the new homes and making sure they can afford feed.It is a big commitment.

Ciancaglini estimates she was spending $3,000 to $4,000 a week on horse feed for all 65 horses.

But that was when she could still work 60 hours a week at NCH Healthcare's North Naples Hospital, making a good living as an emergency and operating room nurse with her overtime pay.

Now, she is working just 40 hours a week and scraping by.

It's the first time in 20 years she has been told she can no longer work overtime to supplement her income.

She refuses to put the horses up for auction.She has heard too many horror stories of healthy horses going to the slaughterhouse, more valuable for meat than for riding.

And she doesn't want money for the horses.She will get by, she said, even though she is making less money, and the help offered by the Red Cross has amounted to $360 to buy food and clothing for her and her mother.

Animal Control Officer Donna Williamson at Domestic Animal Services.
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Animal Control Officer Donna Williamson at Domestic Animal Services.
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I want to thank Donna Williamson of Animal Control and her staff, who tok care of our pet, and the Health Department staff including Mary, Marie and Karen for the â€" how can I put it? â€" tremendous, loving care they provided at Palmetto Ridge High School auditorium, our shelter.

Officer Donna Williamson got there right away and contacted me to help.

My dog was hungry and thirsty, but nothing mattered besides the fact she was going home.

My sincere gratitude goes out for the dedication of Williamson and the rest of the staff at Animal Services.

I'm not sure where I'm supposed to be,'" said Donna Williamson, the Collier County Animal Control officer who chased her for six months.
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For six months, the dog eluded Donna Williamson of Collier County Animal Control.It's been said this dog is Donna's great white whale, her Moby Dick.But it's not a fair comparison.The little dog Donna dubbed Pine Ridge never did a thing to harm Donna or any other person.She did, apparently, eat some wild ducks before she took up residence at the Chevron, but it's difficult to fault a hungry dog for hunting, for doing what dogs do.

Donna got the first call about Pine Ridge from a resident at La Costa apartments who was afraid the dog was sick.From then on, she tracked her up and down from there to the interstate, never able to get close enough to even touch her, not in her uniform, at least."The minute ( I ) got out of the white van she was gone."

But when Donna stopped by the Chevron in her own vehicle and clothes, it was a different story."In plainclothes I could go up to her and feed her," she says."She didn't trust the uniform.She was very street smart."

There are those who say Pine Ridge looked both ways before she crossed a street.Donna watched her cross Livingston Road one day, not running full steam with her head down, the way a lot of dogs try to cross a street, but slowly stepping across, looking directly at each car, as if to say, Hold on, I'm trying to cross, here."She was training the traffic."

Donna couldn't help but admire her intelligence, her determination to not be caught.She studied her at the gas station."I watched for an hour.She would watch people get out of their cars, and just sit there.But if a big, husky man got out of the car, she'd move."Like most people who got to know the dog, Donna figured she'd been mistreated by a man.A large man.

That's a story she knows too well, working as closely as she does with dogs no one wants any more.It took her a year of working for Animal Control before she could do her job without crying.The things she sees, the things people do to their pets , it isn't pretty.All too often, things in Donna's line of work don't end well.She pinned her hopes on Pine Ridge.

One day, as Donna watched, a florist's van pulled into the Chevron.The driver opened the back door to get something out of the van, and Pine Ridge took notice.Not of the van , which really wasn't that different from the one Donna drives while on the job , but of the smell wafting across the parking lot.The dog put her nose in the air and moved closer, almost walking right up into the back of the van.She loves roses!Donna realized.

"Normally dogs love chicken or food.She was loving those flowers!"she says, still amazed and amused by nearly everything she learned about the little dog.

"Let's just say she was a young dog with an old soul," Donna says.She didn't even consider using flowers to trap the dog because by this time, she realized there were several customers coming to the Chevron every day, visiting the dog and trying to tame her enough to take her home.

"She had to learn to trust again, that no one was going to hurt her," Donna says.She told the people who were taking an interest in the dog, "I will give you the time that you need to catch her."
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Many of her Chevron friends are here tonight, including Animal Control officer Donna Williamson, who changed out of her uniform as soon as she got here.

Gigi has a new look, too.She's been to the vet and had to be shaved to get all the tangles out of her fur.She had a few ticks and some abrasions around her neck, either from the collar that she'd outgrown (it was cutting into her skin) or a rope that must have been tied around her neck.She weighs 40 pounds and, it turns out, is around a year and a half old.

For six months, the dog eluded Donna Williamson of Collier County Animal Control.It's been said this dog is Donna's great white whale, her Moby Dick.But it's not a fair comparison.The little dog Donna dubbed Pine Ridge never did a thing to harm Donna or any other person.She did, apparently, eat some wild ducks before she took up residence at the Chevron, but it's difficult to fault a hungry dog for hunting, for doing what dogs do.

Donna got the first call about Pine Ridge from a resident at La Costa apartments who was afraid the dog was sick.From then on, she tracked her up and down from there to the interstate, never able to get close enough to even touch her, not in her uniform, at least."The minute ( I ) got out of the white van she was gone."

But when Donna stopped by the Chevron in her own vehicle and clothes, it was a different story."In plainclothes I could go up to her and feed her," she says."She didn't trust the uniform.She was very street smart."

There are those who say Pine Ridge looked both ways before she crossed a street.Donna watched her cross Livingston Road one day, not running full steam with her head down, the way a lot of dogs try to cross a street, but slowly stepping across, looking directly at each car, as if to say, Hold on, I'm trying to cross, here."She was training the traffic."

Donna couldn't help but admire her intelligence, her determination to not be caught.She studied her at the gas station."I watched for an hour.She would watch people get out of their cars, and just sit there.But if a big, husky man got out of the car, she'd move."Like most people who got to know the dog, Donna figured she'd been mistreated by a man.A large man.

That's a story she knows too well, working as closely as she does with dogs no one wants any more.It took her a year of working for Animal Control before she could do her job without crying.The things she sees, the things people do to their pets , it isn't pretty.All too often, things in Donna's line of work don't end well.She pinned her hopes on Pine Ridge.

One day, as Donna watched, a florist's van pulled into the Chevron.The driver opened the back door to get something out of the van, and Pine Ridge took notice.Not of the van , which really wasn't that different from the one Donna drives while on the job , but of the smell wafting across the parking lot.The dog put her nose in the air and moved closer, almost walking right up into the back of the van.She loves roses!Donna realized.

"Normally dogs love chicken or food.She was loving those flowers!"she says, still amazed and amused by nearly everything she learned about the little dog.

"Let's just say she was a young dog with an old soul," Donna says.She didn't even consider using flowers to trap the dog because by this time, she realized there were several customers coming to the Chevron every day, visiting the dog and trying to tame her enough to take her home.

"She had to learn to trust again, that no one was going to hurt her," Donna says.She told the people who were taking an interest in the dog, "I will give you the time that you need to catch her."
...
Many of her Chevron friends are here tonight, including Animal Control officer Donna Williamson, who changed out of her uniform as soon as she got here.

Gigi has a new look, too.She's been to the vet and had to be shaved to get all the tangles out of her fur.She had a few ticks and some abrasions around her neck, either from the collar that she'd outgrown (it was cutting into her skin) or a rope that must have been tied around her neck.She weighs 40 pounds and, it turns out, is around a year and a half old.