Shanel shares her home with Cody, an Akita/Malamute/Shepherd mix rescued from the forest in Shasta/Trinity County, where he was born the runt of a litter.

Shanel has spent many years retrieving loose dogs and saving abandoned kittens. She started volunteering with animals in 2017 for the SPCA of Monterey County veterinary clinic. There she learned basic small animal veterinary skills and participated in all day spay/neuter clinics. She joined the staff of POMDR in June 2023.

Before following her dream of working with animals, Shanel spent over 15 years in the hospitality sector in bartending and managing roles in Monterey, where she was born and raised. For five straight years, she participated in the Culinary Classique d'Elegance, a fundraiser to benefit Meals on Wheels of Monterey Peninsula. Upon switching careers, she was fortunate to gain experience in veterinary intensive care and emergency at Blue Pearl Pet Hospital. As a surgery assistant there, she was responsible for performing CT scans, among other tasks.

One of her proudest accomplishments was contributing to a project for Stanford marine research, scanning the marlin tail and producing images that had never before been obtained. Also on her list of achievements is having won first place in a bartending competition held by the Monterey County Hospitality Association!

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