Jill Servais, the awesome better half of Mariners skipper, Scott Servais, dives into her love for furry friends and the pet predicament in the USA with Erica. She’s a champion of spaying/neutering and reducing the rates of euthanasia, a huge fan of fostering, and an even bigger supporter of All Paws on Deck! Click PLAY for all the details!
Catch hope & encouragement with Erica on weekday mornings from 5:00 AM – 10:00 AM, and Sundays from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Erica:
How about we talk dogs and baseball today on SPIRIT 105.3? I’m Erica with Jill Servais, first lady of our M’s. Welcome to the show!
Jill Servais:
Thank you so much. I really appreciate your opportunity you’re giving me today to share some of what’s going on in the State, so I’m anxious to talk to your listeners.
Erica:
Oh, this is going to be wonderful. I think all of us love animals, Jill, but you’ve got a real heart for animals. Where did that come from?
Jill Servais:
I was born with it, right?
Erica:
Yeah.
Jill Servais:
I’ve been working in the animal welfare space since 1989, so it’s been a long journey of mine, and I myself have grown and learned more as I’ve been involved in the space and I’m really, really involved right now in Eastern Washington and the issues that are happening over there.
Erica:
Yeah, what’s happening?
Jill Servais:
I shouldn’t say just Eastern. I think the entire state, and honestly the entire nation is in an animal crisis situation right now. Partially veterinary shortages are really ingrained in that, and so we’re seeing volumes of animals that we’ve never seen in a very, very long time since, let’s say the seventies, that are being in need of resources and rescue and the euthanasia rates are up. All sorts of things that we don’t like to hear about happening are currently happening right now in our state and across the country.
Erica:
Wow. What do we do to turn those stats around? What’s the easiest route to change things?
Jill Servais:
Easiest route is spay/neuter, which is huge. My group is doing a thousand animals in four days at an event in May out in Okanagan County. So the easiest, quickest way to make a really measurable difference is to shut off the pipeline.
Erica:
Yeah, yeah, Absolutely.
Jill Servais:
Stop those animals from even coming into the system because as you probably know, one cat in six years become 66,000 cats. It’s some crazy number like that. So that is the easiest, lowest hanging fruit that we can really get ahold of.
Erica:
What would you say to somebody who maybe has never rescued an animal before and they’re a little bit nervous about it, how would you put them at ease?
Jill Servais:
That’s a super great question. I used to be in that camp, to be honest. I originally was someone who bought animals from reputable breeders, and then I realized that the inventory and the shelters was just amazing. And I think the best advice I could give is to try fostering, bring an animal into your home, see if it’s a good fit, give the animal a little bit of time to acclimate to you and your family and for you to learn about that animal as well. That’s a really low barrier, low risk way to see if it’s the right fit for you. And every single shelter in rescue is desperate for fosters. So that would be a really good way for somebody to introduce their family and their lifestyle into trying out an animal that they’re not really sure about. And there are no guarantees with any animal, whether it comes from a shelter, whether it comes from a breeder, we don’t know what we’re getting. That’s just the nature of the animal world. So fostering will give you a little bit more insight into this very long commitment than animals are.
Erica:
And you just might fall in love.
Jill Servais:
Absolutely. Foster fails are a wonderful thing that happened.
Erica:
Foster fails. That’s fantastic. Jill. There’s a bumper sticker that I love to see that says, “Who Rescued Who?” Does that just resonate with you? Because every time I see it, I’m like, Yes!
Jill Servais:
Yes, it’s absolutely true. We talk about emotional support animals and some animals having that designation, and I always think, well, what ones aren’t, because all of mine have been,. My most recent dog that we’ve added to our family is a four-year-old English Springer spaniel that we were able to rescue out of Adams County, Othello area of the state of Washington. And he’s just a big love bug. And in fact, he’s just such a talented dog that my family has really said he should have gone to a family that had really difficult situation because this dog is too good for us. But they do provide that unconditional love and support that we really do crave as humans.
Erica:
And what’s your dog’s name now?
Jill Servais:
That one is called Nelly, after one of our favorite ballplayers that ever played for the Mariners, which is Nelly Cruz.
Erica:
Oh, wonderful. That is so much fun. I didn’t know that. That’s so cool. I love it. Okay, so Jill, tell us what is happening April 11th? It’s called All Paws on Deck. What a great name.
Jill Servais:
Thank you. Yes, it is. That is a fundraiser that we’re having in Kirkland at Moss Bay Hall. It’s a brand new venue. We’re going to be only the second group that’s ever actually had an event there. It’s a beautiful space. It’s right on the water, right on Central Avenue in Kirkland. We’ve got JP Crawford and Cal Riley are the two Mariner players that will be there along with Rick Riz and the manager of Scott Servais. And we’ve got incredible auction items. We’ve got an opportunity to bid on a three and a half hour yacht ride cruise with George Kirby and Bryce Miller. We have going fishing with Luis Castillo. We have golf with the Skipper. We have signed an autographed Ichiro jersey and signed an autographed Julio jersey and framed up. So we’ve got some really great auction items that we’d love to be able to share with people who are big Mariner fans.
Erica:
That is, so you had me at the big Dumper because I think one of my favorite moments in my life was that home run. You know the one I’m talking about that just ended the drought, Jill?
Jill Servais:
Yes. Yes, absolutely. Erica,
Erica:
I’m not going to ask…
Jill Servais:
It was a special night at T-Mobile for sure, and there’s going to be more of those special nights.
Erica:
Oh, girl. Absolutely. What was it like being there? Because I was actually at a restaurant. What was that moment like for you at T-Mobile Park?
Jill Servais:
Obviously as anyone can imagine, anybody who works at something for a very long time. That was our seventh year with the Mariners for our family, and it was one of our goals from beginning was to have a playoff run. And so it was obviously very relieving and it was wonderful for the fans to be able to experience that. It was something they’d been waiting even longer than we had for, and it was just the start of a really great playoff run that was a success in so many ways.
Erica:
Oh, that’s wonderful. And what is it like married to Scott? Because I’ve often wondered, do you get nervous during the games? Because I do sometimes, quite frankly. What is it like for you?
Jill Servais:
Sure. I mean, there are those times. He did play for 10 years, so I will say it’s a little bit different feeling with someone managing versus playing, but obviously there’s 162 game season, you’re going to have to temper your emotions a bit. Otherwise you’re really going to not do yourself justice, enjoying the ride as much as you should. You just have to really take each game for what it is and recognize they’re going to play tomorrow, they’re going to play tomorrow, they’re going to play tomorrow. They play all the time. So it helps for me a little bit, my inner dialogue to remember that this is not final or fatal. There’s going to be a game tomorrow.
Erica:
Kind of like life too. Just take it one day, one game at a time.
Jill Servais:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Erica:
Jill, who’s the biggest dog lover on the team, do you think? If you had to pick?
Jill Servais:
Oh boy, there’s a lot of them. We are very dog centric. Our new player, Mitch Garver, his wife is actually a licensed practicing veterinarian. What we have, JP Crawford has three Huskies. He has three Huskies. Yep. He’s a big dog lover, and that’s one of the reasons why he’s going to be speaking at our event on April 11th. Pretty much, I would say out of the 26 guys on the team, I would say probably 20 have dogs themselves, which is obviously a really big commitment because when you’re in baseball, you travel a lot. And then Ty France adopted a dog from Open Dogs, which was the same place that the Mariners got their dog Tucker. So Ty France has two goldens that his family owns.
Erica:
Amazing. What’s Tucker like?
Jill Servais:
Tucker’s amazing. He was a dog that came to us from Eastern Washington. Again, beautiful lab, great personality. He has really, you talk about emotional support animals, there you go, right there. He’s just that little levity in the locker room and it provides kind of a conversation opportunity for players. Every year there’s a whole new group of people that come together and have to gel as a team. And when you have Tucker kind of built in right there, it’s something really easy to talk about and it’s a bonding opportunity for the team around Tucker.
Erica:
Oh, I think it’s wonderful. Well, Jill Servais, we hope everybody goes to All Paws on Deck and go M’s, you’re wonderful.
Jill Servais:
Oh, thank you so much, Erica. I love talking to you today. Have a great day.
Erica:
You too.
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