Wow!
On Monday,
I went to see a film at a local film festival.
But it wasn't just any film. This
one was all about SMART: the Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team.
I had
observed training sessions of SMART a few years ago as research for my Pet
Rescue Mysteries. It was known as the
Small Animal Rescue Team then--SmART, and it's part of L.A. Animal Services. I used a fictional supervisor at L.A. Animal
Services, in charge of SmART and other teams, as my protagonist Lauren
Vancouver's love interest, Matt Kingston.
In the first book in the series, BEAGLEMANIA, SMART rescued some puppy
mill pups that had been tossed down a sewer, and members appeared through the
rest of the series.
The real SMART
team members allowed me to watch them do amazing things like zip lining down
mountains, which they sometimes have to do to help save endangered animals--primarily
cats and dogs but other animals, too, including horses and birds. On other occasions they climb trees or rappel
off rooftops or tunnel under buildings--and more!
And some of
those wonderful people I'd met then were at the film! I got to see them again and talk with
them. They of course were featured in
the film, which showed some of their rescues and also included parts of news
broadcasts about them. The film also
incorporated a lot about those wonderful, caring and brave people, including
why they devote themselves to saving animal lives and how they interact
together. Today, SMART is even more comprehensive than it was when I was doing
my research, so what they do is even more impressive, if that's possible.
In all, it
was a wonderful film, and a wonderful experience seeing it and some of its cast
members.
It's
playing other places in the U.S. ,
and it'll also be shown again in L.A.
Wonderful--and
amazing! And definitely a fantastic
thing for animals.
1 comment:
They sound like an amazing group of people. How cool that they made a movie about what they do.
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