A shoe donation drive has thrown light on a local organizer who has devoted her life to saving senior and abandoned dogs, now operating in Orinda. It was the intention of Dinking for Dogs, a San Francisco nonprofit that collects sneakers for the benefit of senior dogs, to bring attention to Hugs for Harry, owned and operated by Melonie Jackson. Jackson owns and operates both Orinda Pet Grooming and Comfort Corner Grooming in Alamo.

    Although a California native, Jackson spent a few years living in Indiana where she adopted an old pitbull named Harry. Although Harry is no longer alive, Jackson vowed to maintain his legacy by continuing to teach the importance of pet neutering and by rescuing all the old, disabled, abandoned dogs that she can. In Indiana she used to take Harry to elementary schools and give talks about dog overpopulation and the importance of avoiding it.  

    Jackson has been rescuing dogs for 24 years, the last five of which have been in Orinda. “I’m a warrior,” Jackson proclaims, and she is very proud of the work she does rescuing dogs. Jackson was born in 1957 and in her childhood was very poor, living in government housing. Her mother suffered from depression, but Jackson discovered that dogs are one of the good parts of life.

    She rescues many dogs, and sadly, many of the old, abandoned and abused dogs come to her from Stockton. Hugs for Harry’s doors are open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but someone is present with the dogs 24 hours a day and volunteers walk the dogs four to five times every day. Volunteers just knock on the door to get in, Jackson says.
  
    Dina Azim is a volunteer who made a big change to Hugs for Harry, organizing it into a charitable 501c3 organization. Azim, who works full time in San Francisco, is now on the executive board, along with Jackson and Alexandra Sanders.

    The shoe drive organized by Eileen Lee of Dinking for Dogs on Dec. 6 brought in over 200 shoes. Dinking for Dogs collects the donated shoes and ships them to a recycler which pays for every pair. The cash is then donated to senior dog sanctuaries. Instead of going into the landfill, donated shoes are recycled or reused. Dinking is a pickleball term, and Lee is an avid pickleball player. “We are named ‘Dinking for Dogs’ because we get a lot of sneakers from the pickleball community and, basically, just as pickleball is ‘saving’ the seniors (humans) the sneakers we collect are ‘saving’ the senior dogs,” she said.

    “We collected over 200 sneakers, but more importantly, we brought attention to Hugs for Harry,” Lee explained.  “We only had about 10 people actually come to donate the sneakers but these people had collected sneakers from their friends, families, social networks and we even had a teacher from Fremont that made a poster to collect sneakers in her classroom.”

    Those who wish to donate sneakers can still drop them off at Jackson’s dog grooming business located at 19 Orinda Way, Suite K, behind Village Pizza in Orinda.