20 Stories - Daisy: Fuzzy Mental Health Worker
Over the years, the Law Center has had some extraordinarily important volunteers who have been integral to our operations.
So important, in fact, that it doesn’t bother us (too much) when they throw up on the floor. We just ask that they keep the barking to a minimum.
It is a rare day when the Law Center does not have a dog in the office, a tradition that spans more than a decade. Some of our dogs would put greeters at Wal-Mart to shame, while others just hold down the floor. But all of them are, in reality, fuzzy mental health workers who help brighten our days with wagging tails and doggy grins.
One such canine was Daisy, a petite Bernese Mountain Dog who belonged to Staff Attorney Geoff Fettus, our lead counsel on the ENDAUM uranium case between 2000-2002; we still get inquiries about her. Daisy literally cut her teeth at the Law Center, starting here as a pup. Laying next to Geoff’s feet through two years of litigation with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Daisy probably knows more about uranium than most people. Despite the weighty conversations about bifurcation and pore volumes, the late-night brief writing sessions, and the occasional epithet hurled at the NRC by her owner, Daisy remained an eternally cheerful dog. Outside of the office, she and Geoff roamed the trails of northern New Mexico nearly every weekend—a red, white and black ambassador for the Law Center.
Alas, Daisy’s tenure at the Law Center was short-lived. She and Geoff moved to Washington D.C. in 2002, where Geoff works as a Staff Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. She’s still doing great, despite the unfortunate fact that the NRDC has not yet come to the conclusion that four-legged volunteers help us save the world.
Stop by our office now, and you’re likely to see Gomez and Maury. Gomez is a rescued schipperke who keeps things lively, while Maury is more the keep-the-floor-from-floating-away kind of dog (unless someone’s in the kitchen.) Could it be fair to say that these pups, and those who came before them, are a small part of why our attorneys do such a doggoned good job?