Liberty Britton does not hesitate when asked if she enjoys her job at Morris Animal Refuge.
“I love this job,” the 24-year-old Philadelphia resident said. “I love this organization. The people that work here are just incredibly passionate. They know what they’re doing and they do it well.”
Britton started working part-time as an administrative assistant for Morris Animal Refuge in January and was promoted to the development-manager position in March. With this job, she handles fundraising through grant writing and putting together mailings requesting donations. However, even though she does this work from a small office, it does not stop the self-confessed cat lover from getting hands-on with the actual animals her fundraising supports.
“I have two kittens that are living in here currently,” she said, referring to a cream Siamese named Skippy John and a black domestic shorthair named Malec hiding behind her filing cabinets. “Whenever cats are getting really tired of being in the cages downstairs, I let them come in here for a couple of days.”
Britton describes the kittens as “semi-feral” but it doesn’t scare her away from having them roam her office. She said the two kittens have recently started coming out to eat food while she is in the room whereas they would have previously stayed hidden.
“They might need to be barn cats or something like that where they don’t have as much human contact,” Britton said. “This is how we’re going to get to know that. Do they really come out of their shell and become cuddly cats or do they need to become barn cats where they can live, have fun, be free, catch mice and not have much human contact?”
Britton, who identifies as queer, said, “There is something to be said for the fact that animals will love you no matter how you identify and what you look like.
“There’s something so beautiful about the way animals will never discriminate against you for any identity that you hold,” she said. “That is a thing I appreciate about animals and about working with — and for — them.”
In addition to having hands-on interaction with the animals, Britton said she loves how she gets to put her “hands in a lot of other cookie jars.” One particular event where she said she had “a lot of fun” was at a Sia concert at the Wells Fargo Center. The singer-songwriter is known for having adoption drives at her concerts where local shelters can attend to present dogs for adoption. While Britton said she wished she could have met Sia, her focus was still on the three dogs they had available for adoption.
“We adopted out a dog there,” she said with a smile. “Two of our other dogs didn’t get adopted that night but people we met there ended up adopting them [later on].”
Britton also said the shelter sold T-shirts featuring a graphic of Morris Animal Refuge’s logo and a pitbull wearing a Sia wig standing over the hashtag, “#SiaLovesDogs.”
“We sold every shirt that we had and all of those proceeds obviously went straight to us to help care for our animals,” Britton said. “We got a lot of really great exposure there and our dogs had the best time.”
After working for the shelter for less than a year, Britton said she likes how her “day never looks the same.” One project she has enjoyed working on and hopes will become an annual effort is Morris’ new calendar, Fierce and Furry: Drag Queens and Dog Kings. The fundraising calendar features the Philly Drag Mafia posing with the shelter’s dogs, with Tabu Lounge & Sports Bar providing the venue for the photo shoot. Supporters of the shelter can receive the calendar by donating $25 or more on the website.
The idea for the calendar came about when Britton discussed attending a drag brunch with Dana Bronzino, the events and volunteer coordinator for Morris Animal Refuge. It started as what Britton calls “a silly conversation” but turned into a real-life project, with Bronzino designing the calendar.
“I love the chance that we’re able to do something so unique and something that I think will have a very powerful message,” Bronzino said.
Britton said she feels “amazing” to be able to combine the LGBT community with what she does at the shelter.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” Britton said. “I love animals. I’ve always had animals and always adopted them from shelters. And to be able to find a way to merge my personal life and my work life is really gratifying.”
In the future, Britton said she would like to partner with other LGBT nonprofits in the city so portions of the proceeds can be split between the shelter and the LGBT community.
“That’ll be my way to push even more so to help the LGBTQ community with this fundraising project,” Britton said.
She’s also looking forward to the expansion of the shelter. The goal is for the refuge to expand to another building, where it can have roaming-cat rooms and a larger wellness center with low-cost spaying, neutering and vaccines.
Prior to joining Morris, Britton said it was hard for her to figure out what she wanted to do as a career. A 2014 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Grinnell College, a small liberal-arts college in Iowa, Britton never had a set career path. One obstacle she faced was deciding in what direction she wanted to go.
Nowadays, Britton seems content with how her life led her to Morris Animal Refuge.
“This is the first place where I felt like my talents were recognized and wanted and people were [asking me], ‘What else do you want to do?’”