Drake praised for her work with Humane Society
|
Farrar began his tribute by telling the crowd he had a special dictionary about animals.
“There are all kinds of words in here,” he said. “When I want to find out something about a dog or a cat, I look in this special dictionary. Looking here tonight in this dictionary, I decided I wanted to see what the word hero means. What’s a hero?
“Very seldom in life do people get called heroes. But when I looked in the dictionary under heroes, it had a picture,” Farrar said, paraphrasing an old dictionary analogy, “and that picture next to the word hero was a picture of Joyce Drake,” he added, eliciting a surprised gasp from Drake and general laughter from the crowd.
“Not very often do I say as an attorney that I have heroes,” he continued, “and I think that’s probably as great a compliment as I can make to a person, but I don’t know of a better hero or example that I’ve had in my life than Joyce Drake, a very sweet, very kind lady.
“And I can’t tell you the minutes, maybe hours, we’ve spent on the telephone with Joyce Drake crying, crying about animals that she’s seen abused. And we’ve also laughed when we’ve seen some great success stories.
“I often say, when I get to heaven, and I hope that I’ll get there, that I’ll have all the land that I want, and all the animals will have a home,” Farrar continued. “And I promise you if there’s a heaven, and I believe with all my heart that there is, Joyce Drake will be there.”
Farrar then called on Humane Society President Amelia “Andy” Anderson to present the award. After calling Drake up to accept the award, Anderson told of her own experience with Drake.
“Joyce and I have not known each other for a really long time,” Anderson began, “but I’ve met her over the phone and got to know her that way first. She was somebody I could call when I didn’t know what to do.
“And I called her one day and said, ‘Joyce, there’s some dogs across the street that don’t have any water that are tied up over there,’ and I’ll tell you, before the sun set, Joyce was out there, making sure those dogs had water,” Anderson said. “So I know she has done, and does do some really good things.”
Anderson then addressed Drake.
“So the Humane Society wanted to give this to you because of all the dedication and time you have spent,” she said. “We do appreciate everything Joyce.”
“Thank you so much,” Drake said.
In accepting the award, Drake expressed her philosophy concerning animal.
“I’ve stayed because of the animals. I know I’ve probably made a lot of people upset at me over the years, and you know, that really didn’t matter to me, because as long as the animals were okay, I didn’t care, it made me feel good.
“Just remember, the ones here now, and it’s a wonderful group, if someone hurts your feelings, remember, you’re in this for the animals, and everything will be OK.”