BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. _ Although she finished medical school, Amanda Giese decided to apply her training to patients with four legs instead of two. The mother of two small kids at the time, she says, "I made that decision knowing it would keep me in the medical realm, but the hours were feasible for me to raise two young children by myself as well. This is during the pinnacle of the end of my marriage and divorce from their father."
Ever since she was a child, Giese had been passionate about the underdog.
"Animals were my best friends," she says. "They were my therapy. They got me through a hard time with my childhood as well as special needs, differently capable humans _ they had a home across the street."
Giese's troubled youth was eased by her friendship with special needs neighbors and her empathy for animals. "I didn't have necessarily the greatest relationship with my father and my mother. I had a really abusive upbringing," she says, seated at a round table in a hotel room here, surrounded by her children, her life partner, and several squirming pets.
"I had great times in my childhood definitely, but there was definitely abuse going on in my home. Because of that, it put a rift in my relationship with both my parents, so animals were my saving grace, my therapy ..."
As a youngster she'd vowed to aid helpless creatures that often seemed beyond hope. After graduation, she quickly found a job in a veterinary clinic. "I was a veterinary tech in a 24-hour emergency clinic in Vancouver, Wash.," says Giese.
"I was there for almost two years. They were the catalyst for me leaving the clinic and starting my own nonprofit. Because (of) where I worked, I did not agree with how the quality of patient care was," she says. "They would have a stray animal come in that may have porcupine quills, or may have been hit by a car, or have a collapsed lung. They would put them in a kennel with the bare minimum and wait for animal control to come pick up that dog the next day.
"To me that was inhumane. And it really bothered me the quality of care a lot of these animals were getting. Because to them _ it's a stray animal _ so it's not attached to a pocketbook or a bank account or some sort of lucrative money to pay back what those animals are going to cost them. They were motivated by money, and that was not my motivation in doing what I was doing."
She was so moved she established her own nonprofit called Panda Paws Rescue in Washington state, which treats animals that seem beyond salvation: a French bulldog with a cleft palate, a blind Boston terrier, a boxer with only two legs.
Her efforts to save these "special" cases is the subject of the Animal Planet's new series "Amanda to the Rescue," premiering Sunday. The patients she, her life partner, Gary Walters, son, "Beast," and daughter, Jade, care for all stay in her 1,300-square-foot home. "It's very cozy," she giggles.
"We do not operate our home in a kennel type, we're very open. Everybody lives with us. And when we go on vacation, they go with us. We have five in our pack right now and three rescues."
The household includes two English toy spaniels, one King Charles spaniel, one boxer (with only two legs) and a hairless Chinese crested dog. She says they experimented with three different wheelchairs for the boxer (named Duncan), only to have him prefer his two front legs for locomotion. Now he can outrun her on a sandy beach, she says.
"The only thing he can't do is jump up on the couch, but he can jump down."
Veterinarians conduct the surgery required for her patients. They are paid, she says, but at a significant discount because the cases are so unusual.
Once her charges are stable, a big part of Giese's job is finding them a home. "We have an amazing social media following and we're not in a rush to find them homes. We only want to find them the right home," she says.
"If we get 30 applications for an animal, one of them may be a great hit. I want the dogs to find the perfect family and the family to find the perfect dog," she says.
Giese has also done charitable work with orphans and provides hospice care for some of the terminal cases.
"One thing I know for a fact that I told myself when I was in the fourth grade, it was that when I die, I'm going to make sure I'm going to make this place a better planet than when I came into it," she says. "Animal rescue is one avenue, but I have so many passions, that if the opportunity arises and I'm honest with myself and I can do it, I do it. I don't question myself. I can't make an excuse. I just do it."
'SABRINA' BEWITCHES AGAIN
One of TV's favorite witches, Sabrina, is back in a new show premiering on Netflix Friday. "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" stars Kiernan Shipka ("Mad Men") as Sabrina, who must cope with her two halves: half-witch, half-human. The series also stars Aussie actress Miranda Otto as Sabrina's Aunt Zelda. Otto's father was an actor, and she says she grew up around the theater.
"I had girlfriends who were children of actors as well, and we would write shows and make costumes. When I was 16 I thought, 'This was cute when I was little, but this is my last show.' And we were all sad, 'Now we're going to be serious.' And then, of course, we all ended up in the business, actors, writers. It's a very seductive world."
DETECTIVE MURDOCH BACK ON THE CASE
Just in time for Halloween, Acorn is releasing its special DVD collection of the master Canadian detective William Murdoch and "Christmas Cases Limited Edition," a three-disc set offering three feature-length dramas, all with yuletide themes.
The popular series takes place at the turn of the century, where Detective Murdoch applies early forensic techniques to solving some of Toronto's most puzzling crimes. The show stars stalwart Yannick Bisson, who at 49, never seems to age. "I like to say I've had three different careers because I haven't always looked my age," he says.
"So I've had to wait things out a few different times till I started to look the right age again. I started doing a couple of commercials as a teenager pounding the streets when I was about 13. It interested me, and then I got a dramatic role at 14 and sort of been working off and on ever since."
The DVD set will be released Oct. 30 at $65.
COSTUMING YOUR FOUR-FOOTED FRIEND
Do you like to dress your kitty up in a witch's hat for Halloween? Or how about turning your beagle into a growling ghost or your retriever into a furry pumpkin? Well if you're so inclined, the pet food company Canidae has a deal for you. You have until Nov. 1 to submit a photo of your best pal in his or her festive Halloween regalia. The big winner may earn six months of free food for his or her four-legged friend. Three other winners will reap six months of free kibble from the company. So make sure no animal is hurt in this fiercely competitive contest. Hike on over to https://woobox.com/egfpv9 to enter your master photo.
