Meet Kristen Holmes of South Central

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started working at the animal shelter in Sacramento, my hometown, in February 2023. One thing led to another and I became involved in everything possible, from adoptions to veterinary assistance at shelter clinics to running/leading playgroups. In July of last year, I lost my job due to business closure and circumstances led me down to SoCal, where I was in the process of interviewing for OC animal care. I didn’t get hired but ended up finding other work in LA that caused me to relocate here. I used to live here initially as soon as I graduated high school, to pursue the film thing (had to go home after several years due to health concerns), and then again in 2017, and now again in 2024. Having finished my major in film, now I use the knowledge (along with some radio/music/editing background) to create reels for shelter dogs. I have also shot the first portion of a documentary about our stray dog crisis, not just here in California but nationwide (and globally, truly). That process has been on hold since I moved down to LA as it was mostly based in Sacramento, but since moving here and getting the full picture of how SoCal is kind of the hotbed of dog euthanasia nationwide sadly (we have 5 counties that all have high-risk, high-capacity shelters: LA, OC, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Kern)…I am thinking of basing it off my experience with California at least, to localize it and not make it completely impersonal to the point that it feels it cannot be solved. I am a believer in concentric circles (someone told me that term) and the idea that if we all help at the local level in our community, we can make the world a much better place. Hence my decision to remain in LA and refocus my previous film efforts toward helping the shelter dog scene and giving it some much-needed publicity.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not! It’s been chaos since I moved here. I’ve moved a couple times already and changed jobs several times (mostly due to lack of hours and inability to pay bills with any single job so far). And in November my apartment somehow caught on fire, for reasons unknown to this day, with my dogs in it. Thankfully my county shelter in Sacramento helped pull through for my dog Skipper’s (he’s from that shelter) vet bill from that fire. And then the LA fires happened in January so, having gone through that already, I evacuated myself and all of us and drove overnight to Sacramento for a week. I’ve had no less than two people run into my car since coming here which is to be expected in LA (my car is currently in the shop again), my phone and wallet both got stolen within a month of moving here…yeah, it has not been an easy ride. But I’m still here! My dogs keep me happy (even though they destroy half my stuff).

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Professionally, outside of my day job, I do health coaching, and have refocused my efforts to a niche that includes dog owners. I have picked up a lot of dog training skills from working with shelter dogs, so I try to incorporate dogs into their humans’ health plans and use them as motivation to get healthy. I also know a bit about dog nutrition and veterinary care based on my health coaching and vet experience (I was a kennel attendant for a while so asked a lot of questions). There’s a lot of overlap with human and dog health conditions as well as treatment. Based on that knowledge, and the overall living expenses of LA, I put together a video on making your own dog food and making it affordable and easy to make. It took me over a month of procrastinating because I crunched all the numbers for the nutritional needs, cost of food, nutrition facts, calories, healthy weight ranges, etc. but it’s out there! That is probably the video I’m most proud of that can be watched. I also made a video conglomeration of all my shelter playgroups to a Backstreet Boys soundtrack which I thought was awesome, but it’s blocked due to copyright sadly. I think what sets me apart is I am not super money- or fame-motivated like a lot of LA imports tend to be, so a lot of the stuff I do, I do knowing I will probably never be compensated for it, but I do it because no one else will do it and it needs to be done. Stuff like going inside the shelter and investigating what’s really going on and editing it together in film format. Animal care doesn’t pay well under normal circumstances so people in the field are just too tired to invest energy into exposure or improvement of the conditions. But I think that is the true nature of creative passions, not doing it to any real end. As someone I know said, “make it because the world needs it.”

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Foster a big dog! Adopt a big dog! Get the word out. Know about breeders and how none of them are legitimate (AKC doesn’t do home checks and anyone can say anything). Yes, do your research about breeds, but all the breeds (and all the awesome one-of-a-kind mutts) can be found at the shelter. As far as working with me, if you are at all interested in helping me finish this documentary and have production or post-production experience, please contact me! I’m decent at everything but a master of none, so as of yet this project is entirely self-led and therefore going quite slowly. Lastly, I sell T-shirts, only to get exposure to my dog networking instagram page so people can view the reels I make of dogs at risk. So at the lowest amount of effort and time on your part, you can just buy a T-shirt and spread the word that way!

Pricing:

• $30 for a T-shirt (uncommondogs.bigcartel.com)
• Holistic coaching is $155 per session and goes down per session with package purchases (www.underdog.army)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.underdog.army
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/underdog.army
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Uncommon-Dogs/61559891761068/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@waddupholmes
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/@uncommondogs

Image Credits
Kristen Holmes